Pehrspace tonight, Spaceland on Monday w/ Castledoor
We have two exceptionally rad shows coming up this weekend that I'd like you to know about:
Tonight we play Pehrspace on a show presented by LA Underground. This is a punk rock night and we're going to play a punk set--our very earliest material from our first EP and our first LP, "Rejection Set Me Free," as well as maybe a song from the new "Ruby" EP. So if you missed our first week of our residency, here's a chance to hear those songs again.
I also want to say that we played a few months ago with (the aptly named) Audacity and they were FEROCIOUS. I'm also excited for Okie Dokie, which I haven't seen yet but features an ex-member of Prs Hltn Mthrfckrs (remember them?)! This is going to be a very very sweaty night. The evening starts at 9, is all-ages, and, as always at Pehrspace, costs $5. We go on at 10:30--although, as the man says: "set times are approximate."
ALSO! On Monday we are playing as different (but equally great) a lineup as could be at Spaceland, holding down the (traditional Monolator) Midnight slot in support of Castledoor's June residency! It's been a long long time since we last played with Castledoor and we are extremely pleased and honored that they asked us to join them. It's free, and we play with Cale Parks and Butterfly Boucher. Expect more of our newer selections for this set! You should listen to what the squirrel says in the poster below:
Michael, of the Australian band Able Archers, recently posted a cool acoustic version of "This Is Goodbye" on a home recording messageboard that he and I frequent--so he's not actually a complete stranger, despite being based in an entirely different hemisphere than us. He very kindly gave me permission to post it here, and so here it is.
I especially like the part at 18 seconds in when there's a perfectly timed (and, according to Michael, unplanned) burst of birdsong--it's in the right key and everything. Thanks Michael (and birds)!
This is the second Monolators cover I've heard this month and I am really very pleased/humbled by this--I would love to hear others if there's anyone else out there so inclined. If you are, please do send mp3's/cassettes/wax cylinders along and I'll post the recordings here (with your permission, obviously).
If you asked us Monolators if we like prom, our answer is: yes! If you asked us if you liked our own proms from highschool, I'm sure our answer would be: not really! But that doesn't matter because we've got a prom for you this saturday courtesy of the Eagle Rock Bowling And Drinking Club (the last show they'll ever put on, so I'm told, which makes us sad) and it is going to be HEART-RENDINGLY EXQUISITE!
Like this:
We request that you come dressed for prom! We will elect a PROM COURT! (It will be fair this time, not like when we were in school.) We will play prom songs! We will have a PROM ESSAY READING! It will make you tingly and then YOU WILL EXPLODE!
It is free! It is ALL AGES! It is PROM!
Please come--prom will not be the same without you! We love you all!
-The Monolators Ashley, Eli, Jillinda, Mary, and Ray
I'm sure most people reading this are familiar with Aaron Embry's glorious band Amnion, and some of you may even know that he runs a recording studio here in Los Angeles called Hunter's Hollow that features, among other things, "40 bales of straw in the control-room [and a]16 foot/20person tipi in the yardback." True! I have never been in a recording studio control room made of straw before but I can confirm that it sounds (and smells) really good!
Aaron was kind enough to ask us over this past Saturday for a live video/audio recording session--we played a full set, including the 4 songs from our new EP, and Aaron filmed us while we bashed away. Some of the songs are up on youtube now and here they are. Thanks Aaron, we had a wonderful time!
YAY! PS: Be sure to look at sessions at Hunter's Hollow from Avi Buffalo and lots of other bands on Aaron's youtube channel!
I know a lot of you have seen this already, but the glockenspielist on the far right in the pink dress is Wendy Wang, who recorded and produced a bunch of stuff for the Monolators and Cobra Lilies (she's basically sole engineer/producer for the upcoming Cobra Lilies record, for instance):
One thing that I definitely forgot to mention was, naturally, that all of us were bestowed with band nicknames over the course of the tour. Can you match the nickname with the correct Monolator? There is a prize to the first person who leaves a comment with the correct answer. Hint: it's NOT in the order listed below, so if you write in "1a, 2b, 3c etc." you'll be WRONG.
