November 17, 2009

We have arrived in a windy London, after shows at the Tanned Tin Festival  –  in Barcelona on Friday night (at the Apolo, where Luna played our last show in Barcelona), and at the Neu Club in Madrid on Saturday night. We shared the bill with Cheval Sombre, who sounded great with both Sonic Boom and Britta sitting in on keyboards. We discovered an interesting Norwegian band on the bill Saturday night too – Rocket to the Sky.

Upon arrival here we went out for a meal which I shall not describe, and then went over to the Borderline and caught some of the set by L.A.’s Darker My Love. In the audience was one Mark E. Smith – an incongruous and surprising sighting, but apparently some members of Darker My Love have also played with the Fall.

We are at the Travelodge on Drury Lane, which I thought would be a step up from the Columbia Hotel, but it is not. Still, our room has a nice view of a new complex by Renzo Piano, and we are only steps from tomorrow night’s venue – the lovely St Giles Church. Anthony and Britta and I popped our heads in there today, on our way to Foyles bookshop, and saw a choral group rehearsing. This is going to be an intimate show, and you will be sitting in wooden pews if you show up Wednesday night. Cheval Sombre (with Sonic Boom) goes on at 8:15, we will start at 9:30.

- Dean

November 10, 2009

Tuesday morning here in New York, we are rehearsing today for a couple of weeks’ shows in Europe, Britta and I and Matt and our pal Anthony Lamarca, who is back with us for a bit after a couple of tours drumming for St. Vincent. Last night I deejayed at a fundraiser for Words Without Borders, an organization that promotes translation of foreign literature. Apparently only 3% of literature published in the U.S. has been translated from another language. The fundraiser took place at the Bohemian National Hall on the Upper East Side, and my DJ set started right after Paul Auster finished reading a poem to the audience. I should have started with “Moon Palace” but instead I led with Jarvis Cocker’s “Running the World.”

Friday night we’ll be in Barcelona, Saturday night in Madrid, both shows part of the Tanned Tin Festival – a small festival featuring just a handful of bands, including our friends Cheval Sombre and Spectrum. Then it’s on to London for a show at the Sonic Cathedral (also with Cheval Sombre) November 18, our first London gig in quite some time. We’ll play a mix of Galaxie 500, Luna and Dean & Britta songs. Then back to the Continent for shows in two towns we’ve never been to – Chalons (France) and Gijon (Spain). We have a few days off in Gijon; I’m not sure what we’ll do those days but apparently the International Bagpipe Museum is located there.

We had a great time in Melbourne in October, playing the Warhol show three nights in a row at the Malthouse Theatre, and a memorable in-store at Pure Pop Records in St. Kilda, where they sell records and CDs and have a little bar out back where bands play live. The in-store gig was organized by the Sand Pebbles (formerly penpals, but now real flesh-and-blood friends). I apologize to those of you who stood in a long queue (line) outside the shop but couldn’t get in, on account of the Irish folk band who were on before us running a bit late, and their fans preferring to stay and drink and hear the Sand Pebbles play great versions of “23 Minutes in Brussels” and their own “Speed and Intensity” and “The Day Summer Fell.” The whole afternoon was subsquently immortalized by underground comic Fred Negro.

Thanks again to Chris Hollow and Ben Michael X and Andrew Tanner and the rest of the group for showing us around Melbourne, showing us where to buy jeans and where to drink beer.

One other note - we are playing an early New Year’s Eve show at Southpaw in Brooklyn — onstage at 8:30, done by 10:00 p.m., giving you time to reach another destination by midnight. . .