West Indian Girl

last show with the turin brakes guys

san diego is now our “second” official home away from home. first it was seattle but “daygo” is really making a case for so cal being the best spot in the world for west indian girl. i always knew our show at the casbah was going to sell out because there was just to much shit happening for us in sd for it not to happen – with all the love from midori on 94.9 and the press we were getting it was a sure thing. and what a way to end the tour…on a high. this show was important for us because it was one of the first times we really started to “jam” and stray away from some of our normal song structures and thus the first step in our evolving into a better bunch of musicians. the crowd was also one of the best we have ever played in front of. hey san diego this dago loves you. if any other italians are reading this do you know why are we called that? well, Oddly enough, the word “Dago”, which is used slangily (and often in a derogatory sense) to mean someone of Italian heritage, comes from the Spanish name Diego. Spanish and Portugese sailors serving aboard English and American ships were called Dagos. Over the years, the term came to mean any southern European sailor, and since the late 1800s, it no longer refers to sailors or other Europeans, but simply means Italian. Who knows how these things evolve…(ask walt over on the right – he seems to think he knows everything)

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: seriously, i LOVE san diego. i could go on and on about how and why but i won’t. let’s just say when someone says the word san diego, big whale vagina is the last thing on my mind. ok maybe not, but i usually let out a big sigh at first and gush about how great the city is.

The Venue: i was nervous about playing the casbah again because the last time we had performed there i thought i gave one of the worst performances of my life. the staff there was very kind and even made me tea. that was the minute i officially fell in love. oh casbah, how i love you so…

The Show: my god, what a way to end the tour. best show on the tour. best show to date. best show ever! it was magical. we were packed in tight, but in a very comfortable way. i did, however, almost hit rob with my tambourine. the audience was just outstanding. we had the venue filled. the vibes that were coming from our fans just radiated through us and i think, made us play and sing better. at the end of what are you afraid of i was so out of control with my tambourine that i almost fell into mark’s drum set and rob had to grab my arm to keep me from falling. hot. what a great show.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i am so sweaty, i am taking this sweater off and i’m going to look like a slob in this wife beater but i don’t care because nothing can stop me from having this much fun on stage. i think i eeeeped a lot in my head as well.

Interesting Things After The Show: an amazing couple told me that they had seen portishead live in london and that we were better than them. this beautiful opera singer, maile, told me a bunch of things that made my life. el, my house of blues homegirl showed up and got to hang out. a lot of drunken bantering and pictures flashing and arm grabbing from randoms and i even had my own personal cigarette caddy. it was amazing. the minute i was done with a cigarette, it didn’t matter where i was or who i was talking to, he’d show up by my side cigarette ready to put in my mouth. is that some gangster shit or what? sometimes my life is ridiculously awesome.

Carter’s Conscience

San Diego– last stop on the tour! What a way to end the tour. I really didn’t expect such a great welcome, but last night’s show was absolutely amazing, probably my favorite of the whole tour! Something happenned in San Diego since we’ve been there last. I guess we’ve been getting a bit of press and some radio play, and the crowd last night was absolutely amazing! I felt kind of bad that so many people showed up and couldn’t get in! (I guess it had been sold out for weeks)Fran and myself went outside before the show just to say whats up to some of the people that didn’t have tickets. We figured that we’d take pictures and post em on the blog, kind of a consolation prize, considering some people had driven a long way only to be turned away. Only problem was, most people didn’t believe we we’re actually in the band! It was pretty funny, actually, we’d say who we we’re and try to take a photo with them, and they were like “Yeah right, bullshit you’re in the band” So we gave up, but we’re coming back to play the Belly Up in a month, so bring the cameras!

The show itself was great! The crowd just lifted us up, it was a blast. So I know we have to play an all ages show soon in San Diego and I promise we will! I saw a lot of people outside that couldn’t get in because of age discrimination, and I remember how much that sucks! So if you’re not yet old enough to get into the bars, give us an email and tell us where we should play down there. The funniest incident was the girl outside who had me sign her skirt. She was underage so she and her friends couldn’t get in to the show. About ten minutes later I was at the merch booth and this guy is waving her skirt in the air. I guess she took it off so the rest of the band could sign it, and was standing outside in her undies! Thats pretty awsome, bring that skirt to the next show and I promise we’ll give you a free T or poster or something for you’re efforts. In fact, maybe we should just have an underwear party for our next show in Diego. Rent out a big wherehouse, everyone in their underwear gets in free? I’m into, I know Q is game!

By the way, has everyone seen Anchorman? I had the phrase “A Whales Vagina” stuck in my head all night! If you saw it you know what I mean. . . Last show of the tour, we tossed back a few with the Turin Brakes posse! A bit sad really. We had a great time with them and their crew, really cool musicians and people. Who knows, maybe we’ll get over to England and do it again. Cheers mates, now for a few weeks of rest and relaxation in LA. Yeah right. . .Almost forgot a pretty classic incident! After the show at the Casbah, we all drove back to LA to unload our gear at the rehearsal space. Afterwards Tommy and I took the Suburban with the Uhual trailer to my house to crash out. I think it was Tommy who suggested we hit the Taco Bell drive through on La Brea and Venice. Mind you it was about 4:30 in the morning at this point, and we weren’t exactly thinking straight. To make a long story short, there was a sharp turn in the middle of the drive through and we got hopelessly stuck. The more we tried to back up, the worse it got! There was a line of cars forming behind us, and as a last resort we had to unhook the trailer and physically drag it out of the drive-through. It was pretty out of control, the Taco Bell guys were just staring in disbelief. So we hooked the trailer back on, (or so I thought) and started back to my house. Right outside of the Taco Bell I made a U-turn on Venice, and I felt the trailer drop halfway-through. I watched in horror through the rear view as the trailer flew through three lanes and slammed into a curb! You’d think the friction would force the trailer to stop, but that thing kept a lot of momentum. Obviously we we’re really lucky that there wasn’t a parked car in its path. . . Anyway, the sun was coming up by the time we got the trailer and got back home. And to add insult to injury, they forgot to give us hot sauce at Taco Bell! We had a good laugh about driving back through again and asking for hot sauce. . Anyway, great end to the tour. You’re a legend Tommy, good traveling with you bud! Keep an eye out for Tommy’s band The Binges, can’t wait to see their next show! Singing off,
carter

ollie and tommy — twins…crazy huh?
drove past a nuclear power plant that day (titties anyone?)
lewscious and troy having a moment
emma’s parents are the best?
band shot sent in by flavio and renata – thanx!
bass moment with eddie from turin brakes

F.TEN

chill vibes at m theory

our acoustic show at m theory was pretty classic. totally chill vibe – i was totally into it. walt and doug met us there and provided some great support. as usual it was just mariqueen and r james playing 3 songs while i hosted the event. the record store itself is pretty dope. good vibes. after the show walt and doug showed me the san diego newspaper that had a big article and picture about us in it. then they cruised me back (in the yellow jeep) to the club for sound check. these guys are good to know.

