Travels

2011-08-16T16:55:00.001-04:00

Pre-order the new 7"/EP

2011-08-16T16:31:00.031-04:00

Travels' newest release is a 7" vinyl record accompanied by a download code for an entire EP. Each record also comes with a one-of-a-kind 7" x 7" varnished, colored still from an animation film which will coincide with the release on December 1st.

The 7"/EP will NOT be made available on its own as a digital release. There are only 150 copies in existence.

Pre-orderers get a discount: $8 (or €8 for Europe, shipping included) for a 7" record, a digital EP, a piece of handmade art and our deep gratitude.

Stream side A and B and pre-order the record HERE.
(you'll get immediate download of the entire EP n your choice of MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.)

Tracklisting:

7" Side A: The Sun Shines Down on Me
7" Side B: Stencils

Digital EP:
1. The Sun Shines Down on Me
2. Stencils
3. Lucky
4. Veil of Stars
5. The Runner

credits:

All songs except for The Sun Shines Down on Me written by Anar Badalov and Mona Elliott. The Sun Shines Down on Me written by Daniel Johnston. Recorded in Somerville in 2011. Mastered by Matthew MacDonald.

2011-01-31T09:38:00.000-05:00

Burr Song, from the show in Leipzig:

2011-01-19T10:45:00.003-05:00

from de Botton's The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work:

The true range of obstacles in the way of unlocking our potential was more accurately acknowledged by the German sociologist Max Weber when, in his essay 'Science as a Vocation', he described Goethe as an example of the sort of creative and healthy personality 'who appears only once in a thousand years'.

For the rest of history, for most of us, our bright promise will always fall short of being actualized; it will never earn us bountiful sums of money of beget exemplary objects or organizations. It will remain no more than a hope carried over the childhood, or a dream entertained as we drive along the motorway and feel our plans hovering above a wide horizon. Extraordinary resilience, intelligence and good fortune are needed to redraw the map of our reality, while on either side of the summits of greatness are arrayed the endless foothills populated by the tortured celibates of achievement.

Most of us stand poised at the edge of brilliance, haunted by the knowledge of our proximity, yet still demonstrably on the wrong side of the line, our dealings with reality undermined by a range of minor yet critical psychological flaws (a little too much optimism, an unprocessed rebelliousness, a fatal impatience or sentimentality). We are like an exquisite high-speed aircraft which for lack of a tiny part is left stranded beside the runway, rendered slower than a tractor or a bicycle.

I left Symon's company newly aware of the unthinking cruelty discreetly coiled within the magnanimous bourgeois assurance that everyone can discover happiness through work and love. It isn't that these two entities are invariably incapable of delivering fulfilment, only that they almost never do so. And when an exception is misrepresented as a rule, our individual misfortunes, instead of seeming to us quasi-inevitable aspects of life, will weigh down on us like particular curses. In denying the natural place reserved for longing and error in the human lot, the bourgeois ideology denies us the possibility of collective consolation for our fractious marriages and our unexploited ambitions, and condemns us instead to solitary feelings of shame and persecution for having stubbornly failed to become who we are.

2011-01-16T18:53:00.008-05:00

Last night at the Ibis hotel Mona announced, after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, that she wouldn't let our ominous room number (13) win the battle. We ordered a pizza (burnt!) and watched The Bourne Identity. See? We're rational people. So much that we made a conscious effort to stop saying bless you to each other when we sneeze. Still, when Mona cracked the bathroom mirror we should have just accepted that today's flight would be canceled. After all, I still secretly believe we had a successful tour at least in part because we reached the $32,000 mark playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire on the flight over here 3 weeks ago.

Anyway, the bittersweet gushy goodbye feeling I had while typing up the post this morning (see below this one) is long gone. After passing through security and customs twice already, we were told 15 minutes before takeoff that the flight was canceled due to a Union Strike. Not unlike farm animals we were herded to the baggage carousel and told we'd have the option to race back to check-in (and inevitably security again) for a chance to fly to NYC and take a bus to Logan. Still no guarantees, but the other option was to stay overnight in Dublin and try to get on a flight to Boston tomorrow. But what about the strike in Boston? Plus Mona has school, I have work and Enchilada needs insulin. So we bolted for the carousel and check-in, and judging by the row I'm writing from--row 48, with a view of the perpetually swinging bathroom door--I think we got the last available seats.

When we arrive at JFK in an hour we'll still be looking at a 4+ hour bus ride to Logan. Oh, and did I mention I was coincidentally selected for a "random" private security screening again? I'm sure being born in Azerbaijan has nothing to do with this. Also assured is the other guy with the middle-eastern name who was selected and is sitting in front of me. I was going to include an excerpt from the de Botton book I finally picked up again and finished but I'm typing up what I wrote today and it's 12:45 and we've been awake for almost 24 hours. I can't even think about opening a book. Maybe this blog will end with that excerpt tomorrow. Good Night for now.

----------

post from 7:30 this morning, in Brussels airport:

I'll use the last bit of blogging energy I have to end this thing on a strong note, or at least I'll try on a few hours of sleep and the hour of computer life remaining. Unfortunately, I can't post this until we're back in Boston with internet. We're at the Brussels airport way too early, as usual, and in my pocket I'm holding more money than I've ever held or will ever hold again. This is good news; we ended the tour with our expenses--car, plane, daily things--and a full month of rent paid. We'll never work again! (until Wednesday, when I have to go back to the office.)

