July 2011
1 post
25 Things I realized On the Last Cool Hand Luke...
1. I’m getting old. 2. Being in a band all this time has kept me from growing up. It’s good in some ways, but very bad in other ways. 3. I don’t know how to do anything but be in a band. That is to say, I have no marketable skills outside of music. This, honestly, scares me to death. 4. Most guys my age have at least some athletic ability and desire to play sports for fun. I...
January 2011
4 posts
Civil War, Part 4
In all seriousness, I did finish The Killer Angels that day. I was fighting back tears as I read the epilogue detailing what each of the generals went on to accomplish—if they lived on. I could not get my mind out of the book even when the lunch rush came and the book was finished. I really did feel like I was bracing for battle. I just wanted peace to process this huge part of our country’s...
Civil War, Part 3
In that two to two and a half hour lull (hereafter referred to as “The Lull”) at Petite, it gets boring. So, I started bringing books to work. I realize that this probably isn’t the most professional thing to do, but hardly anyone at all comes during The Lull. I have found if I stand behind the counter with my book on top of the cash register, I can see when a customer is approaching and it gives...
Civil War, Part 2
If you don’t know, I work at a café called Provence in Nashville. (Pronounced /pro-vonce/) It’s a French café that serves really good bread, pastries and food. And, of course, we have really good Intelligentsia coffee. If you’re in the area, you should check it out. The one in Hillsboro Village is the best—plus, I may be the one plating your food or making your drink. (Or washing your dishes.) I...
Civil War, Part 1
I recently finished one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s called The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. I know it sounds strange if you don’t know what it is, so I’ll tell you. It’s a historical novel about the Battle of Gettysburg. Now it just sounds boring or a bit dorky, right? What if I told you that it won the Pulitzer Prize? Shaara spent seven years writing the book and studying not just...
December 2010
2 posts
Here’s a song I recorded in my friend Bryan...
Coffee Shop
Yesterday, Brandy and I had our first free Saturday in about two months, so we had a coffee shop date. That’s one of our favorite things to do together. We go get cozy somewhere, sip coffee, talk, and read. Yesterday was especially nice because we had a huge block of time and we were in no rush. We both read our Bibles and talked about how weird and cryptic parts of the Old Testament are....
October 2010
2 posts
Matrimony
When Brandon, Jason, and I were recording “Demo Schmemo” just a few months after Cool Hand Luke began, I remember having a conversation in the studio about who would get married first. We all immediately said, “Brandon!” He was a hopeless romantic, plus he was the only one of us who had a girlfriend. I was to be second, followed by Jason, who was only 17 at the time.
We...
SCAVENGE
When “Wake Up, O Sleeper” was released, the label got some CHL travel mugs with “Wake Up, O Sleeper” printed on the side as promotion. Wake up—get it? Yeah, pretty clever. We bought some to sell on the road. By the way, if you’re in a band and you’re looking for a new merch idea, don’t get travel mugs. Not only are they expensive, but they also take...
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
2 posts
Cool Hand Lies
In the olden days of the original line-up of Cool Hand Luke, we used to make up elaborate lies and tell everyone we talked to on tour. The following are some examples: 1.”Sir Mix-A-Lot did merch for us one summer.” When asked how we knew him, we would say that we opened for him on a tour he did with Tony Toni Tone. For some reason that was always convincing enough. No one ever...
On the Road Again
After almost two months of no shows, I’m finally out on the road again. This tour has been an especially hard one to book. The days leading up to it were stressful as well.
Brandy and I recently decided that it is no longer necessary or advantageous for the two of us to tour in a gigantic, gas-chugging 15-passenger van. Our good friends in My Epic (whose new record “Yet” rules and features yours...
July 2010
4 posts
Learn
I am profoundly humbled and excited to still learn new things about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Without even being conscious of it, I had slipped into a mindset that I knew about all I could know about the meaning of the cross and the resurrection. I still hungered to learn new things, but they seemed to strengthen what I believe rather than show me something new.
For the past six months God has...
How I got saved
Whilst on our honeymoon two years ago, I discovered that I can hold my breath for a really long time. I didn’t know that it was a really long time until Brandy flipped out about it. When we were in the pool I liked to float on my stomach with my face in the water. I found it very relaxing. The more relaxed I was, the longer I could hold my breath. Brandy timed me and it was over two...
Independence Day
People keep asking me what I’m doing for the 4th of July, and truly I don’t know. This is the first Independence Day in twelve years that I have not been at Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. I hadn’t thought much about it until I tried to remember what it is that I normally do on July 4th.
