A couple of weeks ago when we played in Myrtle Beach, SC there was a lot of talk going around about shag dancing. Apparently it’s a really big deal around that part of SC and I had no idea. Well this past weekend my girlfriend, Lauren, and her friend, TIm, competed in the National Shag Dance Competition preliminaries and I got to tag along! We got to the club later than we wanted to the first night, but we still got to catch what they called “Shagging With The Stars.” Where local, well-known business owners, or other members of the community were given 12 hours worth of shag lessons by professionals and then danced before the pro competition on the first night. We got to see all of them and some were definitely faster learners than others, but it was all very impressive. I can’t imagine trying to learn anything from scratch in 12 hours (especially dancing) and performing in front of a large crowd. But these people did a great job.. From what I could tell, anyway. I’ll admit I know next to nothing about any kind of dance. 

          The next night was Lauren and Tim’s turn to perform. They were a part of the collegiate part of the competition. They represented College of Charleston. They’re competition was a pair of dancers from North Carolina State University and another pair from East Carolina University. Once everyone had performed, there was a board of judges that took a little bit of time to talk about things they liked about the performance or something someone might need to work on a little bit. Then they let the audience cheer for who they thought should win, which was 1/3 of deciding who won. The other 2/3 was decided by the judges themselves. NC State ended up taking first place, then Lauren and Tim, then ECU (Sorry Scott and Britt). Lauren and Tim danced beautifully and everyone I talked to was saying that they should have gotten first place, but NC State “brought the congregation” so naturally they got the biggest crowd response. It was my first time watching Lauren dance in any kind of professional setting and I was/am so very proud of her and can’t wait to see more of it in the future. If any of you would like to watch some quality shag dancing, I filmed their performance and you can view it by clicking here. 

          I know you guys have been hearing a lot about our acoustic ep lately! And it’s almost finished I promise! We’ve tracked everything and it’s only a matter of editing and mixing, then within the next couple of weeks, you’ll be able to have it. We’re pretty excited about the way it’s turning out and I can’t wait for you guys to get a hold of it! 

          We’ve got a whole lot of shows coming up in the near future, so please go check out our schedule and see if we’re coming to play anywhere near you! It would be awesome to make some new friends, or see some old ones again. Until then, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next Tuesday!

Josh

In other news, ever since the start of 2012 I’ve been doing my best to take better care of myself. I’ve been working out with a friend of mine at night doing “Insanity” workouts. It’s about 40 straight minutes of different cardio exercises. I’m always sore the next morning but it gives me the sense that I’m doing something right. Other nights I just jog at the gym in my complex.
I finally retired my old running shoes and bought some new ones. Good thing too as the old ones have more holes than rubber on the bottom!

Hopefully I keep up with the work out regimen for the rest of the year!
Side note- Avitar is on TV (muted). I’ve never seen this movie. I have zero desire to. But I have seen Pocahontas and I’m told it’s pretty much the same

Nighty Night!
-Scott

I read a rather disturbing blog post today about Mars Hill Church (huge mega-church in Seattle pastored by Mark Driscoll). Some of you may have seen this already, and although the source seems legitimate, I can’t say for sure that everything is 100% factual; but if it is, it is tragic. Take a few minutes and read this story. Make sure you read Part Two as well, and let me know what you think about the whole thing.

To change gears completely, how much soda do you drink? Have you ever tried going a week without it? I stopped drinking it regularly in high school (2004-ish), because I was serious about baseball and wanted to be properly hydrated / not full of sugar. In college I pretty much narrowed it down to water and tea, and have continued that trend to this day (with the exception of my recent addition – coffee!) Admittedly, I will have a Mountain Dew or a Cheerwine every now and then (once every other month, maybe), but if I have it before 3pm or so, my stomach hurts for several hours. That right there is cause enough for me to not get back into drinking it – my body rejects it naturally. Another particular tale of victory over soda occurred this past year between Scott Taube and Diet Coke. I never saw the guy drink anything but Diet Coke for YEARS. Finally, in 2011, he resolved to kick the habit, succeeded, and is now on a steady diet of water and the occasional Red Bull. ANYWAY, you should check out this article about some of the lesser-known risks involved with drinking soda often. Try to avoid it for a week – see how it goes.

This week my fiancée and I have been looking for a place to live once we are married. Like most of the stuff we have been working on for the past few months, this is both exciting and stressful! We’re thinking we will probably stay in the Charlotte area for 6 months to a year, all the while saving money to make the big move to Nashville. We’re definitely open to change these plans, should we feel God leading us in a different direction, but that is our blueprint for now. Pray for us if you think about it!

Now, your final assignment: listen to this beautiful song.

Have a grand week.

