Hey all, Jamezboat here!

Well, we're about half way through the Echo Stick Guitars tour and it's been a ball! We've played with some great bands including Red Riders, Boy and Bear, Small Hours and Last Dinosaurs. Some of our up-coming shows will also include Paper Scissors (Sydney pop-dance-indie supremos), Sierra Fin (moody Sydney rockers) and Dan Parsons (a close friend of the boaties and a fantastic indie-pop singer song-writer).

The dates still to come are:

Melbourne
Sat 28th Nov The Northcote Social Club
301 High Street, Northcote, Melbourne
Supporting Red Riders, w/ Last Dinosaurs.
Tickets: www.northcotesocialclub.com

Sydney
Fri 4th ..he Wall (form. The Bald Faced Stag)
345 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt, Sydney
w/ Paper Scissors, Boy and Bear and Sierra Fin
Tickets on the door!

Brisbane
Sat 5th ..he Clubhouse (form. Empire Hotel Corner Bar)
339 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
w/ Paper Scissors and Dan Parsons
Tickets: www.oxtix.com.au or on the door!

At each gig we'll be giving away free "boat-money" in the currency of British Dollars and American Pounds, as mentioned in our new single Echo Stick Guitars! The paper money features the faces of members of the boaties instead of your usual social/political figure head!

And don't forget to request Echo Stick Guitars on Triple J online
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/requests/

See you soon!




 

Hey there kids!

Echo Stick Guitars video:

A special Jamezboat Blog announcement: *drum roll please* (adopt old-fashioned, deep-voiced Oscars-style cosmopolitan voice-over accent)

"Ladieeeeees aaannnd Gentlemeeeen, would you please welcome to the world of the inter-web, the official VIDEO CLIP for The Boat People's new single..... ECHO STICK GUITARS!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb92IpPn81Q

*Crowd goes wild. Applause, cheering, streamers, glitter etc*

So there it is! The video clip for Echo Stick Guitars, for your viewing pleasure! A huge thank-you to Danny and Greg who shot and edited the video and to Zoe, Rom, Jack and Ruby who sourced the costumes and dressed us so well (oh and for dancing for 8 hours on a rock hard floor!).

If you'd like to see a little behind the scenes action from the making of the clip, Robinboat filmed and edited a montage of us all tooling around which is quite entertaining!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVzLhflGD8w&feature=related

Request Echo Stick Guitars:

You can help us Boaties out HEAPS by simply requesting Echo Stick Guitars on Australia's Triple J radio. It takes no time at all and helps us get more spins, plus you'll get to hear it in radio land!

Please spend 2 minutes requesting the song here http://lnk.ms/0TkVw

Echo Stick Guitars single launch tour:

You may have noticed on myspace some new tour dates for us. We're very happy to be playing shows with two of Australia's best indie-pop bands, firstly with Red Riders and then with The Paper Scissors as part of our Echo Stick Guitars tour!

Friday, 13 November 2009

Supporting Red Riders - Manly Fishos "Echo Stick Guitars" Single Launch Tour

Friday, 20 November 2009

Supporting Red Riders - The Globe "Echo Stick Guitars" Single Launch Tour

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Supporting Red Riders - Northcote Social Club "Echo Stick Guitars" Single Launch Tour

Friday, 04 December 2009

The Bald Faced Stag "Echo Stick Guitars" Single Launch Tour

Saturday, 05 December 2009

Clubhouse (Fans) Ex Empire Corner Bar "Echo Stick Guitars" Single Launch Tour

)

More dates to come....

Facebook:

I know some of you out there are not fans of ours on Facebook yet, and you know what? You should be! Facebook is great. Hell, I even made my own Facebook page recently and I said I NEVER would! So please, come join the love. We don't spam the hell out of it, but we do post lots of silly photos of ourselves while recording and touring!

Join up...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Boat-People/22790928480

Beard:

And finally, here is a beard I've been working on. Hope you approve:




See you next time!

Jamezboat

Hey everyone!

Our new single "Echo Stick Guitars" is out this Friday 16th Oct on itunes. You can hear "Echo Stick Guitars" on our myspace page now!

