So nice to be back home in our own beds! The homecoming show at Hotel Utah was nothing short of spectacular, with our friends Coyote Girl, Not an Airplane and Vandella turning in stellar performances. We were a bit punch-drunk, but the cheers and hollers from the crowd kept us going.
We’ve got some video on the way from the Utah show, but for now, please enjoy this slideshow of sorts, set to My Town Is Underwater as recorded live at the Echo Curio back in LA:
We’d like to thank all those who gave us a floor or couch to sleep on, bought a CD, made long treks to catch our set, or simply took some time to give us a listen. You can peruse all of our updates from the road here. Here’s a few silly stats that we’ve gathered from the tour:
What’s next for The Shants you ask? Well, we will be supporting rising Americana star Eilen Jewell on Sept 14 at Cafe Du Nord (you may have heard her on HBO’s True Blood). Then, we shall spend the Fall months recording our debut, full length album at Tones on Tail in Oakland.
We left SLO in a dang hurry, eager to beat the infamous LA traffic. Turns out we had little to worry about… we seemed to deftly avoid any highway entanglements the entire day. Got to Adam’s parents’ house in the valley just in time for snacks, a long swim, and a bit of hot-tubbin’. Adam’s mom whipped up a welcoming meal for us (with actual vegetables, something we’d being sorely missing on the road). Refreshed and recharged, we hopped the ridge for the city.
Again, no traffic. We got to the Echo Curio an hour earlier than expected. We wandered the neighborhood in search of coffee. The other bands (Ricky, Evan and Dead Flowers) began to trickle in, as we wet up our gear and did a brief soundcheck. The Curio was awfully small, but has loads of charm and a strong sense of community and innovation. The proprieters have been nothing but helpful and communicative, which is refreshing.
Ricky played a brief set, regaling us with tales of his travels. Dead Flowers put on a wonderful, well-textured set (a mix of Mazzy Star, Cowboy Junkies, and good ol’ fashioned coolness). We tore through our songs pretty quickly, and ignored the monitor issues. We dedicated a song to Adam’s folks, who stuck through most of the evening to catch our set. Unbeknownst to us, the Echo Curio folks have a sweet live recording set up, and provided us with our full set on CD after the show… pretty sweet! We’ll be sure to post a song from it, maybe a video. Evan and his pals were up next, with their first show with a set of California folk sunshine. The rhythm section had never met before that night… pretty damned impressive. All told, it was a glorious, warm evening… with perfect weather, and plenty of new friends made.
Afterwards, most of the crowd went to an afterparty at Julie & Voula’s house nearby, which is where we crashed for a few hours. Rose bright & early at 5am to make the trek back to the Bay. We’re feeling salty, and ready to blow the doors off the Hotel Utah tonight.
We’ve spent the last two day in the San Luis Obispo area, connecting with old friends & family, and playing some music here and there. The show at Last Stage West in Atascadero was a bit off, but a few friendly faces came out and danced a bit.
Afterwards we drove out to a cattle ranch outside Cayucos to stay with Carver’s pals Jamie & Jared, right across from lots of cows, horses, and of course chickens. This makes our Accommodations With Chickens On Premises Ratio to 90%. Thursday morning, we stopped in Morro Bay for a swell breakfast at Kitty’s, then took a brief walk by the bay.
Next, we headed into San Luis Obispo to take a tour of the National factory. Definitely one of the highlights of this tour. We got see the production of these fine resonator guitars from raw wood & steel to finished prototypes, such as this experimental steel resonator with a humbucker pickup installed… the gentleman explaining the pick up mounting is none other than owner Don Young:
Next we headed down to Boo Boo Records for a brief in-store performance to a few kind folks. Tried out a few new songs, and sold a few cds. We also got to pick one free used cd from their racks. The farmers’ market was going pretty strong by this point, with thousands of people out on the street. Carver stopped by the Frog & Peach, and chatted up the bartenders to see about letting us onto the empty stage to entertain the very full bar. They agreed, as long as we ran our own sound and play a stripped down set. We set up quickly, then tore through some of our more upbeat numbers for the rowdy crowd. Soon our guitar case filled up with cash from sold cds and cheerful revelers… enough to pay for half a tank of gas, for which we were very thankful!
