Guest List: Dentist's Favorite Tour Stops of 2018

Justin Bornemann of Dentist

Road Dog Travelogue

By Justin Bornemann

[Dentist released their third LP, Night Swimming, in 2018; and they spent a good chunk of the year on tour. Here, guitarist, co-songwriter, and co-producer, Justin Bornemann, shares some of the band's favorite places from their 2018 travels. Check out Night Swimming on Cleopatra Records. You can even order a very limited edition of the album on vinyl. And make sure you seek out Dentist if they come to your town in 2019. -- CoolDad]



We were in the lucky position to be able to tour and travel a decent amount in 2018, so when CoolDad asked us to do an end of year list, we thought it would be fun to give our top 5 cities we visited this year. Everything is subjective, though, right? While people who travel will have certain criteria about what makes a city great, our perspective was heavily influenced by how the shows that we played went. I can't complain about our tour. Every show was special in its own way, but here are the cities that really stood out to us.

Austin

We got to see Austin twice this year. The first time was in March for SXSW. Then, we got to go again over the summer as part of our month-long tour.

Dentist at Austin's Valhalla on 3/17/18

Austin has everything a great city should have: tons of live music, a lot of really cool venues and bars, great food, an element of weirdness, and really cool people. We had a great SXSW experience this year. We played some awesome showcases, saw some great bands including Wavves, No Bunny, and White Reaper, and also met up with a bunch of friends and bands that were also in town. It was a big party basically.

But, how can you really judge a city when it's taken over by a festival? Luckily we got to experience it over the summer, and even though it's hot, it still holds up as an amazing place. Locals took us to a swim hole; we had some great tacos; and our show at Cheer Up Charlie's was awesome. We also got to hear one of our songs on a local college radio station while we were being driven to the swim hole. Overall, a great city that's always treated us kindly.

El Paso

Photo via Dentist's FB Page

The next place that made a serious impression on us this year was El Paso. This may end up being a highly subjective review, though. I've heard that El Paso is referred to as the armpit of Texas, and I believe there is a pun or two about taking a pass on El Paso (I'll Paso, or did I just make that up?). We, however, had a great time during our visit. When we arrived, we had time to kill and went to the bar that was across the street from the venue. It was a strange place, but I remember its being really cheap, which is what we needed; and I also had my first red beer (like a Bloody Mary, but with beer). El Paso had a great, supportive scene filled with people who were really stoked on live music. The crowd was awesome. People were very friendly. There was a taco truck outside, and we were asked to sign our records by some fans.   

San Diego

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We are in San Diego!! Tonight we play @spacebarsd with @theslashes And @mostlysunnymusic !! hope to see you out here! #jump #sandiego #California #comfy #cozy #pooltime #nightswimmingtour special shout out to @briezgirl and @maxdrawert for being amazing human beings and giving us a lovely place to stay tonight!!

A post shared by Dentist (@dentistband) on Aug 1, 2018 at 1:09pm PDT

This leans more towards an objectively amazing place. We were mostly taken aback by how nice it was out and what a beautiful place it is. We actually stayed at a hotel while we were there and got to go swimming and relax a bit. Our show was really cool, and we were filmed for a television program called Soundiego, which airs right after Saturday night live in San Diego. If I really thought about it, there was probably a show that would bump this off the list; but there was no way San Diego wasn't going to be mentioned just because of what a beautiful place it is. It definitely felt like we were on vacation while we were there.

Denver

A little advance press for Dentist in Colorado

First thing we did when we got to Denver was get some free burritos courtesy of Illegal Pete's. For any touring bands reading this, that's a good place to hit up while on tour for some free food, and there are a couple of locations in the country. Anyway, we started off with a good taste in our mouths, so it was probably easy for Denver to win us over, but our show there was one of the best of tour. It was a very cool venue called Lost Lake, and I'd definitely recommend catching a show there if possible. We also experienced the city a bit, and did that thing you should definitely do in Denver *wink wink*. That was also cool.

