19. Shish Kabob

Last Sunday night when I went outside to throw away some plastic bottles, I heard some "meows" in the distance. As I looked out into my dark driveway, the meows got louder and closer. So I screamed, ran inside, hid under my covers and went to bed... The End.

Juuust kidding. :0) ... So I stood there, and a cat ran up to me. It then rubbed up against my legs and tried running into my house. I'm a cat person. So I played with it for a while before having to go back inside to fold some laundry and go to bed. As I was folding, the cat jumped onto my window sill, and started to claw climb up and down my window screen. And last night when I went outside, the cat was sleeping all cozy on an outside bench seat. I can't really afford to have a pet at this point in my life. But I did temporarily name it, Shish Kabob.

-raul


















And here is that picture with Robin that Chaucie was talking about.

18. Gin Blossoms = Yoda (5/23/08)

Hey guys, thanks for all the support last night at the sold out show with the Gin Blossoms last night, we met tons of new and exciting people!

We played a 40 minute set in front of a packed house that only seemed to get better as the set progressed. There was a respectable crew of CBB fans in attendance, but most were new faces. I noticed a few things:
1. The new listeners definitely needed 3-4 songs to warm up to us, i think because they wanted to see the Gin Blossoms for instant gratification
2. Many of the middle aged males looked on with skepticism when we first played.
3. Their girlfriends started dancing to our music
4. The guys started bobbing their heads after seeing their girlfriends dance.
5. The girlfriends started jumping around and really getting down about halfway through the set.
6. The guys pulled out the dancing shoes in approval
7. Lastly, the older guys (30 year old+) crowd really appreciate a good guitar solo and they love talking about the fact i play a telecaster..."it reminds me of when I was at Woodstock..." i heard a couple times: )

Bottom line: thank you ladies. without your dancing we would have had a much harder time getting the social approval for the fellas to dance during our set.

On top of that, Robin, the lead singer of the Gin Blossoms watched our whole set. I should preface this with the fact that all the guys in the band happen to be big GB fans, so it is a huge honor to play right before them. It ended up that Robin became a fan of CBB, and after the show we talked with him for a long time just talking music and how he wanted to be a mentor to us...in fact, his exact words were "I'd love to be a Yoda-like figure for you guys". Unfortunately, he didn't bust into a Yoda voice. He said he'd be interested in working with us in the future and that we'd definitely be playing with them again soon. I was secretly hoping he could have phrased it more "With Gin Blossoms again you will play with soon..mmmhh?", but again I was disappointed.

Anyways, we've got a pic with him that Raul took, so hopefully you'l see that soon on this blog. You all may have to egg him on aggressively (see Raul's "Blog 12: I have a problem" dealing with procrastination) to actually get him to post the pic.

Anyways, besides that, we're getting some final mixes (pretty much done with the album finally! stay tuned for presales news!). I also finished designing (I'm the resident graphic designer) tshirts, which will be ready in a few weeks for our tour (you can only get the tshirts on the tour, so that's extra incentive to come out!).

peace, i'm on call in the hospital all weekend healing sick people. but i get monday off....holla!!!

love always,
Chaucie

17. this is hot (5/21/08)

I was doin a little Youtube surfing and i came across this video. I can definitely get down to this. What do you think?





-Omar

16. 3 Doors Down (5/21/08)

3 Doors Down came out with their new album on Tuesday and guess what?...the album cover that can be seen all over the world in stores and on TV was shot by our very own Doug Sounders!

For those new to the CBB family, Doug is a brother to us. He's one of most creative, artistic, kindest human beings you will ever meet, and we love him very much. Doug was the brains and talent behind our photo shoot with the bear and soon to be shooting our album cover.

So please join me in congratulating Doug on this tremendous accomplishment. I don't know anyone who deserves this more than he does.

So stop by his Myspace page (he's on our top friends) and show him some love. HECK! If you see him roaming the mean streets of Northern Virginia (yes, he is a NoVA local hero;) give him a great big hug :)

Congratulations Doug! We're proud of you.

Mauricio

15. Chaucer’s DC favorites! (5/18/08)

This blog is dedicated to all those cats that have been supporting the hotbed of music known as the DC music scene (which includes Nova and MD). I just want to take this time to rank my favorite DC bands--these are the bands that I consistently find playing on my personal iPod and will go out of my way to attend their shows. Let me preface by saying that this is in no way influenced by fellow rockers asking me to pimp their band, and in no way is this list influenced by being in any part of a musical clique. One last disclaimer: the opinions expressed on this blog are my opinion and are not necessarily representative of CBB as a band. OK, here it goes, let me know if you concur, or if you think I am missing/forgetting one of your faves! Better yet, write back with your favorite DC bands!