The song has been getting some spins on Triple J in Australia but we need all of you (regardless of what part of the world you live in!) to let the guys and gals at Triple J know that you like the song and that you want it to be played more!

Please spend 2 minutes requesting the song here http://lnk.ms/0TkVw

It really takes no time at all, and will help us out heaps! Thanks!

Feel free to pass the link on to anyone else who you know digs The Boat People!

Also, "Echo Stick.." is currently featured on Triple J's Home and Hosed blog. You can listen to the song there, read the nice things Steph and Dom say about our new single and also leave a comment!
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/homeandhosed/

Thanks everyone
The Boaties







 

Hello and welcome to Jamezboat blog!
Us Boaties are well into making album number three by now and I thought I'd give everyone an update as to where we're at.

Many of you will have heard the track "Soporific" currently up on the myspace page. This song, along with live favourite "Antidote" and the soon-to-be-released first single "Echo Stick Guitars" were recorded a month or so ago; the former with our mate Joe Hammond at Eastern Block and the second two with John Castle, who's recent work with Washington is currently all over Triple J like a rash (albeit a very melodic, well recorded, beautiful song style rash).

As I write this we are well into day three of our second stint with John Castle at The Shed in Melbourne's leafy suburb of Canterbury. We've completed tracking a song called "Pornography" (which some lucky Brisbane punters would have heard recently when we played with Hungry Kids of Hungary at the Troubadour) and we're around half way through a new track entitled "Cat's Collar".

While the album is as-yet untitled, it's vibe is becoming more clear. There's a robotic, "constructed" element to some of the tracks, which is balanced by an increased use of acoustic guitar and some intimate vocal performances.

Tomorrow we'll start on a song called "Like a Bird, Like a Bridge", a track which was desctribed by our guitarist Charles as "desert surf". "Like a Bird.." got a good airing at last weekend's Blue Print Festival in Ararat, Victoria.

In other news, the band spent last Friday shooting the video to new single "Echo Stick Guitars" in a massive warehouse in Kensington, an inner city suburb near North Melbourne (massive thanks to Ryan for the use of the space!). We had a lot of help from some friends studying at V.C.A. (or whatever they call it now!), who raided the constume department from the theatre school to supply us with a range of truly wacky outfits (Thanks to Zoe, Rom, Ruby and Jack, and Danny and Greg for filming). While I can't say much, I will say that if you've every wanted to see the members of The Boat People wearing wedding dresses, your wish shall be granted! Get ready for the release of that one!






Also of interest is the mini-doco of our trip to the Blue Mic company in L.A. in June. We had the chance to try out a bunch of mics at the H.Q. of this prestigious company and to record some acoustic tracks. While the video has been up for a while now I know a lot of you haven't seen it yet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVvW8OC_bpI

I'll post another recording update later in the week! For now I'll leave you with a couple more photos from the "Echo Stick Guitars" video shoot.

Bye!
Jamezzboat

 

Hey there folks! It's been a bit quiet in Boaties-blog land of late, but here I am! And don't worry, there is going to be a LOT of Boaties activity very soon.

 I would like to dedicate this blog to my friend Pete. He called me a "Nuffy" for not writing a Jamezboat blog in so long. Since I wasn't sure what a "nuffy" was I looked it up on urbane dictionary.com:

1. nuffy. a term used to describe people that are mentally retarded (or just plain stupid). Derived from the term nuff nuff.
That nuffy just cut his own hand off with a power saw.

Since I don't own a power saw (although my girlfriend does, how embarrassing..) and I can't imagine my good friend referring to me as "mentally retarded" I presume he was thinking of the other definition on urbane dictionary.com:

2. nuffy. a Male pimp: a player; someone who has a very good way with the ladies.
The Man across the street has a lot of kids with different women he's such a nuffy.

Yup. That's me in a nutshell.

Anyway, to the business at hand….

New song:

We have a new song up on our myspace page. It's called “Soporific”. O.K now to dictionary.com (without the "urban" part this time):


1. soporific. adjective. causing or tending to cause sleep.

