West Indian Girl

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

…and this year’s prom queen is…

minnesota = the vikings, prince and the replacements. i have a weird love affair with this purple city. i’m convinced i lived here in a past life. anyway, this was the second time i have ever been in minnesota and it was way too brief of a stay. hmmm the ascot room was the club formerly known as glam slam… kind of cool but their stage made me feel like i was playing at a high school prom. it would have been better if all the bartenders and security were wearing ascots – that theme might have made it cooler. i thought detroit was the loudest smallest crowd on the tour but minneapolis was way more intense. i think 150 people were on hand for the festivities. again, i thought we put on yet another hot show. mariqueen was going crazy during our new song. i mean she was jumpin around like a swahili princess with ants in her pants. it was some of the most tribal dancing i have seen in a very long time. i had trouble getting my mind into the first few songs but hit a groove during monterey. the crowd was extremely insipiring – i mean really really really great. so great that i think it’s a must to make a trip back to minneapolis asap. minnesota made me feel so good about our band, our live show, and our musical mission. the minnesota enthusiasm made my night – we really do need to get back here fast cos these people are genuine music fans that wont soon be forgotten.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: minnesota, home of fran’s favorite football team. that’s as far as i know about the city. that and you are all supposed to have funny accents a la bobby’s mom in that short lived, cute little cartoon series, “bobby’s world”. “oooh babby, doon cha knoo…” so like, minnesota would be pronounced meenehsoootuh. kinda cute. sort of. we rode into the city from st. paul with mandy from kcmp. the big bummer was that it started to rain so i was a little scared that i was going to get sick. aw, how dope would it have been if the rain had been purple? we played in a groovy part of town. we always do… we always play in cool parts of each city and then i don’t get to explore it. whack. whack. hella whack. yeah that’s right, i’m from south orange county and i say hella. get into it. i actually contemplated moving to minnesota for a minute after i saw the nice, clean city and what seemed to be super posh lofts. again, my minneapolis brethren… two thumbs up. here’s what i didn’t expect… we drove past the mississippi river and it looked like chocolate fudge. hmmm…

The Venue: apparently the ascot room was once owned by prince and was called glam slam. this explains the interior design. it was beautiful and over the top but it was a lot smaller than i had expected, which, incidently, perfectly describes prince. there was a water fountain in the middle of the room and signs all over the place that said, “no guns allowed in the ascot room”. interesting. the stage was kind of ghetto though… ratty ass carpet on what seemed to be a portable little deck. this stage semmed more befitting for a banquet than a performance. i seem to encounter a lot of stages like that on this tour. weird. it didn’t matter though because it was perfect for the weather and my ensemble and the whole vibe in my head for that evening.

The Show: oh man, this was the first time i had ever played in my chuck taylors and let me just tell you… best decision of my life. i jumped, i stomped all over the stage and apparently did what fran calls, the “jungle boogie” and channeled tina turner. psh, dude listen, if i could’ve, i would’ve cartwheeled all over that bitch. he’s just jealous that i can dance and he can’t. this was the most unprepared i had ever been for a show. i didn’t warm up my voice, i ate a heavy meal prior to singing, i didn’t get a chance to deuce at the venue because i thought it was kind of a gross bathroom, and i wasn’t even dressed properly. but you know what? it didn’t matter. i gave this show an eight out of ten because it was the most fun i’ve had performing on this whole tour.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “i can’t stop burping” “i wonder if mark can smell them?” “holy shit, this is fuuunnn…” “if i dance any harder i’m going to fall over” “i hope i fall over… that would be amazing” “ahahahaha weeeeeooo!”

Interesting Things After The Show: i met a woman named “karen”, who i swear, was frances mcdormand’s doppelganger. what a cool and free spirit. hey “karen” you are a very down ass little lady… it was nice chatting with you. after everything was packed up, the jaeger crew got to do what they do best… but then, a bit of a heartbreaking moment… we had to say goodbye to our beloved lewscious because he decided that he was going to be a douche and tour bus it to vancouver. so fran, tommy and i got in the suburban and drove off on the 94 west. we drove, we peed in the middle of an abandoned gas station, we laughed, we danced in the car, we sang, we counted cash and fanned each other with it, we played radio games and then peed in dark and scary corn fields. we even bit the bullet and stopped at a mcdonald’s to eat… so gross. an suv of idiots behind us in line, thought that fran and tommy had vaginas and kept yelling, “i love california girls! whoo!” along with other small minded frat boyish nonsense and were honking at the suburban over and over again as we were waiting for our shitty food in the shitty drive thru in this shitty town. so shitty. we escaped without having to hospitalize anyone and ended up at a really awesome best western inn somewhere in fergus falls. in celebration of my fantastic room, i decided to dip into the magical world wide web and i finally washed my hair again. i know, i know… i live life on the edge… get used to it, people.

Carter’s Conscience
Minneapolis preview– amusing anecdote number 23 of the tour– The tour bus has cargo bay’s underneath it where equipment is stored. Its where I’ve been leaving my bag, because space is limited inside the bus. In one of the bay’s there is a big trash can. Late last night the cargo bay was pretty full, so i pushed that trash can deeper inside to make room for my duffel bag. What I didn’t realize is that when you throw trash away in the bus, it goes down a chute that drops it right on the trash can. Because my duffel bag was where the trash can normally sits, this morning it was covered in carrots, cigarette butts, assorted trash, food, you name it! Learned a valuable lesson today on the many functions of the tour bus.

So we played at a club called the Ascot here in Minneapolis. Is that Prince’s club? Anybody from many apples let me know, I’m a bit curious about that. Anyway, the decor inside the club was amazing. The place looked like a medieval courtyard, with faux stained glass windows, fake plants and vines everywhere, and a huge indoor fountain! Disneyland mixed with a pagan temple mixed with a porno film set. . . It was great, I think our next show should be a mandatory toga party. What do you say Minneapolis? The crew was really cool there as well, helping us carry the massive amount of gear we have.

On to the show– what can I say? I loved Minneapolis, the crowd was really cool, really receptive, and its a beatiful city from the little I saw of it. I actually ate at the same restaurant for 3 times!– that’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I forgot the name of the place, it was Italian and needless to say, very tasty. I noticed a disproportionate amount of people with tatoos, piercings, crazy haircuts, etc. Minneopolis has a secret. Its a really cool town, I have a feeling there is a really cool scene happening. I can feel it. Maybe its a secret. I’m bad at keeping secrets.

robb and mike keepin’ it real – 2 thumbs up

smooth radio – the kcmp acoustic session

the day of our minnesota show we were invited to play a few songs on the air at kcmp. this was pretty kick ass. it’s funny how different radio stations are from city to city. kcmp was cool – it was located in what used to be a music school. our whole visit was made possible by mandy cox who works over there. she has been a long time patron of the west indian girl arts and we love her. there’s a picture of her with rob and mariqueen in the minneapolis show report by the way. so the interview was great. danny sigelman (in the pic) was our dj/interviewer and he was cool. anyone that gives props to our blog is immediately in our good graces so danny could do no wrong. for this show rob was on acoustic guitar, q on vocals and i was on digital camera patrol. it was a solid performance (although i’m sure rob and mariqueen will say they sang out of key in this verse or that word or whatever blah blah blah). bottom line is that it sounded good and danny was a fun interviewer and we want to come back again. thanx a bunch to derek stevens who was the producer of the show and scott liebers was the engineer — total pros and nice as hell. again – big hugs to mandy for making this happen. we got your back woman. —F TEN

