Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Best of 2010

2010 was a busy year for us. We put out our first full length album, we sold out of our one-sided 12" for the second time, we went on 8 tours and we played in almost 100 different cities. We also paid off all of our gear and broke it before the year was out (in Andrea's case, three times).
Here are a few of OUR favorite things about 2010

Favorite Releases of 2010

Daniel:
White Lung - It's The Evil LP
Broken Water - Whet LP
NASA Space Universe - Brainrailers 7"
Heavy Times - Dead LP
Shannon And The Clams - I Wanna Go Home LP
Hari Legs - Self Titled Cassette
Terror Bird/Certain Breeds - Split 7"
Juvenile Hall - High On Drugs 7"

Andrea:
GLAM - 7"
Ahna - LP
White Lung - It's the Evil
Broken Water - Whet
Forced Laugh - s/t
Nasa Space Universe - Brainrailers
Bog People/Vivid Sekt - 7"
Defektors - Bottom of the City
Nerveskade - LP
Neil Young - Le Noise

Favorite Bands We Played With in 2010

Daniel:
High Castle (San Fran)
Blood Huff (Providence)
Broken Water (Olympia)
Deep Teens (Oakland)
Francis Harold And The Holograms (Long Beach)
No Babies (Oakland)
Gay Beast (Minneapolis)
Women (Calgary)
Mom (Sacramento)

Andrea:
Francis Harold and the Holograms (Long Beach)
Nasa Space Universe (LA)
Verraterisch (Sacto)
Body Cop (DC)
Son Skull (Olympia)
Blood Huff (Providence)
Deep Teens (Oakland)
Okie Dokie (LA)


Favorite Cities Played in 2010

Daniel:
Calgary
Providence
New York
Kamloops
Philadelphia
Denver
Iowa City
St. Paul
Chicago
Edmonton

Andrea:
Lafayette
Olympia
New York
Los Angeles area
the Bay area
Tempe
Providence

Best Tour Moments

Daniel:
-Tattoos in a graveyard
-Playing 3 shows in one day in Chicago
-Hanging with Lori Barbero in Minneapolis
-Meeting Kim and Thurston in Northampton

Andrea:
-That weird lady in the south on my birthday who I met at the bar down the st. who talked to me for an hour about her bf who was 30 years younger
-Kenny climbing into KFC bucket
-Daniel and I wasted in providence although it's barely a memory
-Getting caught in 8 hour snowstorm driving back from olympia


Worst Tour Moments

Daniel:
-Constant tourvan oil-leak
-Getting arrested in San Antonio

Andrea:
-Wheel flying off
-Homesickness

Best things we got/bought on tour:

Daniel:
Smiley face pants in Portland
Millions of records all over ($$$!!)

Andrea:
Ventriloquist records
GISM shirt
Cats playing pool picture

Favorite shows of 2010

Daniel:
Weird Alberta Traveling Festival
Pierced Arrows at The Biltmore
Hole at Bumbershoot
Melvins in Calgary
Nu Sensae and Broken Water at Nouvelle Nouvelle
SLEEP performing Holy Mountain
Joan Jett at the PNE
Nu Sensae / White Lung / Juvie OLIO FEST show
Nu Sensae / White Lung / Son Skull / Milk Music @ old school pizza in Olympia
Heavy Chains playing with Lori Goldston

Andrea:
SLEEP, Son Skull, Wyrd Fest Alberta, Omar Souleyman, Melvins, Distort Alf House show, Mime School show with Frances Harold when LAPD showed up, Nasa last minute house show at Alan Fest, SL show where Hari Legs played, Salem OR show with White Lung

Friday, December 17, 2010

BEST OF TEN

SO, we made some cool BEST OF... lists this year! Check em outttttt:

Friday, November 19, 2010

MUSIK QUESTIONS

What was the first concert you ever attended?

A: No Use For A Name at the Legion, i hated it
D: Prodigy


What was the first CD you recall buying?