Soporific is the first track we have revealed from our upcoming third album. It was recorded by Joe Hammond at Eastern Block Studios in Melbourne. (We first met Joe many years ago when he played drums in Love Outside Andromeda). Soporific was mixed by Jonathan Burnside, who for the trainspotters out there recorded the song “Tell Someone Who Cares” from our debut album and mixed an early E.P. of ours called “Three Pieces fro Small Ensemble”. Gee we really have been around for a while hey….

If you want to check out more of Joe’s work check out his myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/potsandpansrecording

We have also completed two other tracks for the record, “Antidote” and “Echo Stick Guitars”. These were recorded by John Castle at The Shed (also in Melbourne). I recently worked with John on Dan Parsons’ soon to be released debut album. John will be recording the remainder of the album and we are very excited! Check out John’s other work:
http://www.myspace.com/shedstudio

New single/tour:

The first single from our new record is about to be released and I can announce, for the very first time (!!!!!!), it is called “Echo Stick Guitars”. The song is quite a departure for The Boat People and we can’t wait to show it all of you!!! We will also be announcing tour dates soon in support of “Echo Stick Guitars”, and we can’t wait to get back on the road.

The Basics tour wrap up:
A big “thank you” to The Basics for taking us on the road recently. We had a ball, and especially enjoyed playing in some places we don’t often get to, like Tasmania! I really enjoyed the colonial vibe in Hobart. It’s got an amazing history. Since then I’ve been reading a book called The Fatal Shore about early convict life in Australia and now I really want to go back to Tasmania again and have a good look around. Oh, an amazing coincidence: I read a horrific story in The Fatal Shore about a group of 7 or 8 convicts who escape the EXTREME penal settlement of Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s western coast and try to walk to Launceston. After 8 weeks there’s only one left as they slowly ate one-another. By the time the last guy got to Launceston he had eaten nothing but human flesh for 7 weeks. The story really affected me. Then today someone posts THIS online http://www.vandiemensland-themovie.com/ which is a movie of this very story!
Anyway, sorry if I spoiled any part of the film for anyone, or if you find it distasteful reading about people eating each other…..

My birthday party!:
This Saturday the 5th I’m having a joint birthday party with Robinboat and my lovely girlfriend Zoe! If you know me, live in Melbourne and are not someone I’ve shut out of my life due to some terrible falling out (I’m struggling to think of anyone who would fit into that category, but just to be sure) then you are invited!!

Music:
O.K. there are some bloody great bands around right now….
We played with these guys in Brisbane recently. They are awesome, and incredibly young! Ball Park Music:
http://www.myspace.com/musicfromtheballpark
And these guys I know nothing about except they’re from Melbourne. I just stumbled across them, Kid Sam:
http://www.myspace.com/kidsamband
Check out the song “Close Your Eyes and it All Turns Black”. Bloody amazing.


Oh and as I write this I’m chatting with the aforementioned “friend” Pete on facebook. He just called me a “slow witted old man”. Turns out he was using definition number 1 of nuffy. Oh well.
Jamezboat

We're back in Oz and before we give you Part 1 of the tour diary we have a whole swag of gigs to tell you about starting with...

FREE ALL-AGES SHOW - QPAC - BRISBANE
THIS FRIDAY 3RD JULY
with Texas Tea, Men into Space and Des de Mona
Night starts 8pm. The Boat People onstage at 11pm.


THE TOTE w HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY - MELBOURNE
SATURDAY 11TH JULY
with Hungry Kids of Hungary, Mirror House Antics and Dream Twins 8pm


UPSTARTS at SPECTRUM - SYDNEY
WEDNESDAY 22ND JULY
with Tokenview, Bearhug and Upstarts DJs
$10 presented by whothehell.net

TOURING WITH THE BASICS IN JULY
17 Jul 2009     Sydney Opera House     Sydney
18 Jul 2009     Heritage Hotel       Bulli, NSW
19 Jul 2009     The Brass Monkey      Cronulla, NSW
23 Jul 2009     Transit Bar                 Canberra, ACT
24 Jul 2009     Republic Bar               Hobart, TAS
25 Jul 2009     Hotel New York      Launceston TAS
30 Jul 2009     The Zoo                        Brisbane, QLD
31 Jul 2009     Woombye Hotel      Woombye, QLD
1 Aug 2009     Beach Hotel              Byron Bay, QLD



ROBIN BOAT LA TOUR DIARY PART 1
I rate LA. It's our third time here in the last 9 months, the first time being via CMJ in New York, the second being after SXSW in March.  This time is an LA-only affair as we spend a week playing showcases before heading home to record album number three.

