We’re writing to you fresh off of an exciting last two months.  It’s been a while since we last caught up.   We drove our van straight through the Ides of March, had few laughs at the April Fools, and here we are in May looking back at an amazing wintery season and forward to all the exciting things that are lined up as Summer approaches us.   With so much in store, we have some great news to unleash upon everyone, so we’ll start with the stuff that people want to hear first.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we’d like to announce that we have cleaned our van!  That’s right, after months of just about non-stop gigging and watching those perforated lines on the road pass us by, we’ve decided that you, the fans, deserve to listen to a band that practices good van hygiene.  This was an extremely emotional time for us, and wasn’t as easy of a decision to make as you might think. Through all the dried up slush we tracked in, empty coffee cups, half-filled food wrappers, and children we found, there was stuff that we had a lot trouble letting go of.  You never know just how attached you can get to a banana peel or a dirty sock until you’ve spent 4 months in a van with it listening to the same music and having deep, in-depth conversations.  We all realized it was for the best, though, after it took 45 minutes of reasoning with Chuck for him to let go of a Frito that had been under the drivers seat since Bear Creek in November.  He was adamant that it really brought the van together.  In the end, we’re all happy with how things are.  A less funky van means a more funky Dopapod, and a more funky Dopapod is good for your health.

**NEW RELEASES**

With the more important stuff out of the way, let’s talk tunage.  No, that plural in the heading there is no mistake.  Drawn Onward is coming along really well and we’ve been uncovering and experimenting with all sorts of grimy sounds that we’ve decided to spend a bit more time in the Dopalab to fine tune everything.  You can expect for it to drop in the Fall.

Can’t wait that long?  Don’t fret just yet, we are going to be releasing a live album this summer.  Our good friend and master of the sonic stratosphere, Luke the Jedi, has been multi-tracking the well majority of our shows for a while now.  We’ll be compiling some of our choice cuts to share.  For those of you that have been enjoying the archive recordings, we’re happy to be giving you a special high quality opportunity to bob your heads and move your booties to.  Keep a look out for …I Saw Live Dopapod.  Evil was I… coming out this summer.

**TOUR DATES**

Well Spring is here, Osama’s apparently dead, Obama is apparently American, and we’ve got a lot in store for this summer.  We just played our first festival of the season at Some Kind of Jam in Pennsylvania and are starving for more tastes of the festival nectars that the upcoming months have in store.  In the midst of the East Coast run that we’ll be on, you can find us hitting a number of festivals including Strangecreek, The Big Up, Catskill Chill, and Bearcreek.  If you look hard enough, you might even be able to find us at a certain fest that’s smack dab in the middle of June and smack dab in the middle of Tennessee.  We don’t want to give it away, but it rhymes with poo.  Be sure to respond to the Facebook events for these shows.  With all these festivals, boat cruises, and Cinco de Mayo, you never know when we’ll get inebriated enough throw out some free tickets amidst a drunken Facebook creep sesh (c’mon, you know you all do it).

For more details visit the tour page at dopapod.com

5/5     Southbridge, MA: Mill Street Brews  

5/7     Oneonta, NY: Live LIVE Festival  

5/20   Morrisville, PA: Phan Fare Festival  

5/21   Saratoga Springs, NY: Putnam Den  

5/27   Greenfield, MA: Strangecreek Festival  

6/2     Norfolk, VA: Jewish Mother  

6/3     Kill Devil Hills, NC: Outer Banks Brewing  

6/4     Wilmington, NC: Kefi  

6/5     Atlanta, GA: The Five Spot  

6/7     Raleigh, NC: The Pour House  

6/8     Charlotte, NC: The Double Door  

6/9     Asheville, NC: Emerald Lounge  

6/15   Pittsburgh, PA: Thunderbird Cafe  

6/16   Rochester, NY: Dubland Underground  

6/17   New York, NY: Sullivan Hall  

6/18   Sturbridge, MA: DiscJam  

6/24   Boston, MA: Boat Cruise!!!  

6/25   Burlington, VT: Higher Ground  

7/30   Ghent, NY: Big Up Festival  

8/5     Oxford, ME: Camp Creek  

8/19   Chance Harbor, NB: Sunseekers Ball  

8/20   Dover, NH: Great Bay Music Festival  

11/12 Live Oak, FL: Bear Creek Festival  

See everyone out there! D’oh!

Hey Everyone!

Happy March!  Now that it’s a month after Groundhog’s Day, we hope everyone has been seeing their shadows as they emerge from their burrows.  We’re fortunate to have made it into to the Roman third month.  It’s been a rough road through February.  We were really trying to cope with the injustice inflicted on music lovers worldwide when we came to find that our Holy Lord and Savior Justin Bieber was defeated at the Battle of Grammys by the unsuspecting Esperanza Spalding.  It surely was a day that would forever live in infamy.  The scene at the Dopalab was grim when we witnessed this happen.  Just as we were all about to drink that loyalty proving Kool Aid and sacrifice ourselves to our youthful Spiritual Leader, Eli had tripped into his Moog synthesizer and it let out a deep grundle rumbling womp.  Entranced by its cosmic radiations, we all became fixated on the white light emitting out of the frequency bending mechanism and with a flash as bright and quick as the speed of light, we were brought to our senses.  Justin Bieber ain’t worth dying for.  Hell, come to think of it, we were never really down with his style in the first place.  How did we even get ourselves put under this spell?  As a matter of fact, we LOVE Esperanza Spalding.  She’s badass!  Have you seen her scat and pick away at that bass?  Have you seen that fro?  She could be Neal’s counterpart.  They could breed a superhuman race of the tightest, afro-wielding rhythm players this stratosphere has ever encountered.  Sit tight while we work on making that happen.  In the meantime, we hope our near death experience serves as a lesson to all our friends out there to not let yourself become vulnerable to the manipulative spells that mainstream pop music forces itself on to genuine music lovers. Take this poor girl for example.  For all you boob tubers, our story will be featured on Animal Planet’s ‘I Shouldn’t Be Alive’, so look out for it.