Our final show in Luxembourg was moved from Autre Part, a classy, sit-down club in Differdange, Luxembourg to a hotel room across the street. The owner of the club/bar also owns the 24-room hotel, and he blocked off an entire floor for the show when he realized the room at Autre Part was double-booked. If he wasn't the most genuinely sweet and excited promoter and if it wasn't our last show we might have taken the news badly. But we were thrilled to learn we'd be the first band in Luxembourg to play a rock show--using two 65-watt amps, albeit they were turned down low--in a hotel room. It turned out to be the best note we could have ended on. I felt the same special connection I usually feel with Mona on "stage," and the people we talked to later agreed there was something special in the stuffy hotel room air that night. I'll never look at a Room 204 the same way again. I only wish we could capture this energy so people could understand what a CD or even a live video might not explain. But I guess that's what makes it special, for us and hopefully for the people who come to the shows.

With that said, this entire tour felt like that special kind of day that feels like it'll never end, in a good way. You quickly lose track of days and weeks (and months if you're gone long enough) on tour, and there's nothing like it. During this "day" you have your ups and downs, those moments in the car when you realize that 400 km means 4 hours of driving, or the moment when you're loading onto a moldy stage in a small town and realize you probably should have just accepted a day off and booked a hotel. But there wasn't much of this, if any, on this tour. There was the more common experience: you start the car and put on a CD, and there's nothing but this music and your thoughts, which you finally give permission to sink in because there's no other option. You remember things you thought you forgot years ago, you think about the people whose faces you've buried, the meal you're going to devour when you're back home, the song or story you're going to write when you can. You show up and the promoter greets you with a hug and a kiss and a glass of wine and a hot meal in a backstage room; the soundperson already knows your songs, and after soundcheck your only mission is to set up the merch table and take a limited tour of streets around the venue--this sometimes qualifies as a our tour of the city. And you're quickly back, and the people start to pour in, and when you start to sing some of them even know the words. Life is boring, but not at that moment.

Even now, as I gaze out the window at planes crawling to the gates, I regret that last hour during a longer drive when I complained about the pinched nerve in my shoulder and wished I was at home. The computer is dying now.

moustache warning?

2011-01-15T05:11:00.007-05:00

The show in Metz (France) last night was incredible. By the time we played the tiny room (see below) was PACKED and people could hardly get in. What I thought would be a quiet show turned into full-blown chaos. It was loud and raw. I should have guessed this when the sound guy started duct taping the second mic to the stand. After the show, people bought records (including the last of the copies of The Hot Summer that we brought) and put shots of Absinth in front of us. The bartender smiled and waved goodbye. But I'm awake and feeling good! Ha!

When we arrived last night we were told we could park, since the hotel was walking distance, and that we could have anything we wanted from the bar, and that a vegetarian meal was waiting for us upstairs. Flo (Florian) is the kind of promoter that makes me want to be active at home and put on shows and take care of touring bands. But it takes something special to do things the way he does them, and I don't think I'm capable. After the show a group of people told me they're grateful to have him here since he's their connection to a lot of music they wouldn't have ever discovered otherwise. We were having too much fun to take pictures. And they wouldn't do the night any justice anyway.

Lille was fun too. Mona met her tattoo soulmate and we played with a very European-sounding electro band. They were great guys. After the show we drove 1 hour--no drinking for me--to Bethune, a small city about 60 km from where we played, in the promoter's gigantic mansion house with her 3 kitties. Last show is in Luxembourg tonight. And there will be chairs provided.

2011-01-13T20:49:00.003-05:00

who's the poet, google translate or the reviewer?

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fconcerts-review.over-blog.com%2Farticle-travels-he-died-while-hunting-au-live-music-cafe-a-bruxelles-le-12-janvier-2011-64911640.html

(it's a review of the show in Brussels.) Here's one of my favorite lines, but there are many, many more, presumably all of them lost in translation:

"[The Smell of Kerosene is] lions decorating the steps of the Exchange, remembering Rommel complained to their union!"

and a nice review of the show in Gent too:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiestyle.be%2FVerslagTravelsinCaf%25C3%25A9Videoop10januarideN.aspx

2011-01-13T08:53:00.001-05:00

whoa, Caro took some nice photos in Namur:

2011-01-13T07:53:00.005-05:00

we're still in Brussels, still at Kevin's house. He took us out to the city center yesterday and we passed tons of cute book shops, the contemporary art museum, a musical instruments museum, the headquarters of the Socialist party in Belgium, murals of tintin--he's a Belgian character, NOT French as I thought--and even a Chi Chi's, who proudly advertised their extra large burgers. I thought Chi Chi's closed 10 years ago with Sizzler.

Also, did you know that Belgium currently has no government? what the hell?

Last night had the potential to become really uncomfortable but turned itself around. Since Le Cuberdon theatre had to cancel the promoter moved the show to some kind of tourist-y music place downtown called the Live Music Cafe. When we arrived they had a DJ spinning generic R&B songs for 4 Asian tourists and a mean French drug dealer. The place slowly cleared out and it turned into a decent venue. The difference between playing in Germany and playing in Belgium or Italy or France (maybe?) is that all the shows outside of Germany always have the potential to go terribly wrong. But they USUALLY don't. (Except that time in Italy when we basically used two brooms for mic stands.) Anyway, Belgium was fun and different for us, definitely an experience worth having. Kevin's been the greatest host, so great he's going to take us to the laundromat now so we don't stink up this last week. OH, and his band He Died While Hunting played with us last night! They're opening up again in Luxembourg at our last show on Saturday and we're probably going to party hard into the morning. They remind me of the quiet, fragile parts I really like about Yo La Tengo.

