OK so . . . that went fast. Tim and I made it back to LA yesterday without a second to blink or blog. It becomes kind of tough to check in after nine-hour drives followed by late shows followed by the quick urge to sleep followed by the need to get up and do it all over again.
Oh, but don't get me wrong -- we had a lot of fun. At least I did. Tim's gonna have to attest to that one personally, I can only speak from my own brain. But we've both got stuff to share from several days taking shots of mountains and trees. Should be up within the next day or so, so sit tight.
THTG sleep.
-Melissa
Monday, July 6, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Scaling the "Maple Wall"
Damn, do I really have to catch up with three days' worth of stuff? I think I've got about 10 minutes. We're at a cafe near Paul's house. Tim's reading (far away from me because I started singing along with the radio and he got annoyed) and I'm charging my phone. The last two days have been mostly iPhone-free and also the most enjoyable so far. Must be a coincidence.
So as I only have about 10 minutes before we have to go drinking to celebrate a birthday I guess I'll run through a bit of what happened in Canada.
We left a lot of our gear in Seattle so as not to raise eyebrows crossing the border with a loaded car. We also didn't have the usual ultra-convenience of Google Maps so we relied on our old-fashioned ability to read a map on Tim's old-fashioned laptop which downloaded Vancouver before we left U.S. wifi.
Circular highways . . .
Baffled driver . . .
Van City
. . . yeah. We got a bit lost. But we made out OK. Tim and I had a bet for $5 Canadian on whether a certain group of buildings was Vancouver. I was right, it wasn't. But since it was close enough to Vancouver we called it a tie, based on the fact that I thought we were really far away. So basically Tim changed the rules so he wouldn't lose (...he's a Taurus. Also just plain stubborn).
We found the Princeton Pub and were ready for a night of sketch. And then we met Burton, the promoter, and were instantly put at ease by his indie rock glasses.
Burton with reassuring indie rock glasses
Free promo shot guys!
This Pickard's Red's for you
The place is actually a popular bar for longshoremen. They're a terrific audience -- loud and happy and ready to dance if the music's good. Tim thinks I like this just because of the irony but he's wrong -- I just like happy people.
I had started talking to this guy Mark from the first band, Out The Garage.
He was really nice and said we could crash at his place.
We woke up and had what's still been the best day on tour for me. Hanging out with a group of really cool new people, talking about Canada, eating amazing Indian food . . .
Bev
Mark, rollerblades
Keny and Mandy (one day before shipping off to Indonesia to teach English)
Buttered chicken, palak paneer, garlic naan and a mango lassi
As an aside, I'm sorry to our new Canadian friends for being so retardedly startled when I found out you were actually all older than us. You look amazing.
We lost all track of time and had to get back over the border and be in Arlington by 7. We waited at the border for about 45 minutes to an hour (way longer to get back it seems) but made it to the show in time for the second band.
Made it to the venue
Tim's ass shot for Arlington (somehow I've been getting one in every city)
It was a great show. We've got a ton more pictures (and video) and I'd tell you more about it and today's very scenic walk and picnic day in Seattle, but I'm out of time. I'll let Tim pick it up when we get back on the laptop. Portland tomorrow.
-Melissa
So as I only have about 10 minutes before we have to go drinking to celebrate a birthday I guess I'll run through a bit of what happened in Canada.
We left a lot of our gear in Seattle so as not to raise eyebrows crossing the border with a loaded car. We also didn't have the usual ultra-convenience of Google Maps so we relied on our old-fashioned ability to read a map on Tim's old-fashioned laptop which downloaded Vancouver before we left U.S. wifi.
Circular highways . . .
Baffled driver . . .
Van City
. . . yeah. We got a bit lost. But we made out OK. Tim and I had a bet for $5 Canadian on whether a certain group of buildings was Vancouver. I was right, it wasn't. But since it was close enough to Vancouver we called it a tie, based on the fact that I thought we were really far away. So basically Tim changed the rules so he wouldn't lose (...he's a Taurus. Also just plain stubborn).