We all meet in Sydney and board the flight to LA which is really no longer than a driving tour from Brisbane to Sydney. The first night is spent buying mexican food and a keyboard stand. I lost my last one in SXSW when I lent it to the Youth Group kids and then got drunk and never came back. I also realise that Wilco and Okkervil River are playing Thursday but have sold out. Sob. The next day we wake up early to play a TV thing for Beta TV who coincidentally have just finished interviewing another Australian band who I've never heard of but who look like a bunch of heavy -set, more heavily tattooed Keith Urbans. I get to use my 1982 Yamaha battery-powered keyboard which has a "tone variator" and pastel buttons. Yum! I use the "fantasy" setting.

We then hit an opshop across the road which has a whole bunch of old Hollywood costumes and the girls behind the counter coerce us into playing a private show for them. No discounts though.

The show that night is in a club above the Roxy called 'On the Rox' which is apparently owned by Mischa Barton's boyfriend. It looks like a tiny airplane cabin. The two other bands we play with are great - "The Picture" from NYC and The Parson Red Heads who hold down the soul of California with some sweet harmonised CSNY Rock n Roll. They all look great in white slacks too. Next comes my favourite part of an LA night out which is when the bars close at 2am (boo!) and you all go and have buddy times at a 24 hour diner. We end up in Swingers sitting at a table across from the Veronicas. Brisbane. Everywhere.

Ahh sweet jet lag. Perfect for keeping gig-like hours. We wake up about 3pm and mooch around in the pool for a while before an acoustic run-through and a band meeting ("James? Present. Robin? Present." etc). Then we head to gig number two at the Mint Lounge. The first band are another Great NYC band called Pete and J who it turns out are staying with an Australian girl who has a mutual friend in Bertie Blackman. I tell Pete my Wilco woes and he offers to text their manager and ask for  tickets. This didn't work obviously as I'm sitting here writing this at about the time Wilco are probably hitting stage. My hopes are raised and dashed again as I find out that Pheonix are playing on Sunday and then find out that's the day we fly home.  We finish with more diner times among our new friends, a breakfast burrito and cheap mexican beer that would cost $12  per bottle in Australia.

Thursday! This is a slightly nerve-racking day as we play a morning (uuuuurgh) boardroom showcase for a whole bunch of Film and TV types at the Warner building for our licensing company Rhino. It goes well and I also get explain the concept of glassing someone to the audience. Nic Harcourt who has been our LA champion also turns up, tells us a story about playing soccer against deep purple  and then sorts out a last minute show for us at the hotel cafe.

We get home to find out Michael Jackson is no mor
e. RIP big fella. Me and Charles leave the others playing in the spa which has been filled with dish detergent and head into town to check out the holy grail of record stores "Amoeba" but then get distracted by a Sheila E. (Prince's drummer) drum clinic. Nerdlishious. Hollywood is packed with people going Jacko-Wacko and news vans are everywhere doing live crosses and the like.

Now I'm sitting here writing to you gentle reader but there is so much more fun to be had - tonight we go out in echo park, tomorrow we lay down a track for Blue Microphones and play the Hotel Cafe, then Saturday we play our biggest show at the Echoplex in Silverlake with Telekenisis. I'll leave you with the dubious (depending on your taste for double entendre) image of the California sun cascading down my face. Stay tuned for part 2. xox robin
(written 9.7.09)

The weather forecast is for sunshine this weekend so come see The Boat People at any of the following times at the City Botanic Gardens with Tame Impala, Hungary Kids of Hungary, Little Scout plus many more as part of Greenfest (and check out the Tesla Roadster. Tesla, what a dude. Imagine being played by David Effing Bowie in a film)...

