So on our way to Chicago on Halloween to see the King Khan and BBQ show, we pull off on the highway into a Burger King to take a pee. And King Khan and BBQ were in there chillin! We didn’t say anything to them (didn’t know what to say, didn’t want to seem weird, etc) but then as we pulled away, we immediately regretted it. So I made a sign in the van that said “KING KHAN AND BBQ! HI! SEE YOU TONIGHT!” and then we drove past them and showed them the sign and honked the horn. They got a kick out of it, and then they immediately pulled beside us so King Khan could moon us.

Of course we were super lazy and slow moving when we got to Chicago and that resulted in us getting to the club late and the show was sold out! PISS. So I wrote a note that said “The girls you mooned on the highway can’t get into the show! Please help. Love, The girls you mooned.” I was going to give it to some bouncer to give to the band, but before I could do that, King Khan came out and I got to give him the note in person. So we got in! And it was free, to  boot. YAHOOOOO! The show was rad !!! <3 Steph.

So we took yet another day off of actually touring in order to do fun stuff. Namely, seeing Jay Reatard in Philadelphia. Cola Freaks opened, it was a totally insane show. The singer got into a fistfight 2 songs in! There really weren’t a lot of people there, I was surprised. But Jay Reatard played all the hits and I was stoked.

They brought this dude on stage, he promptly fell down and never bothered getting up.

I hear that. I’m so tired the next time I fall down, I ain’t movin’ shit. -Steph

So our brief day off in Nashville was a little bit of a bust. The Country Music Hall of Fame was closed by the time we got there, which was fine, because that shit was expensive. However, there was a free museum that we were all stoked on: COOTERS! The Dukes of Hazzard museum! On the way, we got a little lost driving around aimlessly lost in the mega complex that is the Grand Ol’ Opry (we never even saw it! It was a sea of Bed, Bath and Beyond type box stores. WEEEEEIRD). I called the number on the Cooters pamphlet we got at the information area on the way into Nashville, and asked the woman who answered where exactly they were located. “Are you near the Radisson?” I asked. “I don’t know where that is… “ she said. “But you’ll see it from the street, there’s an orange car out front.” AN ORANGE CAR. That orange car, of course, was the General Lee.

Here’s a room full of Dukes of Hazzard shit.

DETAIL

Here’s some good wallpaper for your desktop.

There was also a little miniature music hall of fame near Cooters with cement foot and handprints of all your favourites.

Skeeter Davis: Flower Child.

Peace and love,
Steph

So I have to admit, this is the show I was looking forward to the most this tour, because we were playing with one of my favourite bands ever, The Black Lips! Our new best friend Travis from Rob’s House Records set up the show, and we were super stoked to meet him. Another one of my all time favourite bands, The Carbonas, are also from Atlanta, so I had this super nerdy idea, we would cover a song of theirs at the Atlanta show, “Lost Cause” (my favourite song). We went on first and people really dug it. There were two Carbonas there and they were INTO IT. Then our pals Goodnight Loving played (awesome as always), then Jack of Heart (rad to the max), then the Renegades (it was sort of a confusing thing because they couldn’t advertise it as a Black Lips show because of a contract with the booker, so the Black Lips played under the name of The Renegades, which was their name in high school or something.) They played all their old songs from high school and then reconfigured as the Black Lips for another set. It was the best! I lost it. I also gave a haircut to the bass player in Jack of Heart.

And got a haircut in return.

Here are some Black Lips/Renegades photos:

Afterwards we all went to another bar with Travis and Chris (Travis’ roommate and bass player in the Carbonas), and met a bunch of cool folks and had a great old time. This guy has a Carbonas tattoo!

Then Travis and Chris had a party at their house where we made everyone say “hoser” into our camera and made a video. It was FUN. And here’s our big success story: Rob’s House Records are gonna put out a Stolen Minks 7inch in March, to coincide with a Vivian Girls release and we get to come back to Atlanta and play Travis’ birthday party with the Vivian Girls and The Carbonas!!! My dreams!

We hung out with Chris the whole next day and bought records and shit like that. I love Atlanta and I can’t wait to go back. Seriously, it was a wonderful time.

word, STEPH!

So let us be the first to tell you: it rocks! The people were swell, the venue was cool, and we ate something called Southern Smothered Platter for breakfast. Not too shabby, Columbus.

In the interests of full disclosure, we weren’t too sure on the way into town. The first thing we saw was a giant billboard that said NEED TEETH? in huge letters. And Tom-tom took us off the highway a little early, leading us to believe that Columbus consisted of two gas stations and a convenience store. But eventually we found the actual town, and the Princess Theatre, where we were gonna play. Look!

The Princess is a really old, really big theatre (one of the theatres that premiered Gone With The Wind, with Clark Gable in attendance!) and attached to the building in an old rooming house. So we had places to stay, albeit haunted places to stay.

Here’s the theatre:

And here’s my defiant stand against ghosts:

The owner Bart gave us some delicious (and free) food and drinks, and then we played with a great band from Jackson, Mississippi called The Overnight Lows, in the old lobby of the theatre. The show was pretty high energy and loud, and people seemed really into it. People were crazy friendly, which seems to be pretty common in the southern US so far. We met Eric, the guy who first told Bart to contact us about a show. He’s a huge Wordburglar fan, so Tiina promised to convince the Wordburglar to go to Columbus and play a show. Honestly, it won’t be a hard sell.
Bart’s partner and sound guy Brian invited us over to do laundry and watch football the next day. If only we’d had time! Instead, we all went to The Huddle House for breakfast, where I ate this:

But I really, really wanted to hang out watch football with those guys. Even our Huddle House waitress (Cindy Lou) was going home to watch the game, with a bottle of strawberry tequila. Maybe I’ll take up football (or strawberry tequila) when I get home.

xo, Erica

Christian from the Mean Jeans wrote us a song!!

You can listen to it here.

Steph teared up when she heard it.  Now we’re plotting the various ways we can get ourselves back to Portland, Oregon.