Crashed at The Establishment, a co-op in the Railroad District of SLO where Jack Kerouac rented a room for several months around 1953 while he worked on the Southern Pacific line, just before finishing The Dharma Bums. Back then it was a hotel/boarding house called The Colonial. Lots of friendly folks, and a really pleasant cat named Elwood.
Many thanks to Diana & Jamie for taking care of us in the Central Coast! Friday will be a surely epic LA show, then a sweet homecoming gig at the Hotel Utah in SF. We’re growing weary of our sleeping bags and peanut butter sandwiches…
Due to some schedule changes (and Adam attempting to recover his lost sleeping bag) we decided to spend our day off in Chico. Conveniently, the abnormally cool California summer decided to redeem itself by blasting all valley towns with 100+ degree heat. We spent most of the day doing this:
this:
this:
… and of course, quite a bit of this:
On our way to Atascadero. We are more than excited to play a famous roadside BBQ joint, Last Stage West. Tonight, we’ll be sleeping at a friend’s cattle ranch. Thursday we’ll likely hit the beach before our in-store at Boo Boo Records in SLO.
Woke up to some truly beautiful summer weather in Salem, scored coffee and wireless internet for a spell, then hit the road again for Medford. As Carver & Adam devastated each other in Soul Caliber (Flo is equipped with a Playstation), we chugged down I-5, kinda skeptical of what a Monday night in Medford would be like. On the way, we checked out this sweet historic covered bridge over Grave Creek:
We were also amazed to witness, well, probably the cutest thing anyone has ever seen ever:
Medford was pretty dang hot, and filled with lots of cheap motels. We swung around the back of Musichead, then record store & all ages venue. There’s an epic mural on the building of music greats. We loaded in and met owner/Buzzard Song frontman Eric. Openers Crimson Experience came in, it would be their debut show. Both bands were totally rocking, and the space started to fill up nicely.
Lots of smiling new faces, and shared stories. We browsed the racks between bands, and Skip picked up a nice Son House collection. Our set went by pretty fast, and folks seemed really into it. We sold way more CDs than we expected, and are now halfway to paying off the van, which is nice. Eric & his wife put us up in their lovely guesthouse apartment, with 2 beds, wireless, and a fridge full of beer. We have truly been blessed in our accommodations on this tour.
Tomorrow is our day off, which will likely be filled with driving, laundry, phone calls, and probably some busking. Ever onward!
Thankfully Salem was is just 45 minutes from Portland, as we have already started to loathe the van, as comfortable and well appointed as Flo is. We arrived on time at The Space, the only band to do so, which was a source of consternation for the promoter, kindly Andy, as The Space has been saddled with guff from the local police for noise ordinance violations…. the show had to end by 10pm. Maggie Morris’ new jam YOUTH opened the night, with some really great raw, noisy pop. As we were setting up, we realized The Space’s stage was somewhat bouncy - the microphones kept tottering back & forth like a drunken David Hasselhoff. Locals Kopath Bear barreled ahead after us, with a hard-workin’ set of folk rock. These guys are a new band, but they’ve already got a distinctive, earthen sound - each band member juggling guitar, piano, mandolin and god knows what else. La Playa wrapped up the night triumphantly on the floor of the bar, as evidenced here in their last song, Ti Pouce:
Many thanks to Andy at For the Youth for working tirelessly to pull the whole thing together. We crashed at Kopath Bear headquarters, a bright yellow fortress in the hills outside Salem. Chef Reuben treated us to some excellent italian sausage burritos. Fell asleep watching some show about black holes, intensely narrated by Morgan Freeman.
Portland pretty much ruled. We figure its all downhill from here. After a seemingly endless drive from Chico, we puttered into Portland and headed right for the Doug Fir’s parking garage (Yes!) and started hauling gear onto the stage. The staff at Doug Fir are all helpful, friendly and un-jaded folks, which is rare in this business. Our High Scores & Records crew was in full effect, with Devin Gallagher (Ghosties, Typhoon, head of High Scores & Records) & Sean Archer (Sweeping Exits). We got a sneak peek of their new project, La Playa.
