Tiger Saw Tour Journals

End of tour- Portland

2010-01-23T18:39:00.000-05:00

The last show of tour was in Portland with White Hinterland, who put on a spellbinding show. Their new music is so perfect, sultry, and soulful. Best thing in 2010, I know.

Jeremy was at Marika's with this cool dog.

Last Conan show ever. Weird jam.

California / Oregon

2010-01-22T19:06:00.001-05:00

Scenes from the last week on the West Coast.

delicious granola

Kenseth's cat

Liz Janes and Rafter Roberts recording in San Diego

Che Cafe

Kenseth Thibideau

Alps in L.A.

Castanets in L.A.

San Francisco. Castanets with Trevor Montgomery.

Arcata

Testface in Eugene

Catalina

2010-01-19T04:28:00.001-05:00

Bree Joy Scanlon & Dylan Metrano perform 'Catalina' at the Bootleg in L.A. 17 January 2010.

Shot by Janelle Randazza.

LOS ANGELES

2010-01-15T14:19:00.003-05:00

Mandy and I have a week off in L.A. We're staying with friends and trying to see as much as we can...

Griffith Park Observatory

Ella

Janelle and Mandy

We saw Vampire Weekend and Paula Poundstone on the Late Late Show.

Mandy spins the Wheel

Santa Monica

LACMA

rehearsing with Bree

Sean at the Family Guy studio

Family Guy in-progress

tiny art show at the Family Guy

The Pee Wee Herman Show

New Zealand in a nutshell

2010-01-13T01:46:00.005-05:00

Our home base in New Zealand. Thanks so much Sam! You're amazing!

Our last show in New Zealand was in Auckland at the Wine Cellar. Matt Crawley promoted the show and opened for us. I love this guy! He has the voice of an angel and Hugh Grant comic charm during his stage banter. Meeting him and watching him perform was a real highlight.

On the road between Wellington and Auckland. The landscape was varied and breathtaking.

This is what the city of Wellington thinks is an appropriate width for a two-way road in winding hilly neighborhoods. Terrifying!

Seth Frightening in Wellington at Happy. I loved these guys! They were so good!

Tim, Denise, and Rowa eating a late dinner on the porch of the lake house Thomas set up for us to stay at near Rotorua.

Ray and the sea planes catching the late afternoon light.

This water was hot. Seriously hot.

Soda Springs in Rotorua

More Lake Rotoiti

Lake Rotoiti

Trail on lake Rotoiti

Roadside in Rotorua

Darwin

Thomas was an amazingly thoughtful host. This is the morning after the Hamilton park show (which was literally on the other side of Thomas' fence).

The view from the Pa was spectacular. Here you can see the downtown with the Sky Tower in clear view.

Day Two in Auckland. Sam took us to a "Pa" that has a lot of historical significance, as it was the site of the first treaty signed between a Maori tribe and English Colonialists.

New Zealand

2010-01-11T21:38:00.001-05:00

New Zealand

Auckland

Delicious Indian treats

"pas"

On the 5th, we saw Ponytail play in Auckland.

On the 6th, we drove to Hamilton, and recorded a radio session on a community radio station, then did a show in a park.

Our buddy Sam Hamilton did a laptop set. The police came, and we moved the show indoors.

Castanets

In Tirau, they make everything out of corrugated aluminum.

We drove to Rotorua, a town with a nasty sulfur smell, but an amazing landscape and history.

Soda Springs. Amazing hot springs!

tiki dude

On the 8th, we played Happy in Wellington.

On the long drive back to Auckland, we saw lots of sheep...

Our last show was at the Wine Cellar in Auckland, with Matthew Crawley, who was wonderful- one of my favorite musicians we'd seen all tour. Check him out on MySpace.

Stefan from Pumice sat in with Ray on a few songs. Great drummer. The next day, we flew to L.A...

Last days in Australia

2010-01-11T20:40:00.000-05:00

After three days camping at Peats Ridge, and having a quiet New Year's Eve in Newcastle, we set off for Brisbane and Byron Bay for our last two Australian shows.

We missed our chance to get out to the reef in Byron Bay, but we still went swimming in the very warm water.