Mariqueen’s Mind

before our show in minneapolis, tommy, rob, fran and i drove over to st. paul for an acoustic set and interview at kcmp. i was apprehensive about this particular appearance because after our chicago show we drove four hours to stay at a hundred dollar a night motel six. where have you ever heard of a hundred dollar a night motel six? that’s like charging ten dollars for a big mac. so anyway, i didn’t get to sleep until six in the morning. then we had to wake up at eleven and get driving because we were four hours away from st. paul and were scheduled for the radio show at three. we stopped somewhere in wisconsin and ate a bunch of greasy shit. i hate going down from the car to pee and get food because i get stared at like i’m a three headed unicorn. rob says it’s because i’m a “hottie”… i think it’s because i have darker skin and better wardrobe than any of the locals. nevertheless, it’s always a less than thrilling experience in these quaint little midwestern pit stops. the best part of loading up on gas and grease was when we found a statue of an adorable gigantic cowboy mouse standing on top of a big piece of cheddar and holding a sign that said “welcome to wisconsin”… because it was so “cheesy” we had to capitalize on the moment. we took a bunch pictures and i do believe they are classics. if only you could see all of them. we are so cute, it makes you want to vomit. i only wish the whole band could’ve participated but carter and mark were on the tour bus. oh well. most of the car trip was spent trying to nap in the burban, trying being the key verb in this sentence.

we got to the venue on time, and may i just say… goodness, st. paul sure is pretty. good job, minnesota… two thumbs up. derek stevens greeted us and was nice enough to wash a coffee cup for me and serve me some tea. thanks, derek… you are fantastic. rob and i ran through the acoustic set which consisted of “trip”, “miles from monterey” and “hollywood”. i thought i sounded crappy but i blame it on lack of sleep and that greasy meal i had in wisconsin. sorry, kcmp listeners, i swear i can sing a hundred and ten times better than what you heard. for reals. other than that, the interview was highly amusing. rob was in quite the comical mood and even cood like a baby. so, not only did i sing like crap but i also giggled like a dumb little girl. i might have even cackled i was laughing so much. what a great impression to leave… whatever, people… watch a live show and keep reading my articles on the band blog. momma didn’t raise no fool.

she’s actually really nervous here

good good good good vibrations with brian wilson

let me tell ya something, when i found out we were playing in chicago on a sunday night during the same weekend as lollapalooza i wasnt expecting a big show. surprise surprise, even in the sweltering heat a bunch of people came out. my friend brian told me that it actually came 1 degree shy of hitting the highest temperature ever recorded in chicago – obviously related to the hot hot set we were about to bestow upon the windy city. the set was hot and sweaty like good sex. speaking of which, i wonder who is getting laid on this tour. anyway, i think i have the slightest drinking problem because i cant seem to play without pounding a few beers. i think it’s because have so much on my mind right up until we play that i use those beers to help clear my head so i can just think about the music. it’s sort of like when you squint your eyes when you want to focus on something except your drinking great tasting beer. i love beer. hmmmm i hope AA isnt in my near future. speaking of AAA i think my AAA car insurance is due. i dont think you can pay online either. bummer. speaking of my car did i mention that the day before i left for tour my landcruiser’s radiator overheated and exploded. even though my truck breaks down a lot i cant bear to part with it because it really is one of the best things in my life.

i lost my camera charger in toronto so i wasnt able to take any pics in chicago. adding to this documentation debacle mariqueen’s camera was out of juice BUT thanx to my friends chris varady and brian wilson we have all the pictures you see posted. chris is responsible for getting an old band of mine a couple record deals. he’s a great guy and it was awesome seeing him…motor city love. brian drove all the way up from bloomington. now that’s a haul and i hope it was worth it and you had a good time b. personally i thought the show was excellent and was really taken aback by the crowd, not just because there was actually a crowd there but because the crowd was so enthusiastic. we did put on a hot ass gricky show though so i guess one plus two does equal three.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: chicago was scorching… so much so, that it was kind of gross. at least we played in a fabulous part of town… wicker park… way into it. i’m only bummed that it was so hot in temperature that i wasn’t inspired to explore all that it had to offer (shopping). i suppose the fact that i have decided to cancel my credit card has a lot to do with my lack of enthusiasm for sightseeing (shopping). life (shopping) just isn’t as fun if you can’t charge it. don’t quote me on that. i don’t really mean it. ok i’m lying… but who cares? so, instead of having tons of fun (shopping), we all went over to a cafe across from the venue and fran bought me the ultimate thirst quencher. it was called a frozen mango guava tea drink or something. if it hadn’t been for my much needed hangover denny’s breakfast session, i would’ve eaten everything the cafe had on its menu. after fran treated me to a drink, i treated my intestines to a nice session on the toilet inside the venue. speaking of which…

The Venue: two words: picture booth. that’s right, people… not since the local fair have i seen a picture booth. anywhere. why doesn’t every bar in the whole wide world do this? seriously… if you know what’s good for business you’ll get the gettin. trust.

The Show: eh… i don’t think i did that well to be perfectly honest. singing with a hangover isn’t the most genius move in the world. to make things worse i made the same dumb mistake that i had done at the san diego fischerspooner show. i put lotion on my hands and body right before i played. so i wasn’t just greasy… i was greazy. to make things worse the venue was just too humid to even understand. plusss i had those stage lights in my face… so i wasn’t just greazy, i was steazy. guh. sticky + greazy = steazy. i’d like to thank mark lewis’ brain for that one. i’m sure fran would have liked it better if i had used his new word, gricky… that’s right, gricky = greazy + sticky… but i think i was more steazy than gricky. steazy is when you’re just perspiring and moist… gricky i feel is when you’ve been perspiring and air drying from it so you’re just more sticky. either way they’re both heinous. if it hadn’t been for the fact that i found it extremely difficult to hold on to my instrument i would’ve been into the show more. i was actually sweating so much that troy had to throw a towel at my feet. despite all the adversities, supposedly, i sang great. personally, i don’t believe i sang that fantastic, but a ton of women came up to me and told me that i did. you gotta believe the ladies… i don’t think they’d ever lie to me or not come up to me if they really weren’t sincere. i was even told that my voice was “crazy”… that might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me after a show. i think it was the heat… who knows? all that sweat and what not made for a very sexy show between me and rob. maybe it’s because we’re soul siblings and both aries. aries is the first fire sign and is ruled by the planet mars, which is already a fiery planet. maybe that means the heat brings out the best in us when we’re doing what we love to do. who knows… maybe, maybe, maybe a hundred different theories. bottom line is… i didn’t think being so uncomfortable on stage would make for such a good show. lucky me.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “i can’t see… the sweat is seeping into my eye… shit” “ow, this tambourine is so slippery… i can’t hold onto it any longer… what if it falls out of my hands and knocks mark in the face?” “shit!” “this is far too much sweat for such a nice dress” “my god i hope sweat doesn’t on my boobs” “i should’ve worn a bra” “i need to shower after this as soon as possible” “ugh, i hope i don’t have to hug anyone tonight”

Interesting Things After The Show: not so much. i drank again because we’ve started the jaeger crew. it’s illustrious members are captain t-ommy, lewscious, the boogey bunny, franny boy aka franboyant and q, the master. how’s this for interesting? i’m sitting behind the trailer in a chair in the street with tommy’s new captain and tenille-esque hat on… hot… super rock and roll… sooo into it. anyway, so i’m sitting there and all of a sudden i hear a police mini siren behind me. you know what i mean… one of those dumb cop honks instead of a full on siren. so yeah, it’s two cops and they have completely stopped street traffic just to tell me how much they liked my tattoo. life is funny sometimes… isn’t it?