As we were heading upstairs to sample some of Doug Fir’s excellent food (chipotle pork skewers, mmmmm), Adam was surprised by his wife, who had driven up 10 hours from Berkeley! That’s love, folks. La Playa kicked things off, as people started to file in. Lots of old friends, new friends we have made on the road, and even a few famous faces. Our set was damn good… Someone set 4 shots of whiskey to the stage (up from the 3 shots we earned in Chico). Carver’s old pal Megan Dutra (Night Jerks, Dedications, Cuspidor) joined us for a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, and she was certainly a much better Stevie Nicks than Skip. There was a celebratory feeling throughout the night. The Tumblers got people drinkin’ and dancing, which I imagine happens everywhere they go. We discussed pitting our two pedal steel players against each other in some sort of steel-off for West Coast bragging rights.
We crashed with Skip’s old pal Ross Beach, chatting about lovely Portland and playing with his two cats, Chipper & Jack (Jack was not into it). In the morning, we checked out a lightweight yurt that Ross was building in his backyard for Burning Man. Pretty damn impressive for a city slicker. After wandering downtown a bit with Megan, and selling a few cds at Everyday Music, we said farewell to the City of Roses.
Current van soundtrack: Sharon Jones, Junior Kimborough, Girl Talk
We rolled into Chico just before our old pal Fera was supposed to go on. He & Filthy Luke both put on driving, strident performances in the face of a rowdy dive bar crowd. We were embroiled in a pretty serious shuffleboard match. Somehow, Adam lost his sleeping bag to some sort of ill-advised wager. The Maltese folks were awful nice all around, and the soundperson bought us shots. There was much rejoicing.
Afterwards we hoofed it up into the foothills to Paradise, where we stayed at the Fera farm with all his goats, chickens, emus, and this rotund sweetheart known as Ozzie:
Woke up a bit late… got to Portland for soundcheck an hour late, but more on that night in the next installment!
I-80, in the huge van we rented for the tour, which we have dubbed Flo. The song in the background is Garden of the Four Trees by Juanita Brooks & The Explosions.
Kicking off the tour in Sacramento was a lovely way to start off… 3 excellent songwriters: Erik Hanson & Brianna Lea Pruett in The Foxtails, plus the Not an Airplane boys. Lots of old friends and new faces at the Naked Lounge. Its also nice to visit a place that actually has that thang called “summer”… which we are sorely lacking in the Bay Area this year.
Off to Chico today, and the infamous Maltese Bar. Then, we’re hopping back on the 5 bright & early for the 8 hour trek to Portland for soundcheck at the Doug Fir. Hoping we get to stop at a fruit stand or two as we drive through the orchards outside of Chico.
For now, please enjoy this soul-saving hymn from The Foxtails:
We’re getting pumped to hit the road this week, so preparations are in full effect: changing strings & batteries, dusting off our sleeping bags, emailing old friends to ask for a place to crash… If you can’t make a show, please feel free to invite a friend or two to any of the dates below, just click on the links for the relative Facebook events:
Our Spanish is a bit rusty, but we think we got a really nice mention last week on Buenos Aires music blog, IndieHearts:
“Aquellos que disfruten de las bellas melodías de Wilco serán los que más aprovechen esta nueva sesión de miércoles, de la mano de nuestros amigos de BAMM.tv y de sus invitados The Shants. Oriundos de Oakland, este cuarteto norteamericano nos sorprende con una bella y calma balada, So Strange These Days, que filmaron en los estudios de BAMM recientemente. Las melancólicas notas que The Shants extrae de la guitarra son el esqueleto fundamental de las canciones. Originarios todos del sur de Estados Unidos, era tan solo natural que el estilo americana se filtrara en sus composiciones.” - Read more
“Aquellos que disfruten de las bellas melodías de Wilco serán los que más aprovechen esta nueva sesión de miércoles, de la mano de nuestros amigos de 
