West Indian Girl

saturday may 21st sound check at the tower theatre

the tower theatre is the best place we’ve ever played…end of story. we played the NonComm festival sponsored by WXPN. the whole event was cool and chill. the stage was great and the sound was even better…it was incredible actually. west indian girl’s sound is tailor made for places like this. it felt like the tower soaked up our sound and draped it over the entire audience. big thanx to bernie for making the trip and really dialing it in. he’s our official 6th man and it’s always a drag when we don’t have him mixing our sound. he really works us like no other sound man. my sister becky and her husband tom showed up with a gang of their friends. it was great having a beer with them – my sister was freaking out so i guess the show must have been really good. the crowd at the tower was one of the best to date – i mean, we had fans that were like 15 years old and fans that were like 55 years old. it’s a great feeling being able to cut across genres with your music. man, i loved playing this show…it sounded so great i hope xpn invites us back to play longer next year. gotta love the merch guy there too. he did a great job and made the best display we have ever had. most merch guys that work at clubs that display your shit (ie the fillmore in sf) dont really display your merch with much care….mike did and i owe the guy one — F.TEN

Carter’s Conscience: All right, on to Philly. My first time in Philly, and we had a blast. The theatre itself was amazing, its just a completely different experience playing on a huge stage. Its definately something I think I could get used to! Anyway, while I was warming up my voice right before the show, there was a knock on the outside door of the room i was in. Low and behold, a few cute Philly females were waiting outside. Apparently they had been listening for a while, and they thought I was Jason Mraz getting ready for the show. (J. Mraz was on the bill later on in the night) Sorry to disapoint girls, but they turned out to be really cool, and came up afterward to say they loved the show. (I admit, the thought did cross my mind at first to just lie and say I was J. Mraz) J. Mraz that a great nickname for the guy– following in the footsteps of J Lo and J Z, and of course everyone’s favorite carpenter, J. C. You’re in good company, buddy!

Anyway, J Mraz was a cool cat, Rob and I shot the shit with him for about 15 minutes. He’s a funny guy, turns out he lives in Encinitas, which is about a half hour from where I grew up. I have to say, I never really got into his music before, and even if it isn’t your cup of tea, the guy is a badass performer. Great singer, great guitar player, his set was an unexpected treat. I saw a little bit of Sunvolt, who were really good, and most of My Morning Jacket’s set. MMJ put on a classic show. They had a guy conducting them like an orchestra through the entire set. Other highlights? How bout Bob Mould winning the award for the quickest soundcheck of all time! Normally soundchecks can take up to an hour or more, but Bob came up, plugged in his guitar, sang a half a verse, and that was that. All in all he took about three minutes. Pretty punk rock, my friend, hats off. . .

That’s basically it. Met some great radio people, had a cocktail or two, signed a few autographs, bought a ridulous set of sunglasses and a headband, and just basically pretended to be a rockstar for the night. We got such a warm welcome, got to play/hang out with some great bands, met a bunch of cool fans, and got a lot of really positive feedback from the radio heads. I left Philly with a smile, can’t wait to get back, thanx y’all for making it such a great night!
Much love
Carter

robert james and carter at a new jersey rest stop

mariqueen and bernie having their own rest stop moment

lewscious reinacting his moment in the rest stop bathroom

sound check at the tower – one of the best sound checks ever

lewscious in action

reg from cims and bo from my morning jacket

after the show at a diner in jersey…classic

lewscious

elevator…good night…west indian girl 2 – east coast 0

friday may 20th at the mercury lounge

before i talk about the show i want to thank some of my friends that came out to support: brad(on left), teddy, bass and erica you guys all showed some monster heart by making the show…now that’s real love. as far as the label goes…kavi, errol, lawrence, sean, george, alison, dave (the other italian) and scott — it was great seeing you all there and it means a bunch when we see you at our shows. way to stand tall by your little baby astralwerks and virgin….although i didnt see too many virgin people there (except for randy, doneen, d wolter and steve). hmmm, maybe they were all too busy combing jared leto’s hair.

lui, ohri, hueston, tarnofsky, and momma clarke

last but not least i want to thank all of the great fans i met. all of you guys were really cool and it was a pleasure meeting you…ryan and his girl polina (below), lisa, steve, jade, jason, bill w, mike w, and thomas. i appreciate you guys taking the time to talk to us and making us feel so welcome. ryan sent me a bunch of photos which i posted here (thanx bro)…all of the live shots were taken by him (im glad those shots exist because all too often i dont end up with many pics of us playing.

so, my thoughts on the show…well, i think it was ok, not our best show but im usually a bit too critical of how we play. i think we were a bit tense at the show just because it was our first live show since sxsw. i love ending our set with “what are you afraid of” – that song is the most fun to play probably because mariqueen really belts it out and rob lets out a screaming rock solo…hah gotta love that shit man. i cant wait until july when we can really kill it in ny again. we’re all looking forward to it.