We found the Princeton Pub and were ready for a night of sketch. And then we met Burton, the promoter, and were instantly put at ease by his indie rock glasses.
Burton with reassuring indie rock glasses
Free promo shot guys!
This Pickard's Red's for you
The place is actually a popular bar for longshoremen. They're a terrific audience -- loud and happy and ready to dance if the music's good. Tim thinks I like this just because of the irony but he's wrong -- I just like happy people.
I had started talking to this guy Mark from the first band, Out The Garage.
He was really nice and said we could crash at his place.
We woke up and had what's still been the best day on tour for me. Hanging out with a group of really cool new people, talking about Canada, eating amazing Indian food . . .
Bev
Mark, rollerblades
Keny and Mandy (one day before shipping off to Indonesia to teach English)
Buttered chicken, palak paneer, garlic naan and a mango lassi
As an aside, I'm sorry to our new Canadian friends for being so retardedly startled when I found out you were actually all older than us. You look amazing.
We lost all track of time and had to get back over the border and be in Arlington by 7. We waited at the border for about 45 minutes to an hour (way longer to get back it seems) but made it to the show in time for the second band.
Made it to the venue
Tim's ass shot for Arlington (somehow I've been getting one in every city)
It was a great show. We've got a ton more pictures (and video) and I'd tell you more about it and today's very scenic walk and picnic day in Seattle, but I'm out of time. I'll let Tim pick it up when we get back on the laptop. Portland tomorrow.
-Melissa
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Vancouver, BC
I. love. it.
We're drinking coffee right now with some new friends we stayed with last night who we met at Princeton Pub. We're talking about all the various places we're from -- they moved here from Calgary -- and learning about the different parts and people of Canada. It's rad rad RAD. I want to stay in Vancouver for the rest of the week -- at least until Canada Day on July 1, because they have pants that say "Canada" on the butt. But we have a show tonight in Arlington, WA, so we gotta get going by 5. We're so coming back in January. More to follow when we can upload photos. We're gonna go to Stanley Park. Please let today last a long time.
-Melissa
We're drinking coffee right now with some new friends we stayed with last night who we met at Princeton Pub. We're talking about all the various places we're from -- they moved here from Calgary -- and learning about the different parts and people of Canada. It's rad rad RAD. I want to stay in Vancouver for the rest of the week -- at least until Canada Day on July 1, because they have pants that say "Canada" on the butt. But we have a show tonight in Arlington, WA, so we gotta get going by 5. We're so coming back in January. More to follow when we can upload photos. We're gonna go to Stanley Park. Please let today last a long time.
-Melissa
Monday, June 29, 2009
Well I went on tour, through Olympia-a-a-a-a-a-a . . .
and everyone's the same.
No but seriously, we drove into Olympia and I couldn't understand what Courtney Love had been bitching about. It's beautiful and everything smells like trees. True, there are very very VERY strange people there who live in the mountains and come down just to drink fair trade coffee and throw graffiti on the walls, but it's hard to hold a grudge with such a lush place. Then again I don't live there and didn't attend Olympia High School so what do I know.
Tim and I rolled into town around noon and attended to our first order of business:
YES. It's really not all that exciting -- there's a Jack and the Box and a Bally's. Tim did not get a picture because he's way too mature.
Then we got some food and went to Evergreen State College, where we wandered around for about an hour looking for the radio station. Probably would have been better if we had gone any other time than on a Sunday during the summer, but when are we ever in Olympia? We slid something under an abandoned door with the hope that some kind person would pick it up when school's back in session. At least the campus was pretty.
Is this a college or a nature preserve?
Afterwards we went back to a park near the capitol building, where Tim promptly fell asleep.
I tried to make a video but my brain was off looking at the water.
Then we went to a cafe and Tim hopped on his laptop, and two homeless teens covered in paint asked if they could recharge their phones through his USB. He signed off with his usual "no problem" and sort of regretted it later on, but they were nice enough. I interviewed them about free-wall graffiti and how MJ was the Elvis of their . . . well, not their generation but the generation that came before them. Now I know how the older Gen X-er's felt when I was 16 and told them I didn't know who Molly Ringwald was. The circle continues.
