Day 2-- Birthdays and Whorehouses

Today is the second day of tour, and more importantly—you know what? It’s my Golden Birthday. The big 2-5. I was initially skeptical about spending it on the road, but it has turned out to be pretty amazing. Everyone has made it that way by giving me champagne and whiskey and a tiny crown and-- best of all-- A GOLD SPARKLETOWN TAMBOURINE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. Jared Mees and the Grown Children even sang me a birthday song. It went like this: “Biiiirthdays, birthdays! Everybody’s got a birthday. Birthdays, birthdays… TALIA CAME OUT OF A VAGINA!” Needless to say, I have a pretty big crush on all of them.

So. Last night. We slept 6 people in a room about the size of a bathroom. We’re getting pretty good at these situations. We have to, with 8 people traveling around in a 6 passenger Dodge Ram and all. Everyone woke up in a great mood today. We can probably attribute it to James (Luce), our roadie/photog/bestie/sanity coming trotting up from the van in a Monarques shirt and the tiniest shorts imaginable to wake us up. The good mood lasted all the way up until we hit HW 1 and had to navigate a 40 mile downhill, hairpin-turn-filled nightmare. Our van is old. Our brakes are questionable. Our trailer, “The Last Resort,” tends to act a little sketchy. Chrissy and Rich did a gret job driving, but we basically collectively held our breaths for about 2 hours.

Our destination was the Caspar Inn, a former whorehouse-turned-bar-and-hotel outfit that was straight out of a David Lynch movie. It could be decribed as “eclectic” or “charmingly kitschy” on a charitable day and “nightmarishly tacky” on any other day. That’s where I’m writing from currently, nestled in leopard print sheets. To give you an idea of how schizophrenic this place is, I should note that the two other beds in the room have Spongebob Squarepants and sheep-printed sheets, respectively, and that the vintage Art Deco print above my bed faces a framed Superbowl ‘87/Amstell Lite ad on the opposite wall.

There’s this thing about people in small towns. It’s as if the people who live in them make up for the low population by having the biggest and most bizarre personalities possible. Or maybe characters just blend in better in the city. In any case, they came out strong for our show. I could describe them, but you might not believe me. Truth is stranger than fiction. We managed to play and get upstairs into our beds without incident, and we’re now on our way to SAN FRANCISCO!!!! Stay tuned.

TOUR DIARY DAY 1

Okay. So, I am writing this early on day 2 of our tour. We left yesterday at about 1 PM and headed for Ashland, Oregon. The vibe in the van was SO posi the second we got in. We are all super excited to be on the road together again. We are also really, really stoked that our good friend James Luce is with us. He is our number one, favorite photographer EVER, and a real sweet guy to be around. Our vibe was almost funny... Every hour or so someone would yell out something like, "It's so rad to be here together again." or "Fuck yeah! We're on tour again!" Ha, I guess sometimes we really like each other... At one point, I looked up from my sewing project and saw Lee and James adorably sharing one pair of headphones and rocking out to Mineral, Talia was reading a book version of the 1970's gang movie "Warriors", Mike was sleeping with his mouth open, Josh was taking care of something "important" on his computer, Chrissy was sprawled across the floor, and Richard was driving. I realized how different we all are. Maybe that's why we don't ever get bored with each other.
Next, James took pictures of us being insane. We immediately started making jokes and calling each other "princess". That passed the time nicely... When we arrived in Ashland we were ready to party. Alex's, the bar we were playing, was kind enough to put us up in a decent motel. So, we settled in, met up with our pals Jared Mees and the Grown Children (our touring buddies) and headed to the bar. We were greeted with huge bowls of salad and gourmet pasta! They even took care of the vegans! Free food is awesome... We all looked at one another and thought, "How could this get any better?" Both bands shared in the community dinner, and whenever someone stood up, everyone would yell, "Speech, speech!" It really wasn't THAT funny... but on a side note, let me tell you something that WAS funny..
- Wait. let me explain...
We were having a conversation about different ways to use corn, which led to different ways to use porn, which naturally led to talking about eating Playboys and discovering bits of naked women in your poo. This is a situation that Lee referred to as "Poo Hefner."
So anyway, the show was pretty cool. There were a decent amount of people there and both of our bands played well in the small venue. But man, did we get DRUNK. At midnight, Talia turned 25, so you could imagine that we got good and smashed. James even bought everyone a shot. That's like, um, $60 or something. (editors note - who cares about $60??) At the end of our night we carried Talia to the van and headed to the motel.. That's about the point where my memory draws a blank... I do know that James, Mike and I woke up in the van with my keys in the ignition with the van's battery dead. Also, half of my body was inside a pillow case... Anyway, we all agreed that it was a pretty great first day of tour!
We are currently driving over the boarder into California. We hid our three boxes of exotic bananas and braved through the fruit inspection point. Mendocino, here we come!
P.S. - Josh claims that he is going to write a new song on everyday of the tour. That's about as realistic as me actually updating this blog everyday of the tour... totes loves everyones forevs. -- Corey Ciresi

WE ARE COMING TO YOU!!

Our second West Coast tour starts on Friday! We've been super busy all month recording our new record, playing and hanging out at MFNW and now we are ready to hit the road!! We will be travelling with our good friends Jared Mees and The Grown Children from Portland and we will be in your town SOON.

