Harlem Shakes Tour Diary, Entry #1

Hey there. Not too long ago, we received word that we, Harlem Shakes, would be going on our very first tour with one of favorite-ever bands, Deerhoof. Since then, we have been on a 24/7 giggle binge, smiling and rambling to our friends like drug addicts pre-death, or maybe leprechauns post-mischief.

Todd (guitar) got a tattoo and Lexy (vocals) had a relapse of mononucleosis, but on Sunday February 11th, we set out in our van that we have named “Thevandra Vanhard,” to our nation’s capital, and played at a beautiful venue called the Black Cat. A nice, Black Cat-affiliated fellow named Matt helped us with our equipment, which was funny because usually people treat us with shoe-spitting disgust.

Then we watched Deerhoof soundcheck. In truth, we would have driven to DC just to see them. Instead, we opened for them. We also set up our very first merch table (up until now, we’ve never even had a CD or anything, and now we not only have CDs, but also pins and tee-shirts… like the Stones!). We played well, and met nice people afterwards, kind and attractive DCiopians. We went away from the evening feeling like the luckiest musicians since Duncan Sheik. Tour is awesome! More to come, including pictures, on Wednesday. Goodbye for now internet.

Love,

Jennifer O’Connor Tour Diary, Entry #4
Friday, December 1, 2006

I’ve been home from the Portastatic and Mountain Goats tours for about 2 weeks now, and I never did tell you how the rest of the tour went.  I’m sorry.

When I left off we were on our way to Austin.  The Austin show was really great, but even more importantly, we ate BBQ the afternoon after we played with Sally Crewe.

Jennifer O’Connor Tour Diary, Entry #3
Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Hello! It’s been almost a week since my last confession. We left off in Missouri, I believe, where we played the Randy Bacon Gallery. They were super sweet there and I especially liked the poster display outside the club on the sandwich board:

Jennifer O’Connor Tour Diary, Entry #2
Monday, October 23, 2006

Jennifer O’Connor

We’re in St. Louis, Missouri and this is our first night with the Mountain Goats. We just finished playing to a packed room of college kiddies here at The Gargoyle at Washington University.

But let me back up. When I left you last, we were in a pumpkin patch. And let me introduce you to Matt Sutton (on guitar) and Arabella Kauffmann (on bass). Here’s a pic of them driving us away from the pumpkin patch which you can see reflected off the driver side window:

Jennifer O’Connor Tour Diary, Entry #1
Wed, Oct 18, 2006

Jennifer O’Connor

Hello People! Welcome to the Jennifer O’Connor Tour Diary written by me, Jennifer O’Connor.

I just put out a new album a couple of months ago on Matador Records called Over the Mountain, Across the Valley and Back to the Stars and I’m in the midst of some major full-band tour action — in September I was with Mason Jennings, right now I’m with Portastatic, and soon I’ll join Mountain Goats.