Mandy backstage in Byron Bay

Alps from backstage

Byron Ray in Byron Bay

2010-01-09T17:39:00.003-05:00

This is going to be a very brief entry, since we're packing up and getting ready to leave for the airport. There will be more on this later, but I want to state for the record, that this little island nation of New Zealand is nothing short of amazing. I haven't left yet, and I already can't wait to return. Soon there will be more blogging and some photographic evidence of this glorious landscape.

The Australian Wrap Up

2010-01-05T04:14:00.004-05:00

Peats Ridge. Day one.

Dylan in the Sydney Botanic Garden.

Dylan and me in front of the Sydney Opera House.

The Sydney Harbor Bridge in the rain.

Rand and Holland at the Excelsior Hotel in Sydney. These guys were amazing. There was some confusion about a drum kit, so I used this bass drum, the hi hat and a tambourine on milk crates as a snare. Luckily the sound guy was excellent and it sounded great.

Richard in Your Mind was the other opening band. Sweet guys.

Dylan got Tim Hollhouse, who was visiting from England, to sing with him on a couple of songs at his reading at the anarchist bookshop.

Chris helps 7 month old Wolfie rock out on his new Christmas present.

The Nativity, Aussie rules.

The Blue Mountains from the backyard of Akemi.

Ray's lunch at a roadhouse on the way to Wollongong.

Clover, the goat who lived at Akemi.

Christmastime, Sydney, Peats Ridge

2010-01-04T22:14:00.002-05:00

According to Bill Bryson, there are more deadly creatures in Australia than anywhere else in the world.

And one day, I woke up with this on my arm. It freaked me out a bit. I'm happy to say, that two weeks later, this is no longer on my arm, and I am still alive. While in Australia, I read his fascinating book, In a Sunburned Country. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone considering a visit down under.

We spent Christmas Eve and day in Newcastle at Chris and Jenny's house. We saw Sherlock Holmes in the theater (movies are very expensive here, by the way- no matinée prices) and on Christmas day we watched Elf and Bad Lieutenant at the house. Weird double feature. We also saw Avatar in 3D a few days ago. Two tickets and a popcorn was $50.

Being a world away on Christmas is kind of sad. It wasn't very festive in Newcastle.

On the 26th, we played the Croatian Club in Newcastle. Mandy and I sat at the merch table, and this very drunk Columbian guy danced for us.

On the 27th, we went to Sydney, where I did a book reading at Juno Books, an anarchist bookstore. Only a few people showed up, but I read, and Chris and I played some songs.

We played a show with a good band called Rand and Holland that evening at the Excelsior Hotel. Afterwards, Mandy and I stayed in Sydney, and set out to see some sights in the morning.

Luna Park

Opera House

Botanic Gardens

Ibis

On the 29th we set out to the Glenworth Valley for the three-day Peats Ridge Festival. 200 bands performed. Mostly Australian bands I had never heard of. I ate the worst hamburger of my life here, but I also had delicious coconut sorbet in a half-coconut shell. There was a lot going on, and it was bit overwhelming. It was fun, though.

This is where we camped.

Alps played on the 29th.

The Cameras

This pirate was blocking my view.

Castanets played on New Year's Eve.

Mandy and Chris sat in with Castanets.

In the "George Harrison Memorial Trailer".

Cicada on our tent.

21-23 December

2010-01-04T21:05:00.000-05:00

It's been a little while since the last update, but we've been moving around a lot, and haven't had a dependable internet connection. So I'll do my best to catch up now...

After Melbourne, we drove to a small railroad town called Ballarat to play the Eastern Station on the 21st,.

Alps at the Eastern Station

We played with a local hippie band with a flute player.

Castanets

The next day, we stopped in Glenrowan to visit the place where Australia's most infamous criminal, Ned Kelley, was gunned down while wearing a suit of homemade armor.

So hot here. A can of soda costs $4.00...

In Wollongong, we played a nice club called the Harp with Emma and Alec. It was their first show, and my favorite band of tour so far. Take a listen to them at their MySpace page above.

After the gig, we stayed with Alec, and we saw our first (and only) Christmas tree of the trip.

