Harlem Shakes w/ Deerhoof
Diary #4

Hey Internets. As we get into the heart of our journey, it’s time we took care of some of the crew. No account of this tour would be complete without mentioning Peter Venuto’s glorious Electronic Rainbow Machine (ERM). Finally, someone has created the thinking man’s pyrotechnics. Each night we watch Deerhoof perform in front of this five-foot diameter circular rainbow, pulsing in time to the music.

It’s an incredible contraption—a three-pronged windmill with multicolored lights on each tab. When the windmill spins, it creates a sentient wall of color that whooshes, spins, and twitches—a perfect complement to Deerhoof’s cheerful paroxysms. His machine is the way we imagine the inside of Deerhoof’s collective band brain might look like.

And then there’s Peter Venuto himself, the friendly longhaired Canadian who operates the ERM live each night. (He got the idea for the rainbow machine, apparently, from early-computer-style player piano reels, and, not surprisingly, Las Fucking Vegas!) Crouched next to the band, wearing striped velvet pants and a zip-up sweatshirt with a tank-top underneath, Peter runs his fingers over a little pad of buttons that triggers the machine’s many subtle functions.

Deerhoof first befriended Peter after they witnessed his “trashlights”—trashcan lids outfitted 250 tiny LED lights that create an undulating, similarly colorful effect—and now he’s part of our big touring family, showing up at every gig with his magical windmill.

The crowd in Tampa Bay—where neither our new tourmate Busdriver, nor us, nor Deerhoof has ever been—was one of the tour’s absolute best. A fan built a purple rubber dinosaur for Deerhoof and gave it to Satomi who beamed with gratitude.

Last night we slept in a motel in Orlando that had a special rate for serial killers. We wistfully recalled the days when four-on-the-floor meant a dance-punk beat, not a sleeping arrangement. We woke up, and more than half the band (Jose, Todd, Kendrick) went to Disney World to protest Disney’s conservative politics and ride totally fucking awesome roller coasters. Lexy and Brent sought quiet places in which to hear the inside of their heads for the first time in many, many days.

Love for now,

—Harlem Shakes

Harlem Shakes w/ Deerhoof
Diary #3

We’re now four days into tour—four shows, four cities, four venues, and what feels like a thousand hours in Thevandra. A pattern is
developing. First, we drive all day:

Then, we arrive at a venue, load equipment into the club, soundcheck (if time and tattooed men permit), and find food.  Then, we play our set:

Once we’re off, we lose our shit over Deerhoof’s set, talk to strangers, pressure strangers into buying our t-shirts, frown, and move the blasted equipment into the goddamn van. Then we complain, drive to some kind person’s home (last night we literally begged the audience to find us somewhere to stay—this desperate tactic worked shockingly well and we stayed with a nice girl named Whitney), tell jokes and confide in each other, and sleep on the floor. Then we repeat.

The repetition is strangely liberating. Playing the same songs every night removes some of the usual “something to prove” anxiety. Empowered by this monotony, we’ve been performing with the same fearless spirit with which we check our email or go to the movies. Though we’re feeling progressively more comfortable on stage, we haven’t grown accustomed to how big these venues are, and how receptive and fun Deerhoof’s fans are. It’s still so exciting.

Deerhoof, as people, are so kind and warm that you find yourself being less cruel and condescending as a result of their influence. Watching Deerhoof perform, too, has been educational. They have so many qualities that we aspire to have—overflowing creativity, beautiful/creepy moods, the ability to be both challenging and accessible without sacrificing the integrity of either—that seeing them slay each night feels like both a kick-ass rock show and a study session.

Last night’s show, at Cumberland’s, a cavernous, dive-y venue in Charleston, SC, was brimming with college students, some throwing bottles, some throwing up. They crowd-surfed during our song, “Felt Wings,” which was funny because that song is particularly moody, and, for us at least, “chill.” But the show was as fun as our dinner at Hominy Grille, which is saying a lot.

We’d wanted to see the Confederate Museum and the Haunted Prison but we ended up sleeping late the next day. We’re currently on route to Columbia, SC. Dear internet, if this is a dream then I don’t want to wake up. More Monday…

Love,

—Harlem Shakes

Harlem Shakes w/ Deerhoof
Diary #2

On Tuesday, North Carolina—land of Blackbeard, Michael Jordan, and prose-master Allan Gurganus—welcomed us with open arms. After a satisfying set at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, we said goodbye to our bearded, Ashkenazi guardian angel, Jon Natchez from the band Beirut, who had been playing bari sax, French horn, and flute for us. After the show, our friend Daniel from 8088 Record Collective kindly lent us his floor.