Mariqueen’s Mind
our instore at m theory was stressful for me. you see, i chose to drive to san diego by myself. little did i know that i would be stuck in serious gridlock for three and a half hours. i got to the casbah earlier than the rest of the guys and was pleasantly greeted by lewscious. we waited and waited and got the word from our sound man, ward, that we would miss our in store because we were already expected to be there to set up. i then got a call from the rest of the band saying to meet at m theory. great. guess who didn’t have directions to the store? thank god the duchess [my beloved car] has a navigation system. i made mark come with me and we arrived at m theory to find fran and rob already set up, sitting in front of the crowd, with sunglasses on, ready to go. guess who didn’t warm up, or drink tea and had a hangover? ugh. fran emceed the whole fiasco and i did my best to not embarass myself or the band. the store was really cute. i loved the whole layout and over all design. the audience was positive and i hope to god i didn’t fail them. i hope we can come back and do another one for this next record and i can show them what i’m really made of. if any town deserves my one hundred and ten million percent, it’s san diego.

during the deedthat’s the back of doug’s head

F.TEN

more visuals and lights are in our future

what a difference a day makes. after what i thought was a luke warm show the first night we rebounded with a much better show the second night. one reason i think the show was better was because the majority of our fans showed up exuding a ton of positive energy which made it’s way to up us on stage and thus fueled us even more. our crew from san diego drove up for the show – walt, doug and nick are great guys and i wish these guys could make every show cos they’re hilarious to hang out with. the troubadour is one of my favorite clubs to play at in la just because they treat their bands with a degree of respect that is often times not seen at venues. the stage managers and sound crew are all great – plus it’s an easy place to load in and out of. this is actually a big deal because when u have as much gear as we do it makes for a much better time when you want to get the hell out of there. so the tour is coming to a close and i’m really kinda bummed out about. that’s ollie from turin brakes in the picture with me on the left. san diego is our last show and i’m expecting big things.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: tonight, i had faith that la would be a success. i woke up and got the most uplifting voicemail from carter that assured me we would redeem ourselves. sometimes, you really can’t help but love that man.

The Venue: since no one touched last night’s bottle of korbel, tonight we were greeted with two bottles. even though i hate korbel, i still love the troubadour for being super swell and being able to accommodate us as best as they possibly can. oh troubadour… how do i love thee… perhaps in a future blog i may count the ways. we’ll see.

The Show: what a sweet ass turn around. kevin reid’s visuals were awesome tonight. the crowd was ridiculously energetic. yeah, can you believe it? i saw genevieve again which pretty much reassured me if had died that night i would’ve gone out like a happy girl. i saw my pumpkin patch of love, vivi and her cutie petutie date, jeff [he saw our verrry first show and i’m glad he saw the evolution of west indian girl. hot.]… i saw marc goldstein in the crowd… that always makes me happy… Je vous aime, marc. despite the potential of wardrobe malfunctions i think tonight’s show was a good solid eight out of ten. we were into it.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i, literally, kept praying that my boob wouldn’t fall out of my shirt.

Interesting Things After The Show: this was the most fun i have ever had after a show and that, really, is all you need to know…

Carter’s Conscience

LA take two– I just woke up today with a clear head, and knew that tonight was going to be our night. We dialed in the sound perfectly during check, and had one of our best shows of the tour! Thanks to Bobby, the house sound guy, for hooking it up. It sounded great on stage, the crowd was rocking. Everything just seemed to flow last night, and thats what its all about. I wish I had some wild sordid stories to tell about the aftershow, but honestly I was beat. We just hung with all our friends at the Troub afterwards. Good to see the Malibu heads; Mcknasty, Rock Box, Sannie, Dean, and White Lightning! Also, finally got to meet DJ Dave from the Virgin megastore. You’re a legend buddy, we gotta stop by and say whats up some time. Our favorite rock photog Mark Goldstein was there as well, documenting the carnage. So hey its great to be home, and thanks to all our friends for coming down. Next LA show is at the Roxy with Soundtribe Sector 9 in early September, we’ll keep you posted.. Carter

shots at the merch booth with the sd crew – bad ideaq and rob with errol from astralwerksheidi, geoff, joe and t.j. – good timesmarc goldstein NOT behind the camera for onceour favorite french girl emilierobert james sans beard – you make the callmarcos and john beltranthis couple was great and i forgot their names like an idiotlewscious with joe who is the man behind our great merchsan diego in la – doug, walt, and nick

F.TEN

there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…

returning to los angeles was bittersweet for me. dont get me wrong i love los angeles but i would rather be away touring in another city. i know i will catch a ton of shit for saying this but i have said it many times before; given that la is unlike any other city in the country as far as music goes, it is very tough to feel like it’s your home even when it is your home. i know im not gettting my point across well but basically im saying la isnt going to throw you a ticker tape parade when you return home from a tour…especially when you’re an opening band on a bill. anaheim on the other hand will, and so will san diego but la is just not that kind of place. it’s a bit too cool for it’s own good. hey i’m part of the problem – i’m just as jaded of a music fan as the people i bitch about in la. anyway, it’s been a weird month for me.

so the first la show was fine. not great, but passable. was i dissappointed in my performance. yes. i still think we are a band that is growing up and learning something from each show it plays. i need to thank a bunch of our great fans that came out. these guys i cant thank enough for their true undying support like karen and allison (picutered). thanx again for coming out to the gig. seeing you guys reminds me why we are doing this. i dont even remember how i ended up getting home that night. i think i just walked because i live a block away. that’s the best thing about gigs at the troubadour. i can walk there and back.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: i clicked my heels three times and chanted, “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…” i opened my eyes and looked up at the troubadour. crayzeh.

The Venue: there’s no place like HOME… except when home gives you the crappier room that smells too musky and you get korbel champagne. that’s when you whimper in the bittersweetness of it all.

The Show: um, i’m sure i’ve been the most pessimistic person in the world when it’s come to our shows but honestly, there was something off about tonight’s performance. we are a band that feeds off the energy off each other and the crowd. the band’s energy was not in synch for some reason. i suspect this was due to technical problems with monitors on stage and the crowd was extra “l.a.” tonight. sometimes, people gotta know that when you’re standing there acting like you’re too cool you give off the vibe that you don’t appreciate or like the band that’s playing. why i say this is because after the show i got so much amazingly awesome feedback that it made me think i had stepped into some weird happy other troubadour realm. tonight we had the pleasure of getting the amazing kevin reid to do visuals for us. the funny part about that is that the visuals came out a little too small. all in all i gave this show a seven out of ten.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i was thinking about how small the visuals were, how quiet the crowd was, how beautiful my two friends looked in the crowd [genevieve and brooke i love you]… i heard someone call out my name, my nickname, that only family knows… i suspected it was my doppelganger of a cousin… i was right. i also hoped that no one would notice i was wearing the same dress i wore in chicago and was hoping that no one could actually see through it.