The show at Le Voyeur . . .
The performers were cool folks.
We offered up our gear as the backline so everyone was The Hard To Get that night.
Existential Hero
The band Your Yellow Dress let me hop up on drums for a few songs
Josh Armistead
We went on last and did a very raw set to match the evening. We finally got around to our Sleater-Kinney cover of "Burn, Don't Freeze" -- we had to, we were in Olympia -- and I was ecstatic when one of the bar staff recognized the cover. Feels sort of like we consummated the band somehow. We still haven't figured out the live performance footage/pics situation so . . . here's us practicing it the day before in the car:
We slept at my friend Paul Rice's house in Seattle (thanks dude! btw, your toilet won't stop running) and we are now showered and ready to go to Vancouver, where we don't really know anyone, don't understand the money thing and won't be using our phones because it's too expensive. At least I finally figured out my passport situation.
-Melissa
No but seriously, we drove into Olympia and I couldn't understand what Courtney Love had been bitching about. It's beautiful and everything smells like trees. True, there are very very VERY strange people there who live in the mountains and come down just to drink fair trade coffee and throw graffiti on the walls, but it's hard to hold a grudge with such a lush place. Then again I don't live there and didn't attend Olympia High School so what do I know.
Tim and I rolled into town around noon and attended to our first order of business:
YES. It's really not all that exciting -- there's a Jack and the Box and a Bally's. Tim did not get a picture because he's way too mature.
Then we got some food and went to Evergreen State College, where we wandered around for about an hour looking for the radio station. Probably would have been better if we had gone any other time than on a Sunday during the summer, but when are we ever in Olympia? We slid something under an abandoned door with the hope that some kind person would pick it up when school's back in session. At least the campus was pretty.
Is this a college or a nature preserve?
Afterwards we went back to a park near the capitol building, where Tim promptly fell asleep.
I tried to make a video but my brain was off looking at the water.
Then we went to a cafe and Tim hopped on his laptop, and two homeless teens covered in paint asked if they could recharge their phones through his USB. He signed off with his usual "no problem" and sort of regretted it later on, but they were nice enough. I interviewed them about free-wall graffiti and how MJ was the Elvis of their . . . well, not their generation but the generation that came before them. Now I know how the older Gen X-er's felt when I was 16 and told them I didn't know who Molly Ringwald was. The circle continues.
The show at Le Voyeur . . .
The performers were cool folks.
We offered up our gear as the backline so everyone was The Hard To Get that night.
Existential Hero
The band Your Yellow Dress let me hop up on drums for a few songs
Josh Armistead
We went on last and did a very raw set to match the evening. We finally got around to our Sleater-Kinney cover of "Burn, Don't Freeze" -- we had to, we were in Olympia -- and I was ecstatic when one of the bar staff recognized the cover. Feels sort of like we consummated the band somehow. We still haven't figured out the live performance footage/pics situation so . . . here's us practicing it the day before in the car:
We slept at my friend Paul Rice's house in Seattle (thanks dude! btw, your toilet won't stop running) and we are now showered and ready to go to Vancouver, where we don't really know anyone, don't understand the money thing and won't be using our phones because it's too expensive. At least I finally figured out my passport situation.
-Melissa
Sunday, June 28, 2009
OMG, Tim's Blogging!!
This is the voice of Tim. I am now off my ass and blogging.
The Beginning.
Anyways, Melissa’s already captured a lot, so I’ll just try to fill the gaps. I’m sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Olympia waiting for our next show tonight at Le Voyeur. Hard to believe it’s only been two days. ..