2011-01-12T07:16:00.007-05:00

It's our last day in Belgium. The country is gorgeous and we're learning bits and pieces about its tense history from some of the people we're meeting--it's been the site for so many battles in Europe, more than any other country, that it's called the cockpit of Europe. Last night our friend Kevin (who's playing with us tonight and in Luxembourg and who has kindly put us up in his apartment in Brussels--see view from our window below) and his bandmate Lois raved about a Belgian mockumentary about a serial killer called Man Bites Dog. Netflix has been recommending it for months so it's going to the top of our list when we get back.

In Gent we went explored the Sint Baaf's cathedral and Mona paid 4 euro to see the Gent Altarpiece. Meanwhile, I came up with a good record name inspired by the amount of Belgian chocolate I've eaten since we've arrived: Eat Chocolate in the House of God.

She went to the bathroom in the deceptively friendly-looking police station and took as many photos of everything as she could, but the light isn't great because it was a dreary day. Today's another one. Kevin says this is the norm for Belgium. Last night we arrived for the show early and the owner only spoke French--Mona can only say "I'm sorry, but I don't speak any French" (and apparently flawlessly, so much that people don't always believe her) so there was a language barrier until Kevin showed up. We wandered around Namur, another beautiful town, and ended up a bar that was playing kitschy music videos. IF YOU ONLY READ OR LOOK AT ONE THING ON THIS BLOG, MAKE IT THIS MUSIC VIDEO:

2011-01-10T14:45:00.003-05:00

Gent is beautiful! But the drivers in Belgium should probably take some driving lessons from their German neighbors. I realize that could offend someone, but the promoter at the Cafe Video (place we're playing in one hour) agrees with me and prefers driving in Germany. There, it's confirmed.

Still, the entire city is photogenic and the streets are clean and everything looks like it belongs in an art history textbook (mona can confirm this part). We were kindly put up in a fancy hotel down the street and given our choice of restaurants in the city to choose from. We're sold.

Oh! We almost ended up in Brussels today. We drove 300 km before we realized we were actually supposed to go to Gent. The only downside is that we were about 60 km out of the way. The good news: we were asked to get here at 6 and we made it at 5:57. I'd keep writing about nothing but we have to get some wine and play some music.

Our new friend Sebastian posted a video of us playing The Smell of Kerosene in Berlin: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=496922339825&oid=53685595041

2011-01-10T05:38:00.005-05:00

Again, not much time to write. And all the profound and bizarre thoughts that enter your mind in the car all slip away when you wake up and flip open the computer. Still, we're both feeling healthy and the last 2 or 3 days have been sunny. We even hit an all-time high of 51 degrees yesterday. The Berlin show was absolutely packed, maybe even the biggest on the tour. Although it was also in the smallest room we've ever played so we could have been deceived. And some people were singing along! At the upstairs bar everything was glued to the ceiling upside-down. I look depressed in the photo but I'm just resting. Actually, I feel like we're just now getting into tour mode and I'm just now feeling especially connected to Germany, of course just in time to leave for Belgium and France and Luxembourg and just 1 week before it's all over. The crowds here have been the best. They've been eerily quiet during the love songs and uproaringly loud in between. We couldn't have asked for anything else.

Last night at the AJZ ex-squat was another good one, smaller (attendance-wise) than the other shows but just as friendly and fun. Plus we got to play at 5X the volume we will at the smaller venues in Belgium. And we played with Oldseed, an ex-Canadian who moved to Germany 4 years ago. The promoter put us up in his spacious and comfortable flat and cooked us up a hearty breakfast. We got another 8 hours of sleep and I even had time to shave this morning. Now we get to take a 20-minute walk back to the venue. At home 20 minutes is how long you walk to get to the grocery store, but on tour 20 minutes is a full day's workout. I can't wait. If we don't leave soon we'll be late for Brussels.

2011-01-08T09:24:00.003-05:00

Between my stomach bug and our rainy drives, we haven't had a chance to update this thing. But here were are in Leipzig in a private apartment the promoter and venue owners at Kafic/Paris Syndrom keep for touring bands. Not to put down any of the other shows we've played on this tour, but last night was our favorite. And we videotaped all but the encore, so you'll probably be seeing that after tour. We played in a re-designed (undesigned) contemporary art gallery connected to a cafe whose name and look is changed every two years by a selected group of artists from around the world. (This didn't make finding the place easy since no one told us we were playing a venue that was renamed!) We don't totally understand the Kafic concept (Kafic simply means Cafe in Slovenien), but the place is gorgeous--the cafe itself is housed in a contemporary glass building overlooking a park; the venue/gallery is attached. This morning over breakfast Kid Lupus (moniker of one of the venue owners) explained that he didn't quite understand the concept either, but that he was really happy with the previous concept for Paris Syndrom. Apparently the name comes from an experience that sometimes occurs when someone from Asia (I think he said Japan specifically) visits Europe for a weeklong vacation and essentially goes crazy. Their expectations are incredibly high, but when it comes to visiting Germany, France, Switzerland, etc. and they are so overwhelmingly disappointed they call the Japanese embassy and a car takes them to the airport so they can go back home. Basically they work incredibly hard and finally go to Paris for vacation and just see the Eiffel tower and get mugged. This doesn't sound too different from tour, except the mugging part (hopefully). The venue had fake Louis Vuitton chairs, fake glass, fake everything (but real awesome drinks and food, still).