Three Songs to Buy on iTunes This Week:
1. “Towers” by Bon Iver

2. “Human Error” by We Were Promised Jetpacks

3. “Do You Think I’m Pretty?” by He Is Legend

Not much to catch you guys up on since my last entry, so this week’s blog might be a little short.

Saturday I got to go down to Charleston and visit Lauren for the day. I haven’t been able to get down there lately so it was nice to spend some time with her, even if it was just for a few hours. Well on Johns Island in Charleston there sits a giant Oak Tree called The Angel Oak. According to The Angel Oak’s wiki page: It is estimated to be in excess of 1500 years old, stands 65 feet tall, measures 28 feet in circumference, and shades with its crown an area of 17,000 square feet. Its widest crown spread point-to-point is 180 feet, which is longer than any other live oak in the country. If any of you ever find yourself in Charleston, SC it’s a pretty cool thing to go visit (also it’s free).

So I like to listen to a lot of heavy music as a lot of you may or may not know. One of the bands I like to listen to is called August Burns Red. Their frontman, Jake Luhrs, and drummer, Matt Greiner (among other people in the music industry) are a part of a ministry called HeartSupport. Take a second and visit their website www.heartsupport.com . It’s full of inspirational blogs and stories of these guys’ lives on the road and their relationship with God. And I think you guys would enjoy reading some of the entries.

Well that’s it for me this week folks! I’ll see you guys next Tuesday!

Josh.

I spent a good chunk of today working on the cover art for Philmont’s acoustic EP. I can’t wait to hear the tracks the other guys have been working on! I should get them sent over sometime this week then I’ll take those into a studio here in Nashville and track my vocal parts. After a quick mix we’ll get the CD up on iTunes and some physical copies pressed. It’s awesome to be able to do this project in house and keep such a quick turnaround time! I’m super excited for you (and myself) to hear it!

Britt and I have been having a “How I Met Your Mother” marathon (a what?) over the last couple of weeks thanks to Netflix! We’re already in season 6. The last episode was a bit of a cliffhanger so I’m off to start the next one!

See ya next week!
If you’re in the Texas area be sure to visit the “bandpage” tab on our facebook page. We listed a few new acoustic dates!
-Scott

So our weekend was pretty amazing. We got to play/stay at the Avista Resort in North Myrtle Beach, SC. Thanks to our good buddy, Daniel Bryan for putting our name in. As if the show wasn’t amazing enough, our room was pretty incredible as well. And each of the bedrooms had views of the ocean. Like I said, we got to hang out with our friend Daniel at the show. He lives in Florida so we don’t get to see him often. It was nice getting to hang with him and his family/friends and his lady. This place had an indoor heated lazy river! Scott and I took advantage of this. But not for long, as everyone else took advantage of the huge hot tub. (Also heated). They also had an outdoor lazy river, which was not heated so we didn’t take part in that. We did, however, hang out in the outdoor hot tub. Then Daniel and I decided it would be a good time to sprint from there all the way down to the ocean (not heated) and see how deep we could get before we couldn’t take it anymore.. We made it knee deep.. And even that was a mistake. The once frigid weather seemed almost comfortable on the walk back. Though our legs had been frozen and could barely make the return trip. My legs anyway.

Also we played the most boring game of Phase 10 ever.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, I wish those Philmont dudes would put out some of their old songs again.. But this time a little differently.”? Then do we have good news for you! Very shortly we will be putting out an acoustic ep to accompany our upcoming acoustic tour!! I went to Jo’s today to record my guitar parts and back up sangin’.

Now are you thinking, “But Josh.. I’m not going to be able to make it out to an acoustic show 😥. How ever will I be able to hear this ep?”? No worries! It will also be available on iTunes! We will be sure to let you all know once it’s up and the title so you can go find it.

But I hope to see a lot of you out west on this tour!

Thanks for reading!

-Josh

Hope your week is going well. We had a fun quick time in Myrtle Beach SC playing a couple of shows. Thanks to our buddies Davey Davenport and Josh Duckworth for helping us out on bass and drums, respectively. And to my buddy Jordan Staley for letting me borrow his Telecaster to play for these shows! Anyway, it was too cold to go on the beach, but we enjoyed some nice views from our hotel rooms, as well as some jacuzzi time.

I started what’s called an ‘inductive Bible study’ this week with a group of people from my old church. This particular study will be covering the book of John for eleven weeks. I can’t remember if I told you all last year about the study we did on the book of Joshua, but it was really amazing. Basically, in an inductive Bible study, you have a ‘curriculum’, if you will, that consists of a walkthrough of the whole book, plus lots of study tools, maps, charts, and homework!

