West Indian Girl

Bits of press and interviews are finally trickling in from the summer festivals … Outside Lands was probably one of the most professionally organized festivals we’ve ever played, and rocking Street Scene’s Casbah stage at sunset was by far the most enjoyable 45 minutes of the weekend.

A deep and special thanks goes out to our guest drummer extraordinaire Brendan Buckley & the marvelous and ethereal Miranda Lee Richards. It was an honor to play by their side and absorb all that professionalism and phenomenal energy.

Check out our feature on LA2Day’s online coverage of Outside Lands (thank you Chrissy!) and USD Radio’s interview with the chicas (thanks Nick!).

SPIN EXAMINER

Thanks to all for coming out, supporting and sharing in the love of music.

the other night amy, melissa and i attended the macy’s passport gala at the barker hangar in santa monica. it’s a fashion and theatric show which raises money to support local hiv/aids organizations. the cause is indeed epic —how come we dont have a cure for that by now—you would think we would after 27 years right? anyway it was the first time i got to spend some quality time with melissa and she’s a really really great person to be around. it was fun walking the red carpet and doing interviews with her…she’s quick, well spoken and fucking hilarious all at the same time. special thanx to heidi richmond and wente vineyards for making us their special guests. heidi is officially my new favorite person of 09. the whole passport event was very well done. i think the highlights of my evening would be seeing liz taylor and eating the curry chicken. i didnt realize this but liz taylor is actually dame liz taylor…which really means she was knighted in the uk. dame = sir. other big plus was the valet guys who were super cool with me having tony with us. they let me valet my truck myself and gave me a nice spot in the shade for him. that’s huge.

in the hopes of being a bit more “communal” we have added a news section to the website. this news section is for “official” band news and will function as more of a group “collective voice” so to speak. in addition this page will now be the site’s main landing page. when i redesigned the site earlier this year i was trying to roll the blog and news all into one page but since since i do 95% of the blogging it’s only natural that my voice ended up becoming the default voice of the band. obviously u can see where this goes…my voice will never reflect or fall in line with everyone else in this band and that sometimes isnt a good thing. this format change ironically gives the blog a bit more freedom now as it doesnt have to represent a collective (read be so pc). the blog will be much more active now so please check in as it’s not the main page on the site any longer. in 04 i started the blog as personal blog and soon thereafter it became adopted as the band blog…i guess now we have come full circle. that said, this blog should be a bit more fun as the shackles are now lifted. im free 😉

for all of those who have asked…here’s a picture of melissa. yup, i know…crazy to think her voice, personality, vibe and everything else is just as cool.

WEST INDIAN GIRL HAS FOUND A FEMALE VOCALIST. We would like to thank everyone for taking the time to send in videos, tapes, website links etc etc etc. We appreciate all applicants for taking the time to do this… especially the ones who came down to the studio for in person auditions. Details about our new lineup and upcoming shows will be posted in the very near future.

i’ve had the pleasure of working with and training a few interns this spring and summer. all of them (dino, dylan, steve, curren, michael, esther) have done great work for west indian girl but two of them deserve special mention and gold stars. these two infamous characters would be dino santino borling and dylan neves-cox. both of them kicked fucking ass and in the process not only helped me, but helped “west indian girl”, helped “i will never be the same” and in the process gained more real life experience and education than any music class or school could teach you. yeah they did their share of grunt work but they saw every side of business that the normal fan isnt exposed to nor realize exists. they listened, they learned, they executed, took initiative when the situation called for it, and never complained. so yeah this thank you is not only from both bands but also from the bottom of my heart. thanx again guys and i look forward to the day when i make u both quit school and go on tour with us. dylan, the pic below is from outside lands – sorry u had the poly sci class and just couldnt make it…jeez.

special thanx to chad leblanc and simon lee from alternative apparel for giving us some great clothes at outside lands. i ended up wearing that shirt for the next couple days. love it. love you guys. i need to go to mom and son cleaners to wash it now. oh yeah, that’s brendan buckley in the pic with me – he was our fill in drummer for the summer and i have yet to officially cyber thank him….i guess that’s the next blog.

below is an mp3 of my interview with halloran on 94.9. let me tell you something….i have done a ton of interviews but this guy ranks up there as arguably the best interviewer i have sat across from. his database of musical knowledge is astounding —he fills in the blanks, educates and keeps the flow going like no other. listen at your own risk…it’s an hour long. here is my playlist for the hour.

now on to the real important stuff. of all the people i plugged during the interview i somehow forgot the most important one and he was sitting right fucking next to me. wanni, buddy, this THANK YOU! goes out to you. wanni helped set this whole thing up and made sure i was there on time. he, despite my fears of bikes, picked me up from a bar on the beach and then drove me back on a 2008 BMW R1200 RT. gotta tell you…it was great, that bike rides like a dream. now i want to get a bike with a sidecar for tony. in the pic below wanni is on left and halloran is in middle.

special thanks to karl wente for including us in his “discover the wine discover the music” series. i was quite impressed with his explanation for pairing our song “beach” with a riesling— this was pretty cool and interesting. i love shit like this. thanx karl and of course heidi richman. you can buy this wine at whole foods 😉 here’s a nice forbe’s video clip about this program.

