Raw for Lent: Day 22-26

Day 22 - SxSW!

Departed San Antonio around 10am, after visiting the alamo.

Arrive austin about 11am, to set up for the show. Played first to open the showcase. Tons of awesome bands--

Acorn Bcorn - straight up old school kinderwhore style riotgrrl music, reminiscent of Babes in Toyland a little, Marina's voice more sonorous than Kat Bjelland's. Interesting set up-- side by side kits played with the feet primarily.







The Back Pockets - Weirdness to the power of 10. Came dressed like they were going to a Woodstock themed party at Studio 54. Set up an elaborate in front of stage thing. While the band played, a guy danced around fucking with the audience and pretending to be ascientist. The music was pretty eclectic, mostly like someone really likes the big builds in Arcade Fire. Would be at home in the Elephant 6 family. Overall, recommend seeing them. The show is worth it and the singer's voice alone is mesmerizing for at least 3 songs.






Agent Ribbons - HOLY TWEE batman! Agent Ribbons combines sweet 50s doo-wop chord progression with saccharine sweet vocals bemoaning all the liars the singer has
met. A duo, the guitar does more work than you'd think it should, especially given the relatively simple styling, and the drummer's call-and-response back ups make it so you don't even miss the bass.




TacocaT - Oh, TacocaT. Why is this band NOT on K records? Can we get them on K? They're adorable, fun, light and giggly. They are twee-rock, with irreverent lyrics about things like getting a new issue of Cat Fancy, smoking pot out of a vaporizer and the venerable (in girl band circles of late, anyway) Tanya Harding. This band is soul-related to EAR PWR for those who are familiar.






Christeene - I do not, still, 24 hours later, totally know what I think of Christeeene. When I first saw him, I was like "What the fuck?" granted, we were at a queer show, but he was wearing a fright wig, smeared make up (courtney love circa heroin) and had bruises painted all over his body. Then he climbed on stage and revealed some bizarre underpanties contraption. The show, though, was intriguing. The dance moves were fun and the backup dancers ridiculous and the rap would make Lil Kim blush. I don't think I would ever purchase this music, but my new friend Joey said I was in for a treat. If you like haunted houses, penises (there was a lot of penis, not gonna lie) and just draw dropping weirdness, then you just may like Christeene.






Went over to Whole Foods Austin...my new love affair. If I were ever here and not raw, I would probably gain 8000 pounds. They have a RAW station. It's almost entirely raw and it has apple pie and they carry those Hail Merry tarts that are the best thing I've tasted in a very long time. Like, if they get them in NC, I will eat them. From the raw station, I got a broccoli cashew salad and avocado kale salad. They were both good but I think I preferred the broccoli cashew.

After dinner we wandered over to see Last Year's Men, who played great. I procured me a tee shirt with which to rep them on the road and at home, then we bounced to the BrooklynVegan showcase and caught Screamales, who were fine.

We left during Andrew WK.

Day 23:

Whole foods for raw falafel and raw tzitiki, broc cashew salad, another Hail Merry raw tart (meyer lemon) and coconut water.
Day party trek started with meeting up with our friends Lost in the Trees (Orchestral Folk Pop) who we had just missed due to ill timed eating/walking, then we headed to the Paste magazine party for We Were Promised Jetpacks, whose show was PACKED but epic. Big guitars, big scottish voice, little, young, scottish dudes.

They were immediately followed by Blitzen Trapper, who were loud and otherwise not noteworthy. We decided to walk to Cheer Up Charlie's to catch the Love Language, some other hometown buds, who played an amazing set. Upbeat, 60s influenced guitar and key pop with some noisier elements, then we wandered all the way back to Waterloo for Lucero, who are not my cup of tea but I respect the hell out of the band. They're country-twinged bar rock, and have a far reaching influence.

We went to the Mohawk for the Jagjaguar/Dead Oceans/Secretly Canadian party. The first band was not worth talking about, but!

Gardens and Villas were an erasure-esque synthpop band whose lead singer had a quiver full of FLUTES! (This fills me with glee) They were poppy and fun.

Bear in Heaven went next and I learned...that the lead singer of Bear in Heaven, an amazingly catchy synthpop band, has NO RHYTHM. It was hilarious, and the songs were great as always.




We bounced after Bear in Heaven, and I ate some Kale chips at the hotel.

Day 24:



MY SHOWCASE! I ran my first ever SXSW showcase for Permanent Wave, Tom Tom Magazine and Break Yr Heart up off the North Loop. It went as follows:

Attia Taylor (attiataylor.bandcamp.com) - keyboard and vocal loop songwriter




WOJCIK (wojcik.bandcamp.com) - hard hitting guitar songs with a rich alto voice


LAM! LAM! (lamlam.bandcamp.com) - this is my little pet project, electropop



Spooky Qs (spookyqs.com) - queer songs about amazing things (the new record is ENTIRELY repurposed protest songs!)



