Arrived at LAX in the evening having been finger printed and photographed several times. Got picked up by Luke and Jacob, two great guys from the Dim Mak team. Luke drove us through Beverly Hills and Sunset strip to give us our first taste of LA, and we stopped to have our first taste of proper hamburger. A bit dazed and confused we crashed at the Dim Mak HQ.
Had our first 'Hollywood breakfast' on Sunset Bvld. Pancakes.. very sweet. Spent the day sorting out how to convert the British power on our equipment to American- who said rock n roll was just all fun!! Went for sound check at Cinespace only to find out we weren't gonna get one after all! Headed back to Dim Mak office to chill on the patio with a couple of beers and wait for Steve Aoki and Steve from Imeem.com Had an amazing Japanese meal with Steve and Steve and the biggest bottles of beer any of us had seen. Jet lag was rearing its ugly head.. no more beer!
At Cinespace we watched the first half hour of the new movie 'A Scanner Darkly' then played gig - along with Hourly Radio and Luxury. Gig was great- people dancing. Aoki in other room dj-ing. Peaches celebrating her album release. Then all back to Club Dim Mak for a party till the early hours.
After not much sleep we were off to Warner Brothers. Had a bigger meeting than we were expecting with about 10 Warner Bro employees. All were very nice about album. They let us help ourselves to any albums we wanted from their vaults... We came out with two boxes.Then we met up with a friend for more Japanese food.
Got to soundcheck at Club Moscow at 6pm. The jet lag was reaching its peak and we all felt like shit. Sarah had an interview with Swindle magazine- half way through the interview she found out it was about fashion NOT music. It was a brief interview.
Before the gig we went to the famous Chinese Theatre and saw the hand and foot prints of the movie stars. After a lot of searching Sarah eventually found Marilyns which made her day.
After a bit of ID agro.. they are vvv strict about it in the US- we did gig at Club Moscow. Its a cool looking place - like a gothic castle. We played outside with lots of candles everywhere. Really enjoyed the gig.
Left early for San Francisco. It was a hot 6 hr drive on Route 5. It's a beautiful city. We were playing at Popscene (indie night club). After soundcheck we had a fantastic Italian Meal in North Beach with Roy the soundman and Popscene bar manager Josh. Two bottles of Chianti later we went to a famous bookstore where Alan Ginsberg used to read his work. Got to Popscene at 11.30 for gig. Rockin gig. Everyone dancing. Supposed to crash at a girls house that night but we end up some posh hotel.. result.
We get up and set off to see the sights of San Francisco. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge which was unfortunately completely covered in fog- then off to Haight and Ashbury to look at the shops. Had a famous San Francisco Buritto in the late evening - then head back to Hollywood. Even after 6 hours on the freeway, Luke (on a caffine buzz) takes us up into the Hollywood hills to see the view at 4 in the morning.
No more gigs until Monday but we got photo shoots instead. We went to this kooky little studio/ apartment owned by Jeff Electric with bullet holes through the door. We did two shoots with brilliant photographer Dan Monick for Swindle and Wire B Magazines. He took some shots on the stairs where Laurel and Hardy filmed their famous short 'The Music Box'!!!
Amina had got bitten by some mosquito or flea and the bites had got infected. She had to be taken to a doctor in the end as the infection got so bad it was difficult for her to walk. This made it more difficult to get some of the things we needed to do done. Luckily she had health insurance.
Steve Aoki was dj-ing at the club LAX. So we went down for a bit minus a sick Amina...then we went to a warehouse party but like everything in LA it all closed early. We met up with Steve later at Dim Mak HQ and we stayed up all night drinking vodka Luke had stashed away somewhere.#
Went to Amoeba Music store and got some records. Then drove up the the Hollywood sign for a photo shoot with girl skating magazine _____ and met three lovely girls Liza, Mandy and Ana-Paula. It was hot in the hills but the views were amazing.
We hadn't seen the beach yet so we squeezed into the lovely Heather Pegg's car and drove to a restaurant on the beach for some seafood and Mai-Tai's at Dukes. Got to see the Pacific for the first time and eat really well, and all on the Beatles, thanks guys.
We knew this was going to be a busy day. We have two gigs and a radio show to do. But first we had a photo shoot for Dim Mak clothing line wearing Dim Mak T-shirts with photographer Ronnie and Russ. Luke stood in the road diverting traffic with his arms crossed like some kinda superhero. Then we took a trip to Adidas in Santa Monica and we helped ourselves to lots and lots of clothes which was good as all our old stuff needed a wash. Back in the car and straight to Star Shoes for first soundcheck of the day. This was for the gig we were playing at The Rakes' aftershow party. Then off to the famous Troubadour for the second soundcheck. Very excited at playing at such a historic place. We were first on supporting The Rakes. Had a really good gig. Great crowd. Couldn't stay to see the rest of the show cos we were off to Indie 103.1 radio to perform a couple of songs on Danny Masterson's show 'Feel My Heat' We played 'In My Dreams' and 'Air164' with acoustic guitar. The team there were really nice and we were really happy with our performances.
We got to Star Shoes really late. The place was packed. The keyboards weren't working cos of technical sound guy issues which cut our set in half. The gig was a hot and sweaty and everyone rocked out.
Once again everyone came back to Club Dim Mak till late. Again we did not get to sleep till past six in the morning. Maybe never getting any sleep will help us avoid jet lag when we get back to the UK. We'll have to see...