West Indian Girl

every now and then i do get to go out. normally it’s work related but sometimes it’s not. anyway, i thought it might be nice to post a picture of one of best friends in los angeles, marcos beltran. marcos is also my running partner when schedules permit – he’s a way better runner than i by the way. you may recognize the stud on the left as tommy alexander who is all over the blog when he went on the road with us during our turin brakes tour. this was taken at cha cha lounge in silver lake

literally…at my house.  yesterday night legendary rock photographer mick rock stopped over my place to say hi. he was in town shooting queens of the stone age and was hanging out with q that evening. if you dont know who he is then refer back to this old blog entry about mick

later on that evening q. mick and nathan all went to a party at tk’s new place. tk’s a great guy – he’s also a dj at indie 103 here in la.

at tk’s house

normally a drive down the 110S at 3pm on a friday afternoon in los angeles is not a good idea. on this particular instance though it had to be done. you see my friend jade howe was having a little house warming party at his company’s new digs. i recruited my best friend sascha linn to make the trip with me for a few reasons. 1. hes got a nice benz and on a hot day like today this trip in my landcruiser wouldnt have been pleasant (read sticky). 2. hes into clothes and 3. we needed a good reason to catch up. the party at howe was perfect way to kick off my weekend – it was intimate, good drinks, good music, and we got a guided tour. the office space is dialed and the new lines look amazing. you can check them out here www.HauseofHowe.com below is some video from the party.

i owe a lot to this man…specifically the 3 pair of jeans that i have been wearing for the past couple years. it’s never a problem endorsing someone whose product you love and someone who’s always so cool. jade was actually the subject of one of my first 10 with ten interviews haha check it out. he was the first non band member to be interviewed. i have to do more of those this year. special thanx to elsie for making sure i was there. elsie you are the best!

See them walking hand in hand across the bridge at midnight

we had our first publicity photoshoot for the second record last week. tyler parker was the man behind the camera. we did the shoot at the orthodox clothing house in la. it was tight – a few locations – quick and easy. tyler’s crew was solid. im sure nathan is thrilled at the thought of never having to see chris carter’s face on a poster when we pull up to clubs in the near future.

Heads turning as the lights flashing out it’s so bright

we took a trip down to long beach last night to see our friends from kansas city. our friends happen to be in a rad band called roman numerals. shawn, steve and my lost love billy. billy and i have spent many a lonely hour on the phone talking about booking shows and booking in general. that’s how we became friends. they played at the prospector and even though it wasnt the best place to see a band it was still the only place to be on that particular evening. i’m gonna set up a show with them soon because they rule.

shawn (q’ friend), me, q, and shawn and billy from roman numerals

true romance #1

true romance #2

Tonight we started final mixing on the first 5 songs off the next record. After this batch is done we will finish recording and mixing the remainder before the new year. As of this moment we dont know what label we will be releasing our second effort on. One thing for sure is that it will fall under our own label imprint called Northern Sky. It will be interesting to see how the next few months pan out in regards to the business side of things. We’re also just starting to get in touch with directors for video making plans. If everything goes according to plan a bunch of videos are going to be made for the record. We’re also getting a bunch more remixes made too. It should be a very creative fall and winter. Oh yeah, we are also going to be redesigning our website which i personally cant wait to do. Im so sick of our site i cant even tell you.

The pictures posted are of two guest musicians we recently had in. The first (above) is of my man Bomani who played some trumpet on 2 tracks and the second (below) is of Chris Arpad who played steel drums on a track. Both of these guys are super awesome people that i hope we get to work with again. We used little bits of each session as a nice spice for the tracks. If you have never watched a great steel drum player you are missing out. Chris was so much fun to watch jamming on our stuff.
you can see more of chris on his official site by clicking here.

summer lovin… 6.3.06Lewscious invited us all out to a pool party this past weekend. The pool party happened to be at the home office of orthodox clothing. orthodox clothing is an insanely wicked men’s clothing line. eric and mike were our hosts not to mention the heart and soul of orthodox. not only were ginger margaritas flowing but west indian girl and orthodox clothing cemented their bond for the future together. a cool band can never have too many great looking clothes to wear. these men know that and now we are for ever in their debt. eric and mike….we love you.

mike Q & ericgreat backyarddon’t worry more girls in bikinis sooni told you….Q and nathan – drunk? i dont doubt itmark – post party & pre taco bellyou cant see it but Q’s yelling im hungry at the top of her lungspost taco bell – on the way to the studio like good boys & girl-F10