It recently came to our attention (although how this first came to light to our mysterious informant I'll never know) that Amy Lou Sullivan, from Brooklyn, recently recorded a lovely acoustic folk version of "Don't Dance." Really! You can hear it on the Flash player thingie on her myspace page, I think it's currently 4th from the top. I wrote Amy and she says she maybe wants to re-record a new version this summer, but I think the current one is awfully pretty.
We're all super flattered that she chose to cover one of our songs, and it's great to hear Don't Dance re-worked so completely. Although a couple of our friends' bands have done Monolators covers in the past, we've never heard one by a complete stranger before--so this is extra special for us. Thanks so much Amy, and yes, we are going to try to come out to NYC/the East Coast sometime later this year to play some shows, maybe around Columbus Day weekend? I hope to see you there!
Sunday May 10, San Francisco to Isla Vista to Los Angeles
1
Our main concern for our Sunday show was: would there be a Sunday show? Isla Vista is an unincorporated community just north of Santa Barbara (a lot of UCSB students live in Isla Vista) and, if you've been following the news, Santa Barbara was having some troubles of the blazing inferno variety. With 30,000 evacuees making international (well, at least Canadian, according to my family) headlines, would there be an Isla Vista to drive to? Well okay, there was, and I guess the fires had been contained by the time we showed up. So, lucky us.
Our exit from San Francisco via the 280 Freeway (the "World's Most Beautiful Freeway" according to Wikipedia, which somehow strikes me as implausible. I always thought the 126 leaving Santa Clarita was the world's most beautiful. Why? Because it's heading away from Santa Clarita) was entirely uneventful, and indeed scenic. Tour food options in this stretch were scanty due to time restrictions and not knowing anything decent in the area, so we wound up at a Baja Fresh in San Jose. "Oooh, Baja Fresh, that's my jam," said Jillinda. I had three tacos containing various fish/meat substances, and did not get sick from them, so they accomplished their purpose. Señor Fish it is not.
We did stop somewhere near Pismo Beach to visit the ocean and maybe see some tide pools with some creatures in them. Tide pools yes, creatures no. There were some kids molesting a crab. I hope the crab ate them. There was also an older dude in a tank top and flip-flops revealing his long, scraggy, unshorn talon-esque toenails to the world (see upper right above, just not as good) (sorry, that was kind of a letdown re: using that picture, wasn't it?)
So there was little else to do but to hurtle down the 101 past various farming communities (Salinas, Lettuce Capital of the World...Gilroy, Garlic Capital of the World...Argyleopolis, Argyle Capital of the World, etc.) in fruitless search for a Sonic Burger, which apparently does not exist anywhere near the coast. Note to self: next time book a more Sonic-Burger-friendly tour itinerary. So no Sonic for us, although there was more than enough garlic out there. I had originally hoped to see something along these lines, too, but no--maybe next year:
Late in the afternoon we arrived in Isla Vista at the venue, the Biko Garage, which looks like this (courtesy of LA Underground...I think that's Ray in the picture):
I think it is only fair to call the Biko Garage a commune. Okay, officially I'm sure it's a cooperative, but yeah. Commune. It's a large, kind of sprawling complex that looks like it might have been an apartment building or a small dormitory at some point. There's a chicken coop, an organic garden, a compost heap, and (I am told) about 20 people living there. Apparently it's supported by UCSB, and bands are paid via check written by the school. Cool. Shows are held in (surprise) a large 2-car garage to the left of the above photo.
I have to admit that I was a little unsure about playing a show there, as it didn't really seem like our kinda scene. But! It was totally great! Everyone was nice and the crowd that showed up were all kids who wanted to dance, so we were ready to oblige them. It was really more of a Smell/Sean Carnage kind of scene, which was great. And it was wonderful to see Jeff Koga of the LAist there, as well as LA Underground. Thanks for making the trip! NOTE TO PHOTOGRAPHERS PRESENT: please please please does someone have a picture of me being hoisted off the ground mid-guitar-solo by Evan Parsons? Please please oh pleasey please say that you do.