Friday 5th June @ 2pm
Saturday 6th June @ 7pm
Sunday 7th June @ 1pm

All you peeps in the rest of Australia and the USA, we'll be seeing you in June and July - check the myspace for more www.myspace.com/theboatpeople. We'll send you more details in the coming weeks...

xtbp

Hey there folks, just a short blog to fill you in on a few Boaties-related matters... Hope you all read read Robinboat's U.S. tour diary part 1 and two 2!!

The Boat People are now on Twitter, so search for jamezboat and get twittered.

The Boaties are also hatching plans for our next record. We have a huge amount of songs to work up and then reduce down to the album.. around 25 songs in total! It's a big task but it should be a lot of fun. We have some studio time booked in the next two months to begin work on what will be album number three!! Very exciting.

I'm playing a rare Melbourne solo gig this Sunday 10th May @ The Toff In Town (Swanston St, Curtain House). I'm supporting my good friend Madeliene Paige, who just released a beautiful new E.P.

http://www.myspace.com/madeleinepaige

 I was lucky enough to make the Brisbane launch and it was really amazing! So come on down. Also playing is Young Werther, whose old band "The Restless" shared many bills with The Boaties a few years ago.

Also stay tuned for a very special Jamezboat and Robinboat duo show in Melbourne.. details soon!

We will also be announcing A LOT of tour dates soon so get ready. We'll be going to some places we've not toured for a while, and we're looking forward to getting out there again on the road! Stay tuned!

Some of you may remember some time ago I asked for advice on what TV series to watch on DVD. I got a lot of great suggestions... But now I've just discovered (albeit ten years late...) season 1 of the Sopranos. Why no one kidnapped me and forced me to watch this years ago is beyond me... But, better late than never. I love it!!!

I'm also moving house this weekend, into a great place in Bruswick with Robinboat and my lovely girlfriend Zoe. It's going to be a lot of fun, and Brunswick is a great area to live. If you know me, come stay!!!

And finally... check out these great bands that have come to my attention in the last few days..

 

http://www.myspace.com/cabinsband

 

http://www.myspace.com/visitthemiddleeast

Stay well

Jamezzboat

first...
BRISBANITES!
DON'T FORGET!
Greenfest Launch
TOMORROW! MANYANA! Sunday 26 APRIL Perin Park, Brisbane
Noon / Free / All-Ages


and now...
ROBIN BOAT'S USA TOUR DIARY PART 2 - NYC and RETURN TO LA

Day 9 - NYC
Gee, I really should have proof read part on. I blame day 9 for destroying my ability to spell and to um... grammer. Anyway, we arrived in NYC and were kindly picked up by our US manager who it turned out ferried us around for the rest of the trip the poor bastard. It was great though because to quote one of the Rhino people he is "Mr. New York" and was an A-Grade tour guide. We swung by the hotel then down to Pianos on the L.E.S. for soundcheck where it turned out we were playing with an all-british lineup. This was the first show that my efforts to borrow an acoustic came to nothing so we had to leave out one of the new tracks 'soporific'. It was a fun show though - I particularly enjoyed Jay Jay Pistolet who was charmingly dour.

Day 10
This one was going to be a day off but we got a call from The Fumes/Hell City Glamours asking if we wanted to fill in for the opening band at their Delancy's show who'd cancelled. Sure we said. Of course opening a show that no knew we were playing meant that there was no one there so we ditched all our boaties songs and kind of just free-styled a bunch of new songs. It was kind of a Goth/80s Hip Hop/ Country/ Soul thing. The sound guy was playing this great CD all night which he informed me was Brazilian Girls.

Day 11
We drove out to The Bronx for the first time to do a live set for WFUV. I was expecting some tough urban grit but it was next to the botanic gardens so no dice. We used the John Steel Singer's tambourine which they left at the fire and flood show for this one - don't worry lads we'll send him home soon.