We are excited to announce that West Indian Girl’s set at the Outside Lands festival on Friday, August 28th will be featured as part of the first ever festival webcast on YouTube. The performance will be streamed live at 5:05pm pacific along with a bunch of other great artists. Following the show you’ll be able to check out archived videos from the festival as well.

i will be on halloran’s coup d’etat show this sunday at 6pm. should be fucking fun to see him again we have lots to talk about…specially the day after st scene. i’m already getting my mental playlist ready. love going to 94.9 – why don’t stations like that exist in la?

of course you guys already know we are playing st scene sat night 6:45 at the casbah stage. see you there.

the trip to sf should be cool. nice to read stuff like this – best of from the sf examiner – and this –must hear from spin mag–
see you all there nice and early. we play at 1 not 1:30. we will be doing press in the press area starting around 3 so if u need to find any of us us look for us there. oh yeah, and a side note to all the press in sf…i’ve recently proposed to my dog tony. hence forth i would only like to be referred to as tony’s fiancee in all articles/interviews/press etc etc. please attach that to my name either before or after Francis Ten. I think i prefer it before. Tony’s Fiancee (Francis Ten).

we are very happy to announce that the lovely and talented miranda lee richards will be our very special guest vocalist for both the outside lands festival and san diego street scene. it should be a real fun time having her on stage with us. miranda is awesome – these shows will be very special treat for both of our respective fan bases. in the meantime the search for a permanent female vocalist replacement for our live show continues….we will keep you posted.

recently some comments were deleted from a post announcing our last singer’s departure. i actually had no problem with them. they are what they are- comments and opinions. that’s why i have the option there. if i just wanted every comment to align with exactly what i wanted to hear i would have called the section “kiss my ass” instead of comments. so to everyone who took the time to write a comment and it was deleted im sorry. that’s not how i want this website to operate. i value being real and being honest and being able to say what you think. that’s what i do and quite often faulted for it. i also have no problems with any critic. you are entitled to your opinion. if you do however make it personal with me or my CURRENT band mates that’s another story. that’s where the web and things like twitter gets interesting…. it’s easy to be a real big tough guy. the real test is if you could actually go nose to nose and say it to our face — that’s the kind of stuff i like. anyway, the story here is this… i could give a shit what you say about people that arent in my band and i also dont care if you liked this band for reasons that had nothing to do with the music. talk soon. bye bye

We’d like to thank each and everyone of you who participated in our little contest! Thank you all for sharing our music and spreading the love…

Here are the 3 winners who went above and beyond:

1. Kampy (who will be joining us with his lady at Street Scene!)

2. Ester (will be hanging up north with us at Outside Lands!)

3. BlueGuru (who will be rocking out with us at the HOB tomorrow night!)

Congrats to all of you and thanks again for your continued support!

from the very very sad and unfortunate department we announce that west indian girl and mariqueen have parted ways. due to her recent life and priority changes she will no longer be part of our group. we wish her nothing but the best as she embarks on a new chapter of her new life outside of this band. she sacrificed a lot over the years and her loyalty and professionalism to this family will sorely be missed. she will, however, always remain in our hearts, thoughts and prayers. thank you q, we love and miss you.

how does this affect our upcoming shows in august? well, as cliche as it may sound “the show must go on”. due to the incredibly short notice of this situation there will be NO replacement for the 2 upcoming house of blues shows this week. there will be some sort of replacement or the possibility of multiple guest vocalists for the 2 festival shows in late august. i hope all our loyal west indian girl fans will understand this difficult situation and bear with us during this transition.

that said… bring on the american idol west indian girl show. if you’re a creative female with a killer voice then get in touch. effective immediately we are officially auditioning for her permanent replacement. please email info@westindiangirl.com if you would like to audition. thanx

this month’s issue of front mag – a british men’s mag features mariqueen as one of  their top 5 female entertainers. not just top 5…she’s numero uno!!!! congrats q and thanx front!

on july 11th we’re playing a really rad show at the henry fonda theatre in la. we’re going to be part of the labyrinth of jareth masquerade ball show. this is an incredibly intense event which takes a year of planning and prep to put on. strider and the loj crew have been so kind to outfit the band in elaborate costumes….we’re talking powdered wigs, tight pants, big gowns, cloaks and daggers etc etc. this should be fun as hell to play. if you want to go you cant because its already sold out. bummer. we will post pics though 🙂

Finally, our album of rarities is out today via Origami Records (the rad new vinyl store by the Echo in Echo Park)!

the collection includes 2 b-sides from our debut on Astralwerks; one unreleased remix from our Remix EP; 6 digitally unreleased remixes from 4th on the floor remixes, vol.2; and last but not least, a dreamy and vulnerable interpretation of the Beatles classic, 8 days a week. Available @ all the usual online music retailers or here!

listen people, our contest is so f’n easy to win. all u have to do is email your friends some music. you can enter multiple emails at once too so its pretty low on the demanding scale. in fact it cant get any easier – just copy an email addy then put a comma and another email addy….repeat again and again and again and win. check out the contest page/tab for all the details on how u get to hang out and watch the show of your choice with us from backstage. you’ll be photographed and videotaped with all of us – all for sharing our “We Believe” album and our “In The Studio” video with as many friends as possible. this contest doesnt suck.