Interesting Things After The Show: i hung out with gen, brooke, deb and my cousin kevin who i hadn’t seen in years. it was so amazing. we just had a huge gushfest. you see, all four of those people, i hold dear to my heart… they are all very beautiful and very talented and very accomplished. we all fawned over each other and drank. i hung out with errol for a little bit too… it’s always great seeing him. errol you are the best. other highlights included seeing marcos… marcosssss! he is the man i rely on for pretty much everything that surrounds my sanity regarding each show. he is my rock. i love you marcos. i love everyone… there’s no place like home.

Carter’s Conscience

Los Angeles– back to LA! Oh man, we’ve been gone for almost four weeks already. I can’t say I’m happy or sad to be home, but home I am nonetheless. We did back to back shows at the Troubadour, which is great because there is less loading/unloading of equipment. So honestly, the first show back was a little off for us. Coming back home from a trip inevitably means that reality gives you little smack in the face, in the form of unpaid bills, dirty houses, paying rent, etc. All the bullshit that you don’t think about when you’re on the road. So at least for me it took a few songs to wash off the dirty details of the day. Also, we didn’t dial in the stage sound as well as we could of during soundcheck. On my end it was really bassy and washed out. But whatever, we can’t make excuses, and it was still a really fun show to play. The crowd was really, really cool, and really carried us through it. Its funny because I say all this and yet I know that in the end I’m our worst critic! So we had a great time after the show, got to see a lot of faces I hadn’t seen in a long time as well. I was surprised to see the prez of the label, Errol, hanging out backstage! Errol a straight shooter, and its always good to get some no-bullshit feedback from the guy behind the guy.

walter and chuck keeping the irs away from us
tommy and marcos “working”
mariqueen.org = brooke, debbie and kevin
fran and clayton – this dude is rad
team lewscious
there’s no place like home mr robert smith/james

F.TEN

great american music hall aug 1, 2005

i like san fran for a few reasons, one reason is simply because my name is in it. the other and main reason is that sf has some of the coolest venues in the country to play period. adding to list of cool clubs we have played in san fran comes the great american music hall. this place was awesome and once again i must applaud the sf crowd – music lovers til the end. sometimes i wish we could play there every month. this show was exciting just because i felt like the band was really in a zone now. the show started off a bit slow – maybe that had to do with the fact that we play so damn early on this tour (and usually right after we all eat dinner). im so not into starting shows at 8pm — i mean people are still walking in. anyway, no big deal. we ended up playing well and having a great time. after the show we sold a bunch of lithos. funny thing about that is that i also sold a bunch of lithos in philly too…hmmm, what does that mean? possibly the appreciation of cool rock art only thrives in sf and philly? hmmm, probably. i’m way into fans buying lithos cos i think those lithos are a killer piece of the west indian girl tour history.

as fate would have it all of us had lost our digital cameras by the time we hit sf. well, techincally mariqueen took a picture of the marquee and then lost hers. having no pix is a drag because this blog thrives on visuals. little did i know there was one guy with a camera there. this man…gregory crane. gregory was kind enough to send me all the other shots you see on this page. little did he know he would be the only one to visually chronicle our first show at the great american. to see more of his photography check out his website right here. thanks gregory – you’re a savior. since i sell merch after we play i usually get to hear all of turin brakes sets and i really think they’re a great live band. they end up sounding like pink floyd by the end of their set and that’s never a bad thing.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: i’ve been to san francisco eighty bajillion times and never get tired of my trips. this time around we were located in what seemed to be “little saigon”. excuse me great american music hall, why would you want to be located near a strip club and a bunch of fish joints? i don’t get it.

The Venue: it was beautiful. really regal. the dressing rooms were downstairs and they epitomize the word room. they were huge and we even had a seperate little room to obsess over our faces in. besides having great little snacks and drinks to provide, the best part of the whole downstairs was that it was like a seperate little hangout hall for the musicians. we had our own super big bathroom with a shower if needed, but seriously, who really takes showers at venues… not me… and they had tea for days not to mention we could smoke everywhere. as far as the stage was concerned, it felt great being up there. the great american music hall is a place you want to fill up to capacity and have one of the best musical performances of your life. i hope one day we can do it.

The Show: well, it was alright. i don’t know… we thought we were supposed to start at nine and instead we started at eight. pretty whack. this performance didn’t really stand out so much. i think it was because everyone was so spaced out… that used to be ideal for us, but the more we’ve played the closer we like to be to each other. it’s important for me to feel all four of the boys’ energy. i didn’t really get a good dose of any of them. i gave this show a seven out of ten.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “why are we playing so early?” “i hope i don’t fall out of this dress”… “[siggggh] everyone is so far away”… “these monitors are awesome”… and then at some point in the set i just turn my mind off and coast. that’s how it is every single time we play. get into it.

Interesting Things After The Show: nothing really. honestly, i just hung out with the band and dayna and some randoms. highlights include running into andrew and him cooing at my dress. if only he wasn’t so sick… andrew, darling, i adore you… i hope the next time we come to san fran we can hang. after awhile i decided to peep into turin brakes’ dressing rooms and hung out with gale’s girlfriend and was even able to snag me some free records. after packing up i curled up like a little fetus in the back of the burban and passed out. go rock n roll go.

Carter’s Conscience

San Francisco– This time around we played at the Great American Music hall, which is a beautiful old ballroom. The decor dates back about a hundred years, and the people that work there informed us that it used to be a brothel. We didn’t get to chill out in San Fran this time around, but it was cool to see all our San Fran friends again! The Newbolds we’re front row and rocking, Andrew from jambase was there, and the Manville crew was out as well. . . thanks for saying whats up everyone, wish we could’ve stayed longer! The set for me got off to a weird start. The ghosts of the club were haunting me. I absolutely tanked the beggining of Northern Sky. I hit a wrong pedal and it took me a few clicks and wrong turns to get the train back on the tracks. But we pulled it together, and the room was absolutely a pleasure to play in. C ya San Fran, thanx again

gale and olly aka turin brakespaul siminon is one of my bass icons
SET LIST – per request of samantha street
still lost
northern sky
trip (xtended version)
miles from monterey
hollywood
out of pink (new song)
what are you afraid of (xtended version)

F.TEN

portland – pretty much a blur

we played at the doug fir lounge again – that makes 3 times at the fir. we also stayed at the jupiter hotel which is connected to the club and restaurant. it’s a cool hotel – sort of like the standard in LA crossed with a super 8. we all love the jupiter – great idea merging the whole club and hotel thing. whenever we play there it sort of feels like you’re going down into your basement to play a show. speaking of the show, this show was good – we’re definitely on a roll now. i loved seeing xilia faye there. xilia took a bunch of cool pics (like the main one above). to see all the pics she took of us check out her blog right here.