It was, not surprisingly, a bit sad to play our final tour show with the Parsons, who very kindly allowed us to join them onstage for backup vocals on "State Line/Steak Fries!" But end it must, and so we all stuck around for a great set by Franklin For Short before reluctantly getting back in the van for the last hour or so down the 101 to Los Angeles. Some pictures from the show (and a nice writeup of the Hemlock show) via LA Underground:
Us:
The Parsons:
Franklin For Short:
...and so it was that the Walking Wounded 2009 tour wound its way to a close. Time to drop everyone off at their respective hovels (well, Ashely's place is a lot nicer than ours, so not really a hovel) and clean out the van. I have to say that this was just about a perfect little tour--except that it was too short and there was no Sonic Burger. Getting to see the Parsons every night was a joy and I have many new favorite songs by them. And, very importantly, as far as I could tell everyone in the Monolators camp had a great time, we enjoyed each others' company, and we are antsy to go back out again. I was genuinely a little sad when we started dropping people off at their homes, although I'm also happy to say that the whole band is coming over for dinner tonight, so that'll be fun! I heart this little band.
Beloved pal and fellow Monolator Ashley "Shuffles" Jex has an interview over at The LAist on her fabulous bedroom vinyl label JAXART. Please go over there and read up! Bonus points if you can ID the two snapshot cameras on the table in the lead photo (I can't tell what the third one is) and even more points if you have pictures taken with one of those things.
Also of note--please take a look at her post on Gumshoe, with whom we played last Monday at Echo Curio. Totally right on.
Ah San Francisco, fairest of the fair. We've had some good times together, we've had some miserable times. I remember them all. I was trying to make some kind of analogy between our relationship and the Cupid & Psyche story, Psyche being inhumanly beautiful and unattainable all, but that would make us a small naked fellow with wings and a quiver and I think the analogy falls apart at that point. Never mind. ANYWAY. Suffice it to say that Saturday was not a miserable time in SF, it was a great time, the bestest time, to be exact. The only problem was that it was TOO SHORT. Next time around we're going to play some more shows around the Bay so we can hang around longer.
We roll across the Bay Bridge at around 11 AM or thereabouts, on the good half (that would be the upper half where you can see things). They're building another bridge alongside the Bay Bridge--is that going to replace the Bay Bridge? Does anyone know? Anyway, they were working on this thing about the same time last year and they don't seem to have made a ton of progress. Thanks, crippling recession!
Instead of going to the hotel right away we took a request from a certain hungry Monolator and went here in the West Portal:
Oh YES. Crepes were devoured in the space of milliseconds. Mary Monolator had some kind of dessert crepe (for breakfast, of course) containing Nutella and maybe five bags of sugar. I ate a pesto crepe plus a pomegranate Italian soda and looked around for more. So that was the Gobble part. Later in the hotel room I developed an interesting case of The Poops, which, I presume, would be the Squat portion of the agenda.
Afterwards we headed over to the very extremely lovely campus of San Francisco University for an acoustic session and interview on KUSF with Dennis "The Menace" Scheyer. Many, many thanks to Dane at Yukon Promotions for setting this up for us--it was so very very cool. We talked about our various interests and influences and played acoustic versions of "Ruby," "Such A Fool," and "Eagle Fighting Zebra." The first two went well but the last number was a little shaky, so I wouldn't be surprised if it gets edited out of the final show. At the end Dennis said "wow--that was sure DIY." He told us that he would probably edit down the interview to about 3 minutes in length and that it would be ready to go in a few weeks' time. I will post it here when it goes up. Many thanks to Dennis for having us and I hope we can come back to do it again.
Then it was time for dinner, which was to be had around the corner from The Hemlock Tavern at Maharani, an Indian restaurant which, while not cheap, was absolutely superb ("magic cuisine of India, featuring The Fantasy Room, according to their card. I somehow missed the Fantasy Room). BEST FOOD OF TOUR. They had these spicy pickles that I stirred into everything...ohhh my goodness, that was tasty. Sadly we could not linger and had to split right away straight over to the...