robb bass, design guru mosher, george and thomas

as far as some other news and notes about ny…i got lost on my way back to the hotel the first night i was there. the cabby dropped me off in the “vicinity” of my hotel and i ended up walking in the wrong direction away from it cos honestly i didnt know where the fuck i was. i ended up on some dark street when this big fat guy on a fork lift drove by and asked if i needed a ride. i said sure so i got on and he cruised me over to the seaport where they were unloading tons of fish. he told me he thought i looked like prince and that i shouldnt be walking alone out there that late. it was like 2 am and the whole sidewalk and street was covered with boxes and crates filled with crazy fish like skate, shark, and a ton of other fish i didnt recognize. it was really awesome and i wish i had pics…i guess they’re closing the fish market soon so im glad i got to see it. it smelled pretty bad there but it sort of reminded me of home (i grew up in new jersey). anyway, hey big fat fish guy – thanx for picking me up, francis ten appreciates it (fyi i just referred to myself in the third person…that’s means west indian girl is about to blow up)—F.TEN

Carter’s Conscience: Where to start? Just had an awesome little trip out to NY and Philly. Believe it or not, I’ve never been to NYC, so I’d been looking forward to this for weeks! We got in late the first night, and had dinner with Kavi, our A&R guy at Astralwerks. Right away I was struck by the amount of different ethnicities and culture in NY. It just seems like such a REAL place, ( for lack of a better word) where the pressures and concerns of life differ drastically from those in LA. While I love the artistry and magic of LA, it is an incredibly insecure and self-conscious city in general. Go out in Hollywood and it can feel like eyes are watching your every move. Go out in New York and nobody could really give a fuck what you do, which is actually quite liberating. Plus, in California we live under the archaic laws that shut down nightlife at 2am, quite a bitch for those of us who come alive at night. But anyway, I digress Walking down the street in the East Village the first night with Mariqueen and Mark, I ran smack into a really good friend and former roomate named Scott. I couldn’t believe it! I guess that kind of shit happens all the time in New York, but I was stunned. In the blink of an eye we went from hanging with all the hipsters in dirty East Village bars ( which was fucking great) to going to the super VIP NY velvet rope/ ultra posh club, which his buddy owns. My friend Scott is primarily an artist, launching a high end T-shirt line as we speak, ( i think called S-squad or Scooter) and he does some modelling to pay the gigs. I’ve met some dipshit model types living in LA, but Scott is the real deal. Surfer, artist, the guy is the real deal, and he has a heart of gold. And the fact that him and his buddies showed up to our show the next night, with a pack of Vicotoria secret models in tow. . . well I gotta hand it to you, Scotty, you’re living the life my friend.

We played the next night at the Mercury lounge in the East Village, for what seemed like a packed house ( hard to tell sometimes when the lights are in our eyes) Our label is based out of NY, so it was great to say hey to everyone. I got their early and checked out a beautiful young singer/songwriter named Kate Earl. Turns out her manager, Shelby, is also a good friend of mine, so we all had a drink after her show. Kate played a really cool set, she has such an amazing voice, Nora jones-esque for lack of a better comparison. As far as out show, I think it went great. The crowd seemed really into it, I had fun, what can I say? To quote our drummer mark Lewis, “the best part of touring, hands down, is the 45 minutes a night you’re on stage.” Well said, young Jedi. The coolest thing I saw last night was my friend Rai, who came to the show by herself on crutches, and partied like a rock star. Inspiring A little side note- Watching Mark Lewis get angry at a cab driver for driving us in circles, was one of the funniest things I saw all night

Mariqueen’s Mind
The City: alright… here’s my two cents on new york… this is going to be long so bare with me…we rode in to the city from newark, new jersey and checked into our rooms at the seaport suites at ten something. i was quite pleased with my newly renovated room/apartment. why? because… picture this – two plasma tv’s… one in the LIVING ROOM and one in my OWN PRIVATE BEDROOM. shah buddyyy… plusss i had a kitchen and a pretty bathroom that didn’t smell like any of those other wretched motel toilets we’ve come across on past tours. what a way to start our east coast visit on a happy note. after settling into our rooms and comparing and contrasting tv’s and what not we all stuffed it in a cab… yeah, all six of us… and met up with kavi. we ended up eating at some fabulous cuban restaurant. best corn on the cob i’ve ever had in my whole life. thank you, kavi for taking care of our tummies on our first night in town. you. are. the best. after re-energizing with food. carter, mark and myself were ready to get inebriated… just kidding… sort of.

