In August  we traveled to the northwest to play a bunch of shows.  Alice, our drummer, kept a journal...

Day 1 >> July 14, 2000

Today is the first day! We left Denver at ten o’ clock this morning, rolling out in our rental van and my car. Not too indie rock, but at least we could make it in the relative comfort and ease of a Dodge Caravan and VW Beetle! The first half of the day was pretty uneventful. We headed north into Wyoming, and then went along I-80 for what seemed like an eternity. The only things that I can really remember about Wyoming are the grassy lowlands and this cheese truck that looked like an oil tanker. What kind of cheese do they keep in those? One word - Nacho.

Anyway, we broke into Utah in the early afternoon, and stopped in Park City for some okay pizza at this place called the "Red Banjo Inn." Pretty nice, but they put a lemon wedge in our pies, and Mike kept playing Air Supply on the jukebox. What a nerd!

Believe it or not, we actually made it into Nevada on the same day. It was almost midnight when we pulled into Wendover, this border town whose only purpose seemed to be the lure of the casinos. Man, were we sucked in! The "Rainbow" was the spot. Brimming with crazy lights and buffet-style steak dinners and senior citizens, a veritable oasis of squalor and one-armed bandits, we were the slack jawed yokels ready to take our chances with lady luck. The dice rolled. The slot machines made their noises. And when it was all over, we walked out with about 40 extra bucks in our pockets, due mainly to the prowess of Sara, who worked the roulette tables mercilessly in indie rock fashion. We left unscathed, James proclaiming to the night sky "I’m a high roller!"

I guess at this point, I should give a run down of the band and their entourage for this tour. Besides me (who is Alice, the drummer), we had Julie, our lead singer, Mike the guitarist, and Dave the bass player. You probably already knew about us, but what you might not know is the cast of three players that defined our "super entourage." First we had James, Julie’s husband and Yoko Ono for the Maybellines  this past year and a half. You might consider him the mysterious "fifth" Maybelline, you might consider him our manager, photographer, cohort, and indie rock enthusiast, we’re not really sure, but we love him anyway. Next we have Sara, the illustrious bass player for the Pin Downs, and my special lady to boot. Sara came with us to help in the driving, selling, and making contacts areas, and most importantly, to help us figure out tour etiquette while on our first trip. She’s a real cutie-pie. Finally, but by no means lastly, we have Jen, who is Mike’s no.1 lady and rocker extraordinaire. Jen came out for a lot of the same reasons as Sara, and is bringing recruits from her rock army to our gigs in every city. Go Jen!

Anyway, getting back to our story, after we hit the casino, we rocked down the road for a couple hours and the started looking for a place to zonk out. Now I know what you are thinking: "What kind of four star hotel did they stay at? Were there jacuzzis in every room? What about the continental breakfasts?" But, once again, we broke with convention and due mainly to monetary issues we selected the relative comfort of a Wal-Mart parking lot for our sleeping needs. It was nice - we brushed our teeth with bottled water - and got out of there the next morning as fast as possible!

Second day.  We woke at around six o’ clock and packed and moved out at breakneck speed.  We stopped only for a quick shower at a truck stop along the way, and made it to Reno by noon.  James had planned a surprise for us this day.  After leading us through the maze of streets that is Reno, we arrived at this record store called "Resurrection Records," which happened to be the home of "The Sticker Guy."  James had ordered stickers!  They looked awesome, with the ladybug smiling in her garden of flowers.  We passed them around, looked at the music selections (James bought Wolfie’s first record, Sara got the Drags, Henry’s Dress, Flake, and the Blacks singles, and I got Teenage Fanclub’s first record) and then busted out.  San Francisco here we come!

When we arrived in S.F. at around five o’ clock, our friend Dan Cobbett was waiting with open arms, so we spent time eating and cleaning up before heading for Edinburgh Castle.  We got there at around 9:00 p.m.  This place was so cool!  There was a pub on the bottom floor, and tucked away on the top floor was a room where bands play, kind of like a lounge for indie rock shows.  Red curtains, round tables, you name it!