it was also great to see randy from dakine. dakine has a great music page check it out – dakine. randy gave me the best back pack i have ever owned. it’s my official tour companion – i keep everything in it – clothes, G4, sunglasses, toothbrush, tony’s dog food, my chuck t’s – you name it it’s in there. plus i’m down with the camou look. so after the show the doug fir turned into a dance club and that meant i went across the st to the strip club where tommy, chris, and lewscious were. it was lame and i went back to my room. portland oregon is eerily similar to portland maine – or maybe that’s just because the crowds there were sort of the same. i wish portland oregon had lobsters everywhere…eating would have been a much better time. i tried buffalo meat at the restaurant upstairs and really wasnt into it. i still have yet to try the fir burger…there’s always next time.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: dude, i love portland. i mean i really love portland. it’s like california without all the pretentiousness and smog. if i hadn’t been so hung over i so would’ve explored. everything happens for a reason and i believe that my time in portland’s boutiques will come and it’s gonna be crayzeh.

The Venue: i really enjoy the doug fir because it’s a classy joint. the fact that the jupiter hotel is right next door is even better. i’m glad we drove to portland that night. waking up in my fab hotel room was exactly what i needed.

The Show: personally, i thought this was the worst show of the whole tour… and when i mean worst, i mean my inability to really feel my bandmates or feel the music. i think i did a shitty job projecting my emotions because it took awhile for me to build up any. i think this was due to the fact that our set had been cut short to half an hour and thus, only allowing us to play five songs. also, i don’t understand what is going on with the doug fir sound. i mean, great venue for sure, but for some reason we never get the sound on stage right. ever. ever ever ever. i’m sure the sound is great out in the audience but on stage it seemed like the sound wasn’t full enough. this also messed up my chi a skoach. i’m sure and i PROMISE there will be more amazing sets coming from west indian girl when we come to portland. maybe i should go on a shopping spree before we play. shopping = love and happiness. alright, i’m doing it.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i plead the fifth. ha, i do that a lot don’t i? get into it.

Interesting Things After The Show: i met shiho, my friend from mercir, colin’s, lovely wife. we all hung out and talked about how awesome they were. then i hung out with randy from dakine and his dope friend scott… they had been drinking since like 6pm or whatever and we kind of continued what they had started… everything got really blurry after that. thanks a lot, assholes ♥. apparently the guys went to some lame titty bar when we were supposed to go karaoke. i guess this is why i chose to be a huge bitch to all of them. sometimes i really hate being the only girl. mark promised… and then i ended up by myself with three dudes. hey… that’s just great, guys. thanks a lot. i woke up the next day with bits of fir burger in my teeth and a hellafied tattered to go box that once had greazy fries in it. i hate mornings like that. i hate evenings not spent with my jaeger crew. anyway, about the food… i think i might have brent to thank about that. hey brent, when i come back i’m seriously blue toothing your ringtone. you. are. a. gangster.

Carter’s Conscience
Portland– The Doug Fir is the name of the venue, and the Jupiter hotel is basically attached to it. The Jupiter hotel reminds me of the Standard in LA, its got a real rock n roll party vibe, the staff all look like rockstars, and everybody is just plain old cool and down to earth! Especially Brent, we love you buddy, thanks for taking care of us every time we come into town! So there was a nice little crowd in Portland, and I thought we had a pretty good show. Not earth-shattering, but a lot of fun! The Doug Fir is a really nice venue to play in, the sound is really separated on stage. I’m not particularly used to playing in places with top notch monitor systems yet. You really have to get your monitor mixes dialed in right, or else you can feel like your playing on an island, or in a glass case of emotion. . . Its tough to get the stage sound dialed in perfect when the front of house sound guy is also doing monitors. That’s because the front of house guy can’t hear whats happening on stage. but it was pretty good all in all, mostly because of our soundman Ward, who is really been doing a great job all tour! Good to see all our Portland friends again, especially Heather, Danger and Danielle, and Greg and his wife! Love you guys, wish I coulda come hit the scene with you, next time I promise!

So i learned something new about Portland this time around. Apparently it is per capita the strip club capitol of the United States! Who would’ve thought, you horny Portlanders! But seriously, its almost a family affair in the strip clubs, there are as many girls in there tipping the dancers as there are guys! Now I’m not a huge strip club connoisseur, but the whole crew was headed to Union Jacks, and I wasn’t about to be a party pooper. . . NOTICE: YOU MUST BE AT LEAST EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE TO CONTINUE READING THIS BLOG– Ok, I’ll sensor it. The girls were getting *****, dancing on poles, some of them had huge **** and tatoos on their ******! It was ******* crazy! Hey, its a job just like any other, and I got nothing but respect, seriously. But I don’t want to hear about your daddy, seriously. To wrap it up, I could live in Portland, can’t wait to come back.

tommy working the merch “closet”with celebs scott, randy (dakine), colin ( mercir). & shihomariqueen with shiho and colinkrista and stephanie you two are wonderfuli love these 2 girls- they drive down from seattle!!!

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rad stage…in a record store!

as far as record stores goes portland is home of one of the best. just like easy st in seattle this store kicks ass. it’s a shame stores like this arent everywhere. terry (the owner) has a great job – he owns two music millenniums in portland and has been doing this for years and years and years. gotta love old school independent record stores cos they haven’t been crushed by the major crappy chains. thanx again terry i hope we can stop over again next time we’re there. as far as the 3 song acoustic show went, well once again it was robert james and mariqueen doing the in-store jamming. i was in the crowd mystery shopping, taking pics and cheering loudly just so i could make them laugh. it was a good time even though it was way too early for west indian girl to be awake.

Mariqueen’s Mind
oh music millennium… apologies til the day i die for such an uncomfortable instore. you must understand that i woke up in my fabu hotel room with a big headache and news from the night prior[seattle]. with no time to eat or warm up i wobbled into music millennium, marveled at how beautiful the stage was and prayed that i wouldn’t faint. the workers at the store were angels. they got me hot tea and five bottles of water. rob kept his sunglasses on for the whole set… i should’ve done the same thing. i was literally holding on to my microphone just to keep steady. i gave this show a two out of ten. personally, i was just embarrassed. you win some, you lose some… unfortunately i had a huge L on my forehead that afternoon. thanks, terry for being so sweet. i hope you liked our doug fir show and again, i’m sorry i was so out of it at your store.

terry = legend this guy has seen it all – thanx bro

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my friend joe called me yesterday to tell me we were the 29th most popular video on ifilm.com. i didnt believe him – he was right. pretty cool – check out this link.

by the way, my computer should be back up and running today so i’m gonna bust out the show reports toot sweet.