Sep 24 Alex’s - Ashland, Oregon
Sep 25 Caspar Inn - Caspar, CA
Sep 26 Hemlock Tavern w/Social Studies - San Francisco, California
Sep 27 Kermit the House - Oakland, California
Sep 28 Muddy Waters Cafe - Santa Barbara, California
Sep 29 UC Fullerton (day show) - Fullerton, CA
Sep 29 Ace Hotel and Swim Club - Palm Springs, CA
Sep 30 San Diego - TBA - San Diego, California
Oct 1 El Dorado - Long Beach, CA
Oct 2 House Party w/ Olin and The Moon - Laurel Canyon, CA
Oct 3 Cafe Flo - Chico, California
Oct 5 Rotture with The Like (LA) - PORTLAND, Oregon
Oct 7 Baby Bar - Spokane, WA
Oct 8 Red Room - Kennewick, WA
Oct 9 Neurolux Lounge - Promenade Festival - TLE Showcase Boise, ID

"All Night Long" at MFNW

XOXO

Progress

MFNW starts today!! This means we have been a band for one year... officially. We played our very first show all together for last years' Bladen County Records Showcase at rontoms and we'll be playing the BCR showcase again this year, this time at the newly christened BUNK BAR on Water Ave and Taylor. It's going to be a great show so come by and see all the great bands playing this Saturday. Here's the lineup:



7pm Sean Flinn and the Royal We
8pm The Parson Red Heads
9pm The Glib
10pm Ages and Ages
11pm Anders Parker
12am Monarques

The show is only $10 if you don't have a wristband so come down, eat Bunk sandwiches and watch awesome music!


Recording is going well. We start the second half of the album today. Paul was outta town for about a week and we had a nice break, but now it's time to dig in. We've got a couple of brand new songs that are shaping up really well and I cant wait for everyone to have a chance to hear what we are working on! The newest song, "All Night Long" is gonna have a full mini orchestra on the recording it's gonna be nothing less than epic.

We shot a live music video with our friends at Into The Woods last week and you can see the video HERE We perform "I Wont Cry" and "No Good" on the MAX train (Portland's light rail train). It's part of a MFNW series the guys are doing and it's great! The Y La Bamba video in the series amazing.... check it out while you're there!!

We have a show coming up at Doug Fir next week on Thursday September 16th with And And And & The Shivas. We are bringing the mini orchestra and it's going to be awesome!!! Cant wait!!

Lastly... we are broke!! We will gladly accept any help anyone is willing to offer us in recording this album we are working on. There are several "rewards" you can get from us for contributing... including dinner and a sunset watching session!! Check out the project HERE

Hey California, see you soon!!

XOXO

We got us new guy

So it's official. For those of you who don't know, our guitar player Jon has decided to pursue other interests and leave Monarques. We are sad to see him go but it's what he wanted and we wish him the best!! Taking his place on guitar is Michael Slavin (pictured). We've been working out new arrangements and things are taking shape really well. Come out this Wednesday - August 4th - to Mississippi Studios where we're playing with Yeah Great Fine and Olin and the Moon (LA) and check out what we've been working on! We go into the studio just a few days after the show to start our new record!!!!

xo

RECORDING STARTS IN 3 WEEKS!!

RECORDING
It's been a while since I've updated the Blog or sent out an email (which is what I'll be doing later) so there are a few things to talk about. First off - we are getting ready to head into the studio with our good friend Paul Laxer (pictured). He recently engineered and co-produced Typhoon's "Hunger and Thirst" if you haven't heard it - well you should, right now. Amazing album. Anyhow... we're really excited to get going on the full length! We'll be spending the month of August writing arranging and recording, so come out to all the shows to hear the progress - we're really tearing the songs apart and trying to make them better.

MFNW
We are playing Musicfest Northwest again this year! Last year we played at Rontoms and it was our first real show, we played at three o'clock in the afternoon, it was great even though there were hardly any people at the bar. This year we'll be helping to christen the brand new Bunk Bar (Bunk Sandwiches)! It's gonna be a wonderful show with The Parson Red Heads, The Glib, Ages and Ages, Anders Parker and us! MFNW is one of the best times of the year and I'm especially looking forward to this year's festival. (We play Saturday Sept 11th)

TOUR
Right on the heels of MFNW we'll be hitting the road for THREE WEEKS with Jared Mees and The Grown Children. We are heading all throughout California, Washington and Idaho! So excited. Last tour was amazing and we made a ton of friends, I cant wait to go out and do it again. Hopefully we'll be hitting the road with a tour ep of some of the new material... Both bands are going to be playing shows at Doug Fir in the weeks leading up to tour, we are playing DF on Thursday Sept 16th with And And And & The Shivas - both bands are great!! Upon our return we'll be doing a show together with Jared Mees and the Grown Children at Rontoms on Sunday Oct 10th!! Mark your iCalendars.

UPCOMING SHOWS
WEDNESDAY AUG 4TH - MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS W/OLIN AND THE MOON (LA) & YEAH GREAT FINE

SATURDAY AUG 14TH - CHIMPFEST 2010 - Laughing Planet Woodstock Parking Lot 12pm-8pm This is a benefit for Sonaga Yong Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Cameroon - there will be music all day!!

SUNDAY AUG 15TH - RONTOMS W/DIRTY MITTENS AND RAMONA FALLS!!!

THURSDAY SEPT 16TH - DOUG FIR W/ THE SHIVAS & AND AND AND!!

XO