A: Blackstreet "Another Level" 1996
D: M People "Strange Fruit" 1994


What is your all time most listened to album?

A: David Bowie's "Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust". MIA by the Germs and Feeding of the 5000 by Crass are close second.
D: Babes In Toyland's "Fontanelle". Followed by X's Los Angeles or Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth.


What is the best concert you've ever attended?

A: David Bowie... Wolves In the Throne Room in Vienna, Attila Csihar in Berlin
D: Diamanda Galas, Sonic Youth, Breeders.



What is your favorite genre of music?

A: japanese
D: Grunge?


What instruments do you play, if any?

A: bass
D: Drums, guitar, piano, violin.


Who is/are your favourite male vocalist(s)?

A: Neil Young, Lee Hazelwood, Genesis P-Orridge, Thurston Moore/Lee Renaldo, Dave Vanian, Bowie, Nick Blinko, Bryan Ferry, Edgy 59, Sakevi Yokoyama, Peter Raberg, Jeff Mentges

D: Thurston Moore, Paul Westerberg, Milo Aukerman, Kurt Cobain.

Who is/are your favourite female vocalist(s)?

A: Eleanor Barooshian, Patti Smith, Courtney Love, Kat Bjelland, Kim Gordon, Suzi Gardner, Donita Sparks, Selene Vigil, Diamanda Galas, Ari Up, Emily XYZ, Jennifer Herrema

D: Miriam Makeba, Nina Simone, Kat Bjelland, Kim Gordon, Andrea Lukic, Kim Deal, Diamanda Galas, Patti Smith, Suzy Gardner.


Who is/are your favourite guitarist(s)?

A: Johnny Thunders, Lee Renaldo, Kurt Cobain, Neil Young, Dave Fielding/Reg Smithies, Ted Falconi, Greg Ginn,

D: Kurt Cobain, Greg Ginn, Lee Ranaldo.

Who is/are your favourite bassist(s)?


A: Will Shatter, Kristen Pfaff, Lorna Doom, Jah Wobble, Keith Brammer, Derek Birkett, dee dee

D: Kristen Pfaff, Josephine Wiggs, D'arcy, Jennifer Finch.


Who is/are your favourite drummer(s)?


A: Penny Rimbaud, Yoshimi P-Wee, Dale Crover, Virus (amebix n.s.), Palmolive,Lori Barbero

D: Lori Barbero, DJ Bonebrake, Patty Schemel, Don Bolles, Anne-Marie Vassiliou.


Who is/are your favourite keyboardist(s)?

A: Nikki never
D: Nikki never


Who is/are your favourite organist(s)?


A: Rick Wakeman
D: I dunno


Who is/are your electronic manipulator(s)?


A: Brian Eno
D: I dunno


Do You Download Songs Or Buy CDs?


A: Both
D: both


Mp3/iPod or CD Player?


A: galpod
D: ipod


How many band shirts/hoodies you own?


A: lots
D: lots lots



What is your favorite band shirt/hoodie?



A: fear god power zine comp, lydia lunch, charles manson, lawrence ferlingetti, anton levay, allen ginsberg etc.

D: Limp Wrist, Babes In Toyland, Nirvana.


What music posters do you have up in your room?

A: black flag, bowie, mental stagnation/verraterisch, forever 27, bathory 
D: courtney love, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Babes In Toyland, Smashing Pumpkins, Mika Miko, X.

Do you consider screaming another form of music?

A: sure
D: yes



What album are you ashamed to have?

A: not ashamed of anything
D: I'm more ashamed of the albums i DONT have.


Song you are ashamed to say you like?


A: maybe freak on a leash? but not ashamed
D: I like a lot of garbage music. The Cranberries "Zombie"?


Last cd you bought?


A: i don't buy cds, the amazements in LA
D: Don't buy CDs.


What song do you love at the moment?


