West Indian Girl

ok people – check this shit out. we just bought some of the best road cases ever made. EVERRRR!!!! they’re made by a company in anaheim called GOMC (get off my case) and their cases seriously fucking rule — they’re big, tough, chunky and durable. the 3 guys who own this company (ed, mark and kevin) are all musicians…and pretty successful ones at that. maybe that’s why they know how to make such good cases — cos they’ve been touring for years. ed’s band is zebrahead mark’s band is reel big fish and kevin’s band is lit. if you haven’t heard of all three of these bands then your musical knowledge is sorely lacking. on top of everything else these guys are also some seriously funny mother fuckers. in the picture above ed is standing between chris and i and kevin is the one pinching his nipples. anyway, here is the number to call if you want some great cases 714.865.0967 ask for ed and tell him west indian girl sent you. right now they’re making us a kick ass merch case and i’m psyched to drive down to anaheim to get it…now that’s a weird thought isnt it. is it possible to become addicted to buying road cases? i want a GOMC road case for my brain—F.TEN 2:42

now that’s a truck full of GOMC

well, i spent new year’s eve helping out my friend (photographer) marc goldstein. he was shooting a big concert event in downtown L.A. (check it out- Giant Village 2005 ) and i had no plans so we were on. i thought this would be a very interesting and entertaining way to spend the night and it was. besides – look at marc on the right – how was he planning on taking 1200 pictures while carrying around all those bags and cameras? goldstein did work his ass off though – we were there at 5:30pm and we didnt get home until 5:30am. i think we took a ten minute break. we had all access so it was pretty cool.

this is a picture from the roof of the pegasus building. i should really post some of marc’s pictures cos there is just something very wrong with me posting my crappy pictures when i was there with a professional photographer taking great pictures. oh well…you make do. i saw a bunch of djs that i normally wouldnt see – especially from the angle i got to watch them. check out the view (below) from the main stage when paul oakenfold was playing.

During oakenfold’s set and the crystal method’s set i was on the stage to the back right. it was pretty interesting checking these guys out because it is so radically different from a band but still kinda the same. it’s weird. i did enjoy oakenfold’s set though – i thought his mix of “new year’s day” by U2 was really fucking cool. for some strange reason when i looked at him i kept thinking he was Napoleon. i also kept thinking that he actually believed he was god. it was comical. but little god’s rock. oh yeah – as far as some of the other performers go – i thought jason bentley’s set was very musical, digweed’s set jammed but i wasn’t sold on the killers like everyone else seemed to be. every song sounded like a lame version of their hit song that i cant remember the title of. i do like that song though. too bad i missed them playing it and had to sit through 6 songs that kinda sounded like it but then just fell flat.

anyway, thousands of people were there but i only bumped into a few people i knew. early in the evening i ran into steve who used to be in a band called the symptoms. he was bartending at the main bar. steve rocks. then, way later around 3am i got a

call from carter…somehow he ended up there too. we met up for a bit and eventually i ended up driving him home too. all in all it was a good time…tiring, but a good time. on a side note i quit smoking again. so far so good—F.Ten 9:36PM

Phoenix played 2 shows in town over the weekend and we all went to the show on sunday (except for rob who went to the first show). in some weird twist of fate marc goldstein was also there shooting the event. he ended up documenting our destruction and took all of the pics shown except for the very first one above and the last one of branco and i.

mark “lewscious” lewis everyone


tender carter moments before the storm

what is going on in carter’s head…”should i drink more?”

answer…”yes”


where’s your hand mariqueen?



umm, i really can’t comment too much on these pics because i honestly don’t remember what was going on. i wish rob had been there though cos it was a fun fun fun time — it was nice to let off some steam (collectively) because most of the time when we all get together it’s to work on our show. and hey, why NOT live it up, right?…it was a sunday evening after all—F.Ten 12:12PM

The night after seattle we played in portland at the doug fir lounge. this place is one of the cooler bars to play in on the west coast. It’s a bar/restaurant/hotel all in one. the decor and architecture is dialed in with a sort of upscale swanky lodge vibe. the food kicks ass and the stage set up is great. the promoter – i think his name was brent was really great – he was more than accommodating and brought us a deli tray from heaven . oh the people in the pic above are (from l-r) mariqueen, brent, randy, ryanne, robert, and s-man. our special guests backstage were randy and ryanne. it was really great that they came down to see us. randy works at Dakine and he brought us some more cool shit – check out their site Dakine.com they have a cool music section that i just checked out. nice review randy – how much do i owe ya…hahaha. randy, you now have guaranteed yourself back stage passes forever. that dude is dope. speaking of dope, note to self – don’t get high with the rest of the band – just stick to drinking miller “high” life (brent had 16oz cans in the dressing room believe it or not). as far as the show went i honestly don’t remember much. portland was the one show where i was a little too out of it. when we were playing i remember looking at mark lewis and laughing uncontrollably at how badly i was playing and then wondering why rob had stopped playing his guitar in northern sky. it was surreal. the portland crowd was tough too. so tough chris contemplated suicide. —F.TEN 2:27PM

well right now i need to introduce you to some peripheral members of the west indian girl team so that when you hear me refer to them you will have a clue as to why i’m even talking about them or why they are even around. the first is chocolate thunder – he happens to be acting as our spiritual advisor/motivator. chocolate is a great guy and is destined to become suge knight without all the crime and prison stuff. he’s the man and is doing a great job helping us all out thus far. the s-man and marcos are also great guys. they are both techs with the s-man more of production coordinator and marcos more of a drum/percussion guy. they also help move and set stuff up not to mention drive. i slept on the way down to this show but drove on the way back. night driving is my thing. in case you havent guessed, the first picture is chocolate and pic 2 is the s-man. you can see a pic of marcos in the journal entry called “unannounced party that you missed” — F. Ten 11/8 2:30pm

