If you’re on thee old Facebook, here’s the event invite. Please pass it on to other Tucson rockers you may know.

https://www.facebook.com/events/166733813491096/?ref=22

Here’s the fabulous poster Jamie designed.

Not only will we have our album available in super colorful digipak CDs:

But we’ll also have trucker hats and koozies available emblazoned with the Electric Caribou hisself!

If you won’t be around for the show, all of the above will soon be available online so stay tuned, I’ll let you know all the details.

Now we can’t wait for you to hear it! We already got some great reviews to give you a taste:

• Tucson Weekly, by Eric Swedlund
• Zocalo Magazine, by JL Manser

On top of that, excellent local station, KXCI, has made us their Local Pick of the Week and have been playing a track from the album at 3:30 pm each day.

So we’re pretty dang stoked for Saturday. Hope to boogie down with you at the Barrio!

Wouldn’t that make a badass blacklight poster?

We’re getting digipaks made and they’re at the factory as we speak getting pressed and pimped out. The rest of the artwork features bits from The Modeens comics that Jamie published last year. Our friend Michael Serpe of Heathen Call helped make sure all the i’s were dotted and t’s crossed, layout-wise. Can’t wait to see how these turn out!

We’re also getting some merchandise made  – but with a little twist: trucker hats and beer koozies. Here’s a mockup Jamie made:

And if you wanna be the coolest kid in your office, you can grab one of each on May 18th at Barrio Brewery. Impress your boss with a beer wrapped in Electric Caribou!

We still have a few weeks to go – soon KXCI will have promo copies of the CD to play on the air. But in the meantime, here are a couple of tracks we’ve made available on Soundcloud:

Fantasy

Favorite Shoes

Keep on truckin!

cd release party – May 18th at the IPA Room/Barrio Brewing

Those few lucky enough to have attended some rare events in this room know what a kickass space it is: spiral tree sculpture, colored indoor lanterns, ancient Indian doors, mountain views and of course a bar offering signature microbrews from Barrio Brewing Co.

An amazing East Indian door over the stage

Beautiful lights above!

Cozy yet fabulous yet industrial bar. Only in Tucson.

And this will be the setting of our CD release party in a few weeks!

On top of that, we’ll be joined by surf-rock villains Shrimp Chaperone and psychedelic super group Saint Maybe. Folks, it’s gonna be a humdinger of a night for rock n roll so mark those calendars and make those flight arrangements. More details will be rolling out as we get closer so definitely stay tuned.

more album hints: lyrics

Now that we have three songwriters (smokin’ keyboardist and harp player Dave Prival contributed a couple of songs), our tunes are chock full of stories now. I’m not at liberty to reveal whole songs’ worth yet, but here are some completely out-of-context snippets:

Drinking is a full time job and I’m working overtime

I don’t need Swedish caviar

Be your own kinda jellybean

So I pulled a water gun and started shooting.

He’s always knocking on my front door, before too long I can’t take it no more

Riding through the barrio, I see you in every mural

Don’t board that sinking ship.

Kill me now, yeah do us all a favor

Shut up and dance!

Who’s drinking so much? Why was someone driven to water gun use and who keeps knocking on the door? And what’s up with all this dancing? Answers will soon be revealed in the new album (or not).

Next up we’ll be revealing the name of the new album (yes it has a name!) and some of the new artwork being crafted by Jamie right now. Much more soon!

Our much missed friend and fifth Modeen, Fen Ikner, now of Brooklyn, has been bending his vast mental and musical powers to the task of mastering the new (as-yet-unnamed) Modeens album. Still some sonic details to tweak, but hot damn, it’s sounding mighty fine! So when will you fine folks get to hear it? Well, we still have a few steps to go: like naming the album!

But in the meantime, we’ll be leaking a few hints about the album, just to make you go hmmmm?

First up: a list of extra sounds! In addition to the vocals, guitars, keyboards, harmonica and drums you’ve come to know and love from The Modeens, you’ll also get these extra instruments and other sounds AT NO EXTRA CHARGE:

• cowbell
• banjo
• a jet plane
• a lonesome train
• dual saxophones
• beer bottles
• beer cans
• drunken shouting
• scratchy vinyl
• dramatic recitation
• more cowbell

Stay tuned for more hints in the next missive!