First of all, thanks to everyone who has helped us in the last few days. Peter Hatch did a great job with our official tour poster (LA fans, you can pick one up for FREE at one of our two LA shows). Adam pressed some more t-shirts at the last minute (hopefully we’ll sell a few). Leah, your trail mix and cookies have been KEY!! Melissa even showed the self-discipline to ration the cookies or else we would have devoured them in the first hour. Thanks so much to David Fletcher for having us on at The Fox and Goose in Sacramento. For those of you in LA, you’ll get a chance to see his brand of country-inflected pop when he plays with us at The Scene in Glendale on July 6th. And thanks to my friend Raul for letting us stay with him at his (well not exactly his) place.
Cows on I5.
Great Depression?.
Sacto, City of Trees.
Melissa and the crew at The Fox and Goose.
Melissa in an homage to MJ.
Melissa's long-lost friend Julie...moving to LA soon, so watch out.
David Fletcher...good stuff.
So the 12 hour trek from Sacramento to Tacoma really wasn’t that bad. I’ve never been north of Ashland, OR. It doesn’t hurt that the scenery is ridiculously gorgeous (unlike, let’s say, the journey between LA and Sacramento--see above). The few snow-capped peaks (Shasta, Hood, Rainier) on the way up seem like pretty little mile posts. My exposition on the Pacific Ring of Fire may be completely wrong—everything I know comes from Wikipedia.
Mount Shasta.
Sy’s pizza in Eugene was good. We’ll have to play Eugene next time around.
Bob’s Java Jive—what a place! It’s in this little gem in an ugly industrial part of Tacoma, WA, squashed between the freeway and a school bus depot. It’s a coffee pot, not a tea kettle. They treated us pretty well—two whole pitchers of beer (which, mom, we shared with others so as to not drive away intoxicated at the end of the night).
The World Famous Bob's Java Jive.
Rad.
We went on first and played a decent set. Melissa sang happy birthday to a woman named Mandy, and then realized it was actually Sandy. Oops. The Timbreines (Salem), Tim and the Time Machines (Seattle), and The Electrolytes (Seattle) were all great, but the highlight of the night had to be Melissa hopping on for some impromptu shaker with a ruffle-shirted Tim from Tim and the Time Machines (not me). After the first two shows, I’m realizing that it’s not necessarily super-crowded shows that are important, but getting to meet all these other great people doing the same stuff we’re doing.
Jeff from Tim and the Time Machines
Tim from Tim and the Time Machines. We gave them a shaker, they gave us a trophy.
Our merch table.
Melissa shakes with Tim and the Time Machines.
(Side note...our tour "van" couldn't possibly fit anything else, so we couldn't bring along the photographer who was dying to come with us...so a lot of these live photos have been of others...we'll try to con someone into capturing us the next few nights).
We went into Tacoma without a place to stay, and ended up staying with the guys from The Timbreines and their friend Mariah in Seattle near UW (thanks Mariah, and good luck with the back-packing trip in Europe!). What great people, and I’m hoping the rest of Seattle is this nice. We’ll have more time to explore in the next few days…
Anyways, that’s it for now. More on Olympia later…
Tim
THTG
The Beginning.
Anyways, Melissa’s already captured a lot, so I’ll just try to fill the gaps. I’m sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Olympia waiting for our next show tonight at Le Voyeur. Hard to believe it’s only been two days. ..
First of all, thanks to everyone who has helped us in the last few days. Peter Hatch did a great job with our official tour poster (LA fans, you can pick one up for FREE at one of our two LA shows). Adam pressed some more t-shirts at the last minute (hopefully we’ll sell a few). Leah, your trail mix and cookies have been KEY!! Melissa even showed the self-discipline to ration the cookies or else we would have devoured them in the first hour. Thanks so much to David Fletcher for having us on at The Fox and Goose in Sacramento. For those of you in LA, you’ll get a chance to see his brand of country-inflected pop when he plays with us at The Scene in Glendale on July 6th. And thanks to my friend Raul for letting us stay with him at his (well not exactly his) place.
Cows on I5.
Great Depression?.
Sacto, City of Trees.
Melissa and the crew at The Fox and Goose.
Melissa in an homage to MJ.
Melissa's long-lost friend Julie...moving to LA soon, so watch out.
David Fletcher...good stuff.