Carter’s Conscience Chicago– Rob drove last night, because according to state law I was not capable of operating heavy machinery, or driving for that matter. Motel 6 and Dennys. If I never set foot in either of those fine establishments again in my life, I would not be upset in the least! Chicago turned out to be a great show! Lollapalooza was the same day, so I was stoked to see that there was a great turnout to our show as well. The severity of my hangover subsided somewhat during our soundcheck, and I felt really relaxed and inspired on stage. Its like the feeling you get when you’ve been sick, and your starting to get better. Everything seems fresh and new, and you appreciate just feeling good. Anyway, I’d say it was the best overall show we played this tour so far. Or maybe i just enjoyed it the most. Who knows. . . Rob and I were connecting a lot on stage, in particular in the new song we play. ( the second to last song, if you were at the show) Met some really cool fans, in particular Brian who drove all the way from Indianapolis! Brian studies the media, and he turned me on to Chomsky, who i’ve never read. I’m half way through Holy Blood, holy Grail, which is a really interesting read. For those of you who aren’t familiar its the book that the Da Vinci code borrowed most of its ideas from. And you can’t lie to me, I know you read the Da Vinci code. And I know you loved it. Its literary crack. Wish we could’ve stayed on a bit in Chicago, but the bus was rollin on. Incidentally, ate one of the best burritos of my life around the corner from the venue.

chris varady and chicago’s finest

motor city love – frank, jubei, q and carter

the night before our detroit show mariqueen, carter and i put on face masks. ironically, chris who i had to cut out of the picture becuase he’s too worried about looking faggy, was the one who owned the face mask in the first place. classic stuff. good clean skin is nothing to laugh at though. so let’s talk detroit. i havent been back to mi in at least 5 maybe 6 years. funny thing about it was that once i got there i wanted to leave. oh well, i wasnt born there…so technically i’m not a true native…im a jersey italian. the best thing about playing in detroit was seing a bunch of my old friends like sue and ted lott, robin (in pic with mariqueen), anna, jubei, frank, and del(bottom right). it was real cool that they all made the drive up from either grand rapids or ann arbor – that’s love. i just want to let it be known that i really really appreciated you all coming out and that seeing you guys was the BEST thing about the detroit show. i really do miss all of you and hope we play in michigan again so we can laugh some more. sort of makes me sad that i havent kept in touch with you all like i should have. tissue please.

the show was great – i dubbed the magic stick the loudest smallest crowd we ever had. once again ward (in pic with q) delivered with the sound. i would like to thank the turin brake guys for letting us put 50 people on their guest list. thanx guys. rob actually had a gang of family out to the show. i wish i knew all of your names so i could give you all a proper thank you but i don’t. the stage sound at the stick was one of the best if not the best of the tour thus far. after the show the jaeger club continued to collect dues. i think i saw lewscious float away at one point. anyway detroit, west indian girl has left your state, at least you have the lions to tide you over until we return…sucks for you.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: no offense but detroit isn’t the greatest city in america. before we even had a sound check i encountered a bunch of really shitty and mean detroitians. there seems to be a dark and unhappy cloud that looms over the town. as we were searching around michigan for hotel rooms the night prior to our show, we noticed that a lot of the locals like to park their cars as to showcase them, in front of random stores and just hang out. uh, i don’t know about you guys, but that seems really boring and is called loitering where i come from. anyway, if there are any decent parts of detroit i certainly didn’t get the chance to see them. i can’t lie so don’t be upset. just know that all the locals that i did meet and got a chance to interact with, i really liked… you guys were super dope. dear detroit the best things to ever come out of you are mediocre vehicles, robert james, francis ten, ghetto tech and iggy pop. thanks. sincerely, mariqueen. kisses.

The Venue: the magic stick, majestic, whatever what have you, was fresh. i was way into the fact that we had wireless internet access and could bowl. because of our dumb soundcheck to showtime schedule i didn’t get a chance to whoop anyone’s asses on the lanes. we were supposed to do a west indian girl vs. turin brakes bowl off, but it never happened. lucky for tb, they would’ve ended up having to take all of us out to a fancy dinner in detroit. wait… is that even possible? i enjoyed playing at the majestic. it was a great stage and a fantastic venue. lavishly big and spacious. it could’ve doubled for a rollerskating rink. in all honesty, i would love to play there again. that area is probably the coolest spot in detroit, period point blank. if only that art gallery next door was open, i would’ve been a lot happier with my day. cest la vie.

The Show: we did great despite time and monitor problems. i thought it was really weird that we started our set before the sun went down. it really is just weird. that is probably one of the worst things about this tour. all of our shows have started so early. just lame. i mean, seriously… in l.a. no one is even ready to leave their house at eight o’clock. why would people even show up to our set if it started at seven thirty. that’s insanity. the detroit fans were by far, the coolest and most enthusiastic around. you all get two thumbs up. way up.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “we should’ve gotten a box of sunglasses to pass out to the crowd.” “i can’t hear myself” “i hope i’m not fucking up” “this dress makes me feel fat” “i hate performing and pmsing at the same time” “oh wait, spinning in this dress is fun” “weeeee!”

Interesting Things After The Show: everyone got WASTED. i plead the feeeeyefth…

Carter’s ConscienceDetroit– Space rock city baby! First time in Detroit! I know that I keep saying that, cuz its the truth. Rob and Fran had a huge posse of friends show up to the show, but it was strange starting a set when the sun hasn’t set. The sound on stage was probably the best we’ve had so far, I could hear every instrument crystal clear. So thanks to the monitor guy whose name has since departed my memory, its great to hear yourself onstage. I can’t say it was my most inspired show, but the crowd was great. People kept making me laugh, yelling “detroit loves West Indian Girl” and telling Fran to take his shirt off.