The show started at around ten o’ clock, when Wussom*Pow! rocked their sweet songs for the capacity crowd.  What a great set, too.  By the time that they had finished, I was a little nervous about being up to par.  But, nervous or not, we started rocking at around 11:00 p.m.  It was great.  Everyone there clapped and yelled, and we finished totally into the whole experience.  Somebody even yelled for an encore song!

Sushi was next.  In case you didn’t know, they are also on Shelflife records, and rock out like no one else.  There are six of them, two guitarists, an organist, drummer, bassist, and lead singer, and they are so nice and neat and sound great to boot!  They rocked out and we all had a great time.  As a matter of fact, we liked them so much that James hit their truck when we were leaving.  What a hoot!

Day three.  We didn’t have any shows lined up for today, so we slept in, ate breakfast, and hit the town hard - shopping spree!  Amoeba records was the main target; Sara got singles galore, and most importantly a CD by this crazy Japanese band called "Mad Moiselle."  Their music was pretty good, except for the singer who sounded like a yak in heat.  Julie got "Off the Wall" by Michael Jackson plus a Tullycraft CD.  Dave got the Apples and the Rondelles.  I got the Tullycraft plus an EP by Elf Power.  Quality purchases, one and all.

We all went our separate ways for most of the day, but met at night for our host Dan’s concert.  Dan is in this heavy metal band called Slough Feg.  They kick butt! Kinda old school, Iron Maidenish glam rock with an 80’s flair.  You wouldn’t think that the Maybellines would be into it, but brother (or sister) you’d be dead wrong.  We loved it.  Thanks, Dan…

Here was the big day.  Radio interview and concert in the afternoon, show in Sacramento at night.  Millions of possibilities for errors.

We got to the radio station at noon, driving into a beautiful college campus just south of San Francisco.  I guess that the name of the college is Foothills College, and the radio station is KFJC.  Anyway, after roaming the lots for a few minutes, we met Mitch, the DJ for the awesome "Apartment Life" program and our contact at the station.  He welcomed us with open arms, fed us pizza and sodas, and before we knew it we were playing - live! On KFJC.  It was terrific.  Julie and I goofed about Denver and indie rock in general, and our set sounded amazing thanks to the sound guy.  As a matter of fact, we’re even thinking of pressing some copies of the sessions for diehard fans.  They’ll be out soon!

Anyway, after we did our thing with the instruments, we had a super-long interview with Mitch and divulged all of our secrets: the origin of the Maybellines, disastrous shows, future plans, and favorite records.  We even did a promos spot for the show!  All around fun.  If you’re ever in Los Altos and want a good time, look up Mitch.  He’s a great guy, and has his finger on the pulse of indie rock in the bay area.  Thanks again, Mitch!

One person that I haven’t talked about so far is Dave Seltzer.  We met him in San Francisco, an old high school friend of James.  He met us in San Francisco and has been with us so far to film, photo, and hang out with the band for most of the tour.  It’s gonna be hot (the film, that is).  He’s a good guy, too, although it seems like he’s only filmed our shoes so far.

Anyway, after the radio show we busted it down (or up) to Sacramento for our show with Sushi and Electro Group.  I’ve already talked about the former, but not the latter.  Electro Group are a rockin’ (and I mean that in the distorted, weird tempo indie rock sense of the word) trio who live in the area and are really nice guys.  They rock, and the show this night definitely proved this statement to be true.  We played at this place called the Capitol Garage, which, oddly enough, was right next to the Capitol and served food, coffee, beer, and generous portions of wimp rock.  Sushi was first. Softcore and beautiful to the max, even doing a cover of "on the bus" by the replacements (we told them that they should have sang it "om - ni - bus" in homage to the great S.F. label).  They were great.  We were next, and played all of our most rockin’ songs in preparation for "the group."  They came on and, after a few minutes of warm up, blew everyone away with their ragin’ but soft sounds.  We laughed, cried, nodded our heads in unison, and bought or traded for a ton of stuff.  It was great.