Normally, I’d be playing or getting ready to play one of the various stages set up...
June 2010
1 post
May 2010
1 post
April 2010
2 posts
The Confessions of Mark Nicks
It’s been a while? How are you? No, you can be honest with me. Doesn’t it feel good to get that off your chest?
Before I continue on with my usual ramblings about drummers that rule, records that are awesome, and stupid things that happened to me, I thought I would have a time of cyber confession with you.
Here are my confessions, both serious and trivial:
I do not personally have a Facebook,...
March 2010
7 posts
The Lord's Sovreignty in Video Games
Brandy and I got a Wii for Christmas because Brandy’s sister won one in a $4 raffle at a craft fair. (Yes, apparently crafts and video games go hand in hand.) She already had a Wii, so she gave the extra one to us. My wife and I aren’t gamers by any means, but we enjoy going through games together—like the new Super Mario Bros game. We beat it a while ago and we were looking for new games to play...
February 2010
11 posts
School of Indie Rock
In my later years of high school, I was heavily influenced by Sunny Day Real Estate and Fugazi both in the way I thought about music and the way I started to play drums. I’ve already mentioned both of them in previous posts, so I’ll move on from high school to my college days at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). That’s where I met Brandon and Jason and where Cool Hand Luke began.
In my...
Good morning.
For a week now, my left eye has been twitching. More specifically, the bottom eyelid of my left eye has been twitching. It’s really annoying. It’s embarrassing, too, because you can see it. It happens at awkward times like when I’m paying for gas and I imagine that I look crazy to the guy behind the counter.
I had been thinking about going to the doctor or something, but instead I called my good...
What Then?
From time to time when we were touring a lot, there were little situations that really exposed my pride. Little situations that weren’t a big deal in themselves, but they really made me examine my thoughts and motives. This scenario has happened more than once: We’re playing a decent-sized show at a relatively cool venue (a.k.a. some gross bar with stickers of bands you’ve never heard of all over...
“It is good for us to have trials and troubles at times, for they often remind us...”
– Thomas a Kempis
You-Knows
When I was little, I prayed every night when I lay down to go to sleep. Most nights I fell asleep before I finished. I thanked God for all of my family individually and then I thanked Him for my friends. I thanked God for my pets and for all the squirrels and rabbits. I also thanked God for my stuffed animals because I believed they were real. I had ten stuffed animals, so it took a while for me...
Misprint
In 2004, we put out a record called The Fires of Life. The title was based on Isaiah 43:2 which says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Brandon did a series of paintings for the record, but unfortunately only a few of...
A Long Mouse Tale
A little over a week ago, Brandy and I moved into a new house. The morning after our first night there, I was getting ready for work and I saw something move in the living room. I saw a little, slithery something that had to be either a mouse’s tail or a snake. Fortunately, it was not a snake because I just couldn’t have handled that. (I’ve hated snakes ever since I was a kid when I found one...
January 2010
12 posts
On Moving
This weekend my wife and I moved into a new house not too far from where we were already living. We basically moved from a kind of dumpy house in a nice neighborhood to a kind of nice house in a dumpy neighborhood. Our old house didn’t have central heat or air, and we were always freezing. The kitchen was slightly bigger than an armpit. We had literally no counter. We had to cut vegetables on our...
…and take every thought captive to obey Christ
Romans 7:15
I want to fill my mind with things of God.
I want to fill my mind with things of God.
I am hungry. I want to fill my mind with things of God.
I want to fill my mind with things of God.
I want to fill my mind with things of God. I want to fill my mind with things of God.
I forgot to take out the recycling. I want to fill my mind with things of God.
I want to fill my mind with...
The Telephone Collective
After lots of dreaming, a project called The Telephone Collective has started. The Telephone Collective is a group of artists from different disciplines who are collaborating to play a game, to create something together that points toward Christ, to learn from each other, and to encourage others to do the same.
The collective takes its name and inspiration from the game Telephone that most of us...
Haiti, if you haven't heard
It’s seems trivial to talk music at a time when one of the world’s most impoverished countries is dealing with the aftermath of the most severe earthquake any of us has ever seen.
Please pray for the people of Haiti. Please pray for the Lord to be glorified and draw us all to Himself through this horrific event. Please pray that the Church will be the Church in Haiti.
If you want to...
P Donkey Ion
Years ago, Cool Hand Luke had a message board with a filter that changed bad words to not-so-bad words. For example, “ass” would be changed to “donkey”. The problem was, it changed any form of those letters even if they were included in another word. So, we had lots of funny messages that said things like, “Brandon is such a good bdonkey player.” Or, “You...