Things went downhill pretty quickly after the show, however! 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. . . Thats what Detroit was all about. The crew we were partying with was hilarious, and that just added to the hijinx. I think I was signing one of our tour lithographs for a fan when I got the bright idea to actually sign the fan herself. (With permanent marker, of course) And then, what the hell, I had her sign me right back! Lewscious looked like he needed a tatoo, so I made a little drawing for him on his shoulder. Tommy got in on the poor mans tatoo parlor, Q got one Janet Jackson style! She returned the favor by tatooing my entire back! I didn’t know what it said until the next day, but needless to say it was vicious slander, and I might sue for defamation of character. Just kidding, I’ve woken up with worse. . . Q was in rare form that night. We need to come up with a good nickname for inebriated Mary Q. Maybe we should come up with a nickname contest. The winner can buy me a shot. And I’ll write something obscene on them in permanent marker. I love Detroit.

lewscious and jubei

sue and sutton

andrew james and teddy

james and matle

F.TEN

family dining at it’s best

we spent the day off before our next show driving from philly to toronto. what was unusual about this drive was that rob drove the whole way and he isnt known for driving long stretches. i attribute his penchant for driving on this particular day to either one of 2 things: one, the drivers seat is one of the more comfortable seats in the car or two, that he needed time to reflect upon me spanking him in 2 games of ping pong before we left my sisters. i went 5 and 0 in pong and now reign supreme. so, in buffalo we stopped and ate at an italian place called buca di beppo. we showed up right before they closed but they werent mad at us at all, on the contrary they were really really nice to us there.
dan and kristan (in pic) you’re awesome. we love you guys. thanx for all the food. i was so down with the manicotti because it reminded me of what my mom would make for me when i was growing up. after the meal we cruised into canada and made an immediate pit stop at niagara falls. that place is cool at night. it’s fun being a tourist sometimes – especially with this band. the falls were crazy, what a trip – i cant believe anyone would actually be dumb enough to try going over them in a barrel. we took some great pictures there.

the next day we played at the mod club theatre and this show, much like the pic of robert was a blur. i loved the mod club’s stage – it was deep set and made of old wood so it wasnt totally level in spots. the thing that sucked about the show was that it started way too early and we played to like 1/4 of a room. yes playing early is too be expected when you’re an opening act but come on people. some of these start times are fucking ridiculous. dear promoters of this tour….not smart. especially in the midwest where im from…shows start late…i mean late…not at 8pm. anyway, i cant wait til we headline our own tour so i can impose a late start time. i mean, seriously, if i went to see my own show i would miss me cos i wouldnt get there on time. many people have come up to me and said, “i cant believe you played so early” weird, hmmm i really dont have much to say about the actual show. it was good but the crowd was standing so far away and the lights were in my eyes it felt like we weren’t playing to anyone. the best part of my stay in toronto was after the show. lewscious, mariqueen and i went back to the hotel and regrouped. i took them down to queen st. we stopped off at the rivoli for a drink and then it was down to the bovine sex club where we had a blast. we started the jaeger shot club that night. the bovine has a great back room with real super high booths in the back. it was fun hanging with lewscious and mariqueen and finally relaxing and not thinking about the show. we we just laughing — good fucking times man.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: oh toronto, how i love thee, let me count the ways. one – you have trash cans with recycle options. gaaangster… two – everything is cheaper… three – kensington street… four – queen street… five – my fabulous hotel room… six – canadians are just the friendliest people around… seven – two words: niagara falls. one more word… it’s a compound one at that – breathtaking. i’d say my worst experience in niagara falls had to have been right when we got there. i was DYING to go numero uno but couldn’t find a decent bathroom. then we get to niagara falls and i’m about to keel over just so i could pass out and piss in my pants. seriously, people… WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD. i ran out of the burban and searched frantically for a bathroom… guess what… they were all CLOSED. thank god i had carter with me. he took me to an upstairs area where it was completely abandoned and he kept guard. let’s just say “le sigh” is the only way i can describe the feeling of finally releasing the fury. after that, niagara falls was all to the good. we took some fantastic pictures with my camera. it’s a casio. it’s the best. be jealous.

The Venue: the mod club was super hot. literally and figuratively. toronto was especially muggy when we played and i’m not sure the mod club’s air conditioning was being used. the layout of the place is gorgeous. the decor… just stunning. what i’ve noticed about toronto is that they have their bathrooms downstairs. hmmm… not into that so much. i had a lot of fun playing here because the stage was super choice. the lighting was ultra rock and roll and the acoustics were great. i’d do it again. yes please.
The Show: i had the time of my life singing. i gave this show a nine out of ten. momma likey.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i wasn’t. maybe that’s why i liked the show so much.

Interesting Things After The Show: well, aside from watching carter and tommy work the canadian girls. i’d say the amusing parts of my evening had to have been when lewscious, fran and i went out on queen street to kick it. we started out at the rivoli where the geminis had stellas and the supreme aries had a crowne and coke. that’s right, bitches… always choose crowne. we got bored watching the mentally challenged people walking by. you think i’m kidding don’t you? no. there were some serious crazies roaming the streets. one guy was wearing a santa hat with no shirt on growling at fools. this was when i downed my drink and snapped my fingers for my minions, i mean, my beloveds, to get the gettin. we walked, we talked, we laughed, we got stalked. then, low and behold… the bovine sex club. ohmygod this place was siiick. best music around. the three of us preceded to do jaeger shots and they had more beer while i got another whiskey and coke. no crowne at the bovine though… so jack was good enough for me. it didn’t matter at that point because i was nice and tickled pink. we hung out and talked about how much we loved each other and then we walked back to the car. at this point mark and fran were both hungry, as they always are. these two eat so much crap and yet stay skinny it makes me want to backhand them. we stopped at a hot dog stand and i took pictures of my darlings stuffing their beautiful faces. if you could see all the classics i captured you’d die of laughter. ask francis. so after the hot dogs we went back to the hotel where tommy decided to come to the light and come back home to the people who love him most. fran was too tired to keep going because he had somehow between the hot dogs and the tomminess over exerted himself. who knows… he wasn’t down anymore and so mark, tommy and i continued the party in our hotel rooms. we opened up the mini bar and between more whiskey and red wine we took a bunch of superheroesque pictures on tommy’s camera. we laughed, we whined, we discussed our futures and we clowned on fools and then watched the sun come up. it was a magical and beautiful evening. i think carter had more fun than us though… he is our west indian girl machine… in more ways than one. mhm, don’t deny it carter, darling…

Carter’s Conscience Toronto– Our first time in Canada as a band, and my first time as well! We stopped in the middle of the night to see Niagara falls from the Canadian side. Even in the dark it was amazing, just about the best thing I’ve seen so far on this tour! Tommy said it reminded him of Superman. Well said my friend. One of my best friends Heidi Good Times is from Toronto, she always tells me what a cool city it is, now I understand. I spent most of the time wandering around Kensington Market, checking out record shops and vintage stores, music stores, eating yam burritos, etc. Thanks to Elaine for being my tour guide! The Mod club was a really cool venue, its a little theatre right in the middle of everything. The show itself was cool, I think it was the first time a lot of the crowd had heard of us. But thats what its all about, makin new friends across the continent. . . After the show the Mod club turned into a regular club, with DJ’s and bubble machines and the whole bit. It was perfect, the party came to us after the show. Everyone was partying quite a bit that night, Fran Mark and Q hit the Bovine Sex Club, a well known drinking establishment in town. Tommy and myself couldn’t find a reason to leave the club, we tied one on till the wee hours. I woke up the next morning and realized that I left my backpack somewhere the night before. I attempted to retrace my steps the next day but it was a lost cause. At least i still had my passport, but i did manage to lose my digi-cam. I was a little sad for about 2 and a half minutes but then I remembered that I am a special person anyway. At least that is what my mom says.