Shondes (shondes.com) - poppy, theatrical folk rock, with an edge and electric violin



Jeepneys (soundcloud.com/jeepneys) - groove heavy, world music influenced with live guitar and live rototoms



Inches to Pixels (reverbnation.com/inchestopixels) - rockabilly feeling four piece with a raging female drummer




Seashell Radio (seashellradio.com) - folky boy/girl duo with the ability to rock!



Duck Fight Goose (duckfightgoose.bandcamp.com) - shanghai chillwave



Red Light Cameras (reverbnation.com/redlightcameras) - pop punk songs about giggly topics, like bicycles and juice




This show was presented by
The Permanent Wave (thepermanentwave.org)
Tom Tom Magazine (tomtommag.com)
Break Yr Heart (breakyrheart.com)
MonkeyWrench Books (monkeywrenchbooks.org)

After the show (where I scarfed a couple of raw bars) I met Kyle for some whole foods, which was a HUGE meal for me-- happy "tuna" salad (which was AWESOME), an avocado, a raw tart and a pint of cherry tomatoes. We wandered down to try and get into the Merge show, but couldn't, so we just decided to go home. I was pooped.

Day 25: Saturday, or, the big one

We got a little bit of a late start and hit whole foods for the first meal; I went ahead and tried actually ordering a "to go meal" from the raw "restaurant" (station) in Whole Foods. I got the pizza, which was almond and flax crisps topped with raw marinara, spinach, mushrooms and macadamias, nutritional yeast and garlic and came with a side, so I got the broccoli cashew salad. I also got some fruit salad, a kombucha and I tried a "lemon cheesecake cup" from the raw cafe which was totally vile. We headed over to the Deville and Mohawk, whose day parties were mad busy. We tried to get in elsewhere and finally ended up seeing, well, a lot of nothing. We stopped by Bull McCabe's Austin and watched a little basketball, then we went into Beerland and saw Terrible Twos and Bass Drum of Death, and they were both pretty rad. We then headed to sidebar but the band was ridiculous so we bounced.

I headed back to the car to grab a sweater and some Raw bars, then went directly to Red 7 to wait for my boys to start. First act I saw was called Odonis Odonis, and they were pretty noisy guitar feedy stuff, with a synth pad drummer.

Up next was some band whose name I forgot but they were not memorable.

VELVET TEEN then got up and shredded. Velvet Teen are a 90s/early 2000s rock and roll band with great guitar interplay, a little synth backing occasionally and lots of energy and good time. The only downside was that I was standing behind that couple who were like, bro-ing out and fist bumping the whole time.

Next was Breton, whose set ended literally 3 minutes after VT's but sounded really good so I plan to check them out. Then came Twilight Sad, a scottish band who were sort of cure-ish, and built up decent grooves but overall kind of dull. The power went out in the middle of their 2nd to last song which was pretty lame.

Jetpacks came on at 12, and I stayed for a few tunes,



but then decided to bounce to make sure I got over to Braid. Braid are an emo/post-hardcore band from Champlain, IL. They are also one of my favorite bands of the past few years. The show was not super full when I arrived, only $5 and I got a great spot up front. The boys were bantering like an old comedy team. It was truly a joy to watch them, and they played tons of awesome tunes, including almost every single one I wanted to hear. I really wanted to stick around and try to talk to them for a minute, but we had to get up at 7:30 to get Kyle to the airport.

The walk back to my car was ridiculous, by the way. I haven't ever in my life been asked if I wanted to party more times.

Day 26:

I dropped Kyle at the airport, filled my car with gas and went to Whole Foods to grab some more provisions for the road. I picked up one more Hail Merry tart, some apples, some bananas, some kiwi berries, cherry tomatoes and some of the hail merry treated nuts.

I met up with my high school friend Emily who now lives in Austin and we reminisced about the weirdness that was high school for us. I lost track of time a little and before I knew it it was almost four, which meant I really needed to get on the road. I mainly just noshed on my fruit and nuts from whole foods and arrived and got settled in OKC. I was way tired and crashed out pretty much AT 10pm.

Raw for Lent: Day 2!

Hey All!

So today was Day 2, and I woke up energized. First item on the list today was to head to the barn and see if my man, Jazz, was still in high spirits. And by in high spirits, I mean, ready to behave. He was...sort of. But we recently took his back shoes off to see if he could live without them and today baby had sore little feet. We also did our first one strider together, but he got a little riled up. We made it around a whole course, then he got a bath and some banamine and bute and his feet painted.

And do you know what fueled this big horsey adventure? GRAPES. Man, red grapes are so delicious. Here is my grape dilemma though, blogosphere: how do you get them clean? Have you ever noticed that even if you wash them, grapes have a little film of dirt on them that only comes off on your fingers or tongue? I can't wait for muscadine season, regardless. But just sayin, if you have a grape cleaning method, please share. I have like, 3 pounds.

After the barn I came home and whipped up my infamous/beloved Emerald Kale salad. This year I decided to add some thin diced habaneros in place of the dry cayenne and whooee it was spicy but good.