After the show, we took off, drove for an hour, and crashed at a hotel just off the highway.  Nighty-night.

Corvallis, Oregon here we come!  We left at around 9:00 this morning, after stopping for some Jalapeno olives at this little deli along the way.  Northern California is so beautiful, and since most of us hadn’t been up this way before, we had a nice leisurely drive, looking at the scenery and being tempted to stop at every turn. We got into the city (more of a town, really) at around three o’clock and arrived at the Interzone café, owned by James’ friends Bill and Iris.  More high school connections (man, James has a lot of friends!).  They were great.  We ate and went next door to this insanely cool record store called Uncle Hungry's.  They had everything.  Sara got this great Swirlies record that she had been trying to find forever, and I picked up what I consider to be my greatest find so far: a live flaming lips video from 1993!  At this point, it must be noted that our cash reserves were dwindling, so every purchase had to count.  I could have easily spent a few hundred bucks there.  If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend a trip to Interzone and Uncle Hungry's.  You will not be disappointed.

Anyway, about the show.  It was at the Interzone with this local band called the Adequits.  Since we were playing a coffeehouse, the whole thing started pretty early (around 7:00 p.m.)  Man, it was such a good time!  The Adequits rocked out in early 80’s punk fashion, and were so neat and fun to watch it was amazing.  I guess that the whole town turned out. There were folks there with their kids, a mime, a street artist, punk kids bored and looking for something to do… and we rocked out.  It was such a blast; Sara even got up and sang when we did a Pin-Downs cover.  The whole night ended in chaos and jubilation.  That’s my favorite way to end.

I hate to get too philosophical here, but the whole experience helped me come to a neat revelation about the indie rock scene.  You know, I go to a million different types of shows, and I like to keep my eyes on all different types of scenes, but man, nothing beats indie rock for community.  Every place that we’ve been so far has been so amazing in the fact that the people come out and are so friendly, they dance and clap and yell and have really made us feel welcome so far.  And there is no idol worship.  When we played in San Francisco, superstars like Laura Watling and the Cave Ins were right down front, rocking out.  And when the shows were over, we talked and traded singles and just had a great time. (Sniff!)  God bless indie rock!

Anyway, when we got back to Bill’s house, we were so pooped that we just got some beer, set up our tents, sat on the porch and talked until we retired, sleeping soundly, breathing in the northwest air.

Day six.  With Corvallis and the awesome breakfast Iris made for us in our hearts and tummies, we headed north for our big show in Seattle.  Well, it wasn’t really going to be a BIG show, but we had booked a gig at this really cool record store called The Eye and Ear Control.  It was another early show, so we had to bust a move and put some miles between us in a short amount of time.  We moved out.

Man, is the northwest great or what?  It seemed like every town that we passed through held some sort of indie rock myth.  We were spellbound.  Olympia, home of KAOS radio and K records, Tacoma, home of Girl Trouble…  We even took a picture of the famous "Sleater-Kinney" exit somewhere (I think Tacoma) along the way.  BUT, we had to get to the show!  We got there a couple of hours before we were supposed to go on, so we ate and did a little browsing, and met "My Little Brother," the guys that we were playing with not only today but also at the pop fest in Portland.  In case you don’t know, one of the main guys from this band is the little brother of Andrew, the lead singer from the Kissing Book, and he’s just the craziest but coolest guy in the world.  My first introduction was when he came up to me with a crayon covered drum and asked me how to put his it together.  "How do these drums work?" From that point onward, I knew that it was rockin’ time.

My Little Brother played first.  Silly and sad and completely infectious, Josh and his crew raged for about a half an hour, even breaking out a banjo for a few songs.  We were super impressed, and looking more and more forward to the upcoming pop fest, which was kinda the main reason that we came on this tour in the first place.  And then we got down to business.  It was a little weird at first, just because we were playing on a linoleum floor and my drums kept flying all over the place, but we settled down and rocked out while people shopped and looked on.  I’ve always liked seeing bands at record stores, getting to look through the selections and listen to some good music at the same time, and this show was neat and weird and lots of fun.  The managers of the place were super cool, too, and took a group picture for posterity.  We also met (Chris), the guy who does Indie Pages on the web, and he was really nice and told us about some fun things to do, what bands to look out for, and generally made us feel welcome in this great city.  It was a lot of fun.