1. The Hint
2. My Favorite Highway
3. The Speaks
4. Honor by August
5. Friday Night Boys
6. Hotspur
7. The Dance Party
8. The Bigger Lights
9. Pictures in Pieces

There are actually many I considered putting on the list, but they either had too few songs or I haven't seen live, so I couldn't consider them.

Anyways, on a different note, we had a great time playing Sterling this past Friday, thanks to the bands and especially Love & Reverie for helping us out and McTwist for being getting crazy (and locked out of their own van). If you missed the show, you missed an epic fall by yours truly as I attempted to elevate on the CBB ego stool at the end of Let It Out--the stepstool inched over the edge of the stage and I bit it pretty hard on my @$$.

If you weren't there you also missed another hilarious Omar moment after the show (Thanks Ash!)



that's it, stay tuned for a message from Raul!

Love always,
Chaucer

14. World domination (5/14/08)

Some of you may remember a bulletin I posted a few months back about "taking over the world"

I was happy to see that many of you want in! Well, it has begun. Yes I know there's a long road ahead of us and there are still so many people who don't know about this band. We have just barely scratched the surface.

Now this is where you come in. In order for Crash Boom Bang to become a household name we need your help people. Tomorrow I'll need you to tell ONE person about Crash Boom Bang and then ask them to tell one other person. The sooner we take over with our anthems of celebration and preludes of woe...you will find yourself living in a world filled with shiny happy people. Because of our music, there will be no more wars. There will be no more crimes. Gas prices will go down, High Fructose Corn syrup will be a thing of the past and you will be able to find natural purée strawberry bannana juice in your grocer's refrigerated aisle that doesn't contain apple juice or orange juice.

And to top it all off... As a reward for your dedication and passion towards getting the word out on our band, as king...I will award you states that you can rename after yourselves.

For example:
If your name is Ash, you can have NebASHka
If your name is Corey, you can have Coreyda. And yes...FLO Rida would then probably have to rename himself Co Reyda, but I'm willing to deal with that.








ahhhhh.... Yeah it's late and my brain tends to go a little overboard when it comes to pitching an idea. All I really meant to ask is to help us promote cause we're going on tour again:)

-Mauricio

13. "No thanks, i just came here for an oil change" (5/13/08)

So today i went to get my car serviced at my local Jiffy Lube. All i wanted was an oil change. I noticed i was the only car there, and I dont know whether they were bored or what, but this was my experience there.

As I'm about to pull up to the opening of the oil changing garage, one of the workers there stands in front of the my car before i can pull in, and puts his hand up in a "hault" motion. Then using sign language, he points to another worker there, signals him to "come here" then signals him to "go to my car" As the second worker approaches my car, i get out, and without saying a word, he then quickly gets in my car and drives it into the garage. Then a swarm of 4 different Jiffy Lube workers in navy blue outfits attack my car with vacuums, windex, etc...one pops the hood...and i'm sure there were like 10 of them underneath the car.

Then the Head Honcho of Jiffy Lube comes up to me wearing a light blue shirt. If you've ever seen Reno 911 (the guy with the mustache) this was him except he didnt have aviators on. He says to me, "Good afternoon sir, have you ever been to Jiffy Lube before?" and I responded "uh...i think so". Then out of nowhere, one of the workers in navy blue says "thats a negative on the Jiffy, i found a Penzoil Sticky". Then the Head Honcho was like "so you haven't been to Jiffy Lube before? I'm gonna need you to stand right over there and give me some information" Needless to say, i felt like i was getting in trouble for something. So after i gave him all of my info, i went into the waiting room, waiting as my car got serviced.

After about 5 minutes...

'Mr. Ruiz, can you please come with me?" the Honcho said to me. I followed him to my car and he went on in a stern voice of all the things i needed to do to my car "to achieve optimal performance" What he was trying to do was scare me into paying for all this stuff for my car. I was about to give in until i saw the name tag on his shirt. It said "Robert D. - Lubrication Technician " I smiled and said "No thanks, i just came here for an oil change" :-)