Anyway, for the purposes of shows, the main gallery room at Kafic is emptied and black curtains are drawn turning it into a sort of black box theater. It's elegant and the sound is beautiful. Last night's show was packed, and people had the option to sit in chairs, which automatically makes the show 20X better. It's basically the complete opposite of the kind of show we'll be playing in Bielefeld tomorrow, which will take place in a converted squat. (Not saying that isn't fun too.) Kid Lupus took a ton of photos at the show (see below) and gave me medicinal liquor all night. Heike made us soup and quiche and the soundguy played Karate, fulfilling the desire I've had to listen to Karate for the last week and a half.

Wurzburg was fun too, and the promoter Marco was a blast (and a great chef), but we're going to be late for Berlin if we don't leave soon. Alfidisain (sp?)

2011-01-06T04:21:00.005-05:00

big, big thanks to Christian for letting us crash at his place for two days and taking us for our first walk over 300 meters (900 feet?) this week. And to Veronika for cooking us up such a healthy breakfast. We planned on going to the museum but instead napped until sundown and then took a 3-mile walk around Munich's Olympic Park. Talked music and movies all day--note to self and to anyone who hasn't seen You, The Living: See it again!--and then went to Kopfeck (http://www.happycow.net/reviews.php?id=13543) for the best veggie burger and fries and salad we've had in a long time. Plus we got to take the train to get there. On this tour the way we've been "exploring" the cities is by directing the GPS to take us to the city center, where we drive around in circles for 20 minutes until we're ready to direct it to take us to the club, which is usually 5 to 10 km out in some area most people don't know exists. Munich felt like home, at least for a day.

If you want to see some of the clean architecture and safe streets and cobblestone roads you can find them on google image search. Otherwise, here are some pictures we took along the way:

and Christian dug up the poster he used for our VAS/MH tour 4 years ago:

and vinyl of Mona's old band Spore's first record:

10 straight days of shows start today in Wurzburg, Germany.

2011-01-05T05:25:00.005-05:00

Kafe Kult was fantastic as usual. Got to see some old faces and some new. I butchered the second encore so bad it was comical, but it's everyone's fault for cheering us on even after I announced that it would only go downhill from there.

Now we're at Christian's (promoter's) flat, Mona's still sleeping and I'm catching up on email and bills. So far this has been the most successful--financially, mentally, musically, crowd-ily--tour I've ever been on. Keeping my fingers crossed for us to stay on this path for the last 10 shows. It's a bright and sunny day in Munich and the plan is to stretch our legs and maybe check out the haus de kunst.

Mona with her old friend Hugo, who told us that the first band announced that they were going to play one more song and that the next band (us) suck anyway. Presumably he was joking:

the opening German band, The Dope:

a crowd shot:

2011-01-04T14:41:00.001-05:00

mona's favorite quote: "On one level, you could compare Travels to the likes of No Age or Lightning Bolt, as they possess a similar boundless energy and sense of unpredictability resonating from two 20-something musicians." OK, off to the show now.

http://www.praguepost.com/print/6948-unpolished-charm.html

Unpolished charm
American duo exemplifies the recent DIY vogue

Posted: December 29, 2010

By Andrew Fenwick, For the Post

Take a quick glance at any end-of-the-year best album lists and you'll see that lo-fi was the name of the game in 2010. Call it what you want: noise pop, bedroom chic or DIY, but music that's been made to sound as if it's been recorded in a wind tunnel on a budget of precisely zero has been undeniably in vogue this season.

Luckily for them, the American duo Travels mines a similar vein of DIY style. This duo of Baltimore natives Mona Elliott and Anar Badalov has been creating its own brand of skewed, electro-tinged pop for nearly four years, however, so any accusations of bandwagon-jumping would be inaccurate, to say the least.

"We definitely believe that less is more," Badalov tells The Prague Post. "We never use more than three instruments, and we're both big fans of minimalist art where the white space can often reveal more than what's actually painted. For us, we want the space in our music to become part of the song."

On one level, you could compare Travels to the likes of No Age or Lightning Bolt, as they possess a similar boundless energy and sense of unpredictability resonating from two 20-something musicians. But what sets this pair apart is the intimacy of their songwriting - a product of having lived and worked in such close proximity to one another since meeting in 2007.
Travels

When: Monday, Jan. 3, at 7:30
Where: Klub 007 Strahov
Tickets: 200 Kč, available at venue

"We lived in a small apartment together at first, and naturally we couldn't help but make music together," Badalov says. "The writing we do together is really natural; whatever happens just happens, and we go with it."

The first fruits of Travels' labor came in October 2007 with the release of their self-titled debut album, a release that in typical DIY fashion featured hand-painted artwork.

"The record was us getting to know each other, both as musicians and as people," Badalov says. "It was also an incredibly therapeutic process for us as Mona was diagnosed with breast cancer about two months after I moved in with her, and we wrote and recorded the album through her treatment and recovery."