So the 12 hour trek from Sacramento to Tacoma really wasn’t that bad. I’ve never been north of Ashland, OR. It doesn’t hurt that the scenery is ridiculously gorgeous (unlike, let’s say, the journey between LA and Sacramento--see above). The few snow-capped peaks (Shasta, Hood, Rainier) on the way up seem like pretty little mile posts. My exposition on the Pacific Ring of Fire may be completely wrong—everything I know comes from Wikipedia.
Mount Shasta.
Sy’s pizza in Eugene was good. We’ll have to play Eugene next time around.
Bob’s Java Jive—what a place! It’s in this little gem in an ugly industrial part of Tacoma, WA, squashed between the freeway and a school bus depot. It’s a coffee pot, not a tea kettle. They treated us pretty well—two whole pitchers of beer (which, mom, we shared with others so as to not drive away intoxicated at the end of the night).
The World Famous Bob's Java Jive.
Rad.
We went on first and played a decent set. Melissa sang happy birthday to a woman named Mandy, and then realized it was actually Sandy. Oops. The Timbreines (Salem), Tim and the Time Machines (Seattle), and The Electrolytes (Seattle) were all great, but the highlight of the night had to be Melissa hopping on for some impromptu shaker with a ruffle-shirted Tim from Tim and the Time Machines (not me). After the first two shows, I’m realizing that it’s not necessarily super-crowded shows that are important, but getting to meet all these other great people doing the same stuff we’re doing.
Jeff from Tim and the Time Machines
Tim from Tim and the Time Machines. We gave them a shaker, they gave us a trophy.
Our merch table.
Melissa shakes with Tim and the Time Machines.
(Side note...our tour "van" couldn't possibly fit anything else, so we couldn't bring along the photographer who was dying to come with us...so a lot of these live photos have been of others...we'll try to con someone into capturing us the next few nights).
We went into Tacoma without a place to stay, and ended up staying with the guys from The Timbreines and their friend Mariah in Seattle near UW (thanks Mariah, and good luck with the back-packing trip in Europe!). What great people, and I’m hoping the rest of Seattle is this nice. We’ll have more time to explore in the next few days…
Anyways, that’s it for now. More on Olympia later…
Tim
THTG
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Are we tour yet?
Day 2
(Day 1 got away from us before we could say anything so it will have to be forever lost in the void. I'm OK if you are.)
Let's go!
We left Sacramento about an hour and a half ago and we’re on the long, long long long haul to Tacoma. Long means at least 11 hours, really more like 12 the way traffic’s been so far and it’s only Saturday morning. I ate a McGriddle and tried to sleep for about 40 minutes. Didn't happen. Sometimes I wish sleep could come in a can.
This is what I'm looking at.
So . . . tour! My head is ping-ponging between thoughts of wondering what this trip is going to be like and drawing comparisons to the five-week tour I did last year in Europe. That was a different experience entirely -- more people, more time, more foreign . . . more fighting? Not sure about that last one yet; Tim and I are famous for our “creative tension.” It’s good for the music but not necessarily for when you’re 2 feet away from each other in a car. Our departure from LA was a bit rocky, but somehow despite a few setbacks and a late start things went surprisingly well between us. It was only at about hour 4 that we started psychoanalyzing each other. Day 1: Exploring our issues so as to diffuse them before they make problems for us on the road and down the road. Tim and I are also famous for arguing about hypothetical situations that never happen.
So I should talk about the show, right? We got to the Fox and Goose right in time for the first performer and I went to the bathroom to make myself look less like I’d spent the morning in hours of LA traffic. Tim settled in to get some food and I went to the bar to get a drink. I introduced myself to one of the performers, who said I looked familiar. We couldn’t figure out why so I told her my theory about how I have this kind of familiar/trustworthy face and disposition that makes total strangers think I’m their little sister/favorite cousin/best friend from the fourth grade and makes them want to tell me their most secret thoughts (it helps me sometimes when I’m in a jam but I find it occasionally hurts me in dating -- no one wants to fuck their kid sister). About an hour later she asked, “Did you ever live in Boston?” I sure did! Turns out she’s the ex-girlfriend of Dave Middleton, the guitarist from my first band ever -- from EIGHT YEARS AGO. Seriously, what are the odds!!! I lost touch with him shortly after he graduated from Berklee but I remembered then that he’d moved to Sacramento, and sure enough, he still lives there. She texted him to come to the show. He got there just as we were about to go on. Our first ever show outside of LA, our first ever tour, and my first ever guitarist coming to see it. Tim said it was a good omen. I agree -- I’m still tripping out about it.