Rock n roll stargazing at Sky Bar

Saturday night we’re headed back to the solar-powered, astronomy-themed funtime place known as Sky Bar. There’ll be deep space telescopes, there’ll be monitors of heavenly bodies, and there’ll be some much-talked-about hot toddies (hic).  Oh, and some rock and roll by The Modeens and old soul rock folkers, Laches. Again, this Saturday from 10pm to 1am with no cover. Come on out and boogie down with us on Fourth Ave!

Gig Alerts

March 3rd – We’ll be at Barrio Brewery Company playing the famous annual Tales and Ales Dog Wash benefit starting at noon. Tucson Derby gals are washing your dogs to benefit the Humane Society!

March 16th – Quick heads up, we are finally heading out of town to do a show in Phoenix for the IPO festival in March. If you are in the area, we’d love to meet you.

More info soon. Stay sweet.

Love,
The Modeens

Since it’s a couple of months after the Great Cover Up, I think it’s safe to tell you who we covered (ie, I’ve taken a loooong holiday from posting.) The answer is:

The Pretenders!

Jamie and I have both been a fan of the Pretenders since the 80s – instead of piling bracelets on my arm ala Madonna or teasing my hair up like Tiffany, I dreamed of a cool asymmetrical red leather jacket (okay, I did still tease my bangs – it was the eighties in the suburbs, I have no defense.) It was another rock and roll fantasy to actually play the songs and pretend to be Chrissie Hynde. She is a badass, period. I even got bangs for the occasion. I also moved to rhythm guitar and we pulled in our friend Brian Green to play bass. It was a raucous 20 minute set with Chain Gang, Kid (my absolute favorite song), Watching the Clothes, 2000 Miles (since it was Christmastime) and, of course, Middle of the Road.

Lessons learned: Pretenders songs are a workout! Just twenty minutes left us spent so I can’t imagine how tough it would be to run through a whole concert. Also, the arrangements are stellar – sure they’re rollicking new wave rock, but when you break them down, there’s a lot of complexity and nuance happening. And…again, Chrissie Hynde is a bad ass. The band nailed it – especially Jamie’s blistering guitar and Dave’s scorching harp. It was hot.

Here’s some mementos from the packed house at Club Congress (photos by Tom DiDay and video by Candis DiDay):

Gigs, Gigs, Gigs

The holidays are usually pretty slow, which gives us a much-needed break from the constant stream of clubs and beers. But break time is OVER. We kicked off 2013 with an awesome show at PLUSH in early January with Golden Boots and Hey Bucko. But much more coming around the corner. C’mon down and see us sometime

Sat, Feb 9th * PLUSH * w/ Ghostcow and The Tangelos $5

Sat, Feb 23rd * Sky Bar * w/ LACHES * No cover

Sun, Mar 3rd * Barrio Brewing Company * Dog Wash Benefit: Tails and Ales – Benefit for the Humane Society – Local roller derby queens wash the dogs and we provide the soundtrack  No cover

Sat, Mar 16th * Sail Inn in Tempe * International Pop Overthrow Festival

Stay thirsty, my friends

Cristina Modeena

Great Cover Up 2012

If you’re in Tucson next week, do yourself a favor and check out the Great Cover Up showcases. A fundraising benefiting a local musician’s healthcare organization, this is one of the biggest local music events of the year. For good reason: a huge percentage of local bands work and sweat to do justice to 20 minutes of an amazing band. This will be our third time doing this show and it’s always great fun AND a valuable learning experience. We’re supposed to keep mum about which band we’re covering though I’m DYING to tell you. It’s really really cool. I’ve dropped one hint – it starts with “The”. Okay, not much help. I will drop another. This band was really big in the late seventies/early eighties. Nope, that’s all you get, I’ve said too much already. We’ll try to document the set as much as possible and post stuff here for all yall outside of the Sonoran desert. But for the locals, here are your coordinates:

Friday, December 14
Club Congress (at Hotel Congress)
Midnight (but come early! lots of other great bands playing including The Cordials at 10:30!)
$8

But there’s THREE nights (and daytime on Saturday) of amazing music happening at three different venues ($8 for 1 night, $12 for 2 nights, $15 for all 3 days). To take it all in, go to: greatcoveruptucson.com.

Studio Pics

Three months ago, we camped out at Wavelab for a long Saturday to lay down 10 live tracks for our next album. We were extremely lucky that our friend and local rock photographer Rocky Yosek was free to come down and snap some pictures of the process. Life got busy and it took a while before we got our hands on those beautiful photos. Then life got busier and we kept putting off posting the photos. Well, dammit, the time has come because, as per Rocky’s work in general, these pics are too good to keep hidden any longer. So here’s a tasty sampler of that mighty productive (and did I say looooong?) day in September.