Good times. Cary Heckman, the director of the new video for Hollywood, threw a little party for the cast and crew last night at that golden gopher in downtown la. it was a blast. cary is shown in the picture on the right along with shawn antonio who plays a break dancing drug dealer in the video (one of my personal favorites in vid). the golden gopher is a cool little bar. our manager even made it down. it was nice getting the whole band together. we are recording now so it’s not too often that everyone is together at the same time. seeing everyone in the band made me really miss playing shows and miss touring.

so what else is new you ask… well, i started working another job because i’m so broke, i’ve been cooking some amazing food at my place in the early morning hours, and i cant stop thinking about playing shows. hopefully i will have some news announcing a tour soon. if everything goes according to plan we would play 3 shows right in a row in los angeles and then leave for about a month passing through colorado, and the midwest until we get out east. it will be a awesome if we can make it happen. when this is actually going to happen is under wraps right now. talk to you soon. F10

the video in question – drug deal going downq, lewscious, ryanne and carternote to self – all dudes in a picture is never that cool

ok, so big Big BIg BIG HUGE f’ing thanx to kampy for making the flyer for our detroit bar show in costa mesa on the 17th. i cant thank this guy enough – so cool that he helped us out. also big ups to frank for making samplers and handing them out. it really makes me proud to have rad people like this in the west indian girl world. seriously, with fans/friends like kampy and frank other bands should be jealous! F10

so check out surfline.com right now because there is another aaron chang gallery posted there featuring our song “miles from monterey”. gotta love it. thanx aaron!

for those of you who don’t know, aaron chang is a surf photography icon. he is also the newest member of our extended family. aaron’s beautiful work lends itself wonderfully to our musical vibe. please do yourself a favor and check out his site where he has just posted a slideshow on New Zealand using the song “northern sky”. thanx aaron we fucking love you man. Aaron Chang Gallery – Surf Photography

F.TEN

portland – pretty much a blur

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

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

Mariqueen’s Mind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

F.TEN

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

F.TEN

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

ken, david k, and david a

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

tom our director of photography

marco marco the stylist we love

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

tough little chad

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

the gang from sacto

tatiana with eliza

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

tatiana with tone

that’s todd behind carter

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

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

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

update: check out the lucky man himself

it’s funny how people meet up. so i was working our merch booth in austin when somehow i started having a really funny conversation with this tall english guy. he was quick witted and hilarious and he kept kidding me about the band’s name…asking me if there really was a west indian girl or if it was just some blonde dude. i told him to just check out the show cos we have the perfect west indian girl not to mention that we rock balls. well, little did i know this dude’s name was also rock…mick rock. for those of you who don’t know who mick rock is, he’s basically a rock photography legend/icon.

come to daddy

anyway, during our set i saw him standing towards the front and i knew he knew all my bullshit wasn’t bullshit. after the show i didnt see him again but i heard he was having a laugh with the band. i guess he was backstage hanging out with rob and mariqueen and kept referring to me as “little sicilian” hahaha (if you can imagine his accent you would be cracking up). so as life would have it i gave him a call on wednesday cos he happened to be in LA for the opening of his exhibition. i wasnt expecting a red carpet event but this exhibition turned out to be all that and more. when we got there it was already packed with everybody in hollywood that desperately wanted to be seen there. i guess the most notable person that i remember seeing besides random actors was marilyn manson and his girl ditta von something. anyway, after hanging for a bit with mick we split to get a burger. i think he might shoot the band when we’re in ny in may. that would cool cos he has taken some classics. —F.TEN 4:48am

our little gangsters..lewscious, ryanne, mariqueen, and carter

every now and then we get a night off from rehearsing and every now and then there happens to be something somewhat cool to go do on that specific night off. well, on this particular night off we all went to to a party at the W for my friend jade howe’s clothing line –it’s called howe denim. i did a 10 with Ten with jade a while back that’s worth checking out. the party was great and jade’s new clothes are all super dope. the band wears a ton of his stuff all the time. i just scored an xs black hoodie which is now on heavy rotation in my closet. thanx jade.