We have hardly played in SF at all (only once, back at Thee Parkside with E>K>U>K and Electric Eel Shock in 2006) and never at the Hemlock. The Hemlock is a big bar with a very not big live room in the back, separated from the main room by a curtain. The space is long and narrow and probably smaller than most LA venues that come to mind, maybe Echo Curio-sized. We loved it. It was not only the best show we ever played on tour, but easily one of our best shows ever, no exaggeration.
Opening the show were our dear friends and SF locals Excuses For Skipping, whom we first met at, I think, Mr. T's some years back, and played with again at Blake's in Berkeley last March. They are a fantastic and super-tight all-female experimental dance punk band--it's a standard 2 guitars/bass/drums lineup, except that Tammy (on guitar) gets synth sounds via one of those Electro-Harmonix Pog pedals that I kind of covet, and also Linda (on guitar and lead vocals) plays additional percussion with drum sticks on bike frames and big pieces of sheet metal. Here they are playing "Tonic For Hysteria," not at the Hemlock show but at Blake's (possibly at the show we played with them last year? Not sure):
They basically blew down the (packed) house and set the bar really, really high for us. We love them and are working on a show for them here in LA in the next few months that you all need to see!
And so it was our turn, and we discovered that the SF audience, which had all turned up for Excuses For Skipping, did two things LA audiences are not too good at: they stayed for BOTH of the unknown-to-them out-of-town acts, and they danced their asses off. We played as dancing a set as we could and it was perfection--packed house, wonderful show. We want to come back to The Hemlock as soon as we possibly can--Ray commented at one point that it was the best show he'd played in San Francisco with any band (he's been in lots) and I gotta agree. It was magic.
The Parsons also had a wonderful dancing audience, played their hits, and got three encores. THREE ENCORES! I'm not sure if I can pinpoint my favorite Parsons song (they've got a lot of good 'uns) but for the tour it was "State Line" with its owl-hooting "ooo ooo" falsetto line and the shouted "STATE LINE!" refrain, which somehow morphed into "Steak Fries!" by the end of the tour. At least that's what we were singing in the van. EXCELLENT SONG!
Our day in SF was wayyyy too short. Mary and I ended it by trying to find an open convenience store near our hotel to buy chocolate. There wasn't one! What's up with that? WHERE'S YOUR CHOCOLATE AT 3AM, SAN FRANCISCO?
Anyway--thanks Hemlock Tavern, we will be back soon!
We've got some video Mary shot of the Parsons playing "Punctual As Usual" at Sophia's Thai Kitchen in Davis. Problem is that it's on Vimeo and I can't figure out how to embed it yet--so you'll have to follow the LINK to watch it. Which you will, won't you? Of course you will.
I've updated the Sacramento-Davis-Sacramento tour post to include video of our hotel room rehearsal of "Such A Fool" and a video of "Eagle Fighting Zebra" from Sophia's Thai Kitchen. Please take a look.
Also--we're uploading footage on Vimeo of the Parsons playing at Sophia's, and I will post that once it's ready to go.
I've updated the post on our Echo Curio show last Monday to include some more photos that have surfaced.
ALSO--I never put up a relevant post for our show that we played a while back at L'Keg with Audacity and Jonesin', but here are some really great pictures from that night via Sal Y Sus Photos! Thanks Sal, these are beautiful!
Sadly no Jillinda pics as she was unable to play at that show.
The problem with writing a tour blog is that usually there is no time to actually write anything while on tour (especially if you're driving the tour van) so here I am, back in Los Angeles post-tour, trying to remember everything that happened. Jillinda/Ray/Ashley/Mary, if I'm forgetting stuff (I'm sure I am), let me know.