Man, Sara came through for us today.  Her friends Jason and Heather welcomed us with open arms, and invited us to stay the night at their house.  It was great.  We went out for pizza, drank at some bars and had a much needed night of fun and rockin’ out.  The funniest thing happened, too. Just as we were bedded down and drifting off to sleep, the phone rang. When the answering machine picked up, it was Brian Woodard, manager of the Cricket on the Hill, calling from the bar to tell Jason and Heather that we were in town: (muffled noise) "Hello? Hey guys, this is Brian. SARA, Sara is in town!  She’s.." The phone hangs up.  It rings again.  "Hey guys, Sara’s in town…look for the MAYBELLINES, THE MAYBELLINES…"  Muffled bar sounds, the phone disconnects and we drift off to sleep.

The BIG SHOW!  I figured that I would write my diary for both of these days in the same sitting, so that I could relay all of the info at once.  We woke up at 8:00 or so, and after doing laundry, washing cars, etc., we headed out for the big pop fest in Portland.  Officially titled "The New Modern Popfest," it was going to be an international showcase of indie music.  It was happening at this all-ages club called Meow Meow, and we couldn’t wait to get there.  Once again, James’ old buddies were providing the accommodations, and upon meeting Brian and Joan, I knew that we were in good hands.  The house was amazing, and we got to meet their three doggies, who were very excited to see us, too.  We spent a few hours getting cleaned up, and then ate and got ready for the show.  There was some boring stuff to do, like fixing amps and putting on strings and stuff, but I won’t go into too much detail about that.  Let’s talk about the shows.

Meow Meow is located on the other side of the river from downtown, next to this really cool and small middle eastern restaurant.  It’s almost like it’s in a warehouse district, spacious and vacant compared to the bustling urban areas of Portland.  It’s cool, and the venue is almost like a clubhouse, complete with a cooling off room which had pinball and punk rock bartenders.  They didn’t serve alcohol, but had an impressive array of slushies, freezie-pops, candy, and other items to make this one sweet show.  The first night was awesome.  From Bubblegum to Sky was the first band, and although I didn’t get there in time to see them, my cohorts assured me that they rocked the house.  Apparently they use a variety of tape loops and video when they play, and after hearing a description of the set, I was super bummed.  But no time for that!  It was time to start rockin’ eighties style with My Favorite.  I had heard of them a couple years ago when I got the Pop American Style compilation and discovered "Go Kid Go," and when they opened with it, I knew that it was gonna be a hot time.  It was.  Next up was the incredibly cute and cool Three Berry Ice Cream, who had come all the way from Japan to play.  They were great.  They kind of reminded me of a more full-sounding Marine Girls, their songs were melancholy but sweet and kind of jazzy too.  The lead singer had a beautiful voice, and they had all kinds of instruments like violins and accordions to compliment their sound.  It was really beautiful.  After TBIC, the final band was the Fairways, who are super popular right now.  I can see why.  Their stuff sounds a lot like early Sarah Records stuff, and anybody who likes this stuff (like me) should definitely check them out.  They were amazing, and we all went to sleep this night, humming their songs, ready for the big day.

Although we had a big show the next day, it didn’t hinder us from shopping and sight-seeing in the beautiful town of Portland.  We woke and hit the streets, going to places like Ozone records, the community thrift shops, and this really cool fanzine/comic book store where Sara and Dave and me spent a few hours pouring over all the cool stuff.  We met at around 5:00 p.m., and headed to the club.

Man, I forgot to tell you about the "legion of fans."  Besides our normal entourage, a bunch of friends come down to see the show.  The ones that really impressed me were our friends Josh and Julie from Denver, who came out in style to rock out, and Julie’s friend Eric, who was even wearing one of our first band t-shirts!  We were poised and ready to have some fun.