honeymoon moment #1 mariqueen and i finally got marriedi married lewscious five minutes latermore band love – sickening isnt it
radio personality tanya aka “strung out sam” in the house

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If you have the chance you might want to listen to a live on-air acoustic session we are doing this friday at 3pm (PST) on KEXP in seattle. KEXP is another great station like xpn in philly, kcmp in minny, det in detroit and of course our own kcrw in la. listen to us here at the KEXP site. robert and mariqueen are going to play a few west indian girl songs -it’s gonna be cool cos most people haven’t heard these songs performed like this.

david dye and west indian girl

before the philly show we were invited over to 88.5 WXPN to tape an interview with David Dye and play a few songs live. xpn is really fucking nice. it’s located on the drexel university campus. if you havent heard of david dye the guy equals legend. check out this npr bio on him. david has been in our corner since the beginning and totally understands what we are going for. our interview with him was extremely fun, relaxed and it felt like we were talking to someone who had definitely done his homework…a total pro. i thought the questions he asked were very well thought out plus his interviewing style is very laid back which made us all feel at home.

personally i love playing live on the radio – it was the first time we got to do this as a band instead of just an acoustic thing with robert and mariqueen. we played ok but it was a bit weird listening to the whole mix in headphones. bass going into headphones is one of the worst things to hear when you’re a bass player cos it sounds like ass…no way around it. anyway, all bass tone stuff aside, this was a thrill and i would gladly put those headphones back on again in a nanosecond if we ever got the chance to go back and hang out at xpn. we played trip, miles from monterey, hollywood, and what are you afraid of. after the interview rob went and did some station ID’s and then mariqueen and i did some together. “hi this is francis ten and mariqueen maandig of west indian girl and your listening world cafe live with david dye” or something like that. hahah it was cool.

Mariqueen’s Mind
philly xpn was a great experience. i expected it to be like my first radio experience at 94.9 in san diego. i didn’t understand how the whole band was going to fit all of our equipment inside a radio station and play live, but the one thing i’ve learned since joining this band is to just go with the flow. expect the unexpected. you might just find a pleasant surprise.

so mark, fran, tommy and i drove into the radio station from our second night staying with becky. let me just say how sad your life is if you haven’t experienced a trip to the mccabe estate. that house slash mansion slash tour godsend was and is my favorite experience on this musical journey. just picture what may very well be the perfect family. tall, dark and handsome husband (tom) with the petite and beautiful wife (becky)… then there’s the girls. gorgeous. all of them. rachel, the oldest and most outgoing of the bunch. she’s always smiling and has one of those super soothing speaking voices. the kind of voice that boys will call and want to listen to. i know it’s kind of wrong for me to say but she has a sexy kind of voice. watch out, rachel… the boys will come running, and start calling if they haven’t already. then there’s katherine. super tall, super pretty and super shy. i don’t know that much about her because she’s so shy but it’s ok. i was and still am the same way around people. then there’s little sara. i got to sleep in sara’s room for the three wonderful days i was able to stay at the mccabe estate. sara is a cutie pop with shirley temple curls and a quiet demeanor. i am convinced that one of her drawings should be a new west indian girl t-shirt. fran, if you’re reading this… you have the power. make it happen. so ok, the family sounds perfect right? it gets even better. the house is siiiiiiick. wireless internet everywhere. eleven rooms. one acre all around. huge backyard with a pond, a hammock, fireflies, a swingset, a tool shed, a fire pit, a deck and room left over to build a pool. whaaat? yuh. for serious. this house was gangster. our first night there we were greeted with sanwiches, a variety of fine beer, and congo bars. i did my laundry, click clacked on my lappy, and watched blazing saddles. dope, right? anyway, i’ve completely strayed from the subject, sorry people. let me just end this ode to the mccabe family by saying thank you. for everything. becky you are so amazing. thank you. i can’t say that enough. lewscious and tommy say thank you as well. lewscious would also like to thank rachel for those amazing muffins. me too me too me too! rachel you are a fantastic baker. the congo bars, the heavenly muffins, the constant smiles and then that voice. you are a going to be dangerous when you get older. the mccabe estate is west indian girl’s official east coast home base. get into it.

so anyway our radio show went great. i was happy and full from the great eggs and cheese and english muffin breakfast that beck had prepared for me. love her. damn. seriously. i got to the building and spent some quality time in the bathroom. i walked out of there ten pounds lighter and ready to sing. i stuffed my face with scones and hot tea while the boys were setting up. when it was time to get it going we banged through “trip”, “miles from monterey”, “hollywood” and “what are you afraid of”. the interview went well. i think i’m finding my groove when it comes time to ask me stuff. i was nervous my first time i was interviewed but there’s something really soothing about being in a huge recording studio with all the boys i love holding their instruments that puts me in a natural comforting state. who knows. i wonder what david dye thought of me? david i know you read the blog, i want to know what you think. i’m bummed we didn’t get to chat more. i didn’t even see you at our show. hmphf.

some live shots taken tommy

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the world cafe live show was great. philly is turning into a real nice town for us with some really amazing fans. the venue there is top notch – big stage, clean backstage, nice restaurant – overall a great place to see live music. again, i just cant get over how warm and receptive the philly crowds are to west indian girl. these people are true music lovers, support their scene and are knowledgeable about their scene. maybe that’s due in large part to WXPN and it’s force as one of the best noncomm radio stations period. more parts of the country need to follow philly’s lead. seattle’s KEXP and of course la’s KCRW are on the same level in my opinion. this was the most fun i’ve had on stage in a while. plus i got to announce to everyone that it was the first concert that my nieces have ever seen so it was a bit of history for those three. in the pic on the left is derek who we met at the last tower show. he’s cool and one of the first people to own the new lithos we got in. they were shipped in to philly that day and proved to be a big hit. they’re limited edition, individually numbered tour posters on nice heavy card stock. they can be signed by the band too. pretty awesome mementos if you ask me.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: i didn’t get a chance to walk around because the second we got to town i had to get to work. i have three new goals for my next trip to philly: 1. dig for soul records 2. go see the historical spots 3. finally try a philly cheese steak sandwich.

The Venue: the world cafe is beautiful and is, without a doubt, the nicest place we’ve played so far. good food… great service… excellent staff. love it.

The Show: i didn’t feel like i gave my best performance. i don’t know. i could hardly hear anything, the stage was so huge. i had to force myself to loosen up. i heard later on that night that we sounded amazing which is crazy because i was watching ward a lot for inspiration and he was shaking his head like he had problems.
i’m not sure when i’ll feel like we’ve had a really amazing show because i think my expectations rise higher and higher every passing day. my favorite part of the set was “what are you afraid of”… the breakdown just gets more fun each time we do it.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “oh man it’s hot up here” “what is going on with the sound?” “wow, i can see everyone and their meal… again”

Interesting Things After The Show: not so much interesting things… but interesting people. hmmm… i drove back to becky’s fabulous house after the show, that’s about as interesting as it gets, people. deal with it.

