Woo hoo – next day Texas, we flew in, met our driver for the weekend, Terry, who was a legend and a life saver, and went straight to the Zona Rosa to play the opening show of the stage. Great show, the kind that flies by in a hazy daze through fatigue, yet you know it went well, then saw the Dansettes a bit out of town followed by an attempt to see Blonde Redhead (foiled by the alcohol licensing people and their pesky capacity enforcing).

Next day was two shows, the Levis Fader bar in the morning then the Under the Radar party at the Flamingo Cantina, both gigs were great (free breakfast at the Fader party, sweltering heat at the under the Radar party) and we even got free Levis stuff (we went in for a 'fitting session' with stylists, but they only had jeans and denim jackets, how hard is that to get right, ya dig?). That night we checked out what shows we could, and it was somewhat gloriously crowned by Chromeo's performance at the Flamingo Cantina, seriously, I believe he had a bit of a hoo ha about him a few years ago, but the new stuff sounds awesome and live it's so damn funky.

Next day just one show, the Pitchfork Party, obviously I visit the website every day so it was great to be asked to play, and it was also great to see Do Make Say Think play before us, I've long been a fan of them and their peers, takes me back to my days at the ATP festival on the Sussex/Kent coast. After that the girls DJ'ed, and it was great to go along and see them in action, I-pod DJ'ing's I-pod Dj'ing really unless your Q-Bert, but the selection of songs was, of course, impeccable. Plus the venue had an upstairs roof terrace, which was so lush to chill out on and watch the sunset (with, yes, yet more free drinks). That evening me and Seb saw Maritime, so being a lifelong Promise Ring fans we were a bit gob-smacked, the songs are just so damn poppy and his voice is (to quote the ladies from my favourite TV series, Twin Peaks) 'so dreamy', after that we dashed to see the Electric Soft Parade play and Monster Bobby and RiotBecki were there, so we had a good bop along and their show was tight. Also met the Better Looking Records people which was great as I'd written the linear notes for some ESP stuff for them, so it was nice to put a face to the people who had sent me a bunch of fat records and let me get involved in this kind of work for one of my favourite bands (and best mates)!

Next day was the last one in Texas, so we were well over halfway through our US jaunt. Played the Cedar Lounge Court venue, which was a wonderful open courtyard, the show was good and the label people were there, they all seemed to enjoy it. The girls met Perez Hilton, whom I've heard a lot about, though I think the girls were less overwhelmed by his presence than our manager and tour manager, he seemed a really cool guy though, great pink hair. After that it was a drop of at the hotel for the sleepy, so I did some laundry. Then went to set up for our showcase at the Beauty Bar Patio and got some free Ice Cream, which was lush. We walked around for a bit looking for dinner, got slider burgers, three mini burgers with different topping (garlic, onion and leek – unbeatable!) after that the Soft Parade boys were playing the Cedar Street Courtyard and Seb was going to do their sound, so we pegged it so Seb could get involved, he did an ace job adding nice bits of reverb to add drama where needed, and plenty of crunch to the guitars. We hot stepped it back for our show, caught the end of Tilly and the Wall who had driven the crowd bonkers and our show went out without a hitch (kinda') though in fairness it would take a trampoline in the crowd to get them jumping as much as Tilly and the Wall had done, but we left tired and satisfied at our achievements.