Day 12
We woke up v. early and went to WRXP to do an interview and live track. There is a hip hop station in the same building and they told us that they do their interviews at a secret off-site location because people used to hear someone on the radio and then drive down and shoot them as they were coming out of the building afterwards. How rude! We then went to our favourite cafe in NYC Cafe Habana which has the best Heuvos Rancheros ever. We went there everyday come to think of it. Then we split and I headed for free day at the Bronx zoo. I gotta say I think Melbourne zoo kind of kicks its arse. Most of the animals were "packed away" because it was to cold for them and the enclosures were really small :(
We all met back at nycmgmt's house where we were treated to a home-cooked meal which left me feeling healthier than I had in about the last two weeks.

Day 13
Tonight we played Bells House in Brooklyn for what was, in my opinion, the funnest of the three Aussie BBQ shows. The Youth Groupers kindly leant us an acoustic so we could do 'Soporific' and we went on about 11pm which meant everyone was ready to have a good time and danced around down the front. An extremely drunk frenchman invaded the stage - I've never seen anyone play a tambourine so out of time. We also met someone from the USA Women's National AFL team! They're playing a demo match in Melbourne any day now so keep an eye out. Patrick Youth Group bonded over my Jeremy Deller tshirt and we hatched a plan to hit the MOMA the next day. I would later realise that my flight was leaving hours before said plan could eventuate. This brings up the question of how on earth we managed to do anything without mobile phones for two weeks and the answer is we messed up a lot and everyone found us quite tiresome.

So anyway,Hell City Glamours closed out the night and their was an Australian band stage invasion involving James Boat, Alex R. Riders and countless others. Everyone was surprisingly subdued afterwards and we went home at quite a civilised hour.

Day 14 -
More cafe Habana and then an interview with a friend of ours who we'd met on our first US trip 3 years ago. The interview unfortunately put the kybosh on our plan to go raid Rhino NYC's box set collection and we jumped straight on the plane back to LA. Except that I went to the wrong terminal which could have ended badly except that we'd left so early for the airport it didn't AND Bjork was in front of me in the 'I have a problem' line! Yeah, Bjork! Flying economy. Iceland must really be screwed. I wasn't sure it was her but then she got to the front and said "excussse me but I am haffing trouble wis the check in khiosssk." We made it to LA and more late night diner times followed ending in...

Day 15 - Return to LA
...sleeeeeep. We woke up not defresh but not refreshed either. Headed down to Spaceland and met Canadian legends 'Women' who kindly leant us their backline. It is at this point that I would like to thanks the luck goblins for there being a keyboard stand at every gig after Aussie BBQ at SXSW where I lost mine. This gig was I think the funnest show of the trip and the audience were amazing - lots of people who knew the songs and a full house besides. I mentioned how I'd lost my copy of Dr. Faustus and half the audience erupted. People were yelling out "Thomas Mann! Woo!" and "Adrian Leverkund! Yeah!". That shit is special. Everyone was really friendly and they all came up after the show to say thanks and hi and everything. One nice man told me all about a sex act called the 'Abe Lincoln/Gorrila Mask' and also told me how the 'spiderman' had broken up his relationship. Oh and Women (who're on the very classy jag jaguar btw) played a great set as did Chad VanGaalen (who produced there record). Afterwards we lit fireworks in bottles with Women (who kindly gave us one of their vinyls) and made plans to go up a hill and sit on it (the hill not the vinyl). These plans came to nothing and we ended up in yet another diner and then went to a friend's house and played some boggle.

These Blogs have some photos and text about the show...

http://www.rawkblog.net/2009/04/live-the-boat-people-spaceland-32809/

http://whenyouawake.com/2009/03/31/in-living-color-chad-vangaalen-and-the-boat-people/#more-5314


Day 16
The last day. oh the nostalgia, the exhaustion, the poverty. We spent the day at venice beach hanging out with some good friends which was a great way to end the tour. Touring is about buddies. Old buddies, new buddies, just buddies. Can't wait to do it all again. xox Robin

A quick reminder before the tour diary...