heidi, let the good times…pop out

i like the W hotel – i think it’s a pretty nice place. i was just checking out their site and they are so fucking cool. scroll down on the left column and click on the “pets are welcome” sign. now that is great. you would think nice hotels would bum out about big dogs but they are way down with the program. anyway, heidi good times and her breasts were at the party. we love heidi – she kind of runs LA. after jade’s we all went to Tokio, a bar in hollywood that she promotes. they were having movie karaoke there… you act out scenes to films. looked kinda lame but who knows. while i was outside i bumped into 2 of my good friends that i dont see nearly enough of. steven melrose and jeremy. jeremy owns a bar called “the room”. a lot of that movie “swingers” was shot in there. melrose works for atlantic records as well as manages a bunch of great bands in la. melrose helped get west indian girl signed so he will forever reside in the west indian girl hall of fame – i love that guy.

english thugs – melrose and jeremy

below is a picture of my friend AC – he works at one of my favorite bars in los angeles called el carmen. i found this blurb about el carmen on the web: “Opened by L.A. restaurant-and-bar impresario Sean Macpherson, the man with the mescal touch, El Carmen conjures the feel of a back-alley Mexican cantina of a bygone era. Vintage Mexican movie posters, vibrant Latin American colors, and oil paintings of masked Mexican wrestlers decorate the Quonset-hut interior, while an eclectic jukebox offers an array of tunes from Tito Puente to the Foo Fighters. The busy bar boasts a gargantuan list of more than 100 tequilas and a small menu of tacos and light fare.” sounds good huh? thanx for all the drinks ac, you’ve seen me buzzed more than anyone else in los angeles.

AC is great guy, go talk to him

—F.TEN 7:40pm

below is a post by chris carter. usually chris doesnt doesnt say too much in the blog but this is a special occasion. remember, this is a true story, no names have been replaced or facts changed. take it away carter.

Yesterday at the end of the photo shoot I experienced one of the most surreal, hilarious, and disturbing experiences in the history of my life as Chris Carter.It took place on the corner of 4th and Wall in broad daylight, right outside our practice space. I was throwing away an empty coke can. Something that resembled a woman was walking towards me with, shall we say, a crazy look in her eyes. She was more odious and disturbed than your average cardboard box dweller downtown, and she was grinning stupidly and pointing at me. She grabbed the empty coke can out of my hand and managed to squeeze a few drops into her mouth, after which she laughed like she had just won the lottery. She was probably on some acid mixed with who knows what, and she started following me slowly down the street, laughing hysterically and pointing. Apparently she was very grateful for the coke can, because she proceeded to stop, squat, and lift up her skirt, pulling out her hairy lap curtains right on the sidewalk! In broad daylight! Luckily I turned my head just in time, or I could easily have been turned to stone, gone blind, or lost my ability to bear children one day. Marc Goldstein bravely documented the carnage, snapping two shots that are absolutely priceless. I’m convinced that this is some kind of omen for our band, but I can’t discern what it means. It just keeps getting stranger and stranger. . . with love, Carter

here she comes

a good deed never goes unnoticed

thanks for the coke chris

—F.TEN

ya know what, it’s about time i gave some props to our managers — chris jones and rich holtzman from method entertainment. all the bullshit that these guys have to take care of for us must drive them up a fucking wall. not only do these guys have to deal with the business of west indian girl, they have to deal with me calling them every day…i mean, every day…multiple times. anyway, i just wanted to say thanks for all of your hard work and patience and belief in what we are doing and what we are going to accomplish. i appreciate you guys making our lives a lot easier. this picture was taken in malibu this past summer during our first publicity shoot. i wonder if they read this blog….leave me a comment if you do—F.Ten 3:15

days off in between shows suck. i woke up so late today – i was confused. i took my truck into the shop for a tune up cos it was confused too. at midnight carter picked me up and we went to see our friend chris cuseo’s band knife fight. cuseo is pretty sick on stage…pure rage…it’s intense. their drummer rocks too. shit, this guy’s massive and pounds his drums like he’s beating someone up. you should check out cuseo’s art too. after that we went to st nick’s in my hood and i had some tequila and corona and listened to ac/dc on the jukebox. some random guy named lauren kept talking to us about music….he was wasted and on the verge of annoying until he bought us a round. lauren you’re all good now. i love playing the “name that song the fastest” game. i always win. i’m sick of always winning. will someone please beat me….hmmm i think i used that same line with mistress evil the other night. chris dropped me off around 2 and i made him the best caprese salad. it rocked. we sort of had a bachelor/metro moment about cooking and stuff. it was kinda funny. anyway, check out tony…that’s the face he gives me all the time when im in here on my computer ignoring him. that’s chris and his new buddy below.

—F.TEN 4:08AM