Ray borrowed a long board, and we headed to the beach.

On the 23rd, we headed to the Blue Mountains, and saw a famous rock formation called the Three Sisters.

Click on this to see it bigger.

Hello. This guy lives at Akemi, where we played in the Blue Mountains.

Castanets at Akemi

more adventures, and a new release!

2009-12-21T02:35:00.000-05:00

Our car is packed tight.

Ahhh, palm.

Alps at the Order. Awesome venue.

Aleks and the Ramps.

Strong Animal. Castanets set list is written by a fan. Good choices.

We have new release- a split 7" with Castanets. Our song is 'The Sky and the Dirt', Castanets is 'Fight (demo)'. Our song is the first released song from the Paper Birdz sessions. The artwork is below.

The tour begins

2009-12-21T00:29:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, we set out on tour in a rental car. People drive on the left down here, and the drivers sit on the right. Mandy and I both got confused while driving at different points and ended up on the wrong side of the road. It's best to leave the driving to the Australians. Mostly.

Our first show was at the Front Gallery in Canberra. It was pretty laid-back. A good first show of tour.

We played a free show at the Exeter in Adelaide. A rowdy bunch.

Alps in Adelaide.

Pony in Melbourne. Very late show. The other bands were good. Flying Scribble is a rad drums and farfisa duo. Sly Hats is rad twee.

Castanets, new pony.

And then there was music . . . .

2009-12-20T00:45:00.009-05:00

Chris, our tour manager and promoter, has been playing keys, accordion, and singing in Tiger Saw for the tour. He's also playing his owns sets as Alps of New South Wales.

Tiger Saw and Alps played the 2 am free show at Pony in Melbourne, which turned into a rowdy drunkfest pretty quickly.

Gray, from Flying Scribble, sat in with Ray for a couple of songs. She also lent me her cymbals for both shows in Melbourne since my touring cymbals are crap. Those ladies are rad!

A lamington at a bakery in Bordertown.

Local ginger beer and a lamington at a petrol station.

Castanets in the vines

These are our lovely hosts in Adelaide.

Cute.

At the Exeter Hotel in Adelaide.

We had a 13 hour drive from Canberra to Adelaide.

Castanets had some groupies at our first show in Canberra at the Front Gallery.

Crystal-Fair and her brother, Wolf, came to our show in Canberra. It was so nice to see friendly faces in the audience for our first gig.

Shoab opened for us and let us stay at his place after the show. He and his wife, Kate, were amazingly generous and fed us delicious breakfast at midnight.

Animals

2009-12-19T23:15:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday; Mandy, Wolfgang, Jenny, and I took a bus to Newcastle’s Blackbutt Reserve, where we saw a skink, koalas, kangaroos, peacocks, emus, and lots of other birds. It’s a really nice walk, and it was great to be able to get so close to the animals. We took lots of pictures, and caught a train back to Wickham to practice a bit.

This peacock was chasing two other peacocks around. Very aggressive.

Koalas are cute.

Cool dude.

This guy is in a fenced-in area, but there are flocks of cockatoos all over Australia. You see them flying around while you are driving.

Are these vultures? These guys were not fenced-in, and kind of scary.

These kangaroos were in the nature reserve, but when driving across Australia, you see kangaroos all the time. I love these guys.

Australia is a dangerous place.

Wednesday, we went to Newcastle Beach, where we got lots of sun and went in a salt water pool. The ocean’s waves were huge, and there was a fleet of giant tankers on the horizon, apparently taking coal all the way to China. I sunburned my feet.

Next: Tour starts!