Davis is only about 15 miles from Sacramento via the 80 freeway, and we didn't have to be there until evening, so Friday was the relaxing day of the tour. Some of the Monolators slept, some went (I think) to Target, and others (Mary and myself included) went to this place: 1
It was pretty overwhelmingly awesome and I learned some stuff. What more can one ask? One of the best museums I've ever been to of any kind. 2
One of the best parts was, of course, the toy train exhibit. I had Lionel trains as a kid and I always loved how fake they looked. I never really cared about train layouts that tried to look like perfect little versions of a real railroad--I liked that they looked like toys. I think I was heavily influenced in this respect by this wonderful film from 1957:
Of course my favorite toy trains from the exhibit were the really old 1920's and 1930's ones by Lionel, Marx, American Flyer, Ives, and Marklin, and of course those are the absolutely most expensive ones out there on the used market. So I don't think I'll be collecting toy trains anytime soon. 3
But my favorite part of the museum was going through an old restored Pullman sleeper coach, which looked REALLY REALLY comfortable with the pull-out beds and made travel by airplane look brutal and miserable in comparison. The sleeper car was connected to a dining car and they had displays of beautiful original menus and china from the first half of the twentieth century, of which you can of course purchase reproductions. Mary bought a little cookbook of diner car food and it's genius because, due to limited space, ingredients and prep time had to be limited in the kitchen, but the food still looked damn good. Beef ragout with biscuits. YEERS.
So that was fun.
At noon we met Mary's cousin, who lives near Sacramento, for lunch at the Indo Cafe in Old Town, which, amusingly enough, was about 15 feet away from the fish-and-chips place we ate at on Thursday. It was Indonesian and really good. I would mostly give Old Sacramento a pass in the future (apart from the Train museum, which is nearby), but the Indo Cafe was great. We did stop by Sock City and Mary picked up some florescent pink and black striped knee socks, but I passed because I knew I could spent waaaayyyy too much money on socks and I'm far too broke right now.
Later that afternoon the whole band reconvened in Jillinda & Ashley's hotel room to practice an acoustic version of our set. We were going to play at Sophia's Thai Kitchen that night and, because the stage is basically a corner of an outdoor patio right on the street (E Street, to be exact), there were significant noise restrictions. We decided to bring our acoustic setup (same as when we played the Where Gallery, except with the addition of Ashley on bass but turned down really low) and also decided that it would be a really good idea to practice this before actually trying to play a whole show this way. This turned out to be a good idea. This here is a video of us in the hotel running through Ray's "Such A Fool," with obvious Parson Red Heads influence on the vocal parts:
Davis itself is your typical small college town. Lots of trees (which is nice), lots of bars. Lots and lots of bars. Lots of kids riding around on really expensive fixed-gear bikes who apparently can't figure out how to pedal their way through an intersection and out of the way of giant tour vans (I make no apologies). We also noticed that there were multiple places that were dual-function, like: pizza-restaurant-plus-dance-club. So you can eat pizza AND dance to "Hot In Herre" at the same time if you want to. Who wouldn't?
As I said, the stage at Sophia's Thai Kitchen is a corner of a patio right off the sidewalk on E Street. The patio has a wooden railing that is maybe seven or so feet above the ground. There is a nice PA with cute little bagel-sized monitors. We squeezed in, not an easy feat with multiple injured band members, and played our set, which went over okay. There were some people watching, there were also a bunch of drunk frat boys right in front of the stage who were not there to see music, they were there to get drunker, and I sang to the back of their necks. Response overall was fine, but I wanted to liven things up a little, so in the middle of our last song ("Best Friends In Space," I think) I put down my banjo, squeezed past Ray and Ashley, hoisted myself up on the patio railing, and jumped off. I landed awkwardly on my wrist (ow), managed to startle a co-ed, and ran around back up the stairs to finish the song. I'm not sure what the overall effect was but I was diverted. I didn't really manage to hurt myself to speak of but my wrist is still kinda sore, three days later. Oh well, I did TRY to join the ranks of the Walking Wounded.