Carter’s Conscience Philly– I love Philly! Both times in Philly we’ve had great shows. WXPN is really behind us, they set up a radio show where we played a live set with David Dye. (Sorry if I misspelled your name David) The show was cool, we did it all in the studio right next to the World Cafe, Good to see Dan from WXPN as well. You’re the man, buddy! The venue itself was amazing. Again, everyone was sitting at tables, but the crowd was rocking nonetheless. i saw a few familiar faces from our last show in Philly, even saw a guy wearing a shirt that we signed the last time we were in Philly! Anyway, it seemed that the crowd really dug it, we were really into it, it was a great show for us all in all. Thanx to Emily from Astralwerks for taking the train down from NYC. She’s a champion, even helping us out at the merch table. I’m bummed we had to leave right after the show. Anybody reading this from Philly, lets organize a big afterparty when we come through town again, I need some more Philly in my life!

some live shots taken by my bro in lawcarter and mariqueen with bill walshsaying goodbye to our little oasis

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the view from my deer sister’s house

i decided wear barrettes again today, mariqueen let me borrow her hello kitty one’s. i’m kinda into it just because most guys i talk to start giving me strange looks and im sure their thinking “is this guy a fag” …little do they know, plus i dont care….it amuses me. so the best part of the annapolis show was the fact we had a day off before the show. we spent that day driving down from maine. while driving down i decided to give my sister a ring. she lives in pennington nj about 45 minutes outside of philly. i asked her if the 4 of us (rob and chris were on the tour bus with turin brakes) could stay at her house. she said yes and this turned out to be the best stop we could have made cos her house is the lap of luxury. we did laundry, took showers, ate tons of food, and hung out in her beautiful backyard surrounded by huge pine trees and a koi pond. it kicked ass….did i mention the ping pong table and hi speed wireless internet access. it was so cool seeing my nieces too. i love those kids so much. anyway, we woke up the next day and cruised to annapolis – a few hours away.

let me just say this about the annapolis crowd. awesome…even thought there were only 77 people there 1 out of every 3 bought our cd. it was a great evening of recruiting new west indian girl believers. the show itself was bizarre because it was at the ramshead tavern which is basically a sit down dinner type venue. i mean there were tables right in front of the stage with people eating while we were playing. it was kooky – the whole show i kept thinking to myself how the hell can these people deal with my bass blasting in their face and eat. talk about taking one for the team the polite people of annapolis provided for a memorable evening. we even got to play our longest set of the tour – we opened with still lost just because we didnt want to blow their salads off the plates too early. gotta give a shout out to jennifer koster (in the pic with carter) who will live in infamy as the first person to buy something from our online store. she was there with her man ryan. i tried to give her my 2 free tickets for the show but she had already bought them…she’s wonderful.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: annapolis is, like most of the cities and towns we’ve visited thus far, picturesque and muggy. the one thing that sets annapolis apart from the others is that it is the home of west pointe and therefore, super duper republicanish. whatever, i don’t know if that’s a good thing or not for any of you readers so i’m not going to get into it. let’s just say i’m super liberal but my parents are republican and i love them with all my heart. hi mom, i know you’re reading this. i miss you. hi daddy, i love love love you. since i’m constantly around guitars, you are on my mind all the time. alright enough sentimentality… so yeah, annapolis… i didn’t see much to do besides play the show, shop for lingerie and hang out at a cool little internet cafe. but you know what? i am not complaining one bit. i really dug the city and hope that next time we come around i get a chance to go sailing.

The Venue: the ram’s head tavern is the only place in annapolis that has shows. the banquet hall room thing spot where we performed at felt a little funny. hey, don’t get mad, i’m just being honest. when i first checked the venue out it made me think of my old gig. when i was fifteen i used to play with a bunch of old filipino men in a big band and we would go sing at banquets in swanky hotel halls and what not. i think the rams head tavern reminded me of this because of the carpeted stage and tables everywhere. it’s nerve racking when you are performing and you know that someone can actually eat and look up your skirt at the same time. hmmm… the really dope part about the venue was that we got an unlimited amount of beer and wine for free. good stuff. after the show i went downstairs to the underground pub they had. i guess rob had discovered a fresh cover band making all the young drunk locals go insane. i had lewscious be my date and we checked it out. one word: amazing. the lead singer had a fantastic voice. mark and i ended up talking to him at the end of the night and find out that he used to play with p-funk when he was fifteen. whaaaaat?!

The Show: the show, despite the sketchiness of the layout, turned out to be a success for everyone. i had so much fun. i was a little dancing tambourine machine. i think it’s a lot more comfortable to dance around on carpet than hardwood floors so i let loose. the response that we got was great. i couldn’t have asked for a nicer audience. they were all so beautiful and friendly. i gave our show an eight out of ten. if the stage had been bigger it’d be a ten for sure.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “my god, i can see everyone’s face and meal… crazy.” “wow, i wish every theater we played at had carpeted floors, i know it’s probably bad for acoustics but my god, could it be possible for me to get any more nuts with these boots right now? i think not…”

Interesting Things After The Show: the coolest part of the night was listening to that awesome band downstairs and finally meeting turin brakes’ illusive busdriver. the enigma known as jay. actually, i also got a chance to get to know the boys in the other band pretty well. eddie, turin brakes’ bass player and i discussed kafka and girls gone wild… gale, mark and i discussed astrological signs and significant others and then tommy, mark, fran and i drove back to becky’s (fran’s amazing sister) god send of an estate in new jersey. i think i might’ve peed at a gas station on the way back but i remember waking up in the suburban when we finally got to her house and stuffing five congo bars in my mouth. if you don’t know what a congo bar is, i feel sorry for you. ask fran.

Carter’s Conscience Annapolis– Rob and i hopped on turin Brakes’s tour bus to Annapolis. We drove overnight, and had a day off when we woke up. I pretty much slept all day in Annapolis, chilled by the pool, ate good food, etc. I really needed just to catch up on some z’s. Not much to do where we were, so Rob and I saw War of the Worlds. The verdict? I thought i was going to hate it, but it was actually all right. Granted, Tom Cruise is a douche, that’s a given. Oh shit, I’d better not say anymore or the Scientologists might ruin my music career. . . My humblest apologies Mr. Cruise and Mr. Hubbard, but you’re still a couple of douches in my book. Anyway, on to the show– The Ram’s head– A cool little dinner club, where everyone is sat at tables, eats dinner, and watches the show. I think its great for the audience to have seats and a casual environment, but it is a little strange for the performers. You feel like you’re under a microscope a bit– its still fun, just a little less free. But the crowd was really cool and appreciative, I would definitely play there again. Incidentally, I didn’t catch the name of the cover band that plays downstairs, but they were kick-ass. Also, Happy Birthday Troy! Troy is our road dog, almost singlehandedly responsible for getting the stage set up and torn down. Unfortunately, what Troy really wanted for his birthday I wouldn’t know where to find in Annapolis, so he had to settle for a good cocktail instead. happy birthday bud.

