Oh my goodness…We have had the best couple of weeks EVER….where to even begin? We finished the US tour with Kelly Clarkson/The Fray/Carolina Liar on Saturday (the 15th) in Nashville, TN. This was especially fun for us since we live in Nashville–nothing like ending a tour on your home turf 
And for realsies…we have never had more fun on a tour. We have been fans of The Fray since their first record came out, so every night you would see at least one or both of us side stage soaking up their show. Not only is their music heart-felt and catchy as anything–they are such nice, genuine people. Long talks over catering or scheming the next fun outing will be memories that will last. We are pumped to start the Australian leg of the tour with them tonight! Then there is Carolina Liar….these boys are just the sweetest, most fun people you’ll ever meet! They brought such a level of energy & enthusiasm to ANYTHING we did. Whether it was watching them play a show & getting the crowd super pumped or playing basketball in the back of a venue parking lot in the middle of the night…you wanted to be around them cause you’d always be smiling. Seriously…those guys are THE BEST. Love them.
These boys are the greatest.
Okay…so that was the end of tour. The next day we had our album release show, but before the show we showed up at some of our “Thanks To You” contest winners’ new digs & played them some songs…it pretty much was a blast…and they had yummy cookies & birthday cake fudge. Life changing. Later that evening was the show at Rocketown. This was such a HUGE day for us. We have been working on Heart of Stone for over a year and we could not believe that the day had come where we were in our home town, playing our release show! The evening was SO MUCH FUN. So many people came out. It was so nice getting to say hi to each of you who came out…you seriously have no idea how much it means to us that people would spend their time/money to support what we do. It was a magical night.
Release Show. Rocketown. 9.15.12 (photo courtesy of someone on twitter–thank you!)
The next day was the Heart of Stone listening party…this was especially a fun night because so many of our international friends were able to be a part of the evening too…(even if that meant waking up in the middle of the night!!!!)…via Ustream online. Even our parents tuned in The party was complete with GiGi’s cupcakes with our faces on them…cute little popcorn bags and other fun treats. Our friend John hosted the evening and we got to talk about how the record was made, why we wrote certain songs…we even ended the night playing Skinny Jeans live. Woop woop.
Listening party cupcake fun.
Gift bags!
Decorations!
Blurry but excited j&k!
Our host for the evening…our good friend John. Sorry ladies…he’s married to our bestie Jenny.
Then it happened. TUESDAY ARRIVED. SEPTEMBER 18th, 2012. Heart of Stone was officially released to iTunes & other distributors. A really fun surprise for us was that our album reached number 39 on the iTunes Pop charts. That was insane…just absolutely insane. And that is all thanks to YOU for buying the album, tweeting it, telling your friends…we seriously could not have made this record without your support. We played a StageIt show at noon so that we could play/say hi/give lots of love to our international besties. BUT, the very best part of the day was that we got to spend a lot of it Skype chatting with more contest winners (we even got to play a Skype show in a high school class room (#FSHS wooohoooo) & playing another house show that evening with the final “Thanks to you” contest winner…they also had yummy brownie/cookie cake treats for us. So delicious. It was amazing to see some of you & thank you for being awesome & for your support.
Our amazing friend acting manager/does everything and anything we need Will showed up release day morning with these!!!
#39 on the POP charts….WOOHOOO!
So then we had Wednesday at home to pull ourselves together and pack for LA, Australia & the UK. Literally…it looked like a bomb had exploded in our house. Clothes everywhere. Hadn’t even unpacked from the last 6 week tour…hahaha…it was a disaster. But we managed to pull ourselves together…pack & wake up the next morning at 4:30am to fly to LA to meet up with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to play a little show at one of their locations in Hollywood. This might have been one of our favorite shows…we were outside, the weather was amazing, a bunch of you showed up (even though the timing couldn’t have been worse in Los Angeles 5:30pm 
)and we got to drink endless Coffee Bean drinks. YES. It was amazing. We haven’t played a j&k show in LA for a long time so it was so super great to meet you guys and discuss how amazing Coffee Bean truly is. Plus, we got to see some of our SoCal friends & eat sushi…which is ALWAYS a plus.
Leaving Nashville.
Coffee Bean show. Sunset & Argyle. (photo courtesy of someone on twitter–thank you!)
Cannot be in LA without a stop at In-n-Out
Our dear friends & LA loves…Robert & Nico.
Then the next day we flew to the land down under…skipped an ENTIRE day to get here…but we made it & couldn’t be having a better time. The weather has been amazing. Their coffee is killer–they have a precious little drink called a flat white…not sure what’s in it but it rules. Yesterday a few of us went and cuddled with koalas & kangaroos…yes…that statement is true. It was so fun. We play our first show tonight with Kelly & The Fray & soon to be new pal Sarah De Bono. Let the good times roll!!!! (Jill didn’t go on the koala/kangaroo adventure so Kate is not being picture hog…haha)
Kate & a koala–her name was Trace.
Kangaroo was just chilling.
Kangaroo waving!
Feeding a kangaroo!
Stop it will all of the koala cuteness. Baby & mama.
Hope everyone is feeling good today…we are in the future right now…and it’s looking good.
Lots of love…
-j&k-