We met his neurotic timberwolf, Treebeard. Daniel told us: “I swear, the wolf is more afraid of you than you are of it!” We tried to tell the animal, “dude, you’re the wolf here, we should be afraid of you—in fact, we’re totally goddamn terrified of you! Oh my god! Oh Jesus Christ! It’s a wolf!!”

But, ultimately, the wolf turned out to be adorable, non-homicidal, and almost embarrassingly shy. No one made a joke about bands with wolf names.

Then we went to Asheville, NC and played at the glorious Grey Eagle, a former motorcycle-repair shop that serves alligator meat, among other cajun treats.

What a town! Asheville is famous for its hippie culture, but only several hundred of the people we met were wearing ponchos and had gray ponytails to their waists.

At our lovely hosts’ house, it was art night—everyone had to make something. We asked if tour-blogging counted as an art; we then sat in a dense haze of silence until Kendrick remembered that, back in NC, he had peed outside and spotted the wolf watching several feet away. A muted, cough-like scream sprang from his lips. The rest of the night we danced ecstatically with our hosts to Petula Clark, “Heat Wave,”
“Got to Give it Up (part one),” and a remix of a remix of remix of a pirated dub-version of “Galang.” Asheville, you brought us such joy!
We will surely return!

Onward, Thevandra!!

Adieu!

HARLEM SHAKES

p.s. check our myspace for a one-act play written by our host Katie Fuller about the unspoken spiritual understanding between Lexy and Treebeard.

—Harlem Shakes

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,

—Harlem Shakes

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.

On Halloween we played in Baton Rouge.  I have amazing photos of John D in a Batman costume, but I swore I wouldn’t post them. So, here’s a pic of me (who didn’t dress up) and Matt Sutton (guitar) as “Old Man Boogie.”

Another big highlight was Sarasota, FL. I went to high schoool in the next town over—Bradenton—so it was pretty cool to play at New College in Sarasota.  My parents came to the show and we totally rocked their socks off. This was also the first night that Jon Langmead played drums with the Mountain Goats.  He played on the last 2 songs of the night: “See America Right” and “Houseguest.”

Here’s a photo of them getting down with Jon Darnielle pointing right at me because he saw me jumping around in the audience, taking pictures like a maniac. He had just broken a string because they were rocking so hard.

The last show of the tour (for us) was in Columbia, South Carolina. It was my birthday and one of the best shows I think I’ve ever played. It was certainly one of the most fun.

We had some cake, goofed off and watched Animal House backstage before the show.

Right after we finished playing, we got in the van and drove overnight (well,to be fair, Jon and Matt did most of the driving), so that I could be back to sing with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Patti Smith at the Bob Dylan tribute at Lincoln Center.

I was too scared to take out my camera and take pictures this night (I don’t know why because every one else was), but it was a truly mind-blowing experience, one I won’t soon forget.

Now, I’m back home in Brooklyn, NY trying to adjust to life outside the van—getting ready for the holidays, writing some new songs, preparing for the next round of touring (with Kevin Devine in late Jan/Feb), and of course, taking pictures of myself wearing my new winter hat in my living room.

Love and happy holidays!

—Jennifer O’Connor

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:

Next we played in Norman, Oklahoma where we had amazing mexican food. The Opolis had the best hand stamps of any place I’ve ever played. Check it out:

The following day brought a long drive down to Lubbock, Texas where we saw some amazing countryside and a tumbleweed actually rolled right past us on the highway.  This was probably the most deserted place I’d ever been in my whole life.  It was pretty amazing:

Once in Lubbock, we had a mission. Jon Langmead, my awesome drummer, is a really big Buddy Holly fan. As you may or may not know, Buddy was from Lubbock, so Jon wanted to find something related to the man and he’d heard about a statue. We had to find it. It took a while and lots of stopping people on the street, but find it we did:

Next was Denton, and I really felt this was our best show of the tour so far. It was packed, and the crowd was awesome. We met the dudes from the Baptist Generals, a group that Mr. Darnielle is good friends with.  They were super awesome and I hope to see them again really soon. Here’s our set list for the night, a pic of John and I, and an awesome pic of Arabella in front of the no drugs sign out back. Lots of pictures this night.

I’ll do another update in the next couple of days to bring you up to date. We are on our way to Birmingham Alabama today. More miles, more miles, more miles.

Love,
JO’C

—Jennifer O'Connor