robert james setting up shop

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post show drunkin donuts with tommy and lewscious

the crowd at the big easy wasnt so big or easy for that matter. it seemed like they were pretty tough to break through to but i guess its normal for the crowds there to just “listen” and not get all into it. at least that is what someone there told me. so with that in mind you could safely say it was like a los angeles crowd. i think there were under 100 people there but what do you expect….well, i expected more but we sold a fair number of cds considering the attendence. we always seem to sell a bunch of cds after we play these days which is very encouraging because that means we are making fans just on virtue of our live show. i dont think we had our best show and i credit that to the fact they dont allow alcohol on stage. how random is that. maine and i think iowa are the only states that dont allow you to bring drinks on stage. what year is it? i think prohibition started in maine…maybe they’re still holding on to the past. before the show we all ended up meeting at an ice cream shop where the picture above was taken. another rated g family moment.

portland me was a nice change of pace from the last two major cites we were in. it was really, well, quaint…and peaceful. as far as the food situation went my philosophy was “when in rome…: and i had lobster for lunch and lobster for dinner. it was pretty tasty – i had dinner at a place called the porthole with the band. my friend michael who was at the boston show also came to the maine show. it was cool seeing him again. so dinner was cool because you eat right on a pier or dock…basically right on the water. i was bummed i had to leave early to go play because a classic rock cover band had just started to play. they blew a fuse in the middle of their first song and all their amps died which was a hilarious and classic spinal tap moment if you ask me. after the show we unfortunately had to return to the shitty motel we were staying at. our hotel smelled like piss and mold. maybe that’s why there was a mole hanging out in front of our door. i guess that would explain the room being so moldy.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: portland, maine is a hell of a lot different than portland, oregon but still amazing in it’s own way. the one thing i hated about the town was our dump of a motel. god, it was the worst ever. don’t ever stay at the budget inn if you decide to go to portland maine. it was the smelliest shithole or should i say pisshole since that’s exactly what my room smelled like, i’ve ever been forced to stay in. just disgusting. on a lighter note, the town is superrr picturesque, well equipped with cobblestone streets and a nice breeze. this was the first time i can say i experienced a meal that made my eyes roll back in pleasure. rob, mark, carter and i ate at an irish pub or something and i had the pleasure of having baked scallops and other tasty delights wrapped in a tortilla. bomb. so fresh to def, it’s making me type out in ebonics… almost. that is how good it was. you what the best part of my meal was? sweet potato fries. mhm, that’s right child. sweet potato fries dipped in cajun mayonnaise or something. heaven. besides having mark lewis feed me the best lobster i’ve ever had, which is a sexy moment in itself, this was probably my big portland highlight. wait wait, that and the home made ice cream cone fran and i shared. that was kind of sexy too. we are such a sexy band. eating well = sexy. get into it, people.

The Venue: sadly enough, it didn’t live up to it’s name.

The Show: i gave this show a five out of ten. seriously, people, i’m hard on myself and on this band. we sold like twenty cd’s i think but i don’t believe we gave an outstanding performance. the one exception to that rule is mark lewis. he played immaculately tonight. i love my lewscious.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “ugh.” “why am i sucking so bad right now?” “i knew i shouldn’t have gotten so full before a performance.” “mmm… lobster.”

Interesting Things After The Show: i started and finished a beautiful book by steven chbosky and got some awesome pictures and video footage of the cutest blind mole that was hanging outside of my smelly room. god, i am so boring. you love it.

Carter’s Conscience Portland Maine– After driving around town till 6:30 am trying to get a hotel, we slept until 3 and went to the gig. I went on a little jog in the morning, ran into the forest, saw a squirrel, got my head together. The gig was a small place, probably the smallest we will play the whole tour, a bit of a logistical nightmare getting everything on stage. Really really hot and humid out. . . Portand is a really rootsy old city. its a fishing town. The coolest person I met was the lady working in 7-11 at 6 am. She called around and tried to find us hotels, all the while talking about her X-husbands, one of which is a shrimp boat captain. you just don’t meet many ex-wives of shrimp boat captains back home. . . I didn’t feel like I had my best show in Maine, I can’t remember why, just a feeling. Maybe just a bit tired. Touring in a Suburban will run you down, trust me

tommy working the roomcheck out lewscious’ shirt – looks like he has cartoon hand

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more cheers more beers – hangin in boston with brendan sullivan

we played at tt the bears in boston or as chris carter dubbed it, bear titties. i wasnt too excited to go boston cos every time i go there a fight seems to break out in front of me but this time there was no violence at all, it was all just good vibes from beginning to end. tt’s had a tiny stage and the sound system leaved a bit to be desired but all in all it was another kick ass evening. we made a bunch of new fans there. hats off to ward mcdonald who is doing our sound for the tour. he is turin brakes soundman and was nice enough to also mix us. he did a fantastic job for never having heard us before. the set was great. we opened with northern sky, then followed it with a long version of trip, monterey, hollywood, out of pink, and ended with what are you afraid of.

my old friend from los angeles michael mclaughlin showed up (on left). mclaughlin and i used to work at a dot com company in beverly hills. he lives in maine now and is back in school getting another degree. i havent seen him in what seems like a few years. it was great seeing him. the big story of the evening was lewscious’ brothers. boston is pretty much the town of lewscious as it seemed like 1 out of every 3 people i met knew him. all the lewis brothers where there (that’s david with beth in the pic below). i love it when we have family night at shows. the boston crowd was great and very receptive to the west indian girl experience. big thanx to reason who headed up our street team in boston. he did a great job promoting and it wont be forgotten.

so after the show we decided to drive all the way to portland where we were playing the next night and get a hotel there. this turned out to be the dumbest idea ever because every hotel we tried to stay at was booked. we ended up finding rooms at the shittiest little overpriced place in new england. i mean these rooms should have been going for like 19 bucks thats how fucking gross they were. i should have slept in my clothes.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: boston is picturesque but of course, i didn’t get a chance to walk around and explore it. we did, however, pass fenway park and i wanted to run out and touch the wall but didn’t get to. bummed. when i did get a chance to walk around outside the venue, i got a lot of unwanted attention from some of the locals. the male species in boston sure are forward and friendly. i’d like to give a loving shout out to chris carter for being so protective over me.

The Venue:what can i say about tt the bear’s? it’s small and cute and they pour stiff drinks. what more can you ask for? i know what i’d ask for… how about a bigger stage with a better monitor system?

The Show: i honestly thought i gave a better performance in boston than new york. the only problems the band seemed to have were technical. the monitors were heinous and carter had delay problems with his equipment. it was still a great show with amazing energy. i gave it an eight out of ten. the boston fans were great… just fabulous. i can’t wait to come back.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “god, i hope i sound alright.” “this stage is so small.” “is that guy in the audience really popping and locking right now? rad.”

Interesting Things After The Show: ohhh yes. good times were had in boston… but don’t ask me… hit up the boys… they always seem to have more fun and have better stories than me. all i did was finish my david sedaris book. read his books. they are amazing. after you ask the boys what happened at tt the bears, ask them if they hate me for passing out shotgun status while they drove around maine trying to find a hotel room. while you’re at it can you ask them since they took so long to find a room, ask them why we didn’t just sleep in the suburban because it would’ve been better than finally deciding on the shit shack from hell which we didn’t even get to settle into until almost seven in the morning. i need to stop talking about this or else i’ll punch a wall. but this should actually be for our portland show report, shouldn’t it? alright, the moral of the story is… boston was fun and i didn’t get enough of it so please bring me back as soon as humanly possible. alright?