And fun it was.  All of the bands were using my drum set, so we put blank paper on the bass drum head, and each band got to make a little marquee when they played.  The first band was the aforementioned My Little Brother, who sounded just as sweet as in Seattle, and were in full rock mode for their set.  It ended up in a freakout sing-a-long in which Kissing Book Andrew jumped on his brother and they wrestled to the end of a great set.  The second band was the fabulous Dear Nora, our buddies who set up the show.  Man, if there’s one band that you should check out, this is it.  They’ve got a single out on Magic Marker, and I bet that I’ve listened to it a billion times and I still can’t get enough.  They sounded incredible!  Look out for this group, because I think that they are destined for stardom.  Next was us.  Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that before we played we bought some beer and drank it in the car, totally high school style.  Can you imagine it?  About ten people, crammed into a brand new minivan, blasting music and clinking beer bottles in the Portland night.  Then we got up on stage.  We rocked pretty hard even though we were a little nervous about playing something so cool.  The beer definitely helped in that area.  It was a lot of fun.  We even got a request for an encore, even though I suspect it was from our "legion of fans."  Oh well.  The final band was Tullycraft, who used to be this band called Crayon, who I really liked a lot.  They didn’t disappoint us.  We rocked and danced and I even kept their marquee on my drum when I packed it up. It was too cool.

So, that was it, a great night and a great pop fest, and with one show to go we are feelin’ pretty good. My last memory of Portland on this night will always be when we took off to go sleep and it started raining, and Josh of My Little Brother went off running and screaming in the night. What a nut.

SLC!  Salt Lake City!  With this being our last show, and with the strains of life on the road starting to show, we all wanted this to be fun and rockin’ so that we could end on a good note.  We busted out of Portland the night before, and drove like maniacs until we finally crashed out at a rest stop at 4:00 a.m.  We woke up to a bustling little scene a few hours later, and got to driving again.  It was pretty grueling, and to be quite honest, I couldn’t probably describe Idaho if I was at gunpoint, although I do seem to remember stopping at this crazy grocery store and playing pinball with a gumball instead of the regular silver ball.  Was it a dream?  I guess that I’ll never know.

We got into SLC at around 8:00 p.m.  After getting a hotel room, and Sara taking off to visit her grandparents, we left for the club.  It was originally set up to be at this place called Kilby Court, but due to the Utah cops being so mean, it got changed to "Burt’s Tiki Lounge."  I know, I know, sounds pretty cheesy, but it was actually really cool.  They had a thatch ceiling and bamboo everywhere, but blasted rockin’ PUNK ROCK throughout the joint.  And they treated us like kings.  Free drinks all around while we watched the Jenni Jensons, local indie heroes, work the crowd.  They were great.  The drummer has the coolest drum set, too.  We had seen them in Denver before, so we rocked out and nodded our heads and jumped up and down for the whole set.  And then it was our turn.  We had decided not to make a set list just to make it a little spontaneous, so it took us a few seconds to get going, but when we did it was so much fun!  The crowd was pretty into it, and we joked and rocked and drank all night long.  Someone even asked for an encore, too.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel, winding our way through the construction zones and numbered streets, drifting off to the sound of air conditioning, all dreaming of our beds just a few miles away in Denver.

Well, you probably guessed it, we drove all day until we got to Denver, and then we broke up the group and all went to our homes to get back to our normal lives.  Nothing really too spectacular happened, the main event was eating at Subway for lunch.  They had some special kind of bread, I remember.

Thinking back upon this tour, and the diary in general, there are lots of things that I left out: getting separated and lost on the way to Portland, making a rest stop at this stink pit in California, buying more olives, seeing UFOs, going to oxygen bars, you name it.  There wouldn’t be enough room even in my computer to tell you all of this stuff.  But ask us when you see us, and we’ll spill our guts with more stories than you’ll probably ever want to know.  Until then, keep your head in the clouds, and keep reaching for the stars.