West Indian Girl

WE KICKED ASS IN AUSTIN!

I’m really proud of everyone in west indian girl because they all stepped up and performed amazingly on saturday. this was the first time we played in front of all of the peeps from astralwerks, cherry lane and little big man and we delivered…even without a sound check and with some technical difficulties (ie rob’s monitor no being plugged in) we were clutch when we had to be. i walked away from this show knowing in my heart that west indian girl is going to play some mind blowing shows in the future. i also need to thank bernie (cos he delivered with a great mix) and troy (cos he’s the best stage manager/tech around). those guys allowed us to play better because in the back of our minds we knew that if anything went wrong they had our asses covered. this makes a huge difference when you’re up on stage….at least for me it does cos i don’t worry about anything except jamming. i would also like to say thanx to all the people at astralwerks that were so positive and supportive…errol, glenn, alison, lawrence, scott, katie and of of course dayna. i’m glad we made you all proud.

well, strangely enough there arent too many pics here. i guess we were all just too busy to deal with cameras that night. too bad i dont have any pics of the show cos im interested in how it looked. i did take 2 classic pics while i was at the merch booth though – the first one is of our agent jonathan from little big man (incredible roster). jonathan is our main man and busts his ass for us on a daily basis. thanx bro – we appreciate it. the next picture is of brooke, rich, and christa from cherry lane. i wasnt expecting to see them all at the show (paul was there too but i didnt see him) – seriously i was stunned for a second. whenever i see anyone from cherry lane i’m immediately reminded as to why we signed with them…cos they fucking rock and they’re all just really nice and genuine. you guys are awesome and we’re glad to have you in your corner. thanx for making the show…shit…i think i’m gonna cry.

Mariqueen’s Mind
The Venue: Where did we play? I forget… oh yeah Antone’s… right? I don’t know… I wasn’t impressed with the backstage area at all. I definitely wasn’t into having to fall in line to use the restroom with the rest of the antone’s patrons two minutes before stage time. The guy manning the door was a sweetheart though. That’s all I have to say about that. I feel like I should say something nicer but I can’t find anything truthful to say… so… on to what I think about Austin…
The City: Seeing as how I was so rudely awakened from my slumber in our van by Francis… I was pleasantly surprised when I got to my hotel room. It was pet friendly, humongous and the balcony was big enough to do cartwheels on without freaking out about hitting anything. I was excited about walking around the city during the day and checking out the shows but my mind, body and vocal chords needed sleep so I didn’t end up getting out of bed until about two in the afternoon. What I saw of Austin was cool… musicians everywhere… you could just smell the angst around you… it was like myspace.com had puked on sixth street. I wanted to buy a t-shirt that said “Fuck y’all I’m from Texas” for someone special but I decided against it. Besides Antone’s I went to a Starbucks with Bernie and then another coffee shop with Carter five hours later. Give me caffeine or give me death.
The Show: Three words — It was magical.
What Were You Thinking While Playing: I was sketched out about the fact that we didn’t get a soundcheck but seriously, as soon as we started playing I didn’t even care. I knew we had a job to do and I came to fucking bring it… so I put aside all my worries and concentrated on the audience’s vibe and gave our fantastic soundman, Bernie the occasional look of love. I had such an amazing time on stage at this particular show. There were so many people in the audience… it was great. I saw my friend Ken Blau and an ex boss. Crazy. I danced with Rob a little, I vibed with Lewscious, as always… I even made special eye contact with Frandizzle and Carter… we as a band were a single beating heart and it was fantastic. God, I really really love us. I am so happy to be working with four talented men. I read a Juliette Lewis quote a week prior to the show that said, “I am in love with my band like you are in love with your lover” or something like that… she is so right. I love you Chris, Mark, Rob and Fran. Gah! Now I want to hug the shit out of each and everyone of you. This is too much for me to handle I have to stop. Oh yeah… and I love Troy… he is the fucking best tech manager ever. EVER. Kbye.
Interesting Things After The Show: Mick Rock introduced himself and snapped pictures of Rob, Carter and I. We all joked and laughed and then Mick and I exchanged phone numbers. I hung out with Mark a lot and walked through the crowd. I met a really sweet girl who told me how (insert tons of flattering adjectives here) I was and she teared up. This pretty much made my whole life. Billie Joe, if you’re reading this, get at me… you’re on the guestlist forever ♥. I loved how I didn’t have to buy a single drink all night long. The douchebag bartenders did however, give me shit for trying to get a glass of wine with my drink ticket… apparently they were only good for miller beer. Um, gross. I raised my eyebrow and got my way. I was drunk by the end of the night and was trying to decide where to go party. My friend Tommy said he would pick me up and then there was Aaron from the Brazilian Girls who had also contacted me and knew of something happening. I was so tired and intoxicated from the showcase that I decided to just go back to my room and sleep. Being in a rock band is not endless parties, kids. It’s a lot of rehearsing, stress, love, labor, caffeine and lack of sleep. Seriously though, BEST JOB EVER.

Carter’s Conscience Austin. Saturday. The main event. South by Southwest. Starving musicians from around the world converge on a few streets to celebrate. Started off the day with some interviews set up by our lovely publicist Allison, and hung out with our labelmates, the golden republic. Those guys were great, so fucking cool. I hope we get to tour together, it would be a blast. Anyway, there was a line around the block to get into the show, 500 people plus in the audience, lots of em “important” people in the industry. The show was incredible, such a great energy coming from the crowd. One of my favorite shows we’ve played. MariQ was just melting hearts, she sounded amazing. I was really impressed with the Golden Republic, they played a great set. Thats it really. Astrelwerks is a really cool label, with genuine people working there, and it was a great party. Now lets go tour. Carter
here are the remaining pics from the evening:
below is an old friend of mine dave feeney. dave’s in a detroit alt country band called blanche. he also played pedal steel on loretta lynn’s record. you know the one that jack white won a grammy for and dave’s name wasn’t even mentioned on it even though he helped record it all…weird how that works.

carter and dave feeney from blanche

back stage – errol, k-os, and mariqueen.

voted best road dawg ever.

creepy texas gas station.

funny story about the pic above is that somewhere out in buttfuck texas i went into this gas station to take a piss. when i walked out the van was gone. hahaha! it was kinda funny but scary at the same time cos the locals in the station were looking at me like i was sports illustrated swimsuit model. anyway, i started walking down the road and took a picture of this creepy place when i saw the van parked behind a building. needless to say rob and troy were cracking up when i got in. it’s always funny until someone gets hurt kids…remember that —F.TEN