ON TOUR FOREVER: MOVED TO TEXAS
post a comment | posted Feb 14
The very good-looking "Possibilities" in Fort Davis, TX. (21 miles away from here) On Flickr.
It's been months. Since we last spoke, Claire and I drove down the west coast of the United States and made our first stop in Los Angeles about 16 hours after leaving Portland (epic time!). We hung around for a couple days then headed off to Tucson to visit our friend Molly, then on to here, Marfa, Texas, where we've been living for almost two months now.
We essentially came here to complete new projects in what we thought would be a mild (and slightly more social) version of isolation. This has proven to be a pretty inaccurate assumption on more levels than we could have anticipated. First off, the people we've met here have proven to be great friends that we hope to keep for years and years. Secondly, this town is manic: both in its physical being, which has delivered giant cartoon-like snowflakes and 80-degree sunshine over the course of 72 hours, and in its incredible social climate. Claire and Flint have compared it to their "college years." There have been many events ranging from artist talks to minimal techno DJ sets in our living room. True story: the only party in Marfa we chose not to attend, out of sheer overload, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were at. Sometimes we have to make an effort to stay at home and work on our junk. Other days we have really felt the smallness of Marfa. There is no Thai food. One time we had to drive 25 miles to buy an ink pad. No one here has a Nintendo Wii for us to play. There is only one FedEx drop box and the post office is closed on Saturday.
Flint has not been this social, ever.
Claire actively says "y'all" now. It's actually a pretty effective and endearing phrase.
On top of our manic social life here, we went ahead a invented a laptop sleeve and subsequently started a real deal by-the-books LLC business. We never saw this coming! We watched Steve Jobs' keynote address and we instantly had an idea that we decided to fully realize. I'm a huge fan of this kind of fast action, but neither of us expected this project to yield such an immediately intense response. We thought we would sell 100 tops. OK, I don't want to type about this anymore. It has been such a rough and crazy experience starting this weird business. What next?
We thought we'd self-isolate and work on projects in Marfa, occasionally kicking back to drink a Lone Star while watching the tumbleweeds bluster by. That would have been nice, but we fully transcended that way of life by adopting some relentlessly fun hang-out patterns.
When we're not freaking out about our accidental laptop accoutrement empire, we're spending a lot of time with our Marfa friends, like our across the street neighbors
Anthony and Alex, who are epic BFFs from Marin county who moved to Marfa for the hell of it to make awesome music together and snack super hard. Marfa is all about making your own fun: playing checkers in theJudd foundation parking lot, drinking beer on the roof of the radio station, and driving an hour to Fort Stockton to go the arcade. In any case, we're so happy that we've met all these amazing people in town, and we wouldn't trade our time here for anything.
We've also been lucky to have some great visitors from the Northwest; friends who braved the crappy flights and 3 hour drive from El Paso to come vibe the desert. Curtis came for a week and we threw a huge party for him, drank chocolate cokes, and went to see the Marfa lights(get into it). My parents spent a cool weekend here, too, and our friend Rich Jensen was an amazing houseguest: by the time he left, he was saying that he had more friends in Marfa than in Seattle.
We're excited to leave for tour soon, but we'll definitely be back.
Really, we're in love with Marfa. Here are some more photos:
We're leaving Marfa on the 5th of March to return to our on tour forever lifestyle. We'll be back in Portland only for a couple days before sticking around for a bit in the middle of May and making some new music and/or product stuffs. We are so stoked to tour with Vampire Weekend!
YACHT: STILL ON TOUR FOREVER
3/5/08 - Santa Fe, NM @ College of Santa Fe
3/6/08 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Mirage Hotel & Casino (The Beatles Revolution Lounge)
3/7/08 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Natural History Museum Los Angeles (w/ Why?)
3/12/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Emo's Main Stage (2:15pm)
3/12/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Fader Fort (6:45pm)
3/13/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Wave Rooftop (11:00pm)
3/14/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Ms Bea's (2:00pm)
3/14/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Urban Outfitters (3:00pm)
3/15/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ BUST Magazine Party (3:00pm)
3/15/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ JellyNYC Texas Garage (9:00pm)
w/ Vampire Weekend:
3/19/08 - San Diego, CA @ The Casbah (SOLD OUT)
3/20/08 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey (SOLD OUT)
3/22/08 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent (SOLD OUT)
3/23/08 - San Francisco, CA @ The Rickshaw Stop (SOLD OUT)
3/25/08 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge (SOLD OUT)
3/26/08 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos (SOLD OUT)
3/27/08 - Vancouver, BC @ Richards on Richards (SOLD OUT)
3/29/08 - Missoula, MT @ Badlander (SOLD OUT)
3/30/08 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux (SOLD OUT)
3/31/08 - Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue (SOLD OUT)
4/01/08 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater (SOLD OUT)
4/03/08 - Minneapolis, MN @ The Triple Rock Social Club (SOLD OUT)
4/04/08 - Madison, WI @ High Noon (SOLD OUT)
4/05/08 - Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall (SOLD OUT)
4/06/08 - Chicago, IL @ Metro (SOLD OUT)
--
4/16/08 - Brooklyn, NY @ Studio B
4/17/08 - Annadale-on-Hudson @ Bard College
4/19/08 - Purchase, NY @ SUNY Purchase (w/ Deerhoof, High Places, & MORE)
4/24/08 - Rouen, France @ Club 106
4/26/08 - Paris, France @ Fleche D'Or (w/ Junior Boys DJs)
4/29/08 - London, UK @ Cargo
4/30/08 - Dublin, Ireland @ Whelans
5/1/08 - Galway, Ireland @ Roisin Dubh
5/2/08 - Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival @ Oh Yeah!
--
5/3/08 - Manchester, UK @ Charlies (w/ Health)
5/4/08 - Helsinki, Finland @ Kuudes Linja
5/7/08 - Bergen, Norway @ Straedet
5/8/08 - Oslo, Norway @ Bla
5/9/08 - Rome, Italy @ Dissonanze Festival
5/11/08 - Milan, Italy @ Atomic Cafe
5/12/08 - Faenza, Italy @ Clandestino
5/14/08 - Cosenza, Italy @ PRTYZN Vivo FESTIVAL!
5/15/08 - Pescara, Italy @ Mono
5/16/08 - Brussels, Belgium @ Les Nuits De Botanique
5/17/08 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Svenska Musikklubben
8/23/08 - Leeds, UK @ The Favesham
8/24/08 - Creamfields Festival
8/26/08 - Sheffield, UK @ Bungalows & Bears
8/27/08 - Brighton, UK @ Barfly
8/31/08 - Ireland @ Electric Picnic Festival
9/02/08 - Cardiff, Wales @ Shape Function @ Clwb Ifor Bach
9/04/08 - Bristol, UK @ Stutter
+ MORE SHOWS TBA