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Ryan: Had a sudden burst of chatter with Alex Greenwald on a variety of topics, including the delusions of grandeur of Bono and Chris Martin; had a fire in his fireplace; shared a link to some truly hilarious professional fishing bloopers; watched Home Alone 2, at least one episode of Jersey Shore, a SNL skit, and Avatar; as previously mentioned, was horrified by a baby in Ed Hardy gear; discovered that only strip clubs and liquor stores are open in LA at Christmas; interrupted Greenwald's most tiresome Twitter stunt yet (a retweet war with another friend) to tell him to STFU; went to a dinner party, possibly a Michael Runion show and possibly also an actual Phoenix afterparty; and referenced music by Adam Sandler, Scott Walker and Will Smith; expressed a desire for two vaguely terrifying parody items by Tim & Eric; and finally, some dude at a Fatburger told him he looked like the guy from Freecreditreport.com.

Jon: Changed his icon twice (once to a 4 portrait collage colorwashed Andy Warhol-style, once to a distorted fun-house image of his face); unfollowed Zack, Brendon and Spencer; went to Medieval Times; shared several pictures of his pets in his bed and in the snow; watched a truly epic (and exhausting, for the listkeeper) number of Christmas movies and/or specials, including the White House one; played some Scrabble; shared and/or referenced some Silverchair, Sam Cooke, Fleetwood Mac and Bill Evans (jazz piano); had mimosas and cookies for breakfast then went to a cookie party; watched some silly YouTube videos; thought Jim Carrey's tweets were weird; and wished a fan a happy birthday. (Seriously, JWalk + Christmas specials = Out. Of. Control. That is WAY too much Christmas in a small space. Or else my heart, like the Grinch's, is three sizes too small.)

Nick: Added his blog URL to his profile (http://nickmurray.tumblr.com/) and removed previous band affiliations; had a bunch of exchanges with fans (evidently he's joining the ranks of chatty drummers); mentioned 14 songs, including works by Beach House, George Harrison, Elvis Presley, The Who, Roy Tyson, The Horrors, Grizzly Bear, and Crooked Cowboy and the Freshwater Indians; noted the occurance of the Winter Solstice and the passing of Brittany Murphy; attended shows by Black Apples and Foreign Born; watched a meteor shower and encountered a grilled cheese truck (not at the same time); shared a video comprised solely of blue skies over Illinois; watched The Cove, quoted Woody Allen, and also mentioned he (Nick) was the music supervisor on an award-winning film. There were also some neat pictures of the LA skyline; there's more located in (on?) his blog. He seems to like to take pictures of skylines, treelines, and his feet. There are some other pictures that may or may not be his, I really can't tell.

Andy: Wasn't very talkative; sparked up to link a fan to the Republic of Lights website, agree that Silverchair is excellent, link to a violin cover of "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley (it is AMAZING) and also link a recording of David Lee Roth doing "Runnin' with the Devil" acapella.

Final note: I am, as of right now, taking Ryan and Jon's Twitter announcement about Nick and Andy as a formal announcement of new band members. They haven't updated the band's MySpace since early-mid November (!) and Twitter seems to be their main form of "official" communication. Also Nick (and possibly Andy) is referring to his other bands as "old" bands, which I am taking to mean he is not with them anymore.

As noted below, The Young Veins are going to get their own summary post from now on. This week started slow and then got very exciting at the end, with the announcement of two new members: Nick Murray (Foreign Born, Crooked Cowboy & the Freshwater Indians) and Andy Soukal (Robot Love Story, Elegant Universe, Republic of Lights).

Nick seems to be LA-based but may originally be from Chicago, while Andy is currently out of Chicago. Or at least his last band was from Chicago. Also, Andy seems to have more than one Twitter. He was "ndeee" back in April, and exchanged some tweets with Jon when Jon was "amazondotjon", including a picture of, I think, himself at one of Jon's bonfires. But that account was abandoned in April, if the profile is anything to go by.

Anyway, in addition to new members, the line-up appears to have shifted as well. As best I can tell this is the current arrangement:

Ryan Ross - lyrics, vocals, guitar?
Jon Walker - lyrics, vocals, rhythm guitar?
Nick Murray - drums
Andy Soukal - bass

Ryan: Strapped a Christmas tree to the top of a car for the first time, then left for Chicago in time for a blizzard. While snowed in, he and Jon were ostensibly practicing. When not rocking out, he may have watched some Twin Peaks. He did banter a little bit with Greenwald, which produced the Do the Right Thing reference; after that there wasn't much until he went to the airport (evidently without his glasses), and someone sang Christmas carols in the security line. I recorded them under the name of the people who first sang them. Then he re-tweeted Greenwald's call for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to induct the California Raisins, discussed Mystery the pick-up artist with another friend (ED: If Mystery is your life guru, Ryan Rossy, I think I may have found the source of many of your troubles), quoted a Bootsy Collins song, took a picture of his back yard in the rain and then announced the new bandmembers.

Jon: Shared a picture of Chicago, as seen from the top; a snowy vista; and the Young Veins practice space. He also watched some Dexter, quoted the Mighty Ducks, may have seen an ad for the upcoming National Geographic special [WARNING: PICTURES OF CATS IN UTERO AT LINK, and also a link to a video with graphic discussion of cat mating] In the Womb: Cats (that was all I could make of "Cheetah Fetus"), listened to Randy "Macho Man" Savage rap (he's calling Hulk Hogan out, I'm not sure for what), told us to put something in our pipes and smoke it, and then also announced new band members.

Nick: It's his first day and he's shared seven songs and a video director. So far, music-wise, his taste encompasses old-school gospel-inflected blues from the 1940s-50s, pop/folk/jazz (Margo Guryan), progressive folk and folk-inflected rock (The Verlaines). The T. Rex song, which wins a prize for being the most irritating T. Rex song I have ever heard, is something of an outlier in the mix.

His previous bands are also fairly heavy on the folk side of things. Crooked Cowboy and the Freshwater Indians describe themselves a "2-step/experimental/country" which, on listening to it, I'd say is about right. Imagine Explosions in the Sky-type classical instrumental noodling in the context of the country genre and that's what it sounds like. Foreign Born are much more up-tempo and trend more towards rock. Indie-folk rock, but rock nontheless.

Andy: Has not made any substantive updates yet, but when he does, I'll make a post for his master list. Meanwhile, his previous bands sound really different than the Young Veins. Robot Love Story is classic pop-punk-emo (sample lyrics: "You're why I don't sleep at night"), and Elegant Universe, now Republic of Lights are electronica. Evidently they retooled as they didn't actually like electronica, but: not that much. I listened to it, and it still sounds like electronica to me. One of These Things Is Definitely Not Like The Others.