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my powerbook g4 broke 2 days ago and i had to send it in for repairs. completed show reports for portland and san fran were on that computer so that means those cities will have to wait. i will be posting the la reoprts this weekend and san diego early next week. i thought apple was a good company but this is the second g4 that has busted on me since march. sorry for the delay — F.TEN

our top 3 reasons for loving seattle – jay, kevin and dennis

seattle has always been west indian girl’s official “home away from home”. it was the city where we played our first show at and the city where we’ve sold the most cd’s in besides our “real” home town of la. folks, we love seattle – and really, what’s not to love about it…i guess the rain but that’s about it. we played at the crocodile cafe and i’m surprised they even let us in there because we’ve cancelled our last 2 shows(with the wonderstuff and the coral) there. [those cancellations were due to reasons beyond our control though]. needless to say we we rocked the croc hard. this was one of the most fun nights for me on stage because of all the positive energy swimming around. we all had a great time up there. the sound was excellent and that always helps get us into it because we are kind of sensitive to our sound environment. the stage was also a really nice height – some stages are too low or too high…this stage was perfect. after the show i worked the merch booth til the bitter end and wondered where the rest of the band was. it was great to meet everyone that night as well as see some of our old friends like trent (in pic with me and q) who bought the first ever west indian girl t-shirt. i only have a few more of those shirts left…i think i’m discontinuing that design so if you own one of those shirts it’s now a collector’s item. i saw my friend juan there but i didnt get a picture with him nor did i get much time to talk to him. i did however get a group photo with matt from easy st records. i was glad to see him down there. good stuff man. i was bummed that ADMF didnt show up cos i was waiting for him to grace us with his presence. marrie did show up so that made up for it!

Mariqueen’s Mind
The City: i love seattle… every time i come to this city nothing but good comes into my life. this time around it was three great shows all in one day. sometimes my life just rules. hard.

The Venue: i loved playing the croc, wireless internet access and great tofu dishes plus you can smoke everywhere. i hope this doesn’t piss anyone off but i liked playing the crocodile cafe way more than chop suey. it might be the location… but really, it’s the food. that tofu dish, man… stellar.

The Show: what a fun time. it was a great show because the seattle crowd made it so. it wasn’t even us. if you thought we played and sang great it’s really because of you seattle fans and your amazing energy. it emanates and we soak it up like a sponge. you guys are beautiful. thank you for making our show so fantastic.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i was thinking all kinds of nonsense. i was marveling at the dancing fans, i was wondering if i was out of key. you know, the usuals…

Interesting Things After The Show: it was insanity. i had, what seemed like, ten trillion jaeger shots and crownes and cokes. it was mayhem at it’s finest. i’d like to give a special shout out in no particular order… fran, you are mr. frantastic… thank you for always taking care of me and just being the shit… mark, thanks for letting bits of my jaeger, crowne and coke and tofu splatter on you for a little bit and telling me it was ok because the scent was pretty, i love you my little lewsciour… marrie and liz (pictured to the right), you guys were so awesome. read marrie’s thoughts on our show here… dayna, thank you for the shot, you are so hot it’s sickening. ward, my amazing sound man, my darling… thank you for the shot and for always making me sound like an angel. tommy… you are a godsend. i’m so glad you came on this tour with us, you and i still need to talk and talk and talk for the rest of our lives. tommy benjamin alexander for president. last and never least, eddie (pictured with q above and carter below)… you’ve been there since my very first show ever. thank you for the ten trillion shots and always being so supportive and enthusiastic. guest list for life.

Carter’s Conscience
Seattle– Back in the US of A. This time around we played the Crocodile Cafe. Seattle is a really cool town for us, our fans there are the best! I’m already seeing the same faces every time we play there, it feels like we’re visiting old friends already. Dayna from Astralwerks (pictured above with q) showed up in Seattle, and I think she’s going to around for the rest of the tour. Dayna’s just the coolest, i still don’t know exactly what her job title is at the label, but suffice to say she’s the girl behind the girl, and she puts everyone in a good mood. Thankx for the shots! Or maybe not. . . So the show itself was great. Our crowd in Seattle awesome, I can’t say how much it picks us up on stage to see people dancing and grooving. Thats what it’s all about, so thanx Seattle for making it such an enjoyable show for us! Thats pretty much it, we’ll see you again soon. . .

eddie, dayna & matt from easy st with the crewsteve from chop suey with his girlfriendmariqueen and westincute couple in another life – marrie and lewscious
seattle party posse

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easy street records gets it stripped down

after the kexp session we had some sushi and jetted over to easy street records. easy street is a killer record store. they have a great set up for live acts over there. they have a nice little back/green room with a deli tray and some beer in it. that’s always a bonus. all their employees were super nice to us as well. it was pretty simple. this was the same sort of set up as the radio station stuff we have been doing but this happened to be the FIRST ever time we got to play in a record store. again, robert and mariqueen played 3 songs and i think they were a bit nervous because it was a first time/foreign setting for them. i had a blast cos i got to clap and yell and take pictures of them. i think they did just fine. afterwards we signed some cds up front and made a few new fans. westin and eddie were there and were rewarded with guest list spots for their show of support. good times man. before we left bob major (in the picture) hooked us up with t shirts and hoodies and gave us some great deals on cds. love it. and thanx a lot to matt vaughan the owner of easy street for making this happen. matt was at the show that evening and there’s a great pic of him with the band in that show report.

Mariqueen’s Mind
right after our radio show we headed over to easy street records to do an in store. well, we went to eat sushi before, but who really cares about that? i was super nervous because i’d never done an in store before and the only other acoustic show i had done with rob and fran i didn’t really enjoy so i wasn’t sure what to expect this time around. that was kind of a painful run on sentence. apologies. so we get to the store and i pace and warm up and then we perform the three songs we did for kexp. it was weird, man. being up on this cool little stage in this fresh store, sitting on this stool. eh… not so much. i enjoy playing with a full band far more than these intimate sessions. i think it shows too. i just sit there with my head down like a douche. i’m so shy. when i’m on stage with the whole band i get to turn around and have my tambourine to keep my hands busy. at the in store i just had my voice, a mic, an amp and people staring at me. closely. much too close for comfort. i think i have intimacy issues. despite the discomfort the show went well. rob and i sounded prettyful together. we always do. we rule like that. the best part of that show was seeing eddie nonog sitting there front row and center. what you all need to know is that eddie has been there since day one of my west indian girl career. he was there at my chop suey debut opening for phoenix and there when we co headlined with the brazilian girls. the man rules my face off. after the show i went on a shopping spree and got a bunch of cocteau twins records, a coin purse with a whale on it and tons of other records. oh bob, thank you so much for hooking me up with that cool white t-shirt… i’m telling you, man… it’s all about women’s t-shirts just like that white men’s one i took. look into it. pleeease. hey matt, if you’re reading this, thanks for having us at the store… i think you might’ve purchased a shot for me at our croc cafe show… i was pretty incoherent that night… just in case you did, thanks for that too.

