(Inspired by Toonces, the original driving cat.  Created in the backseat of the van to the chagrin of everyone else involved.  Big love to Ted Leo, of course.)

Keep your eyes right here for more sensational content FROM THE BACKSEAT!

The last ELEVEN days have been a whirlwind of good-ness.  If Cher could turn back time, I might blog each one to its fullest, but seeing as how she has not been able to do so since 1989, I will give you the briefest of brief rundowns.

1. Lexington, KY: A return to Al’s Bar, home of my first ever fried green tomatoes and my first ever Ale 8 (bless its green, caffienated heart) to play with The Spooky Q’s, who we <3.

2. Louisville, KY:  We play The Rudyard Kipling (with Madame Machine, who killed it!)  and see a buncha people we really like.  We are overwhelmed by unbearably good brunch courtesy of Salena and Jen and stellar Nord’s donuts courtesy of Quimby. (I particularly give the maple several thumbs up).

3.  Atlanta, GA: Wonderroot is awesome as ever.  So is the Sonia Tetlow band.  We find a lovely green bathroom which, we decide, doubles as a photo booth, and we take several thousand pictures like these:

We have brunch at Ria’s Bluebird (Best. Pancakes. EVER.  No joke.  AND everything comes in a bowl.  Awesome.) with our friend Katy and stay in a weird businessman hotel with a glass elevator that feels like sci fi.  Nobody there is really sure what we are doing there because all we ever want to do is vlog at the hotel pool.

4.  Memphis, TN: We have never played here before, so playing at the Hi-Tone (with the gorgous-sounding Holly Cole and her band) is a treat, and not just because they give us free fried artichokes NOR because we got to watch Fast Times at Ridgemont High while we waited to go onstage.  The next day. we go to the incredibly moving Stax Museum, where we learn a ton about the history of so much of the soul music that has come out of Memphis, and get to listen to and see some incredible stuff, including performance photos and footage of Otis Redding from his wife’s personal collection.  We also get interviewed, somewhat incoherently at 9am, on WEVL.

5. Fayetteville, AR: is beautiful, as are the Ozarks!  We play a fun show and can’t stop singing the praises of our new friend Hannah the delicious offerings of the Little Bread Company, for which she is responsible!

6. Albuquerque, NM: We hang out, largely in hammocks, with our friend Ricky, and play a show at UNM for some awesome people who have to endure some PA system science experiments as a part of the performance.  We eat way, way too many chiles.  If there is any such thing as ‘too many’ when it comes to chiles.

7. Tucson, AZ: Why is everyone in Tucson SO NICE?  This is the burning question on each Shonde’s mind as we spend a couple nights at the beautiful and historic Hotel Congress and where total strangers approach our van just to say “Welcome to Tucson!”  We play at the equally awesome (and adjacent) Club Congress with Seashell Radio, who sound lush and lovely as ever, and get to carry our cocktails upstairs to our room after the show, which makes me feel like we’re in a movie (it doesn’t take much to make me feel like we’re in a movie).  We fall asleep to the sounds of people karaoke-ing beneath us.  The next day, after a soy latte that practically makes me cry, 3/4 us ‘hike’ briefly at Gates’ Pass (we are halted by a minor if now-somewhat-awesome-and-legendary cactus catastrophe) and finish off the day dinnering with our friends TC and Kristin at Casa Libre, where we swim and hot-tub under the desert stars, and, most importantly, learn a lot about Legend of the Seeker.

7. Phoenix, AZ: We play at DIY space The Trunk Space where we meet all kinds of awesome people and hear all kinds of awesome music (including that of Il Abanico) and learn a thing or two from the four awesome *scientists* who come and see us play!

8. And so, here we are in Los Angeles, CA.  We get to walk on Venice Beach (Nighttime beachwalk!  That’s where we are below, tho it’s hard to tell) and nearly perish of joy.  Today we fully intend to bike the glorious beaches of LA and I personally plan to encounter at least four celebrities.

