West Indian Girl

So the advance copies of new remix cd’s arrived yesterday and as it turns out I messed something up that deserves a public apology. Strangely enough when I cracked open one of those puppies and looked at the credits I was joking with our drummer Mark that they spelled his name with a “c”. He didn’t fall for it but seconds later Nathan looked at it and said that they had in fact spelled his name wrong. DOHHH! His last name is Van Hala, not Val Hala as it was printed. Val Hala happens to be a word in Norse mythology that literally means “hall of the slain” but more commonly refers to the viking heaven. HAHA…um…shit…sorry Nathan, i feel terrible. I mean it could be worse though…at least they spelled 2 words in your name right…you’re the only one with three….and it’s only one letter. Plus, Val Hala is kinda cool. Maybe it’s a sign it’s time for a name change….or not…or maybe it’s time for a public apology from the guy that should have caught the mistake. Me so sorry, Nathon.

bummer

i’m very happy to announce that filter magazine will be presenting our upcoming residency at spaceland for the first 3 thursdays in november. what’s special about this residency is the fact that each show will be entirely different from the other. on nov. 6th we will only be playing songs off of our first record. on nov. 13th our set will consist only of songs off of 4th & wall, and on nov. 20th we’re only palying brand new material from our third record due out in ’09. how about this- a special gift for west indian girl fans: if you’re on our guest list you get in for free! yup, you heard right. if you want to go and get in for free email info@westindiangirl.com and put the date of the show(s) you want to attend in the subject heading. links: spaceland and filter magazine

Saturday June 14th – we’re gonna make our first ever appearance at the scene bar in glendale. we’ve neglected you for 5 years glendale and we’re sorry. hopefully this show will patch things up. it’s pretty last minute and it’s pretty random but come on – it’s summer and we’re trying to hash out new songs that we are in the midst of writing and recording. imagine us playing in your living room….that’s what this show is gonna be like – like the good ol days when a show was just a show. we play at 11:30.

The Scene Bar
806 E. Colorado St.
Glendale, CA 91205
818.241.7029
http://www.thescenebar.com
http://myspace.com/thescenebar

This thursday june 12th – art and music collide for a special event in downtown los angeles. we will be playing a show right after (and above) the la artwalk. this party is gonna go off….bands, art, djs, beer…all for a 5$ donation. how can you possibly go wrong at that price? you cant. please check out the 533 studo site and  downtown artwalk site and make plans on making this bash. special note for all you chess junkies out there – the indie rock chess federation is also gonna have a table set up for exhibition blitz try outs.

special thanx to kampy for kicking out this event poster.

we’re gonna be playing san fran, sacramento, santa barbara, and solana beach this june. details about each show can be found on our tour page. ashkahn rolled out the poster for the sf show and drew newbold took care of business with the sacto poster. thanx guys…great work. both of these shows are headline shows. in santa barbara we will be playing with los amigos invisibles and in solana beach with bebel gilberto.

Crazy when u think about it but we are playing in malibu for the first time ever next week. we’re playing with a cool band called film school. kampy designed the poster for the event which is pretty rad. nice work kampy – glad to have you on the creative team. im personally looking forward to this show…im planning on checking out the view at el matador beach at some point that evening and depending on how crazy it gets i might end up checking into one of the posh rehab centers just to kill 2 birds with one stone and save on gas

i got this email today-
Dear West Indian Girl Fans,
We cordially invite you to two very special private party performances on Friday, March 21st and Saturday, Mar. 22nd at a secret location in Culver City. Due to the intimate nature of the venue, only the first 150 people to RSVP will be on a guaranteed entry list, so please respond immediately if you intend on coming.  
You must RSVP to westindiangirltickets@hotmail.com in order to be on the guest list to purchase tickets at the door. You may only respond for yourself +3 guests per night. Please indicate which night(s) you would like to attend. You will promptly receive a confirmation email that includes all important info for the night including the address of the venue.

Studio Blue is equipped with a great sound system, a free parking lot, lots of comfy seats, an outdoor smoking lounge, and good vibes all around. Special surprises each night. Please join us for this memorable weekend….

Cover at the door is $10. Cash only please
Cash only bar of selected beer, wine and special mixed drinks
Doors open each night at 9:00 p.m.

*please note – on both nights the Indie Rock Chess Federation will be hosting a speed chess tournament  for cash prizes.

Poster design by Ashkahn of Dont Stop Studio ASH ROCKS – thanx for making this great poster for us ash. copies will be available for sale at the shows.

March 15th @ The Casbah (San Diego, CA)
April 5th @ The Rickshaw (San Francisco. CA)
April 11th @ The Beauty Bar (Las Vegas, NV)
April 13th @ Havasu Half (Lake Havasu, CA)
April 19th @ Tucson Club Crawl (Tucson, AZ)
May 23rd @ Lightning in a Bottle (Santa Barbara, CA)

Hope to see everyone out and supporting!

The rock poster god must be smiling on me because yet another fucking fantastic poster was given birth today by long time friend/artist/remixer, mark sgarbossa. this poster announces our triumphant return to the casbah in march. we’ve had some great shows at the casbah so it will be good to get back there and tear it apart again. tight room, sweaty people, saturday night – sd has always treated us right.