Cincinnati

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What a night in Cincinnati. Thanks to all of the generous and energetic people who made our visit a great one! Special thanks to Amy, Jason, Tyler, the guys in Infinity Spree and The Hub. Tonight is the last night of tour...we will be at Electric Ave. in Buffalo NY with @honey_coma @treadles_not_treedles @neumannthehuman at 9pm. Photo by @tyler.brantley. . . . #otr #thehub #cincinnati #ohio #buffalo #ny #nightswimmingtour

A post shared by Dentist (@dentistband) on Aug 15, 2018 at 9:28am PDT

This was the biggest surprise for sure. We went in with very low expectations for Cincinnati. I have never heard anything good about it before, and didn't picture cool things happening in the area, but I was proven very wrong. The area we played in had one of the highest crime rates in the country at one point, but they are going through a renaissance, and it seems like a very exciting time to live there. Before our show, we stopped at a local watering hole, and quickly became friends with the bartender. There was also a couple hanging out, and we ended up telling them about our show, and both the couple and the bartender later came to our show. I tell that story just to show the kind of people that are living in the area. The show ended up being awesome. We made new friends, and we had a really fun night. We will be sure to go back.

Dentist Canadian Tour Log

Dentist and Windigo

Part the First

by Justin Bornemann

We knew we were going to Canada to play Canadian Music Week, but we initially thought that we would do a weeklong tour at most. Unexpectedly, a band from Canada called Windigo -- who are awesome, by the way -- asked us to join them on a month long tour from Vancouver to Toronto. Dentist had never done a month long tour; and there were many obstacles to overcome, like getting off work for a month, and not having a drummer and bass player who could do it, but we decided not to let those minor details stop us. Besides, booking a tour really sucks, and hopping onto one that was already booked was a very agreeable prospect.

On March 21st, we flew into Vancouver with our luggage, a few pedals, some merch, a bass, and a guitar. Despite the fact that Emily didn't play bass, aside from doing a Pixies cover set on Halloween one year, she rose to the challenge of being our low end. We sold my Fender Jazz Bass (I have two) to get a Fender Mustang that would suit her better.

We decided to take another risk and ask Windigo's drummer, Mitch, to play drums for us despite never having played with him before. Windigo sounded really good on recording, so we figured, why not? What's the worst that could happen besides his not bothering to learn any of the songs? We arranged our schedule so that we had two days in Vancouver to organize and rehearse before the start of our tour. On a side note, I should mention that we were in the process of moving the week before our tour; and it was probably one of the most stressful weeks ever with all we had to get done, organize, and lift.

Things got off to a rocky start when we overslept for our flight. After realizing we weren't going to make the train in time to get to Newark airport, we started to drive in that direction to possibly catch a different train. As we were driving, Emily asked to see the flight info; and she noticed that the flight was actually leaving from LaGuardia Airport not Newark. My bad.

It seemed we had no choice but to drive there. With not enough time to figure out anything, we ended up parking in a lot that was 60 dollars a day and only meant for temporary parking because it was the first lot we saw. Calculating how much this would cost us was very stressful to put it mildly, but we didn't want to miss our flight and it would have to be figured out later. I left the parking lot ticket in the glove compartment as I started thinking about who would be able and willing to pick up the car for us, and we rushed to make our flight just in time.    

The flight was long, had a layover, and we flew with the lovely people of United, who really know how to treat their passengers. Upon arrival, we found that they had thrown our merch case, as opposed to maybe placing it as they were loading it, and they smashed the shit out of it. We gathered our things and made our way toward our rental car, a Mazda 5, and headed toward our Airbnb. While we drove, we noticed that Vancouver is a beautiful city with great mountain views and a Seattle-type climate. One of the highlights about the west coast is looking at the mountains as you drive, but I'll discuss more later on.

Traffic light with mountains

Are you ready for out first culture shock? Upon arrival to our Airbnb, we were told to take off our shoes before entering! This place was not what I would call nice. Don't get me wrong it was fine, and it was only 40 dollars a night or something; but this was a very surprising request to us. Our initial reaction was, “Wow, really?  You think your house is so fucking fancy?” But, it turns out, our host was nice and that Americans are just slobs that never take their shoes off when they go to someone's house; while it's pretty much universally done in Canada. Someone later asked us when I told them that we don't usually take off our shoes in the States, “Do you guys just mop all the time or something?”  Fair enough.

Seattle-type climate

After dinner and a night's rest, we first had to figure out what to do about the car. I contacted my friend Santo to see if he could be persuaded to pick it up for me. We went to the post office and overnighted him the key, but this mistake would set us back 300 bucks when all was said and done. Better than leaving it there and a lesson learned. From now on, just pay for a ride to the airport.

After taking care of the car, we were ready to rehearse with Mitch, the drummer from Windigo. This tour, like any tour I'd imagine, was a series of ups and downs. It's one of the most fun things to do in my opinion, but you never know what to expect; and we left a lot of possibilities open for things to go wrong. I've laid out a lot of bad stuff already, but our first "victory" took place when we discovered that Mitch is an awesome drummer who put some serious effort into learning our songs. Emily did a great job playing the bass, and I did my best to fill up any empty space since we are usually a four piece. For better or worse, we had a band that sounded good and was ready to go across Canada.