Full of lo-fi harmonies and rickety percussion, the album resonates with an endearing, unpolished charm, but Travels' follow-up, last year's The Hot Summer, is the best introduction to the band. Recorded by engineer Jeff Lipton, whose work with The Magnetic Fields has turned him into something of an indie go-to guy, the album is peppered with white noise and eerie distortion and easily ranks as one of the top albums of 2009.

Travels' latest effort, Robber on the Run, released in June, further hints that the duo is decidedly up-and-coming. Flitting from syncopated punk-rock squalls to melodic, transient flashes of color, the album is at once chaotic and raw, considered and calm, its codified rhythms layered with crunches of feedback and discordant fuzz.

With the likes of Nick Cave, Tom Waits and the late hip-hop innovator J Dilla cited as influences, it's no wonder that Travels have found their calling in serving up sharp, elegiac musical missives, but with their latest European tour just kicking off, quite how they will channel their newfound energy onto the stage is something that even Badalov is concerned about.

"Before an impending tour, I worry about how we'll come across live," he says. "But as soon as we're finished, I always wish that we could have captured that moment on record. Our live show can be loud, heavy and intense. We can't wait to get out there and start playing."

Prague is new territory for Badalov, but having previously played in the city under her former guise as Victory at Sea, Elliot has been schooling him in the ways of the capital.

"Mona's already talking about drinking lots of absinth," he says. "We just need to figure out how we're going to get the car to the hostel now."

Andrew Fenwick can be reached at
features@praguepost.com.

2011-01-04T14:17:00.001-05:00

warm in winter?

2011-01-04T12:32:00.002-05:00

We finally made it to Prague. On the last tour we missed the Prague show because of a blizzard and a 10-hour drive, but coming from Dresden we made it in 2. The room was full and the crowd and promoter were incredibly warm and welcoming. We had a long talk about how anxiety-provoking Swans were live (he put on their show in Prague last month) and then met his friend Ondrej, whose mom's house we stayed at. He runs a beautiful studio out of the house and was too modest to admit that he's a big-time producer and recording engineer there. His mom offered us red borscht at 1 in the morning, but my stomach hurt so we refused. For three days I thought I had food poisoning and motion sickness but today i put it all together and determined it was constipation from all the bread and cheese. I would say we eat healthier on tour here than we do at home (and we even eat healthy there), but the bread and cheese and traveling takes its toll. Anyway, in the morning as Onrej's mom begged us (in her sweet broken English) to come outside and watch the solar eclipse, I held my stomach and asked her (in broken Czech) for laxatives. A loose translation: "Excuse me, i have stomach constipation. No kaka in 3 days." Maybe that's too much info, but it had to be shared. Her face was priceless. Needless to say, she went outside to watch the eclipse. And for the record, I'm all better now.

What else? In Dresden we played our second and final show with Birthmark. Also on the bill was Aimee Argote from Des Ark. It was her last show on a 3 month (!!!) tour; we're glad we got to be a part of it. We were also reunited with Tobi, the driver from the Victory at Sea/Metal Hearts show. He's now driven VAS, MH, Travels, Birthmark, and Aimee Argote, all on separate occasions. (Happy Birthday, Tobi!) I know I'm missing something here, but the small things are too easy to forget. It's been snowing every night, just little enough so we can hit the highway in the morning.

p.s. if you've emailed me, I haven't been checking, but I will tomorrow on our day off.

this is part of the stage we're playing tonight:

photos from munich to come tomorrow. we play in 4 hours.

2011-01-03T05:21:00.006-05:00

no time to write, i'm in a hurry for breakfast. Birthmark reunited us with our tripod, so we might record tonight's show in Prague. All I can remember now about yesterday was a staring contest with a German man on the highway, my personal battle about whether to put on the Karate record during our drive to Dresden (apparently Mona's van has broken down nearly every time she listened to Karate on tour--we decided against it), us hitting 2000 km, our first sunny afternoon, and a food poisoning false alarm. Dramamine came to the rescue. All is well and we're ready for a slow drive in the snow. Here are a bunch of photos from Bremen, Dresden, and beyond:

2011-01-01T06:48:00.005-05:00

just booked a fancy hotel room (in German--thanks Google translate) for tonight in Magdeburg (halfway to Dresden) for 50 euro. Gonna take advantage of that sauna and gourmet breakfast.

oh, and thanks again to all our cat-watchers.

2011-01-01T06:25:00.005-05:00

last night was a blast, and today is the first sunny day on tour. Photos of Bremen to come, but in the meantime:

2010-12-31T12:07:00.005-05:00

made it to Bremen! It's a beautiful city, and we passed at least 5 hip bars and clubs on this street alone. Pictures of the club and the city to come tomorrow. The drive wasn't bad, just foggy, and the promoter and soundguy were welcoming as always. Tonight will be a new years eve party with 3 other bands. They've never done that before but the promoter (Jens) saw our post when we were looking for a show around this area for tonight and kindly put it all together. The last two times we played the place was packed, so we're hoping to make it happen again! It's gonna be a late night, i can feel it. The first time we played here together was on the VAS/MH tour. It was the last show on the tour and the loudest Victory at Sea ever sounded. The second time was as Travels and we were equally loud, the total opposite of last night. The club--it's not a typical club, it's also a cultural center where people hang out and cook and put on other events--is big (3 floors) and the stage is deep and boomy. The only other thing I can remember is the amount of absinth we drank here on that first tour, and the generous and kind fans and soundperson. It was the last show and our last chance to celebrate together. Tonight we'll celebrate the new year.