OH, and guess what? Tucson Weekly has an awesome new music blog called We Got Cactus and they’ve started posting Jamie’s Modeens comics every Friday! It’s chock full of funny, smart and insightful posts about music inside AND outside of Tucson, so make sure to check it out.

But now onto the updates.

Thursday, Nov 8 at La Cocina

Now we’re gearing up for a final Modeens show this Thursday at the beautiful La Cocina Cantina where we’ll be focusing on our kinder, gentler side. Well sorta. We’ll still be making people’s booties shake with El Camino and the like. But we’ll also be serving up the more countrified, groovier songs like: Sonic Daydream, Better Late Than Never and one of my favorites Free My Mind. With indie folkers LACHES and Portland’s When The Broken Bow.

Recent Pictures from Rocktober (with a tiny but of November)

In reverse chronological order, here are some monstrous pics of The Modeens in horrifying action.

First few from the Bloodbath part at Rialto, 11/20/2012 (photos by Tom DiDay and Bob Lee)

Next up are a couple of shots from when we performed at the Nightmare on Congress Street event. I was still dressed as Magenta from Rocky Horror but Jamie went really out there! (First pic by me, others by Bob Lee):

And finally it’s November 1st and we’re DONE with the dressing up – at PLUSH with The Resonars and Bleached. But I still wore a monster tee (couldn’t totally let Halloween go). Photos by Bob Lee:

Hope yall had lots of treats this year, and that you made your voice heard by voting today (or earlier).

Much love and rock,
Cristina

nightmare on congress street

We are getting our Halloween ON this Saturday. Those of you who went to Bloodbath last week at the Rialto got a sneak peek at our costumes and some ‘seasonal’ songs. Well, we are tweaking both to put on THE Halloween show of the season – coz the night is gonna be cray-cray.

Club Congress throws a Halloween extravaganza every year called Nightmare on Congress Street and this year we’re part of the festivities.

• $500 costume contest
• First annual Club Congress Haunted House!
• 5 great bands: Brainstorm (Portland), Voodoo Organist (LA), 80′s and Gentlemen, Rcougar and lil ol us
• Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door.

Check out the Club Congress page for more details of the night and their own awesome poster (featuring the Creature From the Black Lagoon with a six-shooter – cowboy style of course):
http://hotelcongress.com/music/nightmare-on-congress-street-2/

the modeens first featured band of new meowmeow show

That’s right, there’ll be a wacky video of us playing “El Camino” ala those old, early seventies videos, yknow where the band plays in front of a green screen which is then filled in with all kinds of psychedelic visuals. Don’t think there’ll be old oil-and-colored-water montages behind us, but you never know. meowmeow is the evil brainchild of Kitty Kat McKinley and he’s starting a weekly television show (meowmeowTUCSON) to highlight various happenings around the Old Pueblo. Safe to say, much of the show will be Not Safe For Work. We’ll have something to show you soon – but when we do, please don’t show your parents (or our parents for that matter!)

Don’t forget, f you wanna check out more of what we do, photos and shenanigans, please “Like” us on our Facebook page.

Love,

The Modeens

We opened up a little ol Tucson music festival that happens on Labor Day Weekend called HOCO Fest – named as such because it’s put on by HOtel COngress. Now if you haven’t been to Tucson, you probably haven’t heard of Hotel Congress, and you’d be forgiven. But if you ever come through town, definitely check it out. It’s an old hotel from the early part of the 20th Century that has retained its lovely Old West charm while also picking up on Tucson’s artsy funky flavor. But it’s more than a hotel – it also houses one of the oldest bars in town (the Tap Room), a gorgeous nightclub (Club Congress) and excellent restaurant (Cup Cafe). And it’s also supposed to be haunted — oooOOOOOooo. One of my favorite parts is the big old neon “Hotel Congress” sign that floats above the building and is the anchoring image of Downtown. It’s also where John Dillinger was captured after evading the law across the country . Cup Cafe even has his mug on the cover of the menu – with his famous quote “Well, I’ll be damned.”

We were the band to open up the four day music festival that included Tallest Man On Earth, Stand of Oaks, Sergio Mendoza y la Orkestra and so so many others – on this great big outdoor stage with an amazing backdrop highlighting the colors of the Arizona state flag.