Guest List: Justin Bornemann (Dentist) Gives Us His Top 3 Albums of 2014

Quality Over Quantity

We've got another list-maker returning from last year. Justin Bornemann, guitarist for Dentist, is back to let us in on his top 3 albums of 2014. It's not a long list, but Justin gives us some really detailed insights -- from the perspective of a musician -- on what's so special about these records.

Dentist are another great, local band who had a big year. They released their self-titled debut album back in May and have been playing shows in support of that record ever since. Justin and the band ventured out of Asbury Park this year to play shows in New York, Philly, Delaware, and Baltimore, making friends along the way. They've brought some of those friends back to Asbury Park for a few shows that have given us all a glimpse of what the rest of the Mid-Atlantic has to offer.

The band recently announced that they will be part of the "Vinyl Heart" compilation featuring other popular locals (and CDM favorites) Smalltalk, Seaside Caves, and Trans Charger Metropolis. The comp will be out in time for Valentine's Day, and the bands are planning a release show for February 13th at Asbury Lanes. There's an Indiegogo campaign running for the release right now, which you can check out here.

Let's get to Justin's list. *SPOILER ALERT* There's an album on here that now has two votes from our panel.

My Top 3 Albums of 2014

by Justin Bornemann

Alvvays, Alvvays

I’ll usually say I like an album if I enjoy most of the songs, but every so often a record comes along where I can get behind every moment. Alvvays's self-titled record is an album that is completely filled with great melodies and hooks on every song.

The production and feel definitely remind me of Best Coast and Beach House with the layers of reverb and female vocals, but this record manages to build on those influences while standing on its own as something really great. While I love a vocal that’s soaked in reverb, it’s almost a shame because the lyrics on this record are really strong but can be hard to understand at times. I’m not complaining, though. I’m more of an overall aesthetic of a song kind of guy, as opposed to a words are the most important part of a song kind of guy, so I’d still like Alvvays if their lyrics were bad; but the vocals on this record definitely give Alvvays an edge over a lot of their contemporaries.

At the end of the day, though, I’m a sucker for really good pop song-writing with a slightly lo-fi feel, and this album totally delivers on that kind of thing. If that’s your bag too, you should definitely check out this record.

  

Against Me!, Transgender Dysphoria Blues

I got into Against Me! after hearing As the Eternal Cowboy, which is still my favorite Against Me! record, and have been paying attention to what they put out ever since. I got really excited when New Wave came out a while back and enjoyed it at the time; but now, when I listen to it, I’m kinda like, “eh, it’s ok.” I feel like that about all of their other records aside from As the Eternal Cowboy, to tell you the truth, but I got into this band again after the release of Transgender Dysphoria Blues.

This album is filled with angst and is back to the straight-up punk sound that I like about Against Me!. Transgender Dysphoria Blues is both catchy and interesting lyrically too. The major theme is about the alienation experienced by a transgender and the desire to be seen as a woman. What I like most about this record, though, is the energy contained in many of the songs that gets me excited about listening to music.

Granted, I have a few gripes. “Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ” is pretty weird and not my kind of thing musically. Aside from that song, my only other problem is that the songs about death, while very good, are a bit of a bummer. I wish "Dead Friend" and "Two Coffins for Sleep" weren’t right next to each other. Don’t get me wrong they’re good songs. I don’t know. That’s just my opinion, and I don’t want to detract from how good this record is.

Overall, this album rules and should definitely be checked out because every song except one is great and it's totally on par with their best work.



Cloud Nothings, Here and Nowhere Else

I’m eclectic. I’m not lying; it’s really true. I can totally get into slow songs that are filled with melancholy, atmosphere, and mood; but I really am a sucker for fast songs with high energy and for great chord progressions and melodies. I also gravitate towards certain types of production.

Here and Nowhere Else is a record that was not hard for me to like. It’s definitely the kind of thing I would be into, just like their last record; but they have really improved between the two albums. They are writing amazing music at this point.

I love the tempo shifts that some of the songs have. These tempo jumps come across as the product of a band that can’t contain their energy. Cloud Nothings manage to do it in a way that sounds not only natural but also hard for any other band to copy while not sounding amateurish. The drumming on this record is notable and worth mentioning. It gets so chaotic and intense at some points and makes me wish I were good at playing the drums.

I’d highly recommend this record to anyone who likes 90’s style indie-rock with a punk feel.