Now, there is a silver lining on that whole ordeal and it’s thick.  So thick that it actually makes our near death episode feel like nothing more than a figment of our abominations.  We played some outrageously awesome and fun shows and we couldn’t have done it without all of you guys coming out.  Let us take this moment to tip our caps and raise our glasses to everyone who came out through the cold weather to party with us.  We had a blast hitting some of our old stomping grounds and getting the chance to go wild with old pals, and we even hit some brand new spots and made some great new friends.  Check out this video of Turnin’ Knobs our good buddy Tony Scavone caught of us.  It’s in HD – Raw Rippin’!  Shout out to our new friend HBOOKZ for coming out to our Springfield show and teaching us a few things on how to keep it really real.

Adding to the excitement of all the awesome faces that came out to all the shows in old and new spaces is the work we got done on the album.  We spent our off time this month putting finishing touches on Drawn Onward, and we’re stoked on how great it’s sounding.  We can’t wait to bring it from our fingertips to your eardrums.  Keep those ears open, because we just may toss out a little tease or two to tickle your nerves on what’s coming.

MOTIVATIONAL EDGE

Not only do we love hooking up with bands that are doing really cool and awesome things, but we love hooking up with organizations that have their hearts in the right spot.  While we’re down South we’ll be playing Transit Lounge with The Spam Allstars on March 18 and hosting our good friends, The Motivational Edge.  ME is an educational non-profit that offers tutoring and music education to underprivelaged/at risk youth in the Miami area.  They are launching a new program called The RAY Program (Recording Arts for Youths) and are raising funds through Kickstarter.com.  They need to raise $5,000 before March 25, when, if the goal is not met, donations will be returned to donors.  The RAY Program will give kids the chance to compose and record original compositions in a professional format.  All of us in Dopapod would really love to see this project take off and give some kids who wouldn’t other wise have this opportunity be able to live a dream we all dreamt as youngsters.  Click here for a short video that explains the mission of The RAY Program and where you can find a prompt to donate.  If you have a few spare bucks, please kick it their way.  Even just a dollar from all of us would make all the difference.  If you are in the Miami area on March 18, come out and get down to both us and The Spam Allstars as we not only will be promoting the motion of hips, but the awareness of helping kids fuel their creative outlets.

Click below to get the full skinny on The Motivational Edge!

www.themotivationaledge.com

**TOUR DATES**

SOUTHEAST TOUR  AND NEW APRIL NORTHEAST DATES

The Southeast Tour starts this Thursday!!!  We can’t believe how fast these dates came up and are really anxious to get down there and get to hang out with all of you while we enjoy some warmer weather.  We’re lucky to be able to spend this last wintery month of March down south, and we’re coming right back up in time for the beginning of Spring in April to hit the Northeast again.  Check out the dates below.  You can find more info on each show atdopapod.com

UPCOMING DATES

3/3 Virginia Beach, VA: Doc Taylor’s Seaside Lounge

3/4 Richmond, VA: The Camel

3/5 Asheville, NC: Emerald Lounge

3/8 Columbia, SC: The House 5 Points

3/9 Charlotte, NC: The Double Door

3/10 Milledgeville, GA: Amici’s Italian Cafe

3/11 TBA

3/12 Athens, GA: New Earth Music Hall

3/14 Grayton Beach, FL: Pandora’s

3/16 Jupiter, FL: Guanaba’s

3/17 Boca Raton, FL: Funky Buddha – St. Dopapatty’s Day Rager!

3/18 Miami, FL: Transit Lounge w/ The Spam Allstars

3/19 New Smyrna Beach, FL: Beachside Tavern

3/20 Charleston, SC: The Pour House

3/22 Raleigh, NC: Pour House

3/23 Atlanta, GA: The Five Spot w/ Consider the Source

3/24 Boone, NC: Boone Saloon w/ The Native Sway

3/25 Charleston, WV: The Empty Glass

3/26 TBA

4/1 South Kingstown, RI: Ocean Mist

4/2 Lowell, MA: Gemstones

4/7 Albany, NY: Red Square w/ Higher Organix

4/8 Utica, NY: Electric Factory w/ Consider the Source

4/9 Hartford, CT: Sully’s

4/13 Philadelphia, PA: The Blockley w/ Papadosio

4/14 Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Bowl w/ Papadosio

4/15 Boston, MA: Middle East Downstairs

4/16 TBA

4/29 Schuylkill Haven, PA: Some Kind of Jam Festival

4/30 Eeerie, PA: Crooked I w/ Aqueous

See you out there on the road!

Like Badgers?  We do.  Badgers are cool.  Badgers are fun.  Badgers know how to have a good time.  Watch them go!