rob n q doing what they do and doing it well

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the kexp sultry acoustic session

our day in seattle started off early because we were invited to play a few songs on the air at 90.3 kexp. robert and mariqueen performed while i watched, talked and took pictures. i think you can listen to the session at the KEXP site. i thought they sounded great. i love doing these radio things just because it’s a nice change of pace. plus we get some cool dj’s interviewing us and it’s kinda fun to see what they’re going to throw at us in terms of questions. kevin cole was in charge of this interview – he asked us a pretty good question about music licensing. as you can tell from the pictures the little studio room they have there is pretty cool – nice comfy vibe in there. big thanx to scott colburn for engineering. in the picture (from left to right) you can see scott, kevin and lisa. thanx you guys and thanx kexp i’m glad we did it. hopefully you will give away some of the precious west indian girl candles that we gave them on the air. we’ll be back and we’re gonna bring carter and lewscious with us next time.

Mariqueen’s Mind
my mother says i talk about going to the bathroom way too much. what. ever. let it be known that kexp has the dopest women’s restroom in the world. there is a sweet couch and tons of rad posters signed by artists that have performed and what not. i’m bummed they didn’t have a west indian girl poster for us to sign. maybe next time.

so our radio show went like this… introductions, sing… talk… sing two more songs… talk talk talk. i don’t like talking. i prefer to communicate to the public via blog and emails. i think it frustrates people. i’m into it. thank you, kevin for being so sweet, thank you, scott for being a fantastic engineer and taking care of my voice and thank you, lisa for telling me my voice sounded like an angel. i can’t wait to come back and use that sweet ass bathroom again. weeee!

tender and special acoustic moments

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outside the amsterdam cafe with our new roadie

what a perfect day in vancouver. before the show lewscious, mariqueen and i walked a few blocks down to some marina. i watched a bunch of people playing with their dogs in the park and really started to miss tony. ironically, a little while later when i was checking my emails from a cafe i got word from gayle at the dog psychology center that cesar millan had actually picked tony to be in some publicity shots with him for the national geographic channel. that news made me so proud of my boy. i hope his photo shoot works out and i will, of course, post the pics when i get them. i’m still gushing with joy over my baby boy. anyway, speaking of the cafe i was at, well, i dont know how to best describe it but it was called the amsterdam cafe and if you cant guess from the name it was a pot friendly cafe. basically it was a cafe with a bunch of stoners in it that reeked of weed and seed. vancouver obviously has some pretty lax marijuana laws and i guess pot smoking is sort of “tolerated”. believe it or not i’m not a big pot smoker. i maybe smoke pot a few times a year and 9 times out of ten it’s when we’re recording bass parts or mixing in the studio. ok, i digress, back to the hippie hole.

i was starving so i ordered a cookie, not because i had the munchies but because i was just fucking starving. after i inhaled the cookie i started feeling weird and then thought to myself “holy shit – did i just eat a pot cookie?” hahah i was kinda freaking out cos i felt high but honestly i think it was just a slight contact buzz from all the smoke that was in the cafe. in the van ride back to the club rob kept fucking with me saying that there was pot in their cookies but everyone else said no. either way i had successfully weirded myself out just enough to make myself high out of pure paranoia. so i walk back into the club only to see ellen(in pic), my great friend from grad school. ellen immediately asks me if im ok cos i look freaked out and my eyes are all bloodshot. keep in mind i havent seen ellen in like 7 or 8 years and my first conversation with her is “i think i’m high cos i just ate this cookie at a marijuana cafe and i didnt know but i think there was pot in it…do they put pot in their cookies in vancouver and dont tell you…holy shit im gonna be so fucked up if this kicks in right about the time we go onstage…blah blah blah”. hahah so all this time i seriously feel like im stoned but maybe im not – i cant even tell anymore. i need a beer so i go slam one try to chill out and prepare to ride the wild horse that is about to carry me off on his back. we hit the stage and rock vancouver’s face off. it was beautiful. i have no idea if i was high but i wasnt completely not high. what a bizarre ride through our set. the vancouver peeps really warmed up to us and the club we played at richard’s on richards (dicks on dicks as i dubbed it) was pretty groovy. great stage and great people that worked there. thanx guys. and thanx to ellen for helping me work the merch booth after the show. it was crazy at one point and she was a blessing back there. ellen, it was awesome seeing you again and i cant wait til our next vancouver show.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: i’ve dubbed vancouver the san diego of canada. you are an outstanding city… golf claps all around. beautiful weather, beautiful people, beautiful 50 – 70% off signs on beautiful boutique windows. i walked around town with my canada party posse, mark and fran, and took a bunch of pictures. i’m really getting into my photography. it’s strange… i only like taking pictures of things and not people. i remember watching a special on hitler that was on the history channel (best channel on tv… get into it) and adolf was once a painter and he only painted landscapes and never people. there is also a rumor that he was an aries. fuck that. i bet he was a taurus/aries cusp. people on the cusp are just confused. wait wait wait… i do like taking pictures of people… certain people. a certain someone. my pumpkin, my lewscious… my muse. one day i will post a blog since i know the password to this shit and dedicate it to mark lewis. look for it in a month. get ready for a pictorial that will blow your mind. so yeah, vancouver’s rad.

The Venue: richard’s on richards. fran likes dick’s on dicks… how surprising. my personal favorite was mark’s… burton on taylor. genius. anyway, the venue was awesome. the layout was great… just check out the pictures i took and you’ll see what i’m talking about. they had a dj booth right behind the stage. great idea. the second floor was fabulous. if i ever wanted to design my dream bar, i would steal a lot of the layout ideas from richard’s. hey richard, good job.

The Show: it went great i guess. i don’t know… i gave the show a seven out of ten because i was ultra phlegmy that night. my body was still recovering from that brutal road trip i endured with fran and tommy. this show was also the start of my bruises. dude, i have the worst bone bruises on my left hand. i can’t help it though. when i’m up there and i’m playing, the last thing you want to see is an unenthusiastic tambourine player. i have more fun and i think i even sing better when i bang that bad bitch hard. i’ve also been prone to dance a lot more too. it was fun dancing at that show. i had a lot of tender band moments with everyone while we were performing. i don’t know if that’s the best idea for singing… dancing, not band moments… i start to get all breathy and exhausted and usually i dance really hard right before i need to belt it out. it’s just the progression of the song. i like how i’ve been totally straying from the subject on each section. i’m out of it today. you’ll find out about it in future show reports. stay tuned.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i saw my good friend, the talented and hilarious, mr. nakamura (in pic) in the crowd and was ectstatic about it. most of the show i kept wondering about my vocals and hoping they were alright.