yesterday we played in santa ana at jade howe’s store. jade is a great clothing designer. check out his line howedenim.com. anyway, jade’s store, called howe homme is not only a store but also his home (funny how adding an “m” changes that word). so the place he has is basically a fantastic loft. check out the pics below and keep your eye out for the next “10 with Ten” cos i did one with Jade last night. ok, on to the show – this was officially our first acoustic show! we set up on the top floor of his space and played 6 songs with a real stripped down sound. rob was playing electric/acoustic, chris was playing a moog, i played an old vox bass that sounds like an acoustic, mark played a snare and some percussion, and angela played a harmonica and sang. by the way – if you have been reading my journal you know you can see pics from the show in the photo gallery. i’m not really posting pics from the show in here so just go to the gallery. anyway, it was a cool vibe – i think the ability to play our songs in this way will be a nice thing for fans to check out because even though the songs remain the same (ahh zep) the vibe and interpretation is totally different. watch for us at in-stores and radio stations cos this is the way we’re gonna be playing the songs in those situations. let’s see, random other notes about the show, well, i drove my landcruiser down and served as the cargo van for this trip. i brought tony so he got to go on a few walks. it’s great bringing tone along to the gigs. he’s dope. that first picture was taken right outside the store. the second pic is of angela and chocolate – i really like this pic of us 3. as usual, lot’s of women at the show which is always a plus. i dont think there can ever be too many women at a show. that’s patty in the pic to the left, she works for jade and she is awesome! hey patty i’m sorry i haven’t emailed u yet but i’m gonna and i can’t wait for you to take measurements of my favorite t-shirt. jade had the gig catered so there was also great food. all in all u really couldnt ask for a better place to kick back and play your acoustic set for the first time. it was a comfy gig…F. Ten 11/7 5:30pm

so one of my best friends is named sascha (yes, another guy with a girl’s name). anyway, sascha periodically sends me some really random and funny links that have something to do with west indian girl in one way or another. it’s kind of like having a personal Mr. Google. ok, below is a list of some those random links. i probably laugh a bit more at these than you will but they are worth sharing nonetheless…i think [fyi a picture of the elusive Mr. Google is in the “miller high life and sundays” entry….see him sitting at the computer instead of drinking?]

1. what’s up with paul yoon’s blog entry about us. classic stuff – he even has What are you afraid of playing on it. Paul, we love you man.

2. this is from (south by southwest) SXSW.com film section. check out the film staff record recommendation of the week towards the bottom of the page. kinda cool.

3. this just falls under the “what the fuck” category. it was from this months Esquire magazine . Looks like Hollywood is the number one song to burn some fat off your fat ass. what is a “skittering” bass line?

4. how about this contest page on TeenMusic.com – scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the contest banner. totally cracked my ass up to see chris carter’s face front and center for all the girls to drool on. gotta love it. gotta laugh at it.

5. this some japenese guy’s site – i’m still not sure what it all means. Mr. google sent me a site to translate it in called babelfish and that spit out this translation. “Summer it passed, it became the way which gradually feels the sign of the fall. The change eye of season, doesn’t especially this season pathos the melody ground which drifts stop wanting to inquire about tune? As for this although being the melody ground, little bit スピリチƒ…アル the band which makes about tune inquire, translating with the rhinoceros, “as for the reason of girl naming west Indian” there is a relationship in drug culture of seventies, it seems. The new member band of loss graduate, sound it is unique.” i wish all reviews were this interesting.

6. how about this mention in a review of another LA based band called the shore in the university of wisconsin-madison’s Badger Herald. Check out the very end of the review where he calls our cd the “late summer’s perfect bum out album.” way to be chris ewing. i’m glad i wasnt the guy in the shore reading this. ouch.

7. what about this polish review. that site babelfish mentioned above sucks ass because it couldnt even translate this one. i’m into the fact that right below us is one of my friends’ band called Gabin. These guys are from rome and also on astralwerks/virgin italy. they recently did a cool chilled out remix of our song hollywood which is pretty dope. i wonder when that version will see the light of day. anyway, based on this polish review i guess they have a new record out and its amazing. max and filippo are totally figo. —F.Ten 2:14 am 10/21

listen up, going out in hollywood is not really all that great. well, i guess it depends on where you’re from. if you’re not from new york or europe then it might seem pretty exciting but it really isnt that amazing. the trick to los angeles is knowing where to go, knowing who to know, and knowing that you shouldnt go out on the weekends. some of the best bars and clubs are the little ones that you never hear about and staying away from sunset on the fri and sat night increases your chances of doing something cool. anyway, i figured i would post a few pics of the people that end up in my truck. hey, remember this is a journal and all these entries can’t be amazing. since i love to drive and drive almost everywhere i go, plenty of characters end up sitting to my right and in the back. most of these people as it turns out happen to be wasted. the low down on the pics. 1. hiedi – status = wasted 2. chris c. and c. carter – status = not yet wasted/making plans 3. tony – status = happy to have people in the back instead of him 4. taylor, chris c and c. carter – status = wasted/tripping their balls off. 5. angela, tony and chris c – status = hallmark moment 6. yours truly – status = killing time taking notes.

— F. Ten 2:56 am 10/15

We’ d like to give a shout out to a real cool company called Dakine. These guys recently sent us a bunch of stuff that is going to come in very handy on tour. Dakine make some pretty crazy bags for surfing, skating, snowboarding and skiing. I like the camouflage ones the best. Check out their site Dakine.com – they’ve got a cool music section on their page! — F. Ten 3:03 pm 10/4