For now we're upstairs in the club's computer room while a group from the center collectively cooks a dinner for the bands, who aren't here yet. 2 are from Germany, one is from Scotland. My new years resolution is to get drunk with everyone after the show--and i don't know if I've ever partied harder than I have here--but not drunk enough to feel crappy tomorrow during our day off. Our plan is to either explore Bremen or drive to Dresden and get a hotel. Most importantly, we'll be exchanging shoulder rubs wherever we are. Mona's still talking about the potato leak soup in Hamburg, but I have a feeling tonight will rival even that.

Last night we met a guy who drunkenly proclaimed his love for Mona for over 2 hours. He kept telling me that he was in love with my sister, even after I explained that we were together. The bartender tried to get rid of him with a liquor he claimed would make any grown man cry but the guy just wanted more. It's nights like last night that remind me how fun tour is.

2010-12-31T05:01:00.003-05:00

last night brought us back to the first Victory at Sea/Metal Hearts tour where almost every night we partied until 6 am. Steffi and Maik invited us to play their incredibly clean and beautiful new bar/club in Siegen called Shellack. It's in a residential area downtown so we played at half the volume, which turned out to be perfect for the crowd and for the room. It was more intimate and the crowd was warm--plus we were done by 10:15. As the hour grew late we all got progressively more drunk on beer and spicy German liquor and Mexicans (sort of like a bloody mary but more potent). We made some good friends late into the night, and it started to feel like family. I could imagine living here. Plus Steffi made us homemade pizza and we got to cuddle with her cat Mousa (or Mao for short), the first cat friend we made on tour. I'm glad we stopped drinking when we did because I'm feeling good and ready for the drive.

OH, and we left the tripod in Hamburg so we're not going to record the shows as initially planned. There's something special about actually being there anyway, and worrying about setting it up every night isn't worth the trouble. I think I'm just trying to reason the loss of the tripod now.

2010-12-30T05:31:00.007-05:00

By the time you read this it'll be tomorrow. Last night we played with Chicago/Minneapolis band Birthmark. A friend released their record in Europe two years ago and we've heard it at least 50 times this year so we knew all the words. We'll have internet at KulturHaus 73 in the morning so we'll post from there. Right now it's 2 am and we're in a private bedroom in an apartment the Astra Stube (club we played tonight) keeps for touring bands. The show was loud and well attended but the crowd was mostly awkward. Sometimes it's difficult to tell if it's a language barrier or a cultural barrier or just disinterest. And I think it could depend on the part of Germany you're in. The show in Bonn felt like a party we were invited to play--and we sold close to 35 records, an all-time high for Travels!

The drive from Bonn to Hamburg was long and unfortunately on less than 5 hours of sleep. It was fine until we made it 300 km north and the temperature hit -7.5 celsius (18 degrees) and the roads turned into sheet of ice. We stopped at another Aldi and picked up a 1/2 pound of cheese, wholegrain seed + nut bread (called Veller Korn Hell), a liter of mineral water, a jar of apricot jam, 2 oranges, a tomato and an organic pear yogurt for 4 euro. I can't get over how cheap fresh food in the grocery store is in Germany. Anyway, we left at 10:30 and made it to the club by 5:30, in time to run through a good soundcheck, eat some cream cheese and radish sandwiches the promoter fixed up, drink a few bottles of the local beer (Astra), and get treated to a private backstage potato leak soup dinner with Birthmark at the KulturHaus. Is this blog becoming a food journal?

Tomorrow we're going back for breakfast before we hit the road. On the way we'll take some photos of a WWII bunker across the street that was converted into an art space and outdoor climbing wall. By the time I get to writing all the best moments are gone. Tomorrow (today) we play in Siegen at a new club called Schellack. Can't wait. Now it's time for 8 hours of sleep.

_______

It's morning and we slept through the night! It's like being a baby all over again. I had a dream I was shot. Now we're drinking free Americano coffees at the Kulturhaus. I'm remembering again why we come here to tour: free breakfast and dinner, a place to sleep every night, and people at the shows. Mona took some photos on the walk over.

thanks bonn!

2010-12-28T19:30:00.003-05:00

our first show was packed with the nicest Bonn folks. Phew. Long drive to Hamburg tomorrow, but for now we're sleeping in Koln at Alva's house. Thanks Alva!

2010-12-28T13:06:00.010-05:00

We made it to Bonn! The butchery/hotel had an incredible breakfast spread to get us going: cheese, fresh croissants, bread, fruit, yogurt, etc. Unfortunately, I left my little USB stick there. (Valentin, if you're reading this, can you stop in and see if they found it?) We made it out at 10 and got to Bonn before 1, in time to explore the city a bit and find an Aldi (German equivalent of our Shop & Stop) for lunch food and the power transformer we needed for the tour. We listened to Iggy Pop and Mona did the robot on the way over.

We found a church and two heads rolling around in front (see below). And the club we're playing tonight (Kult 41) now has a smoking bus parked out front. (because it has a 10 o clock curfew and the neighbors are perpetually complaining about the noise the smokers make out front)

Got into the club around 3:30 for a long equipment test and extended soundcheck. We play in 2 hours.