Interesting Things After The Show: even though we didn’t have a lot of canadian money, fran was sweet enough to amex it and the jaeger crew was in action for a minute. we did our do then fran had to man his merch table and lewscious had to go get lost in deep conversation with whoever he usually does. that night it was one of the loaders… he looked like an old hippie. a lot of people in vancouver look like old hippies. speaking of which… let’s talk about interesting things that happened before the show. we went to this cafe that was specifically catered to cannabis smokers. mmm. not so much. i only went to get some green tea and to actually witness what i thought was super impossible. the minute i got my green tea i was over it. i usually love the smell of great weed, i think it smells… beautiful. no really, beautiful. i don’t think there is a better adjective to describe the scent of fluffy dank. anyway, the smell in the amsterdam cafe was quite the opposite. it smelled like a wet tshirt and armpit. not happy. then we left and some guy who i swear looked like chong decided to step into a picture with us. now this guy totally looked like an old hippie. on acid. how’s this for interesting? when we were at the canadian border we got detained for what seemed like forever. apparently, they thought that mark was another lewis from new york. i think they should’ve just asked him for his middle name and social security number an hour earlier. i saw this poor asian woman get yelled at by some bitch working at the canadian border. she was asian too. wouldn’t that be crazy if she read the blog? hey you… you’re a fucking dumb asian bitch. you need to be nicer to people. you bitch. god, i hate power trippers. get over yourself. so you have the power to not let me into canada. oh no. maybe i’ll just turn around and hang out in seattle instead. how do you like that? bitch. i wish i could’ve spat in that girl’s face. she really pissed me off for being so mean to this meek little lady. anyway let’s not stray from the subject anymore, ok?

so yeah, after the show i got to hang out with my friend and his italian chum. since i didn’t get any drink tickets, they were kind enough to supply me with endless crowne and coke. mark, you’re the coolest kid ever. i can’t wait to see you again. super top notch. i also saw bunch of drunken patrons. everywhere. i even encountered a few. not into it. they should’ve reminded me of why i hate drinking and should stop in the first place… but i think carter put it best in his detroit show report when he said, “I’m not a big advocate of alcholism, I don’t drink because i think its cool, but it seems like sometimes on the road you need to have a drink just to stay sane, blow off the days stress. . .”… so anyway, after having a bunch of crownes and cokes and hanging out with my awesome friend i had some quiet time because i always need my space to reflect. then i went in and signed and smiled and hung out with phil from turin brakes and then eddie and then after my poor little west indian roadies were done i got to hang out with carter, tommy and mark. we smoked. we took pictures. we smoked some more and when everything was good and gone so were we. we stopped at a spot to grab some food since all of a sudden everyone was so hungry and while tommy and i were hanging outside smoking cigarettes and having a bit of a chat some guy stopped and decided to welcome me to vancouver. i thought it was kind of cute and sketchy at the same time. i mean, come on, it was like two or three in the morning. he was either up to something or vancouverans are just too rad for me to handle.

Carter’s Conscience
THE BUS RIDE ACROSS AMERICA – jumped on the bus for a three day trip to Vancouver. Turin Brakes flew from Minneapolis, and they were cool enough to let Mark, Rob, and I ride the bus. thanks gentlemen, that was very very much appreciated. So we would drive all night, then the bus driver stops and sleeps all day at a hotel, and then we get back in and drive all night, etc. troy, mark, and myself stayed up all night the first night on the bus, a bunch of insomniacs we are. I guess you could say we had a lot to talk about. . . Spent a day in Mile city Montana, checked out the “Kick ass hats” store, ( that is really the name) and ate at 4B’s. the next day I don’t know where we were, but it had a river, which I jumped in. That was a highlight. Thats pretty much it. I think Montana is pretty kick-ass! One day I’m gonna ride a horse across America. Dig it.

Vancouver– Why is it that Canadians seem to have so much common sense, compared to us Americans? I’m scratching my head. Environmentally conscious, socially tolerant, progressive-minded people, well-informed in global politics, etc. I’m obviously making disgustingly huge generalizations here, but pick up a Canadian newspaper and you’ll know what i’m talking about. The Us may be able to beat Canada in an arm wrestling match, but Canada will end up taking the foxy lady home at end of the night when the US gets too drunk and tries to fight someone.

The show– such a cool show! One of my favorites of the tour. The venue was great, this big ol theatre, the crew was so fucking nice! Helped us load all the equipment, the sound was great, they even put my pedalboard away for me. No one’s ever done that! We had a really good show, I think we really won the crowd over by the end, the energy in the room was great. And thats really cool considering that most people there probably hadn’t heard of us before, because you can only get our album as in import in Cananda as of this moment! Met a lot of really cool people after the show, and Rob was a champion and drove us across the border that night. Turin Brakes had an amazing show that night, they sounded great and had the crowd just rocking.

Random notes– Went to the Amsterdam cafe in Vancouver. Cool establishment, but stale pot smoke makes me want throw up after a while. I’m not a real coffee shop kinda guy, just not my thing i guess. I’m going to open a Vancouver cafe the next time I’m in Amsterdam, and not sell pot. Dig it

inside of the club during load in

lewscious and mariqueen’s shadow puppets

tommy + molson = happy canadian fans

lewscious lounging

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inside my eyes

so let’s talk about the ride from minnesota to vancouver. this ride is a bitch and takes 2 days. at least it’s not through a bunch of mountains like the ride from portland to san fran is. that in my opinion is the toughest drive just because of all the mountains. it’s actually scary at times if there’s bad weather. but anyway, this ride is just long, that’s it…easy though. so far it’s been great because only tommy, mariqueen and myself are driving. the rest of the guys took the tour bus. then main thing i like about not being on the tour bus is that we get to decide our own schedule – that’s always good because we need to be flex and just wing it. i’ve been able to get a bunch of work done answering emails and writing blog stuff. mariqueen has become quite the photojournalist on this little trip. she took like over 100 nature pics (all the ones posted) while hanging out of the widow. north dakota was pretty cool to drive – lots of beautiful land. last night at a rest stop i stepped in what i thought was water but it turned out to be some combination of baby shit and vomit. it was gross – especially when i got in the van and was like “ewww who the fuck stepped in dog shit!” hahah low and behold it was little ol’ me. needless to say we tossed out the rug in the truck and i spent the next 5 minutes rubbing my foot in dirt and grass and pouring water bottle after water bottle on it. mariqueen was nice enough to take pictures of this tender moment.

at the best western this morning in butte i was able to do laundry and check my email at the same time. there are a few things that will make my day. one is being able to get online and the other is clean underwear. that’s a beautiful thing. when you’re on the road your chances to get online are few and far between so you have to take advantage of them immediately. i love my lap top and credit miss click clack mariqueen for convincing me to get the powerbookg4. it is the most user friendly thing in the world. thanx mm. missoula was the best place in montana for sure. we drove into town in the early afternoon and it was perfect. there was a drug store, a best buy, a staples, a post office and a borders all in basically the same block. it was so great – we got food, bought envelopes to mail out some merch, went to the post office and then updated the blog and checked email while we drank some coffee and read about brad and angelina in some rag. it was great.

