Day  : Austin, TX
 | Hello dear reader and welcome to Austin, the closest place to home that we've seen this trip! As far as we can tell, everything that people say about this town is true- really energetic people, tons of great music, art and food, and HOT!
After our set at Kid Genius yesterday, a woman approached us and said, "You know, I knew y'all warnt from around here when I saw the jeans. Nobody in Austin warrs jeans!"
It was either the jeans or the pools of sweat that had puddled beneath each of us... if 70% of the human body is water, we each now weigh about 45 pounds. |
| After fifteen and a half hours on the road to get to Austin, our first stop was another strange hotel, complete with a whole other host of idiosyncrasies. We were promised that the hotels in Texas woud have waffle irons in the shape of Texas, but no such luck. We were, on the other hand, treated to a perfectly placed tomato slice in the hallway outside our room. This is good because after as many hotels as we've seen, the room numbers are getting harder to remember. Little pieces of sandwich geography really help in a strange town, but even these get confusing. Is our Austin hotel the one with the tomato in the hall or the mayonaise packet in the elevator? |  |
 | We got a recommendation from the concierge to try out a great Mexican restaurant in town called Polvos that totally dominated. An industrial-sized bowl of queso was the prelude to one of our top three meals. You should ignore the margarita pitcher. Kids' band.
Next up we walked two miles in 95 degree heat to check out the epicenter of music on sixth street. It really is an amazing sight to see- block after block of bars of every conceivable theme, all packed with live musicians.
We're pretty sure we're coming back here in March. Such a great town! |
We played a free show at the Austin Children's Museum this morning, a cool space that reminds us of home. Kids were excited and you could almost hear us above the din of musical activites next door. The coolest activity was a set of three electromagnetic gongs that produce eery overtones when you press a touch screen on the floor below. As seems to be the case everywhere in Austin, the Museum people were friendly and welcoming. Super fun show!
Drew spent some time with traffic cones in his ears afterward. Apparently they help with the southern accent that we're all picking up. |  |
 | Southern Daron's subconscious but unmistakable Texan accent continues to entertain his bandmates on the road. You'd uh thunk he was a native Tixin, ordern' Jalitos at DQ. He claims that it's because he's from Indiana but we all know it's because he's an empath.
On a related note, Drew picked up $3 in winnings from the band by agreeing to speak to his wife with an uninterrupted Texan accent somewhere near Fort McKavett. Apparently Jessica managed to keep up the accent on her end too, meaning Texas has now reached pandemic levels. No idea how she got through it, but it made for an intersting hybrid of Texas and Pennsylvania in the car. Sort of like a British actor trying to do a New York accent. |
 | We want to take this opportunity to send a big thank you to Elizabeth Waldman Frazier, the unbelievably energetic San Francisco publicist that we've had the good fortune to work with for the last three months. We named a street after her inside the Tabby Road digipak jacket and were astonished to find that her street runs from Monkey Town all the way to Austin's City Limits. It shouldn't be a surprise- we have a feeling we're not the first band that she has helped here :) Elizabeth, we owe you so much! Thank you for everything you've done for us and Tabby Road!
Since this photo is in portrait layout, it means we have a few extra lines of text to go, so let's catalog some more road oddities:
Apparently at DQ in the south, employees are required to hold freshly-milled Blizzards upside down, I guess as some proof of their quality?
The words "fixin" and "right quick" are but two of many shortcut words to achieving a Texas accent. We've also gotten a lot of mileage out of "ornery," "rascal" and "varment" too.
We've seen seven Taxidermy businesses in the last thirty miles. |
And now, another installment of
Dear Maymo,
concerning creating one's own road entertainment.
Dear Maymo,
I have bravely volunteered to drive my band from Austin to Arizona and they have reciprocated by sleeping nearly the entire time, violating our band rule about at least one passenger being awake to provide entertainment en route. What can I do to stay sharp?
Kindly,
Lucid in Laramie
Dear Lucid,
Look at the bright side: at least they aren't talking in fake Texas accents!
If you're tired of music, there are plenty of books on tape available for just such occassions, but I suggest you get a little bit more grass roots! Start by looking off in the distance for a point of interest. Then look at your odometer and keep track of how many miles it takes to reach said point. Then try to beat your record!
When this loses its novelty, use a bandmate's iPhone to take embarassing photos of them mid-REM sleep. Though not immediately valuable, these pictures will be worth money when Drew wants them off of the internet!
I hope these ideas keep you bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Fondly,
Mayor Monkey
Recess Monkey's Band Manager | 
 |
 | More dispatches from the road:
We saw a wild Jackalope! And YOU thought that they were just a semi-funny bit of comedy that Dave Coulier invented. Nope- we saw them! They look like poorly photoshopped groundhogs with deer antlers superimposed in real life too! They're also pixelated in real life, something that we didn't know was possible.
More: Western Texas, though unforgivably long, is beautiful. It even makes the backseat window in the Element seem like a million-dollar view (don't tell MayMo).
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 | At left is the mammoth lone star that shines on a hill beside El Paso. Texans take their statehood very, very seriously we've learned.
We're pushing to the edge of New Mexico this evening, to a place called Lordsburg. Rest assured, we've already worked through the House of Lords material. The interwebs state that this town was one of the rare places in the inand southwest whose hotels would admit African Americans pre-civil rights movement.
That, alone, was enough of a reason for us to stay there.
(Then we read that there is a real live ghost town two miles away. BONUS!)
Tomorrow we hook up with the good Stefan Shepherd in Phoenix and rock out at Modified Arts. We're pumped!PREVIOUS || NEXT |
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