A: Witch Hunt by the Mob
D: Kiss Me On The Bus - Replacements / Get Busy - Sean Paul


Most annoying song?


A: ain't no mountain high i hate that song
D: That song by those two white as fuck morons that sing ironic trust fund rap. 303 or whatever?


If you could hang out with a musician for a day, who would it be?


A: Sakevi Yokoyama
D: Miriam Makeba

Saturday, October 2, 2010

cribs XX andrea


Things were really all over the place for a while, and I was hoarding plastic bags and paper.



Now things are different. But the plastic sheets on the wall are still up.  Daniel says it makes him feel clustrophobic but I like the way it looks, I would cover everything if it wasn't impractical.



Washburn ghost amp, japanese model, 1st amp, best amp. George Harrison photograph liquidated from a sport bar.



tv




Leather hat collection, harley hats.

System of organizing taught to me by mom: Plastic sheets on walls and tape everything small to them.

Abbie Hoffman. Shelv


John Doe from X, cactus, and stereo I never use.

TOURING


Touring is fun and crazy and really fucking horrible and hot and freezing cold and exciting and boring and the best and the worst. We have played in some amazing cities and some not so amazing ones. Sometimes to lots of kids, sometimes to nobody. But overall touring is the best thing in the entire world and everyone should do it as much as possible. Here is our guide to touring / behaving like a teenager...



DRIVERS AND TAG-ALONGS

Choosing a roadie is one of the most critical decisions you can make for a tour. You need someone who can be responsible, sober, handy and practical while every one else is behaving exactly the opposite.  They also need to be able to break up fights between band members. They basically have to act as a babysitter to a bunch of toddlers for 24 hours a day. Roadies are particularly critical for Nu Sensae because Andrea and I do not have drivers licenses. So we always have to coax / bribe our friends into coming on our trips to drive us and sell merch. Sometimes they love it, but mostly I think they regret it and hate us.

BRODY

Brody was the driver on our first ever tour! Nu Sensae / Terror Bird West Coast 2008. Brody is one of our favorite boys ever. He used to play in a rad band called Mutators, and now plays in bands with both Andrea (Heavy Chains) and I (Eating Out). He knows how to keep his cool and chain smokes like a champ. BFF's work well as roadies.
                

BEN

Ben drove us on our Alberta tour in the winter of 2009. That particular tour was really cold and there were a total of 13 people on it. So he had to put up with a lot of annoying chumps who can't drive and want to drink all the time.

MARYA

Marya was our first Tag-along. She couldn't drive, she wasn't very helpful and refused to sell merch. But she is one of our best friends so we took her along on our Winter Tour with B-Lines and Grown-ups. She got a comedy tattoo that said "HEAD CASE" on her arm.

MISH

Our pal Mish was the Tag-along on our US summer tour with Random Cuts and V.Vecker in 2009. She is the singer of her own band, White Lung, but proved to be very helpful at carrying gear and keeping us entertained. At our show in Los Angeles she was accosted by a lady who had escaped from a nearby psych ward.  When Mish offered to help the woman put her pants back on, the woman replied with, "I ain't talkin to you RED HEAD". She flew home to Vancouver that same night.

LANCE

Lance replaced Mish halfway through the 2009 tour. I don't really remember if he drove at all but he is one of the funniest humans we have ever known so it didn't really matter. He left with us on a whim in Los Angeles and leased out his apartment to a biker named Dan who went through all his stuff. We sent  Lance home on a greyhound in Reno, Nevada.

IAN

Ian drove us on the 2010 winter BLACK SHADOW TOUR with White Lung down the west coast. He is a master at changing tires and fixing things. He has a way of making everybody feel calm, even when our tire flew off on an interstate highway. He is probably best known as the roadie who made out with the girl who shit her pants in Salem, Oregon at a Meth house we played at. 