More soon, and xo,

Temim

Release day was May 4th and we traipsed around Amoeba Hollywood to find ourselves in the forest of CDs there.  Here is the visage in all its glory, encased in graying plastic!

We did this, then, because, well, how could we not.

In case anyone was concerned, we’re still eating donuts.  These of the I Can’t Believe They’re Vegan variety in Las Vegas.

Whoa.  Big sky.  On our way to Arizona.

one of the most consistently heartening aspects of touring is spending so much time with new people – who usually become friends quickly. after a really wonderful week with my sister and brother-in-law in St. Louis, i didn’t expect to end up having so much fun — i assumed everything would pale in comparison to our week of intensityfest meets fitz-induced frenzy — but what’s awesome is that i was wrong! while time with family (and this family especially) is its own particular variety of awesome, we really had a lot of fun in fayetteville and albuquerque too.

in fayetteville, we learned just how gorgeous the ozarks are, slept to the sound of pouring rain, played an in-store at the awesome Sound Warehouse, for (among others) kids and passersby (a new experience!), and set up shop at Ozark Natural Foods to get some work done (befriending most of the staff by the end of the day.) in albuquerque, we had some really lovely hosts who not only tolerated our post-van hijinks (which really, must be extremely annoying to anyone who’s not us?!), including endless carrying on in our various jewish grandparent personas, insisting on watching entertainment of the “Gold Blend?” variety, and expecting chile at all hours of the night.

the hateful, racist, anti-immigrant SB-1070 was passed in Arizona last Friday. when we realized there were calls for boycotts of arizona coming from all over the country, we paused our plans to head to AZ, and spent some pretty intensive time talking among ourselves, with our awesome host DB, and making phone calls to organizers and activists back home and in AZ. in the end, no one who was actually working on the issue here in arizona was calling for a boycott that would apply to bands traveling through (at the club level), and instead encouraged us (more than encouraged us) to come and try to help move the whole audience toward participation in Saturday’s May Day activities, upcoming fundraisers, and working with organizations here.

i think what made me the most happy about this whole process we went through, was that it was 100% clear to all of us that our decision should be based on being as useful as possible to the struggles going on against this legislation, and not about convenience, or how we would look to people… there is no question that some of our fans don’t give a shit about the passing of legislation that further criminalizes people of color here in arizona. and frankly, if you fall into that category, i’d like to 1) have a conversation about it and see if you’re open to caring about it, and 2) disown you as a fan if you don’t.

so here we are, backstage at plush in tucson, az, following new developments as they come in, excited to play for people here, and to have a speaker/tabler join us from the Border Action Network. more later!

xoLouisa

1. Carrie Neumayer’s excellent + hilarious cartoon accounts of touring, on display at our comics + rocknroll show at Skull Alley last night.  Not to mention her awesome band, Second Story man and their kick-ass set.

2. Getting to talk with some good people about politics, feminism, modern Orthodoxy and how sad music has the potential to be intensely uplifting over one of the strongest soy mochas I’ve ever had.

3. Ale 8 1.  Duh.

4. Babycakes Cupcakes.  Duh squared.

5.  A diptych of genius vegan brunches.  Still recovering from today’s, which featured some of the most delicious biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had.

6. Secretly decorating the backseat of the van with tiny stickers featuring the woebegone faces of dogs and cats.  Shocked and dismayed faces of bandmates at the sight.

7. Al’s Bar’s sweet potato fries.  And their black bean burgers.  And their incredibly nice staff.  OK, so just: Al’s bar, Lexington.

8.  Did I mention that, in Louisville, our friend’s bird sat on my head?  Yeah.

9.  Cathartic yiddish screaming from behind my new drum kit to a frantically dancing audience during Let’s Go last night.  Waaay better than caffeine.

10.  Salted peanuts and craisins are the Van Snack of Tomorrow.

11.  Tonight, St. Louis.  Counting down ’til my first Fitz’s.