Dear Los Angeles, it’s time to support the arts – we’ve given you 2 FREE shows this past fall and now its time to pony up and pay the piper for what we try to do as a living. what are you gonna get?…you’re gonna get 4 great bands – woven, dios, and drugstore cartel at a great club. we’re gonna rock the visuals again just in case you arent tripping hard enough and i also think a a few new jams never before played are in order. did i say bob dylan cover. did i also say kcrw presents? they play us…we love them. go listen

once again the talented john mavroudis came up big and graced us with this soon to be classic west indian girl poster. yes it will be sold at the show and online. fucking cool huh? need more mavroudis – check it out. i know i told you before but he won 07 cover of the year award for his work on the new yorker.

late night fun after the show….join us at the beauty bar for an after-party immediately following the show. good djs an good drinks.

we’re playing a FREE SHOW at the bordello this thursday december 13th. metromixla is our proud sponsor of this event. they have been awesome to work with. even though bordello doesnt list us on their site…forgive them…we are indeed playing for free. i promise. to get in just rsvp at rsvpla@metromix.com. sara melson who just signed to nettwerk records is opening for us and dj scott t sterling will be spinning all evening. scott’s another old friend from detroit – looking forward to hearing him spin. please note that this show is more like an office xmas party. the stage is very tiny so expect to see us on the floor with you. again…prepare yourself for this. its more or less like a glorified office party in downtown. technically there will be no real hookers at the bordello but just go for a walk around the block and you’ll be able to get all that and more. i was parked in front of our studio the other night and some toothless scab of a woman came up to my truck and asked me if i wanted to go get high and party with her in hotel around the corner. im glad i ate dinner earlier cos i involuntarily started to dry heave. poster design by john mavroudis. check out this post about him.

hey great people of northern california, we are playing in san fran for the last time this year. the show is for the 3rd annual d.a. taylor charitable foundation benefit at the independent. also on the bill is earlimart, who im really looking forward to sharing the stage with. they’re another great band from la that ironically i will meet for the first time in san fran. this is also a kcrw presents show. so, to sum up…. great benefit and cause with great bands at a killer venue. see you there.

this show promises to be one of the cooler shows we’ve played in la. its a party put on by the southern california institute of architecture. these sci-art people are nuts in a very very good way. after checking out their space which is rad it made me wish i was going to school there. adding to sci-arc’s mystique is that its not where you would expect it to be…in shitsville downtown la. hey, go figure, we’re neighbors…its just a few blocks east of 4th and wall. pretty cool if you ask me. randy stogsdill approached us about this a while ago and im glad he did. and of course…they’re building a stage for us. 4th and merrick here we come…can we borrow some sugar sci-arc?

thursday is starting to look like a pretty good day in the world of west indian girl. we FINALLY get to play morning becomes eclectic on kcrw. nic harcourt was the first person to ever play our music on the radio (our demos no less) . that’s pretty epic if you ask me. i think it will take the prize as the earliest show we have ever done as well. we’ve done radio shows but most of them have been after noon. load in at 8am…damn…might as well just stay up all night. our second show of the day is the hunnypot party at the highlands. those hunnypot guys are insane so their party should be dope (pun intended there). show starts at 9:30 and its fucking free. tough to beat that price. parking isnt bad in that place either. should be awesome – expect the hits – im trying to get the band to play one of those slap you in face and keep punching you sets…you know, the kind of set that doesnt give the listener time to think about anything except wiping the drool off their face cos they cant believe they’re being rocked that hard. time will tell.

today our song “to die in la” was featured as kcrw’s top tune. kcrw also invited us to be on morning becomes eclectic next thursday, nov 1st. we’re all really pumped for that show. it will be the band’s first time on kcrw. i cant wait to play a few songs on their studio. we have a pretty cool version of to die in la that we just did last week. i hope we decide to include that. it’s true what they….that it feels really nice to be loved. it makes you feel all warm inside. thanx kcrw

we would like to apologize for cancelling our show in dc last night. unfortunately it was a result of poor communication and could have been prevented. another tragic epidsode in the never ending soap opera that we call our “summer tour”. in an effort to make amends to any fans that went to the show we would like to put you on the guest list when we return to the dc area.

now let’s get to pittsburgh. this show was cancelled by the promoter – we have a pretty decent fan base in pittsburgh and are really really bummed out about this. not sure what else i can say except this sucks cos pittsburgh is one of our favorite cities.

show reports should be up next week – dont expect the candy coated version either – this tour hasnt been the summer vacation i thought it was going to be.

as you know we are recording, producing and mixing the next cd on our own. that said, you might understand why it is taking a little longer than usual to finish. are we professional mixers? just watch the videos of me attempting to mix and that should answer that question. i fondly refer to the song in question as “running man”. i think it’s gonna make the cd….one mix or another.

mixing and mismatching

more mixing… more mismatching

confusion and a case of the crazies

Finally! the blog is back and better than ever. now the world can fully appreciate the magnitude of our blog. on the right side column there is a cool “tree branch hierarchy” widget type thing where ALL the old posts are listed….ALL OF THEM… since 2004! these posts are archived not only by date but also by category which means that if your looking for a particular show report, just click on that link and all of the show reports will be listed. it’s pretty cool. another new feature is the calendar – just mouse over the dates for quick info on shows. the new official band website is also up and running so make sure you check that out too. thanx a ton to dave cohen out in nyc for all his hard work on the new site. the multimedia and photo pages kick ass.

Check it out – our next show will be on 3.10 in San Francisco, CA at The
Independent. email me if you want to go and i will see what strings i can pull. ya never know. F10

well, its not really a tour – it started out as a mini tour but ended up as 3 shows. unfortunately the phoenix and tucson show have been cancelled due to technical difficulties. bummer cos i really love tucson. check this sgarbossa poster out – rad.