I’m sure all of you students are like “Um, this sounds like school, and school is lame!!” And you’re right. But school is mainly lame because you’re probably studying things you don’t really care about or think you will use in the future. In this class, however, I will be diving deep into the Word of God, upon which I stake my faith and my salvation; not only is it valuable to my life, but it is exciting to learn more about! The homework consists of searching for word origins/meanings, looking up related passages in other parts of the Bible, and really just reading the material over and over, letting it soak into your mind and spirit. It’s amazing how much you can discover by just repetitively reading the same set of verses from a particular chapter. Too often I’ve been guilty of reading my Bible as a mechanical ritual – just scanning my eyes through a chapter without really absorbing what is being said. This Bible study is helping me to dig into God’s Word with passion and confidence, knowing that I will be rewarded for my efforts. It’s great!

If you ever feel the same about your less-than-perfect Bible-reading habits (or lack thereof), work on it! Start writing down your thoughts in a journal as you read. Read a chapter twice instead of once. Read it out loud. Do whatever it takes that you may truly glean wisdom and understanding from the Holy Spirit. The Bible is not a storybook or an instruction pamphlet – it is your Heavenly Father’s holy and living letter to YOU. Treat it that way!

I’m working on some top secret recordings this week….shhh….

Three Songs to Buy on iTunes This Week:
1. “9 Crimes” by Damien Rice

2. “Geraldine” by Glasvegas

3. “If You Don’t, Don’t” by Jimmy Eat World

For this trip we have our buddy Davey filling in on bass. He’s in a band called Eleventyseven. Go listen to them and send them some love (or hate mail…either way).

We have one more SC show tomorrow (also close to the ocean) then it’s back home to my land-locked state of TN.

Hope your having a great week.
Anyone excited about the new Five Iron Frenzy record? I used to love them back in high school and college!

See ya next week!
-Scott

I’ve been hard at work on wedding-related stuff this week. Heather and I have been putting together the invitations and figuring out registry stuff and honeymoons and wedding websites and what not…a lot to do! Come Saturday we will be exactly three months away from the big day. Crazy stuff!

We also just got all of our engagement shots back from Blue Kite Photo. The pics look amazing! Here’s a little sample for you all:

So that’s exciting.

Meanwhile, I have been shopping around, trying to figure out what my next guitar purchase will be (if you didn’t hear, my PRS Custom 22 was stolen out of my car right before Christmas, thus rendering me electric-guitar-less, and in need of a replacement). So going to Guitar Center and messing around with different guitars has been fun, as it’s something I don’t really do any more. But I really do miss my former guitar. I will probably end up buying another PRS. Also considering a Telecaster. We’ll see.

Welp, I gotta roll – got more wedding stuff to finish before I retire for the night. We’re gonna be heading down to Myrtle Beach this weekend for a couple shows; should be grand times! Hope you all have a wonderful week. The blog title was to bring in views from Google searches!

Three Songs to Buy on iTunes This Week:
1. “9 Crimes” by Damien Rice

2. “I’ve Just Seen A Face” by The Beatles

3. “Fatal Attraction, Fatal Reaction” by Fly Golden Eagle

So it’s a new year, and I know I’ve already posted once in 2012, but I didn’t talk about my resolutions or ask you about yours. Well this year instead of making a concrete decision, which I inevitably fail to do sometime throughout the year, I’ve just decided to try to eat less and eat healthier. It’s something I’ve been trying to do lately anyway, but I figured with the new year I might as well try harder. And I want to start reading The Bible more. I’ll be the first to confess that I don’t spend enough time in the Word and that’s something that I want to change. I did find this verse though that I wanted to share with you from 2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

I just felt it appropriate since a lot of people are wanting to “better themselves” this time of year, whether it be to eat better, or to give up something that has consumed them lately, to share a scripture about “becoming new.” That in a life with Christ you don’t have to worry about the things in your past or your present. Anything that’s been holding you down you can just give away to Him and start this new year off with a clean slate. Feel free to talk to any of us Philmont dudes (or lady) about this or anything that’s been weighing on your heart. 

Also, I just wanted to let you guys know that my girlfriend, Lauren Balltrip, and I have been dating for 1 year today. And also tomorrow actually.. We were in two different time zones when we were on the phone and decided to make it “official.” It was just after 11:00pm on 1-10-11 in Nashville where I was. And just after 12:00am on 1-11-11 in SC where she was! So we could actually choose January 10th or 11th or both to celebrate our relationship if we wanted to. 

This weekend we’ll be playing a couple of shows in Myrtle Beach, SC with our buddy Josh Duckworth filling in on drums, and our good friend Davey Davenport of Eleventyseven playing bass with us. Also our pal Daniel Bryan who got us on the show will be there hanging out with all of us as well. Big thanks and much love to him. It’s going to be good times, so you should all take a little road trip/vacation out to the beach and hang out with all of us! 

And if anyone has Xbox Live and plays Modern Warfare 3 online, look me up! My gamer tag is joshuaguion. 

Thanks to all of you Philmont supporters out there! We love you and we couldn’t do any of this without you! 

Josh.