CHAD

Chad was our roadie on the longest tour we have ever done. 9 weeks in the USA with Shearing Pinx this summer. He has seen and put up with absolutely ever horrible side of us. 9 weeks in a van usually ends up in everyone complaining, screaming and throwing drinks in each others faces. I am truly surprised he is still alive and willing to talk to us.

SARAH

Sarah is one of our oldest pals from Vancouver. She has played in a bunch of rad bands (Channels 3x4, Ice Cream, Gang Violence) and she drove us for our Sled Island Alberta trip this year. She is the right mix of calm, sarcastic and fun to be a class A roadie. She made the hellish drive to Calgary feel like a breeze and even let us stay with her mom in Vernon on the way home! Thanks Sarah!


GET IN THE VAN

We have almost always paired up with bands on our tours. It makes traveling super fun and splits the gas costs. Moving around a country and playing together with the same people every night is a great way to hangout. Here is a list of all the kids we have dirtied the van with:

TERROR BIRD

Our first ever tour was with Terror Bird. We did two and a half weeks up and down the West Coast. They are a spooky piano pop band from Vancouver with Jeremiah on drums, Nikki on piano and Vocals, and at the time I was the second keyboard player. Nikki and Jer are the sweetest tour mates ever, and they even got married on that trip in Reno! We almost hit an elk driving through the redwood forests at night and we played together in a Pizza place in Arcata, California to 5 people. 

B-LINES / GROWN-UPS

In 2009 we decided to take 3 bands, 2 drivers and 2 Tag-Alongs on an Alberta tour in the dead of Canadian winter. We are stupid. Luckily it was with two of our all time favorite bands! Vancouver's B-LINES (4 handsome punk boys) and Calgary's GROWN-UPS (our friends Josiah, Sarah and Darryl). Trying to navigate three different vehicles is tricky and most people aren't that into having 13 people crash at their house after a show. 

RANDOM CUTS / V. VECKER

Last summer we did a US tour with our friends Justin (Random Cuts) and Keith (V.Vecker). It was and American heatwave and we had to lug around Justin's band members in a giant trunk in the back. We gambled a lot in Nevada.

WHITE LUNG

White Lung are our BFF band. We are all equally childish and laugh at the same stupid shit so it works out pretty well when we tour together. We did a two week US tour with them in February which became known as the BLACK SHADOW TOUR. We tried our first Four Lokos on this tour. We almost died a few times and then made a tour video you can watch here!

SHEARING PINX

SHEARING SENSAE full US tour. 9 weeks. A million cities. We have probably played over 200 shows with SHEARING PINX  including our first ever one, so we have a lot of history with these gentlemen. 

BLACK WIZARD

Black Wizard are four handsome metal dudes that like to behave like they are 18. The SAVE ME A BITE TOUR had a beer bong and lots of bro sayings like "decent" and "fuckin' eh".

KILL YR IDOLS

Sometimes if you are lucky enough (and good at stalking) you can meet your favorite celebrities on tour. Look at all the punk cred we have! oi oi oi .

DON BOLLES

Done Bolles has been in some amazing band (Germs, Vox Pop, Nervous Gender). We met Don for the first time a year ago when we played at his Club Ding-A-Ling in Los Angeles. He told us a weird story about driving through the Arizona desert on meth or something. 

KIM GORDON / THURSTON MOORE

On our last US tour, Andrea and I got to meet Kim and Thurston when we played in Northampton, Massachusetts. We also met their daughter, Coco. Thurston is really nice, Kim is a megababe but really intimidating. We didn't have the guts to ask for a photo, so here is a picture with me and Sonic Youth at Block Party in Seattle. 
LORI BARBERO

Lori Barbero is the drummer of one of my all time favorite bands, Babes In Toyland. We met her in Minneapolis last summer. She bought us beers and told us a joke about Canada that involved something with "C eh N eh D eh".