Before The Show: the next day we had load in at two which meant no work for me until the boys were done setting up all their equipment. i walked around the east village all by myself and loved every single minute of it. i’ve officially fallen in love with this particular section of new york. i ate at earth matters, where their motto is, “don’t booze it, juice it”… how sexy is that? shah… best place ever. i went shopping at marmalade vintage and did some serious damage. the sweet girl that worked there referred to my purchases as “pieces”… now that’s my kind of store. i walked away with three amaaaazing dresses, a pierre cardin clutch, a fabulous new red belt and a gangster ass pair of tan heels. be jealous. i went back to the mercury lounge and finished a great sound check and went to a crappy sample sale with fran. after that we went to h&m and i was less than thrilled with my selection of clothes. after pouting for a split second i looked at my marmalade vintage purchases and decided to not be an ungrateful little brat. i watched fran eat a hot dog and then we went back to the seaport and searched for oysters for a half an hour. we weren’t satisfied with clams so we went back to our rooms to get ready for the show.

The Show: i got back to the venue at nine, after hanging out with my beautiful friend ashley, who makes the most amazing jewelry, i pretty much just paced and chain smoked and warmed up my voice and went to the bathroom about four or five times. me? nervous? what makes you say that? the funniest thing that happened before we played was when security came up to me and told me there was a cop outside looking for me. apparently this man that had hit on me from the previous evening had remembered everything i had yelled out about our show and he showed up in his cop uniform. how hilarious. fran almost died and he was upset that he didn’t get a picture. hey mr. new york city cop, if you’re reading this, thanks for remembering all the information i told you and for being so sweet. it’s a shame you didn’t come inside and watch the show. i’m sure you could’ve found someone to cover your shift. cest la vie. after an hour and a half of pacing and going to the bathroom we were finally on and of course the rock/rap band before us… yes, i said rock/rap… screwed up my mic stand. i wasn’t the most composed and the brightest singer and for some reason i couldn’t figure out how to fix my stand. idiot. thank god for errol. i love you. we went through what i considered, a mediocre set. the crowd seemed to love it. my heart wasn’t into it because of a lot of technical difficulties and the whole band chi not being unified. my expectations for our performance as a band have just gotten a lot higher since south by south west… i don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. after the show i hung out with some family members i hadn’t seen in like ten years or more. it was cute. i also hung out with my brilliant friend edward [see picture] and we tried to come up with a karaoke after party. i was stuck at the venue for awhile so he left to go hang out with brazilian supermodels… i’m sure he’s weeping salty tears that we couldn’t karaoke but ya know… yeah. i can’t wait to come back to new york. as far as i’m concerned this is the best city in the united states. it’s so inspiring and alive. i left my heart in the east village and i plan on coming back in july to rekindle my love affair with vintage shopping… get ready.

on the dock after the show – good night nyc

Check out this month’s issue of Teen Vogue cos Mariqueen’s picture is in it (page 94 to be exact) We are all so proud of her. We’re also really happy that Carter has a subscription to teen vogue or else we might not have ever discovered Mariqueen’s new found fame —F.TEN

while you’re at it, check out this great site called jambase – i just found a cool review of our record on it…and we didnt even pay him to be so nice…strange.

Alone On A Hill In The Summertime

our video shoot was fantastic. the fist location was so cool. we had to wake up at 5 in the morning to make it to this beautiful location in agoura hills. when we got there i was pretty surprised to see how big of a production this thing really was. i mean there was a pretty big crew with some big trucks tons of gear, panavision cameras, a 50ft camera crane, a guy with a steady cam, makeup people, hair people, a food truck. it was tight. this is where we shot all of the performance parts for the video. i think this place was actually a state park or something cos there was a park ranger there that kept telling the directors to turn down the sound during playback… actually it was more like freaking out…yeah, she was definitely flipping out about how loud it was haha, it was funny cos there wasnt a house in site (i did see a mouse though). anyway, i brought tony and he was freaking out too but not because of the sound but because he could smell so many groovy things. i also brought along my fender lake placid blue 64 jag for robert to use in the video. that guitar looked so cool up against the yellow flowers. im glad he remembered to tell me. i dont have any pics of us playing but if you can picture it we set up drums and keyboards right in the middle of this field. they filmed us up close and also from far away…it was rad. we were up there til around noon i think…those guys we’re kicking ass. all the pics below are from after the shoot

lewscious



the park ranger…or is that the lady from Reno911

—F.TEN

the second location we moved to was the hindu temple in malibu. this temple was pretty awesome. if you can imagine it, a bazaar was set up in the very front of the temple. there were little shops and vendors there selling all sorts of stuff like clothes, food , jewelry etc etc. this location is where the main story line took place. there was no performance stuff shot here. it was just the cast with a bunch of extras. this was actually very fun because we all got to be part of the background crowd and i’m sure there are going to be little cameos of us. mariqueen did have a specific little part. the rest of us were there just milling around checking things out and shopping. it was funny seeing all our friends that came out to be extras. good times man.

