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"We've decided now everybody must get a bed. Before we used to take turns sleeping on the floor, but for the past six months we've gone from one-bed rooms to double rooms," says guitarist Stephen Carroll over the phone from Chicago.
The band has been on the road since releasing their third album, Reconstruction Site, in August. The album is currently No. 9 on the influential CMJ radio chart, helping to earn the boys a cover story in Exclaim Magazine and a mention in Spin Magazine. The album has been lodged in Canadian college music charts and even sold enough copies to land in the local top 10 for several weeks.
Despite all the accolades and airplay the new album is receiving, things are much the same for the band -- Carroll, vocalist-guitarist John K. Samson, bassist John Sutton and drummer Jason Tait -- as they were before signing with the respected California punk label.
"We have a lot of support from the label, but there has been no kind of change for us and I haven't noticed any difference regarding our fans. We're still the same thing: Two vans and six guys loading in and out. They haven't hired a driver for us or anything," Carroll laughs. "We did get to go to a party at (Epitaph founder) Brett Gurewitz's house in Hollywood Hills after our show there, which was great."
On the current leg of their North American tour, which wraps up with a hometown show this weekend, the band has played almost every major city in the western U.S. and Canada.
The band's show at the University of Manitoba Saturday is sold out. They would like to add another one, but have to get ready to tour eastern North America and Europe, Carroll says.
"Usually we have a little more time between tours. We've done the same route over the course of a year, and now it's over four months."
The Paperbacks and Albatross open Saturday's show.