(Click on the thumbnails to see the full-sized pictures.)

Maxwells, Hoboken - 23/03/01

Hiromi has sold the house and she says it's not an egg inside her any more, it is a little being and she's not sick which means it's a boy ..... I tumble downstairs newly homeless and thinking about Kenny, the guy I met in Washington yesterday ... I'm met by posh softboy and sensible softboy who are both drinking coffee and kindy looking not at all pissed off that I'm late again .... nice weather, into the van and off to New York (having loaded up Age of Empires, gold edition) ......

I can't turn the volume down on Age of Empires so Morris, Kimberley and Paul have to endure 2 hours (until the laptop batteries expire) of birdsong and other rural sounds filling the van together with curt instructions to the villagers in Japanese to "build" and "forage", this game having a very wide definition of foraging incidentally which includes butchering gazelles ..... We get to the Milburn where the rooms have doors that look like safes or deep freezes, and meet downstairs to go to ABC News for an interview and do unplugged versions of Kingdom of Love, Queen of Eyes and Mr Kennedy .... UM is described as a "great rock and roll record" by the interviewer ... I differ, not with the "great", but with the "rock and roll" and that leads to some discussion amongst the band members on the radio ......

Then off for sushi cos its a day off, and the art/R&R debate is still continuing with Kim, Morris and I discussing our relative positions on Eno and something he once said (about traffic being music or something) ..... I take the opportunity now the cards are in the air to invite Robyn to write a football song for Fulham (that is art, I claim) and he does not refuse on the spot - I think it would be a wonderful career development for the Soft Boys to do a soccer song but I appreciate I may be in a minority here ..... I notice Robyn holding back and watching, a little brotherly, as me and Kimberley bash it out - this particlar divide in the band is a healthy one, and maybe there is a clue there as to why UM is such a one-off ........ still, Robyn has his tangential thoughts too .... we discuss the setlist and Morris suggests we might be a little set in our ways because we have started with Sideways two nights in a row ..... problem is, it's good having an overture .......... should we start Maxwells with Kingdom of Love, like 20 years ago, or Astromine Domine - no, too hack ...... we do briefy consider Human Music as an opener, we'll just have to wait and see ...... Morris leaves to pick up his family from the airport and he seems just a little bit "over the moon" about it .... bedtime (which didn't actually happen at all for me last night) is just after midnight .... tomorrow is the morning off until 2 when we'll go and meet Matadorians aplenty in their office which I'm looking forward to ....

....... 11.15 on the morning of Maxwells, and its time to go and look for that POD power supply again. It's made by Line 6. Maybe if I link to them they'll send me one? Until then, it's Manny's on 48th between 6th and Broadway. Maybe if I link to them, they'll give me a discount? (AltaVista failed to cough up a site for Manny's. No link for you! - ed.) Both fail, because I play Age of Empires until scary softboy phones up from the lobby saying its time to go to Matador .... we go and sign the record contract which is usually meant to happen before the record gets released (as is getting the advance), but everyone is equally relaxed about this kind of thing around here and it happens now over coffee ..... we get lots of free gifts including Stephen Malkmus and stagger off to the gig under the weight of them ..... lots of softs crew there before hand including woj and Ferris and (after the gig) Mike who it's nice to meet .... and Laura too, who took the photo of Robyn later.

We soundcheck Train Coming Round the Bend and Astronomy Domine but none of that comes out in the gig .... Sideways starts, and we go through the numbers but afterwards we've got that terrible thing that bands do of thinking it wasn't very good when we've just done 3 encores .... however, that honestly is the feeling and we don't know why - I think it's cos the good bits are the unconscious bits but tonight was definitely fully conscious throughout ...... dunno the answer to that one really, but some nights you just know, and tonight wasn't one ..... lots of people saying they enjoyed the Washington/Baltimore shows, though, which we agree with .....

That most humiliating of ends to a day .... falling asleep ever so slightly (?) drunk on your front and waking up as daylight comes, with all your clothes on and a bed linen crease across your face ..... my last thought is worrying/wondering how Steve will feel when he discovers he's moving ....

— Matthew