The sound was amazing (thanks to Dana Fehr) and, due to a cluster of showers that were supposed to hit but managed to just miss us, it was even on the breezy side. AND it was the night of the blue moon. Alas, it wasn’t blue, but it sho was pretty.

Had a blast during our set (even though I started off on the wrong song once and saw Jamie looking over at my smiling and mouthing “It’s the wrong song” and then like a professional, I stopped, giggled and started again on the right song). But aside from that it was a rockin’ and rollickin’ set under that open Arizona sky.

But the fun didn’t stop there. David Garza, an Austin troubador playing two nights of the HOCO Fest, was on after us and asked Jamie and Dave to back him up. They’d never heard the songs before but gamely went along. I only have some footage of the first song – but wish I had more because they all did a great job. David even pulled me up to sing harmony. Which freaked me out as I hesitantly hummed before getting my bearings. But after a while I got into it and was able to pick up the words to the chorus. So fun to spontaneously perform lovely songs I’d never heard before.

Here’s a little bit of that first song:

Recording

We’ve booked it so it’s official – The Modeens will be laying down basic tracks for our next full-length album at Wavelab (Calexico, Neko Case) later this month! We’ve got a whole bunch of new tunes, plus an older one that we hadn’t recorded yet and I’m so excited about this batch in particular. Dave’s contributed some excellent tunage and we’re expanding our sonic palette to include some country, punk and soul while still delivering on the rock n roll. Our friend and excellent photographer Rocky Yosek will be documenting the session. So instead of gigging we’ll be spending our spare time the next couple of weeks rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing.

Heads Up For Halloween

Is it too early? I’m sorry, really, I understand. But if you live in Tucson, you should DEFINITELY mark October 27th on your calendar for the Blood Bath party at the Rialto. This MEOWmeow production is gonna be off the bloody wall and we’ll be the spooky live band portion of it. We’re already figuring out some awesome costumes and Halloween-appropriate songs to put you in the ghouly mood! Sure we’ll be doing Zombie Girl, Where Are The Spacemen? and Werewolf Attack, but there’s more, oh so much more in store for this show. Details comin’ atcha later.

Catch yall on the flip side,

Cristina Modeena (yes it is my new nickname, don’t wear it out)

Hotel Congress sign picture by Brian Wallace

Wow PotLuckCon (otherwise known as the PotLuck Audio Conference) turned out to be an amazing congregation of like-minded “audio nerds” in a gorgeous setting (that El Conquistador Hilton really showcases the beauty of the Sonoran desert with a badass seawater pool!) Jamie could hardly take a potty break from the Chamber of Sounds booth with the steady stream of folks lining up to try their hand at making cool space sounds with the Jupiters, Droneulators and LSDs (Light Sensitive Delays). Friends came by and hung out – we even had our own cooler of beer (shhhhh).

One of the coolest parts though was when Jamie first opened up the booth Friday morning and the first visitor was none other than Mitch Easter! He produced REM’s earlier albums and was in 80′s “jangle pop” group Let’s Active though he’s worked with tons of great folks from Pavement to Suzanne Vega. He’s from North Carolina and has the sweetest accent.

I checked him out (along with our friend, former bandmate and current Brooklyn-ite, Fen Ikner) at the mixing panel, The Art and Science of Mixing, moderated by Craig Schumacher. It was the only panel I got to attend, but it was interesting to hear the different gear and philosophies among the panel members, which also included Dusty Wakeman (Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Michelle Shocked). I especially dug when they all played tracks that showed either a song that they rescued because of how badly it was recorded or demonstrated how little difference there can be between digital and analog recording these days if you know what you’re doing. And these folks know what they’re doing! Seriously, mixing is one of the most important aspects of an album – it’s like recording gives you the paint and the sketch but it’s mixing that pulls it all together and makes sure all the elements are where they need to be sonically and for best effect.

After Saturday’s events came to a close, well, we all just partied hard at the El Conquistador – including the mass water volleyball game the entire hotel seemed to join at one point. Good times! And can’t wait until next year. If this sounded like fun to you, I highly recommend “Like”ing their Facebook page: facebook.com/PotLuckAudioCon

Adventure #8: Hey Buddy, Can You Spare A Piano?

Which could be subtitled: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Click twice to see it in all it’s glory (ie, full size)!