Carter’s Conscience Boston– TT the Bears, otherwise known as Bear titty’s. Pretty small stage, but a really cool venue all in all. It doesn’t help that my keyboard rig is absolutely massive. But in my defense, those are the keyboards that sound the best, and I’m not willing to sacrifice sound quality for portability. I really don’t write that much about what happened during the actual show, mostly because I don’t remember much of the show afterwards. This isn’t because I was so wasted or any crap like that, ( I actually enjoy being sober on stage) just because I like to trance out and enjoy myself on stage. The moment I become aware or self-conscious about what I’m doing, the moment I lose the groove and fuck up. So needless to say, I don’t remember much besides being a bit nervous during the show. But the crowd was great, I got to meet Mark Lewis’ brother! Mary Q could start a riot just walking down the street, she must excude some kind of exotic pheremones or something. Anyway, we decided to drive to Portland that night for our next gig, which turned out to be a nightmare. . .

our boys reason and with mariqueencheck out the new women’s tank tops we haveit all happens in front of the merch standalan lewscious and kasiathe outsiderz of boston

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we flew in the night before on jet blue. jet blue is the only way to travel from la to ny – trust me…big leather seats, directv on the flight – nice simple airport out of long beach. you cant beat it – plus if you pop half a tab of ambien your flight will be even better cos you will be asleep for most of it. the hotel we stayed at sucked balls. it was the worst western on 38th and for the price it sucked. every now and then my crappy camera takes a good picture and the hazy one i took of Q in our hotel room looks pretty timeless. dont you agree – it’s got a good vibe like a song.
so, the day of the show i went to the virgin megastore to do an instore interview with dj mike (on left)- i guess you can say dj mike is the ny version of la’s dj dave who i’ve talked about before. ironically, just like dj dave, mike is really cool. we hung out for about an hour and played a bunch of tracks off the record and talked about everything under the sun. what was great about this store is that they had our video running on repeat the whole time. it was so cool to see it on a tv instead of the computer. it looked great. anyway, after that i cruised back to soundcheck with chris jones who flew in for the show. it was great having chris there. speaking of “it was great having them there” let’s talk about our publishing company, Cherry Lane who came out in full force. after the show the upstairs turned into a cherry lane party. rich and christa and brooke were there along with tons of other cherry laners. oh so how was the show you ask. we kicked ass and here is a link to a blog review of the show that i was just sent. just read this review in Warm Sounds because i couldn’t have said it better…this review made our collective day. i’m glad you enjoyed the show – next time say hello ian.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: we got into new york the night before the show. we as in rob, fran, mark and i. we stayed at some best western DUMP. my room was the size of bowery ballroom’s “champagne room”. seriously. it smelled and i hated it. our first night in town was less than thrilling. we went to eat at some cute diner/bar in soho at like one in the morning, which i think, is ridiculous because i hate to eat late but i was out voted so whatever. i love new york but not during the summer. it was hot and muggy and the smell reminded me a lot of downtown l.a., hmm… lovely? not so much. our second and final day and evening in new york was spent at the bowery so i didn’t get to have as wonderful an experience as my last time. i don’t care though, i still think new york is the greatest city in america. the end.

The Venue: i thought bowery ballroom was going to be grandiose… it didn’t look like a “ballroom” per se but i dug the layout… a lot. i’d go into detail about how cool the scene is but you’ll just have to go there yourself and see if you don’t already know. since we were the opening band we didn’t get the main dressing room but we got what i like to call “the champagne room”. the champagne room was pretty gangster… it was an intimate little VIP section of some sorts with a velvet curtain that blocked us from the rest of the patrons on the upper level. if it weren’t for the musky smell and all the dust… uh, historic dust? i probably would’ve liked it a lot more. the people at the bowery were fantastic. all the security guards and our sound girl were super groovy. i can’t wait to play a show there again… mhm, please and thanks.

The Show: we were determined to make up for what i thought was a pathetic new york debut at the mercury lounge. we succeeded.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “ah! this is so much fun!”

Interesting Things After The Show: lots of drinking and merriment and bickering with taxi cab drivers. we hung out with some awesome people: i’d name them but what’s the use… you know who you are and you all know that we love you… trust me folks, we were surrounded by lots and lots of beautiful people… lots and lots of beautifully drunk great people. friends, lovers, colleagues and label mates. it was too much fun. trust me when i say… too much. it might be mandatory to have too much fun in the greatest city in america. give. me. more.

robert james and mariqueen with rich from cherry lane
chris jones, scott, carter and lewscious
finally, the golden republic make the blog!

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tour starts in new york this thursday

hey everybody i’m sorry i havent been updating the blog lately but that is because i’ve been so busy getting ready for our FIRST EVER US TOUR. thank God our tour is about to start. yeah, it’s gonna be great. we will play 16 shows in 23 days. i’m so excited to go on this tour just because we’re gonna get better as a band. to date we have played only 26 shows and after this tour our we will have played 42. that’s a big jump for us. i just hope another tour follows this one because west indian girl loves being on the road.

as i type this carter and tommy (newly hired helping hand) are driving all of our gear out to nyc. just getting our vehicle this weekend was a big mess or as we say in italian un casino de la madonna. i was at the uhaul place for 5 fucking hours yesterday only to accomplish nothing. the van that was rented to us had both it’s brake lights not functioning. as result of this the uhaul place wouldnt let us hook up the uhaul – plus it’s pretty dangerous driving across the country with no brake lights. we were supposed to get a new van this morning but that never arrived so this afternoon i was back at the uhaul place for 3 hours trying to figure out what to do. this time rob joined me for the festivities. right before the uhaul place closed we decided to rent a pickup truck and 6×12 trailer. we drove it off the lot and parked it right outside the uhaul place just so we had it ready for the van (whenever it arrived). meanwhile our idiot van rental company never got us a van and at the last minute (8:30 pm) told us a brand new suburban was on it’s way over. the suburban actually rocks…gps, bose speakers, leather seats…it’s dope. we finally got that bitch hooked up to a trailer and loaded with all our equipment around 11:30 pm. carter and tommy officially took off around midnight. they’re gonna have to drive their asses off to get to ny in 3 days. i kind of wish i was going with them. at least they have a nice ride. the suburban isnt going to be so nice when we have 6 people in it though…it’s gonna suck major ass.

i’m really sad to announce that tony is not going to be making this trip with us. yeah this is really bumming me out but hey, look where tone is going to be staying. he’s going to stay with the dog whisperer from the national geographic channel. for real, cesar millan is going to be rehabilitating tony at his dog psychology center. tony is great with people but he is dog aggressive. so on one hand i’m totally stressing about this but on the other hand this will probably be the best thing in his life cos he gets a chance to socialize with a huge pack of dogs. who knows how much fun he could have if he just lightens up and decides to blend in with the other kids. he might meet a lady too. summer love. i hope things work out for the kid.

about to em”bark” on a tour of his own

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