2010-12-27T12:38:00.018-05:00

On the flight from Boston to Dublin we won $125,000 playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Right now I'm watching a train pass over our hostel in downtown Luxembourg. A lot happened in between, including a 32-hour stint on an hour of sleep.

The flight to Dublin was the best--hardly any turbulence, awesome vegetarian dinners (grilled tofu, basmatti rice, salad, fresh cheese and crackers), lots of plane music to choose from, surprisingly including everything from Shostakovich (sp?) to Beach House. We landed 10 minutes ahead of schedule, which was enough to save us from missing a connecting flight and a lot of time at the stinky airport. We had to go through security again before catching the Brussels flight, and after what felt like a two-mile powerwalk through the airport we made it with 5 minutes to spare. The second plane was 100+ degrees and we had to walk through snow to get in. The front door and the "guiding system" broke after we landed so after a long wait everyone had to evacuate through the back. Plus i'm convinced they forgot to de-ice it before takeoff.

In Brussels they tried to charge us double for the car, but after an hour of arguing and making phone calls to the US we got it for 40 euro less than planned. It's a 2010 Volkswagon. On no sleep and after two hours in the airport and 2 cups of the most overpriced coffee and croissants i've ever had we were on our way to Luxembourg. In the passenger seat Mona dreamt with her eyes open. I pumped up a Smog record and hit the highway. Without a GPS we'd still be driving. We took a short power nap, organized our stuff and searched for food in Grund. First show is tomorrow in Bonn.

---------
update:

Didn't get a chance to post the last entry, so here's another quick one:

We spent most of the day with our friend and label co-owner Valentin and his family, then with the other co-owner Helio and his family. It was a mostly relaxing day full of incredible home-cooked meals and green salads. Coveting our panacotta, Helio's twins taught us how to say "none for me?" in Luxembourgish.

Now we're in a hotel/Butcher shop (yep, check out the photo below, it's hanging over our bed) and watching Law and Order (videoclip of that to come tomorrow), overdubbed in French. We're suffering from serious jetlag, so I can't find any of the words I'm looking for. Luxembourg is still beautiful.

airport

2010-12-25T16:10:00.004-05:00

We barely slept last night. Woke up and cleaned the house, hugged all the cats goodbye, and we're at the airport ready to go. Let me tell you all the good news:

-Our Japanese cab driver was the nicest. Probably the first and last cab we'll ever see in Boston with a sign up front that reads, "No hurry, be patient. Safety first!" And he wore motorcycle racing gloves.

-It took us only FORTY-FIVE minutes to get from our door to the airport terminal. Security was a breeze, and the guy checking us in--also friendly and Japanese--let us hold onto our guitars plus an extra bag so we didn't have to pay the $150 we planned for. Total cost: FREE.

-We're drinking Shipyard beer as the sun sets behind us.

The first flight (to Dublin) boards in an hour. Then we have an hour to catch the plane to Brussels. I can see the LSG Sky Chefs truck unloading our gourmet meals into the plane as I type. Mona's reading the new David Sedaris book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. I have Alain de Botton's The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work for the plane. Once the drives start there won't be any time for reading anything but maps and the GPS.

2010-12-23T22:53:00.003-05:00

oh shit, two days 'til takeoff. Today we started packing for real. Mona thought she was sick for the first 6 hours after we woke up, so we watched Judge Matthis, Judge Joe Brown, and Judge Judy. Yep, all three. We even tried to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but it was absolute shit, nothing like the prequel.

The best thing about today was learning that the Europe GPS maps I bought two years ago came with a free update. Unfortunately, this was after I wrote out all 22 lines of directions just to get from the Brussels airport (where we're picking up the car) to our hostel in downtown Luxembourg, where our label guys (& backup GPS) are. One of the steps: Merge onto E40/R0 via the ramp on the left to Bergen/Namen/Charleroi/Luik/E411/E19/Leuven. Where doesn't that exit take you?

More good news about today: I intonated my guitar; we took a 1-hour nap; we finally got the cat stuff ready (see photo below); we're about to watch the new Will Ferrell movie (The Other Guys).

warmup show, prague post

2010-12-18T16:19:00.003-05:00

We played our warmup show at the PA's Lounge holiday party last night. The place was packed, the crowd was into it, and the mac 'n cheese was really fucking good. Unexpectedly, a crowd of coworkers came out. The clash of work life and "private" life puts me in a surreal place, like when you're talking to your childhood dog in your dreams. well maybe not just like that.

anyway, a writer from the Prague Post asked us to answer some questions for him, which he'll use to put together a preview piece for our show at the 007 Strahov club there. We don't usually put more than 5 minutes into interviews but we got into this one somehow. here it is in its unedited entirety:

How did you meet and when/how did you develop your sound?

We met in Europe on tour with our previous bands, Victory at Sea (Mona) and Metal Hearts (me, Anar). All 8 of us (including Tobi, our driver) were packed into a van, and Mona and I just hit it off. When we came back to the states—I was living in Baltimore; Mona was around Boston—I moved up here to live with her. And that’s that.

We were in a small apartment together at first, and naturally we couldn’t help but play with each other. From there the progression was also natural. Our first record was written loosely: each of us came in with a song, the other person added a part, and it was basically done and recorded. We moved on quickly to the second record, which had a little bit more of a developed sound since we wrote some of the songs together. This 3rd record that we’re coming to Europe to support is probably the most developed of all, but I guess that’s for you to decide.