Mariqueen’s Mind

hello lovelies… i guess it’s time for me to write. again. seriously, i haven’t typed out so many “reports” since college. who knew being in west indian girl was like going back to school? it’s been the coolest tutorial on living. west indian girl university has given me many lessons in understanding, love, music, communication and the advantages of peeing standing up. just don’t ask me to write a report on everything i’ve learned. i’ll be writing for the rest of my life… so ok, i’m supposed to talk about our little road trip, right? here we go…

i guess you can just look back on my minnesota show report under “interesting things after the show” and basically, that’s when and where this whole road trip started. after fergus falls the three musketeers hit the road and we made our way through north dakota. we decided that since we are so awesome we might as well be superheroes. like the fantastic four minus one… the minus one being lewscious who, because of his state of abandonment to the superawesomeherojaegercrew cause, i now dubbed, douche-shus. phonetically spelling, it’s so hot right now… phonetically spelling. tommy’s super human power is that he can drive for long stretches, is able to sleep like a baby in the suburban, and has supreme taste in music… he is the ultimate road dog and traveling companion. fran’s super human power is that he can also drive for long stretches, he can multi-task, he can eat anything he wants and can shit it out that same night and he never runs out of things to talk about. my super human powers are my abilities to stick my head out the window and capturing photographs of the environment with a digital camera while traveling at speeds of up to eighty miles an hour and still having the best and most low maintenance, most effortless hair out of everyone. my other super human powers include being able to keep my composure stuck on the road traveling through redneck nation with two boys and having super human lungs because i smoke too much and still sing well. some memorable moments worth mentioning were car dancing with tommy to sleater-kinney and the whole fran stepping in puke and baby doo doo at a rest stop episode. as resident super hero photographer i took some priceless shots of the cleansing of the converse. when we got to our hotel rooms in butte, montana i crashed. hard. i didn’t even wash my face, brush my teeth or take my contacts off. i don’t even know why… i think it was the change in weather… all of a sudden it became a lot colder and i think my body was just reacting to it. i’m pretty sure all the shitty ass food i had to eat had a huge part in my fatigue. god, how do people live off of grease and junk food? it’s tragic.

so today, our second day, which isn’t over yet, (i’m typing this and sitting shotgun while fran is driving and tommy has just woken up from a three hour nap) has been productive. the boys did their laundry… and mine. i must come off like such a diva that can’t do anything for herself, right? i mean seriously, i have people drive me around, carry my bags, pay for my food and do my laundry. i am so rad. come on people, i’m the only female on this crew… i take advantage of my situations. always remember that, kids… make the most of what life offers you. i’d like to state for the record that i don’t force anyone to do anything for me. they just seem to want to, or, my theory is, that they feel obligated to because i don’t have a penis. or… i am so rad. i love my colleagues with all my heart. though they come off like they are my minions at times, they really are my family and my best friends. some of them act like my mother, others like my father, most like the brothers i never had and never wanted… on those rare occasion they are the sisters one could only dream about having… they are the best and i’ll bet you wish you had them in your life. i would if i were you. neener neener neener.

so yeah, on to being productive… so we leave butte fucked, montana and stop at missoula, montana. finally, civilization. there was a walgreens, a best buy, a staples and the piece de resistance, a barnes and noble. i was ecstatic to say the very least. we ate at a wendy’s and then i ran over to walgreens while the boys went off to their respective destinations, i think tommy went to best buy and fran went to staples. i finally got some phone reception and i bought some cigarettes, nail polish remover and the latest issues of vogue and lucky. we all rendezvoused at the barnes and noble where i dropped bombs in the toilets that would make hiroshima shudder. so good. then mr. frantastic bought me a strawberries n creme non coffee frappuccino and internet connection and for about two hours i almost felt like i was home. then we kept on driving and i took more pictures whilst hanging my head out the window and tommy and i danced to bloc party and doves. i was about to introduce him to the gram rabbit album when my poor captain t-ommy got pulled over for doing eighty one in a sixty five zone. that’s bullshit. first of all, all the signs said seventy five and we were going down hill. at least we were now in idaho and the tickets only cost sixty two dollars. we made a bunch of dumb pit stops… you know how i feel about those… and now, here i am sitting here in the suburban, typing this. i’ve actually been banging out show reports for most of the day. i feel nauseous. i think it’s because i’ve been reading and typing too much and i keep eating shitty food. i swear, if i have to eat at another perkins i’m going to puke. ugh… i can’t wait to get to the rest of the band (my hotel room). our destination is set for a place called billingsby, billcosby, billythekidd, billygoatland, billsomething… i don’t know… all i know is, is that there is a queen size bed with my name on it and i get to spend some quality time with the love of my life. meow… oh, powerbook G4… you are so dreamy… i could stare at you for hours… me love you long time.

Tommy’s Two Cents

So it is day two in the suburban with my new road buddies, frantastic and miss mariqueen and we are closing in on seattle, on the way to their Vancouver show…..we are meeting up with the rest of the crew in Bellingham, Washington….at our home away from home, the best western…..the last two days being a blur of excessive driving, great tunes, and greater company……what can i say about this crew….I feel a special connection with each of them…….fran is my merch/music/business mentor, who i respect immensely for his ability to multi-task with an open heart-taking on a million things with poise and wits……….carter is my “scoping the chicks buddy” and another great road companion, always smiling and looking for a good time- i could go on wild excursions through middle america with him anytime……rob has a powerful presence, a zen master of great talent and ability- always calm and always looking to the future with his music……a great source of inspiration……..mark is my partying buddy, and has been my roommate for most of the trip….that guy no matter what is happening good or bad always keeps his cool and is a joy to hang out with…we have a pre-show ritual that i cannot mention- such a remarkable drummer- he makes me smile when i watch him play….and the amazing miss mariqueen- such a great sense of humor- not only can she sing with the best of them, and is probably the hottest female singer around- but so kind hearted and easy going- i could see how her spirit connects the rest of the band, and inspires them to be better……this lady of the road has no inhibitions,-she can hang with the boys and turn every head in the room all at the same time- all the while smiling and digging life …..i’ve never met a band who feeds of each other so well……i came on the road with few expectations- mainly just learning and seeing things i have never seen- little did i know i would meet new friends for life…….i feel blessed and honored to be a part of something so exciting as this- an up and coming band growing together in music and spirit……….

carter, james and lewis on the tour busanother beautiful moment in the van…are we there yet?

F.TEN