V. VALE

V. Vale is one of the original editors of the pioneer punk zine SEARCH AND DESTROY and played in the original lineup of BLUE CHEER. We had the pleasure of going to his house in San Francisco. We signed his guest book and he gave us original copies of the first 20 Search and Destroys. He also asked us if we had ever heard of Henry Rollins and if we needed a place to stay.

JOHN WATERS

Shearing Pinx got to hang out with John Waters in Baltimore on our tour together. Lucky ducks! I think he said something like "there are a lot of freaks in this town".

FREE TIME

Free time is a rare thing to find on tour. Usually you drive into a city, load your gear into some hell hole, try and find cheap garbage food, play a show and sleep on somebody's floor. 1 in 5 times you might be able to actually see the sights and do fun things. When we do get that chance, some of our tour hobbies include swimming, thrifting, record shopping, dancing, getting tattoos and being drunk.








LOCALS

The best part of tour is playing with awesome bands in different cities every night, well most nights. We have met some of our favorite little french fries on tour! But there are certain bands that really stick with us! Here are some of our favorite pals to play with on tour:

SHANNON AND THE CLAMS

We met Shannon and the Clams on our first tour ever. They are from Oakland, Califronia. They are one of our favorite bands ever. Rad music / rad kids.

NASA SPACE UNIVERSE

NASA Space Universe are 4 boys from Southern California. They play really amazing thrashy punk. We met them at one of our first shows in LA a few years ago. We are all soulmates now.

VERRATERISCH

Verraterisch are made up of our friends Marilyn, Jason and Kyle. We first met and played with Mar and Jason in Sacramento in their Mental Stagnation. We play with them every time we are in Sacto.

WOMEN

Women are our friends from Calgary Alberta. They sound like The Beach Boys on quaaludes. They Cobain our shirts all over Europe and have brought us much wealth.

BROKEN WATER

Broken Water are our favorite new band from Olympia. They are like a 90's wet dream. We love them so much that we are going to do a split with them next year!


TOUR LIFE

SLEEPING
Most people assume that touring is like going on vacation or a road trip. It is not. Sleeping arrangements usually consist of either somebody's floor, the couch in punk house basement or cramming in the van. Motel 6 is a rare luxury in a pinch. The best is finding someone at the show who will let you crash at their place. If they have roomates out of town that is a plus, because you can usually steal a bedroom! Always try and avoid staying at the venue or house you played at, unless you are good at pulling your sleeping bag over your head while people dance and vomit on you all night (we have become quite pro at this technique) or falling asleep sitting in a chair in the corner.







EATING
Let's face it. None of us have any money on tour. So eating becomes one of those backseat concerns below record shopping and beer. If you are lucky, you may find places that are CHEAP and GOOD in every town but mostly you just eat Tacobell and feel like death all the time. But some cities we know which places to hit up for the fine cuisine:

Seattle - Dicks Burgers / Ezelles Chicken
Portland - Taco Trucks on Division
Calgary - Tubby Dog
San Francisco - Mission Burrito
LA - Burrito King in Echo Park (get the Californian Burrito with fries in it!)
Kansas City - The Pita Pit is the only thing to eat there
New York City - Any of the corner deli sandwiches
Washington DC - Vegan Soulfood place!
General USA - Subway (Subway makes you feel like less of a trashcan than some fast food places and you can try out the different toppings they have in different states like spinach in california!)





CLOTHING / CLEANING
Don't take a lot of clothes on tour. Even if it's long. You will always lose interest in trying to wear a new outfit every day and just accept the fate of rotting in one pair of jeans for a month. You will also inevitably purchase outfits from thrift stores that you will never wear when you get back home. If there is a laundromat near the venue, run out and change your clothes over during the shitty band to conserve time. Also, you will not shower. For many days at a time. This is something you probably don't mind. But others seem to. So either shower whenever the opportunity arises, or give yourself a birdbath in the local gas tation restroom.





CONCLUSION
Go on tour. It is the only thing worth doing.