(Tim just suggested I put up a MySpace page for the band we were in, Sometimes the Culprit. He also suggested I play an old Culprit song last night. Neither suggestion entertained, thanks. )
I’m gonna wrap this up ‘cause I’m getting distracted by the scenery – we’ve crossed into a more mountainous region and Tim keeps asking me to stop and take pictures. We also just had an interesting conversation about the blog itself, in which Tim expounded on the fact that our blog and Twitter feed is pretty Melissa-centric. To which I reply: Get off your ass and write something! I’m not doing a press release here.
-M
Almost in Portland
(Day 1 got away from us before we could say anything so it will have to be forever lost in the void. I'm OK if you are.)
Let's go!
We left Sacramento about an hour and a half ago and we’re on the long, long long long haul to Tacoma. Long means at least 11 hours, really more like 12 the way traffic’s been so far and it’s only Saturday morning. I ate a McGriddle and tried to sleep for about 40 minutes. Didn't happen. Sometimes I wish sleep could come in a can.
This is what I'm looking at.
So . . . tour! My head is ping-ponging between thoughts of wondering what this trip is going to be like and drawing comparisons to the five-week tour I did last year in Europe. That was a different experience entirely -- more people, more time, more foreign . . . more fighting? Not sure about that last one yet; Tim and I are famous for our “creative tension.” It’s good for the music but not necessarily for when you’re 2 feet away from each other in a car. Our departure from LA was a bit rocky, but somehow despite a few setbacks and a late start things went surprisingly well between us. It was only at about hour 4 that we started psychoanalyzing each other. Day 1: Exploring our issues so as to diffuse them before they make problems for us on the road and down the road. Tim and I are also famous for arguing about hypothetical situations that never happen.
So I should talk about the show, right? We got to the Fox and Goose right in time for the first performer and I went to the bathroom to make myself look less like I’d spent the morning in hours of LA traffic. Tim settled in to get some food and I went to the bar to get a drink. I introduced myself to one of the performers, who said I looked familiar. We couldn’t figure out why so I told her my theory about how I have this kind of familiar/trustworthy face and disposition that makes total strangers think I’m their little sister/favorite cousin/best friend from the fourth grade and makes them want to tell me their most secret thoughts (it helps me sometimes when I’m in a jam but I find it occasionally hurts me in dating -- no one wants to fuck their kid sister). About an hour later she asked, “Did you ever live in Boston?” I sure did! Turns out she’s the ex-girlfriend of Dave Middleton, the guitarist from my first band ever -- from EIGHT YEARS AGO. Seriously, what are the odds!!! I lost touch with him shortly after he graduated from Berklee but I remembered then that he’d moved to Sacramento, and sure enough, he still lives there. She texted him to come to the show. He got there just as we were about to go on. Our first ever show outside of LA, our first ever tour, and my first ever guitarist coming to see it. Tim said it was a good omen. I agree -- I’m still tripping out about it.
(Tim just suggested I put up a MySpace page for the band we were in, Sometimes the Culprit. He also suggested I play an old Culprit song last night. Neither suggestion entertained, thanks. )
I’m gonna wrap this up ‘cause I’m getting distracted by the scenery – we’ve crossed into a more mountainous region and Tim keeps asking me to stop and take pictures. We also just had an interesting conversation about the blog itself, in which Tim expounded on the fact that our blog and Twitter feed is pretty Melissa-centric. To which I reply: Get off your ass and write something! I’m not doing a press release here.
-M
Almost in Portland
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