Home stretch

We are about an hour away from Brooklyn. Our last show in Athens, OH
was high-energy and fun; we played with the amazing via audio, our
bros motel motel, and locals grade school. Casa cantina is a cool
co-op style mexi joint near the university. Standout of the night was
the sweet hippie-ish woman in the front row who never stopped dancing.
She was adorable and kept it up through the whole set. We ended
with 'I shall be released,' sung in chorus with the motel boys. This
came off better than expected, considering we learned it in the car on
the way to Athens. After the love-in ended, we headed to the hotel.
Today has been spent in the van. We have been passing the time with
arrested development episodes on laptop, making tour videos on imovie,
texting the motel crew to get traffic reports, and studying the good
old-fashioned paper atlas.
Although I am sad to see the tour end, two days of 10-hour drives can
really make a girl miss her own place. And the homecoming show at
Rockwood this Sunday will make us feel like the tour never stopped!
See you soon.

Cheers,
Amy

Wildflowers

Shrimp Cone

Two things we like in this band are words and facts. When we come
across good word combinations, like say, the "shrimp cone" for sale at
the funky food stand off south congress, we roll it around on the
tongue and toss it into conversational pauses until it loses all
meaning and becomes an artifact on its own. Band names are another
good word game; yesterday's was "hunkleberry funk," a side project
funk band. Auditions to be held soon. We also like facts. The iPhone comes out anytime a debate needs
resoluton or when we are approaching a new city and need some context.
Right now we are approaching Wichita, ks. We've already learned that
Wichita is the largest city in Kansas, and are considering a stop at
the native American history museum to beef up on our Midwest history.
Hopefully we will pick up some new facts about our great nation, and
some new great words to boot.
hasta,
amy

Postcard from Texas #1

friday's exploits

I'm a little too hungover to write in full sentences, so here's a list:

1) breakfast tacos at home
2) photo shoot with jezebel jen at home, mostly up a tree (that's not a
euphemism... yet)
3) motel motel acoustic at progress coffee (the drinking starts here)
4) sierra mist tent (free vodka)
5) artist lounge at the convention center (free beer)
6) the orchard happy hour (schmoozing, free beer, the ubiquitous skippy
mcfadden)
7) rendezvous with noodles senior, hank neuberger, for hella bbq--thanks
hank!!! (run into secret life of sofia, skippy again)
8) motel motel rocking at maggie mae's (drinking continues)
9) on to the rusty spur for alberta cross (pushy, trashy shot
girls--something to which we finally say no)
10) eastward to meet the botticellis at the art project (kegs)
11) then takka takka at the independent (yup, more beer)
12) finally tinted windows at pangaea (taylor hanson, bunny carlos and
james iha?? together at last??)
13) back home (bulleit nightcap, snoozes)

XXX
dan

sxsw continued...

before our show on wednesday, dave wyss was determined to earn himself some mardi gras beads from the top of maggie mae's:


we spent thursday roaming the hot, dusty streets and finding friends and music. our sweet little farmhouse is within walking distance of sixth street, so we crossed the congress bridge by foot. after a quick stop in the artists' lounge for a complimentary beer and a massage (ahh...vacation) we arrived at radio room, where our sisters-in-management, au revior simone, were about to take the stage. we cringed when we saw that the line stretched off the sidewalk and into the middle of the street, winding halfway down the block. luckily, dave was already inside and had told security that we were "load-out crew"; we walked right in the exit door. au revior was well-received and put on a great show.

we stayed in the radio room through two more shows (including the wrens) to see the avett brothers, who were fantastic. unfortunately, they played in an outdoor tent and the sound was terrible--the upright bass was causing massive feedback and the sound guy couldn't find the problem. we left halfway through to walk over to the daytrotter studio, and back to south congress for the night. jeff, however, "took the badge" both literally and figuratively (our fave new catchphrase for partying hard) and went back out another round of shows at night.

Noodles Weighs In

Hey kids

Noodles here.  A quick note from SXSW.  We played our showcase last night, and despite hectic conditions, I think it went pretty well.  Nice crowd, made up mostly of bro bands (Motel Motel, Miniature Tigers, The Botticellis...thanks dudes!) and also my aunt and uncle :-)  My dad was supposed to be there, but his flight was late and he walked in 10 minutes after our set ended :-(  He'll get to see us in Chicago next week though, so it's all good.  I'm excited to see Grizzly Bear and the Avett Bros, as well as my homies Akron/Family and Alberta Cross.  Ok, that's about it for now.

Hi Mom!

Toodles from Noodles

southern cookin'

it's day six, we've passed through 14 states so far and today we're deep in the heart of san marcos, texas. it's become clear that we'll be eating very differently on this tour than on our last one (which took us along the avocado- and orange-laden california coastline).

two days ago, we inhaled po' boys at Johnnys on Esplanade...


then on to beignets and coffee at du mond...


...and then a quick pre-drive snack of gator-on-a-stick:


I'm praying we don't get scurvy before we get back to NYC.

Postcard from New Orleans....

howdy....

Hello There,
we are going to try having a band blog, because it seems like we are accumulating stories faster than we can tell them. Right now we're in Beaumont, Texas, in a hotel room with what look like bloody fingerprints on the door frame. See? Stories for days. Talk to you soon.

love,
mia