I headed to Carrboro's All Day Records to play a rock and roll show as LAM! LAM! with Boykiller! We did some lady collaboration stuff; they backup danced and I played guitar on two of their songs. This will likely happen another time but it is still crazy sad that not everyone in the universe got to see it. They will also likely help me with the LAM! LAM! fitness videos.

For those unlucky souls, this is how awesome Boykiller is:


So now I am home in beddy bye, having some more grapes, some raw cashews and a little kimchi, just cuz I'm apparently a pregnant lady who needs pickles at least once a day. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Raw for Lent: Day 23

Today I got up and attempted a recipe from CIG Eating Raw. It is a carrot ginger soup. I ended up tweaking the recipe a little because after I made it, it was bland.

7-8 Carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 c h20
1/2 c macadamia nuts
1/2 avocado
2 T ginger
2 tsp nama shoyu
1 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp dill
1 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp salt
few grinds of black pepper

I spun the big stuff (nuts, carrots, water) first to grind them down, then added the rest as it went on.

The soup is a sort of curry color, bright yellow and not the greatest consistency, but it's fairly tasty. It's best right out of the vitamix when it's just a little hotter than room temperature. I garnished with a little olive oil, which also helped the flavor I think. I might have added a little too much dill and a little too much garlic but I still feel like the soup is missing something.

I finished the grapefruit before showertime.

Later, I headed out to see Darren Hanlon at Casbah in their inaugural quiet show series. It was nice, he sang unamplified and played Punk's Not Dead as I requested, following it with an even more exciting quick verse of Anarchy in the UK! Videos forthcoming.

I finally broke down, tired of making food, and bought guacamole at Cosmic last night so I would have a snack. I mixed it with bean sprouts and then ate it in cabbage tacos.

On another note, my amazingly talented friend Rusty Sutton is the 30 day song challenge and I'm a big fat copycat, so I'm going to follow along his footsteps.

Day 1: My Favorite Song

I struggled a lot with what I would really consider my favorite song. Owing to overall plays, though, the convergence of several things I enjoy (dance grooves, noise rock, post-punk and ambient noise) and the fact that it is associated, forever, in my mind with going for long walks, I hereby nominate Ghinzu - Blow.

Raw For Lent: Day 6-7

So today was my off-tour prep shit day. I realized that since starting this, I've already dropped like 6 pounds, probably due to both dehydration and essentially not eating for 3 days. It's cool, though, since I'm sort of above my fighting size right now anyway. Good news: I totally am rocking the regular size jeans again as of today.

I got up early, cleaned up the kitchen as best I could, cleaned up my room a little too and then hit Whole Foods for what I refer to as THE GRAND EXPENDATURE (wherein I buy a whole bunch of supplies I don't usually have, like raw nuts, chiaseeds, maca powder, psyllium husk, etc etc) and get all my shit together. So I started the day by making a carafe of unsweetened almond milk, then tossed together my ceviche chard salad, let that sit on the table while I soaked almonds and cashews for the spinach dip and cashew cheese I planned to make. In the meantime, I tossed together a quick tomato sauce.

Quickie Tomato Sauce:

appx 1 1/2 c cherry tomatoes

2 cloves garlic
1 T olive oil

pinch salt
1 t basil

Spin that in the vitamix. I think it would probably be better if it were dehydrated as well, but I just let it sit out on the counter for a few hours, and am putting it in the fridge with the lid ajar to thicken it up a bit.

I cleaned the vitamix, then tossed together some almond chocolate nib cookies (they taste healthy) then went upstairs to clean myself in preparation for a rock and roll show! I plan to make raw lasagna later in the week, and since the cheeze takes a day to set and the sauce tastes better if it has achance to marinate, I figured I'd use my day off to get a head start.

I came back down, made cheese and dip, then made myself a little bowl with some guac and the spinach dip and some Go Raw! crackers (holy shit these rule!) and celery, then headed to Chapel Thrill to see my favorite band from 2009: The RAA!

When I got to the 506, Dork was still there, even though she said she was going to leave. The opening band, Pepper Rabbit were pretty good and I talked to one of the guys outside, they seem super nice. They're playing SxSW this week, so if you're there.

The Rural Alberta Advantage went on next and were fantastic as always. Even Dork stayed untl they played Frank, AB at the end of the set, because they were captivating and the mood in the room was great. I went home and totally passed out.

They also played a lot of stuff off the old album, including Don't Haunt this place:


And a sweet cover of Eye Of the Tiger:

Tuesday (day 7!) I got up early and went to the gym. I'm trying to make sure I eat every 2 hours or so but I'm kinda crappy at it so wish me luck! I had a cookie before the gym, then came home and set about making vegan sushi, with the cauliflower "rice," cukes and avocado. I wish I had pickled some radishes, but I need to get my pickling pants on and get to it. Also the cucumber harvest is apparently shitty because I haven't seen kirbys ANYWHERE.

I packed some chard ceviche for dinner and headed to work, pounding the last 3 dates I had in the car for some energy, then bounced around 10:00, got home, had some celery and spinach dip, dropped the cashew cheese (which is SO tasty!) into the fridge and went to sleep!