Greenfest Launch

Sunday 26 APRIL Perin Park, Brisbane

Noon / Free / All-Ages

(more shows below)



and now...



ROBIN BOAT'S MARCH 2009 USA TOUR DIARY - PART 1

(Check the myspace album for tour photos)



Day 1 - LA

We technically start before day one in the Victorian town of Birchip which is about four hours out of Melbourne. So, played the gig, was great fun. Got in the cream volvo about midnight and drove back towards Melbourne Realised country towns close their petrol stations after midnight even if you have been driving your volvo on empty for 40k or so. Luckily our Bendigo detouring gambit paid off and we made it to Melbourne in time to catch the 6am flight to LA.



20 hours later we touch down in LA (still on the morning of day one somehow). The moon was upside down. Crazy American moon ha ha. Checked in. Ate gigantic breakfast burritos and made it to Aussie BBQ at the Echo just in time to see Red Riders who were on just before us. Show was great fun - amazing how grateful you are to jump around after 20 hours on a plane. Saw mucho more good music then the dappled cities kids introduced us to their favourite mexican place. I love mexico. Why can't it be south of Australia's border? The night quickly deteriorated as we ended up at a party with no beer and then went elsewhere to find that everywhere in LA has a 2am liquor license. Sheesh.



Day 2 -

Our hotel had a GIANT waffle making machine which was exciting and messy. We went and met a bunch of people at Rhino who license our recordings - they were malto friendly and took us into "the box set room" where we got a whole bunch of swag. They also gave us moon pies which are an american hybrid of the wagon wheel and madeira cake. We then hung around in the corporate gardens eating our moon pie and feeding bits of it to a squirrel so we could photograph it. The squirrel lunged at me and scratched up my hand. I went to security and he was all worried and said "we better call an expert" while picking up the phone. then he put the phone down again realising he did not know the number of a squirrel expert and gave me some stuff from the first aid cupboard instead. We then went said hi to our publisher Chrysalis before jumping on an airplane.



Day 3 - Austin

Early flight. and a taxi to find our hotel is in an urban wasteland with only a 24h ihop for company. I was asleep all of this day so I remember nothing more. Austin is not unlike Brisbane btw. Much less people but lots of warmth,beige buildings, a big river and lots of bats.



Day 4

The chronic insomnia set in around this point which is fine when your running on gig time so that's the last I'll say about it. Opened the KCRW showcase today and pretty much hung around there all night as one great band after another awesomed us into verbs. We were pleasantly surprised to have a bunch of early birds there who came down the front and danced around. "Other Lives" were after us and they were amazing - authentic beardy psych-folk from the heart of the US. They lent us an acoustic too. Fangs! Next up were Port O'Brien who share a second name with James Boat and were a lot more rockin than they're alaskans-in-the-midday-sun performance at laneway fest. The closed their set by giving everyone in the audience pots and pans to bash. Then Angus and Julia Stone were next - they had the editor from rolling stone there to see 'em, you know, the guy who's head is in all those music documentaries. Charles left at this point to see Billy Bob Thornton's band. Finally, school of seven bells closed out the night after some lengthy set up issues due to problems with their backing tracks and by this time the joint was PFP. our only detour was to go an see our US managements other artist Katie Herzig, from Nashville, she was playing as part of this Gin-Club Style Nashville switch up the singers style band.



Day 5

Today we got militant and went in early to see some music before our show. This is where we discovered the SX class system. We were middle class which wasn't enough to get me past the massive queue (Quoth American lady "queue" that is quaint. You mean line? are you British?) to see Rural Alberta Advantage. After this I vowed to get to every band I wanted to see one band early so I wouldn't miss them. Prior to the RBA mishap I did get to see Graham Effin' Coxon though!! He was playing an acoustic set in a little tent to about 40 people and it was wizard! He is a mofo of a guitar player. Which did not come across in Alex James' biography (although now I know to eat a carrot after every bottle of champagne to keep the breath fresh).



