it could be worse

Whenever I'm in situations of extreme cold or intense heat I usually think to two things to try and make myself feel better. When traveling somewhere cold and getting really uncomfortable or as if the lifeforce is being sucked out of me, I think of particular scene from that Stallone film, Cliffhanger. Poor Stallone is left alone on a ledge with only a tanktop and trucker cap, that coincidently he turns around in that 'I'm turning it on' kind of motion not unlike how he does in his earlier, and by far superior work, Over the Top. Anyhow, he climbs his way out of a face of a mountain or something with his barehands and no outerwear. This is the moment I picture in my head and think, "this could be hell of a lot worse. I could be Stallone, in the crappy scenario, with no jacket." Albeit fiction, but whatever.

Now, on the other end of that thermometer is a bit more like torture. My 'it could be worse' thought for heat was originally my first Coachella experience. I don't remember which, but what I do remember is that being in a porta-potty in 100+ degree weather is not fun. Then it changed to that movie Sunshine, where not only did they create a character out of the Sun, but captured the idea of its awesome intensity, almost demonizing it. So when I was at ACL last, where I think was the last uber intense heat, I thought..."this could be worse. I could be on a space ship a couple hundred miles from the Sun. Now that would really suck. And be MUCH hotter than this." This 'it could be worse' thought was later dethroned by my first experience with Bikram Yoga. On one hand, you're willingly subjecting yourself to sitting in a room that reaches temperatures of a 100+. All the while holding various poses and stretches which in turn cause you to sweat even more. To the point where your body is like a human shower head drizzling your mat. And there's this sense of clusterphobia too, because you can actually feel the heat around you, surrounding every part of your body. And there's no escape. Aside from jumping through a window which I would rather do than incur the wrath of a yoga instructor for leaving prematurely.

All these former 'it could be worse' scenarios were instantly squashed by the Make Music Pasadena festival/June 21st/Summer Solistice day of days. It was fun, it was obviously hot, and it is now my new barometer for determining insta-death heat. You gotta hand it to everybody, they were troopers for toughing it out during the daytime bands. Between acts it was like a game of hot lava with festival goers fleeing to the sidewalk awnings and alleys for refuge.

Personal highlights include, but not limited to:
* lunch & drinks with Division Day
* my forgetting to bring shoes later resulting in me burning my feet on the stage surface
* my forgetting to bring shoes later resulting in my getting stung by a bee on the bottom of my foot
* my forgetting to bring shoes later resulting in an anvil falling on my head (mostly true story, substitute anvil for ice block)
* permanent/stationary elyptical machines in the neighboring park
* water
* shade
* absence of sun


Losanjealous.com has some great pix of the festival over here:


http://www.losanjealous.com/2008/06/24/2008-make-music-festival-pasadena-raveonettes-little-ones-autolux/


love&hydration,

-i

in the studio... again.

So we've all converged up here in good ol' Burbank, CA. We're currently back in the studio for a couple days with our pal, Dave Newton, working on some additional material for some upcoming releases. The sun is shining, the AC's blasting, and there's way too much coffee.

We would now like to take a moment to tell Dave Newton how much we love him:

Dave, we love you tons!

last week

It was France at a glance. In n' out, smash n' grab, wham bam thank madame. As we drove through northern Paris I kept an eye out for famous roads landmarks. We arrived at the Nouveau Casino in the early afternoon, loaded in and met up with the NME.

They had learned that the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise was nearby and so we all walked it from from the club to do some photos... in a cemetery. It was a fine introduction to Paris, well, the show playing sense that is. The crowd was cool and there were even some very sweet fans up in front snapping away with their digital cameras.

Prior to showtime we did a Web TV interview for Kombini? The show was called "Custom, On Stage With" and involved 2 gentlemen in all red with white helmets and lights & cameras mounted on them. Wow. Jojo, the interviewer even came up on stage for a mini lovers dance party.


Leaving France was an unbelievable task. Upon arriving at our ferry line we learned that Belgian fishermen were on strike and were blockading the waters. To which our Stef replied, "What? they're blocking the entire ocean!?!?" Enough of it at least. They do have those nets. The only alternative was to take the Eurotunnel.



Edward, Stef (friend & engineer) and Chops (along for the ride & drive) were the only ones who knew about the tunnel. The rest of us knew only that it was a tunnel beneath the channel connecting France and England. What we did not know was that it's a huge train that everybody drives their vehicle into and then you sit in your car while the train travels at over 100mph... which we later learned was incorrect in regard to speed. After further research the train does not jet through the subturanean tunnel like something out of THX 1138, but rather travels at a max speed of 80 km/h (50 mph).

In Southampton we met up with the Semifinalists, who were playing with us the next several days. A smoke-machine blasting, projection lighting, electronic/live guitar & keys duo from London. The Joiners was just as we remembered it. A mini dance party up front, delicious pasta provided by the club and one of the best sounding rooms in England. The last time we played London, Ed got a bottle thrown at his head. Easy to say, our own gig at Bush Hall was much more enjoyable. Like a ballroom and a touch of aristocracy. Elegant, ridiculously reverberant. Stef had his work cut out for him. We had a troublesome microphone, but the gig was fun nonetheless. And huge thanks to those who drove from far and away to see the gig.

The last time we played Manchester was at the Evening News. Always nice to come back down to reality and play something we're more accustomed to. The Roadhouse easily won the Best Crowd Award of the tour as well. And if my memory serves me correct, I think someone requested Cecilia?? Also, a truly great band called Bluebird Kid Clark opened the night. Good band, good melody, good harmonies. My, oh my, Manchester is always a fun and lively time.