carter acting like he’s buying a mesh tank top

lewscious and his sack of nuts

ok people, bear with me even if i start to sound like halle berry at the oscars but many many many “thank you’s” are in order right now.

ken, david k, and david a

THANK YOU: to our directors: Eastern Bloc – Ken Locsmandi and David Alexander. (we can’t say enought about these two guys, they were so prepared, so professional and had the best team of people working with them. they also brought us a fantastic and touching script (which im not going to give away) David Katz (our producer who hooked it all up), Tom Clancey (DP), Mark (AD), JP and everyone else at Filmorks/Fx,Inc., Bill Fishman and everyone else at Fallout Entertainment, Marco Morante (stylist), Sarah (casting) and all the other people from the crew that were on the set that i forgot to mention like the hair and make-up people, the grips, the grunts, and the guy with the food etc etc.

tom our director of photography

marco marco the stylist we love

THANK YOU: to our cast, the lead little girl Mailee Stone (was do damn cute and i dont even have a pic of her!) chad vigil (who played the little punk kid) and stacie schifino (who played a woman arguing—i dont have the guy’s name who she was arguing with)

tough little chad

THANK YOU: to our extras: let’s see…todd, girlie, liam (maile’s dad), tatiana (thanx for the cam pics below tati), shakti, eliza, chocolate, s-man, roger, john, carter’s mom, jim, and last but not least drew, erin, taylor, abbey, sabrina who DROVE ALL THE WAY DOWN FROM SACRAMENTO!

the gang from sacto

tatiana with eliza

s-man with chocolate (who probably jacked something from our trailer)

tatiana with tone

that’s todd behind carter

THANK YOU: to our label peeps dayna from astralwerks and randy from virgin, our managers chris and rich (rich was in charge of checking my hair and combing my eyebrows)

THANK YOU: to everyone else that i forgot to mention cos i know i forgot a ton of people ( it was a crazy day and i could only process so much on a half hour of sleep from the night before). all of west indian girl appreciated everyone’s help and hard work. this video should be magical —F.TEN

In The Highlander movies “there could be only one”. In the Matrix movies “Neo was the One”. In the West Indian Girl movies “Jenn Koster is our one”. yup, Jenn was the first person to buy a shirt from our new online store. she bought it for her boyfriend no less, now that’s love. for this feat jenn gets face time in our blog and is forever cyber linked to the world of west indian girl. thank you for being the “one” (did you know that in the matrix, neo is an anagram for the word “one”…get it…Neo = oNe). i read that online and felt like a dumbshit that i didnt figure that one out. anyway, all of our shirts kick ass – they’re super soft and the exact kind you would find at urban outfitters…i know that to be true because my friend’s company makes those shirts …he also makes ours….and they really do rock….especially the girls’ shirts. get’em while you can — N.FET

update: check out the lucky man himself

so if you’ve been keeping up to date with our adventures you are of course aware that we will be filming a video for the song What Are You Afraid Of on May 11th. due to the video’s concept we might very well be in need of a few more extras. the scene we are going to be shooting takes place in front of a beautiful Hindu temple which will be set up like a street fair or bazaar. we are looking for people from all walks of life: young, old, a wide variety of races, from conservative looking people, tourists, to the hip, etc. etc. there will be a 6 hour call from noon until 6pm and you will need to bring two wardrobe changes. last but not least there will be NO PAY for the work. yup, this is purely for the sake of being in our video and not getting paid just like we arent getting paid. if you are interested this might be your big break (not really, but it will be something cool to say you did and hopefully one day you will see your face for a split second on MTV). anyway, if you want to be an extra and can be in the LA area that day let me know and the producers will be in touch. we will need your name, phone numbers and email. send all emails to info@westindiangirl.com or leave me a comment or both. remember, a star is born every minute.

Last night robert, mariqueen and i played an unannounced show at Rene’s in Santa Monica. It was real low key and under the radar…i mean, we didnt invite a soul so dont feel too bad that you missed a big show. anyway, the reason we played was because we wanted to test out some semi acoustic versions of our songs. we played 3 songs: Miles from Monterey, Hollywood, and What Are You Afraid Of. for these versions rob played acoustic guitar, mariqueen played a moog and i played bass and a little egg shaker. it was pretty cool but kind of strange for the first time (first times are always kinda awkward though huh?). overall it was a good time but very quick (again, kind of like my first time). At the end of the day we got some free food and a few beers and played to a bunch of people who really weren’t paying that much attention to us.

— F.TEN