OK, lets accelerate a bit here this is taking too long. After I missed Rural Alberta Advantage I ended up seeing one of my favourite bands of the festival - Micachu and the Shapes (although OB was seeing Cold War Kids and M.Ward at this point so...). Listening to them is much easier than having them described to you so GO! Saw some of Dirty Projectors then went to camp out for one of Japan's best-loved Psych bands (from the actual 60s this time) Flower Travelin' band - crazy million string guitar, vocals like bob marly with some bad ass plastic ono grooves. Endless Boogie were on before them and did just that playing 2 songs but it was great mean old New York rockenrolla boogie - not 'funky' thank you. Then ran back to friends for our Sounds Australia showcase but found I'd lost my passport and couldn't get in. bugger. Ran back to FTB, found it in a garden bed how? Ran back to gig which was packed with crazy people. I was kind of flustered but everyone said told me it was great so I'll believe them. I even thought I saw one of the Drones dancing to 'light of love' (later confirmed by said Drone). Holy Shit! They killed it every time they played btw. Then we lugged gear - why do so many nights have to end this way?



Day 6

Aussie BBQ - we played first up at midday uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurgh. But it was still good fun as was the whole afternoon thanks to Mary and Glen. Good, messy fun. Sitting in the dirt fun. So much free Australian native-plant beer. Broken up by a quick detour to see Dappled Cities who I missed most of because they'd been brought forward 1/2 an hour. They're new shiz is sounding very very very good though - can't wait to hear the album. Went to the same place for dinner again which was the only place we found that had vegetables in the food. OB wanted to go see Coxon but then forgot on the way and I lost him. We didn't stick around for the follow up - a 'super' group featuring members of Hanson and wheezer. I'll leave you with the hazy memory of standing buried up to my ankles in pebbles while blurred figures danced around me holding giant cans of fosters...



Day 7

This was the only festival day we weren't playing and I name it free day cos I got free jeans from Australia, free mexican breakfast from Canada, free beer from Perth (still Australia I know) and free music from Texas. Caught Red Riders and Dappled (full set this time) in the day and then gunned down to the free outdoor stage for the incongruous triple-barrel lineup of beach house, Canabinoids feat. Erykah Badu and Explosions in the Sky. Beach House - Top Marks. Erykah Badu - Forfeit due to late arrival (as in she only did one song that started when E in the S were supposed to). Explosions in the Sky - Effort A+ Mix C-. So I went back to the main drag a little disheartened and became more so when I realised I'd lost my passport AGAIN (I also lost my keyboard stand, sunglasses and a copy of Dr. Faustus on this tour). Most of the rest of the night was spent sorting through trash at the outdoor stage until someone handed it in. I pretty much used up all my luck points for the tour at that point. So on to The Mae Shi who were great when they weren't a hardcore band and then Silversun pickups who I didn't get into because SXSW cancelled all the door lists :( . Tonight and SXSW ended the way all things should - hangin' with my band buddies back on the porch.



Day 8

SXSW over. Nothing to do in Austin. Slept all day. Other boat persons went to find fabled Kmart which only sells Country and Western Clothes. Woke to find the upstairs were a bunch of legends write for this magazine called BRM and taught us about Madlibs and a whole bunch of new dirty American words. They also showed me how to walk to the walmart where I purchased beer and a 4-pack of plastic imitation grillz. They kept us entertained till we left for the plane the next morning.



PS. Dallas airport is bigger than the island of Manhattan. Wtf?



STAY TUNED FOR PART 2

Still to come: The Boat People in NYC and Return to LA



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GIGS



Sunday, 26 April 2009

Greenfest Launch

Perin Park Brisbane Noon Free All-Ages



Saturday, 02 May 2009

WARWICK PEACE FESTIVAL

Warwick, QLD



Friday, 05 June 2009

GREENFEST

5th-7th June Brisbane, QLD



Tuesday, 14 July 2009

AMUNC Brisbane Live

The Hifi Bar Brisbane Tickets $20+bf via www.thehifi.com.au Rocking Horse, Butter Beats, Rockaway Records, Sunflower Pacific Fair, Disasterpiece, Mosh Pit Music, Kill The Music and Gooble Warming.