(not really) LOST

2009-12-15T02:14:00.002-05:00

The flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ was over twelve hours long. The plane was enormous, and I equipped myself with earplugs, an eye mask, and a neck pillow purchased at the Hollywood K-Mart. We took off after midnight, and were served dinner two hours later. I tried to watch various movies on the six-inch screen pasted on the back of the seat a foot from my face. I vaguely remember liking Julie & Julia more than the book, and 500 Days of Summer just made me more tired than I already was. Being crammed in the 747 for so long made me feel dried-out, sore, cranky, tired, stir-crazy, scared, sweaty, and bored. I couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t really hear the films’ dialogue in the cheap Qantas Air headphones. Nothing left to do but sit there contemplating the possibility of us ending up on an island in the South Pacific lost in time and space…
Eventually, we landed, and the only time-shift was that we left on a Friday and arrived on a Sunday. Saturday never happened. Oh well. Beats a polar bear attack.
We spent most of Sunday in the Auckland airport, winding through various security checkpoints, only to pass through and find another line, x-ray machine, and pat-down waiting on the other side. Auckland adds drug-sniffing dogs and chemical-trace swab tests of my bags to the mix. They also seem suspicious of how little baggage I am carrying, even though I kept it at a minimum due to the limitations on their cheap-ass budget Jetstar flight.
Chris and Ray meet us at the Sydney airport, and we had some Indian food before getting on a train to Newcastle. I read about the Dirty Projectors in Uncut magazine, and dozed in and out of sleep for the three-hour ride to Chris’.
Chris lives with his wife Jenny and son Wolfgang in little house in an industrial section of a suburb called Wickham. Wolfgang is seven months old and likes to gnaw on our sandals (or thongs, as they say here.)
On Monday, we walked downtown, and went to the market, where I discovered non-refrigerated milk that costs half of what the refrigerated kind costs. We ran through some Tiger Saw songs, and quizzed Chris on the Australian (“Strain”) slang in the appendix of my Australia Insight guide book. (“neck oil” = “beer”, for instance.)

We fell through the clouds to Oz

2009-12-14T17:01:00.002-05:00

We experienced time travel for the first time, losing Saturday completely during our 12 hour trans-Pacific flight. After some rigamarole with bags, changing gates, and delays, we finally boarded our Jet Star flight from Auckland to Sydney. It was a pretty uncomfortable flight, but the sky below was a hilly cumulus cloudscape. As we descended into Sydney, we couldn’t see anything as we dropped through these beasts of vaporous mass, and then, suddenly, we broke through, and the Sydney Opera House was just outside my window. There were spotlights of sun breaking through the thick cloud layers, like mother nature saying, “hey, check this out.”

When we got to Sydney, we met Ray and Chris at the airport exit, grabbed some quick Indian food for dinner and headed to the train station via taxi. I watched Chris get into the front seat on the left side and my tired brain was confused momentarily. The 3 hour train ride from Sydney to Wickham seemed endless, but Jenny warmly welcomed us, and we set up beds and got to sleep around midnight.

We spent our first morning in Wickham (a suburb of Newcastle) at Chris and Jenny’s place, eating vegan mango pancakes with jam and drinking delicious espresso, while Dylan quizzed Chris on all of the slang terms in the back glossa

ry of our Australian tour book. Chris, not surprisingly, being native to this land, got all but the most obscure of the terms spot on. We spent the rest of the time playing with their “tin lid,” Wolfie. Ray, Wolfie, and Chris slept in while Jenny, Dylan, and I walked to the market to get some supplies for the next few days before the tour begins. We had a pretty lazy day, hanging with the kiddo, eating, and eventually got to practicing in the afternoon.

Here’s some Aussie slang we learned today:

fair dinkum - the real thing, true blue

crack on - make a pass at, hit on

cark it - die, turn into a carcass

More from L.A.

2009-12-11T19:54:00.008-05:00

Bree and Ella entertained us all day on our layover in L.A.

Though Ella looks skeptical, this crepe filled with chestnut spread was amazing!

While inspecting closely to figure out how this tree could look so perfect (it was real, but spray painted green, and the bows were drilled into the trunk to create the look of perfection) we discovered a cool shot.

Ella really liked this little guy.

California

2009-12-11T19:08:00.000-05:00

We left the chill and the snow behind.

The Harry Potter movie we were expecting never showed.

The flight was uncomfortable and seemed long, but tomorrow's flight will be twice as long...

The view from Sean and Bree's guest room.

We went to the Grove in L.A. and visited Santa.

Mandy, Bree, and Ella at the Farmer's Market.

2009-12-07T17:39:00.002-05:00

The Castanets | Tiger Saw | Alps tour starts mid-December 2009.

Pictures and words to come.