Here we are playing "Eagle Fighting Zebra" at Sophia's--it cuts out early but gives a good idea. The blurriness is only in the beginning:
Then Parsons went on a went down A STORM. Seriously, Sophia's Thai Kitchen belongs to them, the patio was packed, and there was a dance party after their set until last call. I believe there is video from this gig as well, if we can locate it. Then we packed up and rolled back to the hotel in Sacramento (La Quinta Inn, right off the 5, if you're curious) for the night. We decided to stay in Sac for the night because it's so close and WAY cheaper than Davis hotels. Oh yeah--I forget, as we were loading up the van in Davis we were near a bar where a cover band was pumping out "Come On Eileen" and then, later, the theme to "Footloose." It seemed fitting.
Note: I'm embarrassed to say I didn't bring a camera, so I got these images from here:
Walking Wounded Tour 2009: Thursday May 7, Los Angeles to Sacramento
I suppose that while Tuesday night in Costa Mesa was technically the first night of our tour with Parson Red Heads, but since we spent the night after the show at our own house and didn't have the TOUR VAN for the night, it didn't really feel "toury" in the normal sense. It was a good show, though, and it was great to share the stage with sometime Parson Red Head Mr. Raymond Richards.
Anyway--Thursday morning, got up far too early to collect various Monolators and go pick up the TOUR VAN. In the absence of touring our own custom Pullman train in the style of Duke Ellington or Cab Calloway, it is more or less essential to tour in the USA via a massive Ford 12-to-15 passenger van. Ours is grey and is VAST. I heard someone cry out "it's like a palace" when they saw the inside. Also the air conditioning system is brutally efficient. I am pleased to say that even if the US auto industry is in its death throes, we still can build an incredible air conditioner. USA! USA! USA! USA!
None of us got much sleep the previous night (I'm afraid I woke up Jillinda when I called her to tell her I was dropping by to pick her up, and it was like calling someone in the afterlife. "Hello...oh...oh...oh, okay. Okaaaayyyyyyyyy....byeeeeeeeee...." Poor Jillinda's hand is not much better. Her fingers are about five different colors and look like lizard hands. The rest of us are more or less healthy although I have just noticed that have a weird infected scratch on my hand. Like a little infection zit. It doesn't hurt but I don't know where it came from.
The drive up to Sacramento was pretty much uneventful, except for the goddamn wind. A gigantic van is hard to drive anyway (Jillinda refers to it as "swervy") and I had to wrestle with the steering wheel to get it not to plow into the 18-wheelers in the next lane. I'm afraid one of my VERY witty observations on Neil Diamond's denim jumpsuit on the cover of "Hot August Nights" was interrupted by a rollercoaster style swerve out of the sky. DAMN WIND.
I'm sure I am the 9 billionth person to note this in a blog, but on I-5 heading up to Sacramento there are these freeway exit signs that would make the best names in the world: "Shafter Wasco" and "Buttonwillow McKittrick." I assume these are signs for towns called "Shafter" and "Wasco," but still. Shafter Wasco. SHAFTER WASCO.
We roll into Sacramento at about 5:00 pm and wander into Old Sacramento in search of somewhere to eat. I gather that Old Sacramento is the old 19th century commercial/portside section of the city that has been recently remodeled into a Fisherman's Wharf-style shopping area. So, all of these beautiful wooden and brick Victorian buildings with Shakey's Pizza and Candle Land stores in them. There is something there called Sock City that appears to sell nothing but novelty socks. I hope we can visit Sock City before leaving for San Francisco, which has many wonderful things to offer but not, I am certain, a Sock City. So yeah--Old Sacramento is kinda touristy and awful, but we did find a place called The Delta House that served fish and chips. It boasted a total of one employee, an older woman who looked dimayed as we wandered in and ordered five rounds of battered cod. Fire up the deep fryers! She also appeared to be kind of sick and disoriented, so we were grateful that the pulled on some plastic gloves after wiping her runny nose. Verdict on Delta House: GOOD FISH AND CHIPS. Although this may have possibly been influenced by it being the only solid food we'd eaten for the day, tour van food consisting of chips and gummy coke bottles. Verdict on gummy coke bottles as tour van food: UNSURPASSABLE.