Oh that reminds me, we saw Charlie and Kate from Lost at Heathrow when getting our baggage. We should of sung the You Are Everybody Driveshaft song when we saw him. Yeah, that wouldn't of been annoying or weird. Then again I once saw Jason Lee laugh his ass
off when someone started singing Fever Dog to him while exiting a Radiohead concert.

Now I'm wandering. Bits on Sasquatch later.

i.

watching france

29 hours ago we little ones boarded a plane in Los Angeles headed to London Heathrow. It was easily the quietest transatlantic flight we've ever been on. No one recalls even taking off, the first meal is a bit blurry and the landing is vague at best. Clearly a direct result of the preceeding days. That being a six week tour with but one day off until jet-setting to Europe.

The last four days of our lives have been a whirlwind of events leading to this. The now. Sitting in what would be my US equivalent of where I sit in our van back home, but now in a splitter, with my back once again to the window and my eyes taking turns between my laptop and France. Somewhere in there was a night time ferry ride from Dover to Calais. And now we are somewhere between Calais and Paris.

Looking most forward to it :)

-i

p.s. - The term jet-set evidently refers to people of wealth who travel a lot. We are far from that, but I like the word nonetheless. So yeah, jet-setting! minus the glamour.

watching idaho

Did I mention we celebrated Cinco de Mayo in Minneapolis? We managed to find some margaritas across from 1st ave (where both us and RRR were quite enamored with the legendary purple rain venue). This pic is actually not from cinco de mayo, but rather the next day in Omaha at the Slowdown.

We had a near tire blowout while en route to Denver. Some nice Coloradians noticed the tread coming off one of our trailer tires and were thoughtful enough to wave their hands frantically at me while passing by. I am a tad guilty of mentioning a couple weeks ago that we were due for a tire blowout. I mean, purely from a numbers perspective, the odds were not in our favor. David, was not happy with this statement at all, responding with a, "why would you say that?".

What you call jinx, I call foreshadow/number-crunching. Either way, crisis averted.

We made it to Denver unscathed and curious as to what the night would be like. The night, my golly, would end up being an unexpected treat. 2 prior times through and Monolith, we felt, had equated to something. What a great time and the food next door at the sister establishment was delicious. We didn't pull out Pot A Brewin however, as it was a late evening. We hadn't played that jam in quite some time. We started rehearsing it at soundcheck and if memory serves me correctly, played in Chicago and Minneapolis. Moving on...

SLC! Ah yes, we had our first song request and then went directly into it (song) scenario. Not as seamless as it sounds, but rather went something like...

Girl in crowd: High On a Hill!

Band: OK

David: click click click click

Lee: shaker shaka shaka

Edward: chuka chuka chucka

Band: song

That was a terrible text reenactment. To Seattle...

i.

watching iowa

With my back to the window and feet on the bench I sit here in the van watching the Iowa landscape slide on by. Lee and Ed are at the helm and spinning reggae at the moment. Aelx is on the ground watching some comedy show. The rhythm section is in the rear nappin in an unofficial silent contest to see who can spend the most time unconsious on tour. I started to put down tidbits about occurrences here and there regarding the last few days. I'm not sure why daily updates are so hard. There are factors though such as lack of internet and at times lack of inspiration I suppose. Eh, we do what we can.

(Hours later due to nap and arriving at venue...)

Perhaps a rundown of highlights for now. In Pittsburgh we got to experience a dear friend's YouTube VJ night at the Brillobox. In Cincinnati we swung by WOXY and performed live on air at the Lounge during Shiv's show. Pictures can be found on the WOXY flickr page here. We cheated on our RaRa buddies again in Chicago and played a one off gig at Schubas w/ Ladyhawk and Neva Dinova. In Detroit, Lee, our now official activities coordinator, researched and found that Hitsville was but 1.5 miles from the club. This was truly a treat. The museum was not open but we of course did the outside picture thing. Please excuse my Hitsville pic. It's merely a placeholder pic until I track down the group photo from one of the guys.

till next time,

-i

The summer blockbuster movie season begins in... Iowa!

What can I say?  I'm a huge sucker for summer blockbuster hits, and besides the new Batman movie, I've been anxiously waiting to see Iron Man.  So when it was determined that we would be spending our day off in Des Moines, Iowa, I immediately got on the net and found the nearest movie theatre showing it.  The Carmike Southridge 12!  What can I say about thee?  First off, I knew I wasn't in Los Angeles when I realized I paid only 6 dollars for the film.  Easily, the biggest bargain of this tour.   Secondly, I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I saw  a promotional poster in the lobby for BYOB Tuesdays.  Nope, unfortunately not that type of BYOB, although some of us actually did encounter another BYOB promotion later in the day... Bring Your Own...Bucket!  For 50 cents, the theatre will fill up your own personal bucket from home (up to 3 gallons) with hot buttery popcorn.  Alas, Ian and I had no bucket so we opted for the over-priced popcorn bag instead.

I have to say right now that Robert Downey, Jr. was incredible in Iron Man.  He was the sole reason why I would have to rate this movie among the top three super-hero movies I have ever seen (just behind Batman Begins and ahead of Spiderman 2).  In his performance as Tony Stark, Downey is able to bring to life one of the most interesting characters in the Marvel Universe.  In fact, I found myself wanting to see more of the free-drinking, kiss-stealing, wheelin-dealing, jet plane-flying, Tony Stark than the morally-changed Stark in the Iron Man suit.  Maybe that's just the Ric Flair fan in me.  Anyways, the movie was great.  You have to see it.  And for all of you really hardcore Marvel fans, make sure to stay after the end credits for a tasty bonus scene. And make sure to check back here soon for a counter-review to follow from Ian!

By the way, Ian's review won't be the first time he'll be called upon to make a judgement.  Check this pic out...

  

I better go now, time to get in the van and make the trek to Omaha, Nebraska!  

Cheers -Bri