Tonight we played at a venue called The Blue Lamp, which is just off the 80 freeway and is essentially Spaceland-sized. I gather that Airborne and the Henry Clay People played there on their last tour. We get there a bit ahead of the Parsons who are driving up a bit later so drummer Brette can make a callback audition for a largish TV ad, which we all hope she gets. I didn't know she acted! As someone with .5% acting ability I am impressed with anyone who can convey any emotion on demand convincingly beyond my personal speciality, Looking Confounded. I spent much of the time waiting to go on talking with Parson acoustic guitarist Aaron, who discussed various nonessential clothes items (cummerbunds, for instance, of which I happened to have an example in my Monolators suitcase. He says that the pleats are supposed to face up to catch crumbs. Is this true?). He also sported very wonderful bermuda shorts with cowboy boots, a look which I would have a hard time pulling off.
The first band on for the night were Sacramento locals In The Dust, a bass/drums/guitar trio who were kinda 70's hard rock. Really cool and they were VERY POLITE, which goes a long long way with us. They mentioned us and the Parsons, and you would be surprised how few bands do this.
The show was one of our better ones recently, and probably our best version of "French TV" so far, which is always a dicey proposition, song-wise. Lots of energy, the crowd was petite (30?) but responsive. Roger, the very nice guy who booked this particular show, invited us back, so that's good.
It's a privilege to see the Parsons on tour; they are pared down but I am struck by how versatile their sound is--they can segue between super tight pop songs and space rock jams with ease, and their harmony singing is fantastic. Neither of these things is our forte. So far this tour is delightful.
Last night's show at Echo Curio was fast but delightful, thank you all for coming out! We bought a plastic mastadon model from the 1970's. Roman Candles and Halloween Swim Team were great as always (I am intensely jealous of Roman Candles' setup--no mics, one accordion, one guitar, what else do you need? Answer: nothing) and Gumshoe was intensely wonderful. I hope we can play more shows with her!
Tonight is the start of our little spring tourette with the Parson Redheads and we couldn't be happier. ALTHOUGH I will say that we could be healthier, seeing how as Ashley ("Shuffles") is still in a cast for her broken ankle and Jillinda ("Torchy") has two of her fingers bandaged after receiving second-degree burns on her hand last week. I tried to join the ranks of the injured last night by smashing my bass into my head but only managed to scrape up my scalp. No concussion but my head is sore. I'm an idiot.
Anyway, if you're somewhere in California this coming week maybe we'll see you. As I mentioned before we've recorded a little download-only 4 track EP for this tour and it SHOULD be ready by Thursday. We've been recording it piecemeal while various Monolators have been in and out of town over the past two weeks and I haven't actually heard two of the four songs yet! But what I have heard so far makes me happy. I hope you all will be too.
Here are the dates. All are with Parson Redheads:
Tuesday, May 5 -- Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa with The Fling. We go on at 9pm. Thursday, May 7 -- The Blue Lamp in Sacramento. Friday, May 8 -- Sophia's Thai Kitchen in Davis. Quiet show! Saturday, May 9 -- Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco with Excuses For Skipping. Sunday, May 10 -- Biko Garage in Isla Vista (essentially Santa Barbara). All ages!
That's all for May for us until Saturday the 23rd when we play PROM! At All Star Lanes! PROM PROM PROMEDY PROM PROM PROM!
Monolators digital EP release show tonight at Echo Curio
Hi everyone--
We're playing a local show tonight at Echo Curio before hitting the road with Parson Redheads up to the SF Bay and back. Tonight also happens to be the official release show for our new download-only 4-track EP "Ruby, I'm Changing My Number."
There is a slight, teensy weensy complication in the form of the EP not being technically finished yet. But it will be finished by the time we leave town on Thursday and anyone who comes to the show will get a download card as part of the $5 admission--the card will be ready to use on Thursday.
The other good news is that this will be a really great lineup, with Roman Candles, Gumshoe, and Halloween Swim Team! Yay! It starts at 9pm and costs five bucks. We'd love to see you there!