Your influences are obviously very diverse. What music do you enjoy listening to and how do you pull all the disparate elements of your stuff together?

We listen to so much different music, but I’ll list a few records we’ve been listening to a lot recently, both together and separately:

J Dilla- Donuts
Chad Vangaalen- Soft Airplane
The Octopus Project- Ten One Hundred One Thousand
Swans- My father will guide me up a rope to the sky…
Grinderman- Grinderman 2
Madlib Medicine Show- Flight to Brazil, volume 2
Howe Gelb- Sno Angel Like You
Lee Hazlewood- 13
Lee Hazlewood- Requiem for an Almost Lady

As for your second question, we don’t consciously pull elements from the music we listen to. Again, the writing we do together is more natural; whatever happens just happens and we go with it. The fact that we use electronic drum elements means that I’m probably subconsciously pulling ideas from bands like The Octopus Project, although I would say I’m equally inspired by simple, straightforward beats that bands like Joy Division used.

You’ve got a great minimalist sound. Do you subscribe to the maxim that less is more?

We do believe that less is more. I would say that it’s especially Mona who subscribes to that idea, as she’s always pulling tracks out, especially for the live show, which I’ll get to when we get to your question about that. But even on our recordings, we do keep it simple: hopefully not much more than a couple of guitars, a piano (or synth) and a drum machine, and vocals of course. She says it gives the songs space to breathe, which I agree with. We’re both fans of minimalist art; Mona uses that as an example with music: if you’re not using much, i.e. stacking tracks on top of tracks, then what you have has to stand on its own. Also, the space almost becomes part of the song, like the negative space in a photograph or painting.

Can you describe your releases to date and what you’ve got planned for the future?

Our first self-titled release came out in October/November 2007. Mona handmade about 800 covers (!) She painted some of them, sewed some of them, etc. As a side note, we’re actually bringing about 200 to give away on this upcoming tour. The covers for these are snippets of photographs that she took over the last few months; we cut them up to fit into the sleeves. Musically, the record was us getting to know each other, both as musicians and as people. It was also therapeutic, as Mona was diagnosed with breast cancer about 2 months after I moved up here, and we wrote and recorded it through her treatment and recovery. That also explains why my memory of it is almost nonexistent. There was a lot of more important stuff going on around us at the time.

After we toured Europe with the first record, we came home and started on the next, The Hot Summer. Since we record at home, we attended to it over the course of a few months as ideas were developed. For us, when we have a new idea, we put it down and move on. As soon as we had about 11 of these ideas recorded, we decided it was time to put it out. I consider us both to be pretty ambitious, so we try not to sit on these things for too long. The songs themselves we recorded with slightly better equipment, and hopefully with a tiny bit more knowledge. It helped that Mona’s friend Jeff Lipton, who’s mastered records for great bands like The Magnetic Fields and Karate, worked on ours. Somehow he turned a bedroom recording into something even more intimate, preserving that bedroom-feel sound but doing incredible things with the quality of the audio itself.

Lastly, Robber on the Run. This is the first one we didn’t release ourselves. Although it was a lot of fun with the first two, it’s an incredible amount of work. Not only did we have to handle the musical side of things, but Mona had to take care of the logistical art stuff and I had to do the publicity—and it was difficult to separate myself from the music and work like some kind of businessman. We were lucky and happy to strike up a relationship with the kind people at Own Records in Luxembourg. They had been fans of our first two records, as well as our previous bands’ records, so it only made sense for us to release this one with them. We started working on the songs immediately after The Hot Summer was released. It’s definitely the most mature sounding record we’ve done together, and I think the most representative. Many of the songs were written together, and although we still each came in with half of the ideas, there was more collaboration.

As for the future, Mona’s currently in school so she’s swamped. I’ve been working on writing for film. We still play, but we haven’t started thinking about the next record just yet. But I think we’re almost ready.

How does the songwriting process work within the band?

Sometimes one of us comes in with a full song, other times with a small idea to develop. Other times one of us turns up the amp and plays a note on repeat and it just resonates with us and we’ll run with it. There’s no real systematic process.

What sort of themes do you tackle in your music and what do you hope for your audience to take from your music?

Mona says she hopes that the audience walks away feeling like they heard something honest and real. She stresses the word honest, as we’re really not in it for any other reason than simply because we love playing. Lyrically, we both write our own kinds of songs, but in the end the common subject is the everyday things.

There are certain similarities with the likes of Sleigh Bells and Beach House. Do you feel part of a scene at all or do you strive for individuality?

We don’t strive for anything, really, and we don’t feel like part of any kind of scene. But Mona listens to Sleigh Bells when she jogs, and we’d be psyched to play with either of those bands.

What can audiences who haven’t seen you before expect from your live show and what do you personally enjoy about performing?

I’m really happy that you ask this question, because although before an impending tour I worry about how we’ll come across live, at the same time as soon as we’re finished I always wish that we could have captured that moment on record. Our live show can be loud, heavy, intense, intimate. A lot of people have told us afterwards that there’s something special about it.

Mona was initially worried about playing with a drum machine—she comes from a particularly non-electronic background—but she says that not only does she really enjoy playing and traveling this way, but somehow she feels that we’re getting something across that she hasn’t been able to do since her early days with her band Spore. A funny side note: Spore used samples, but it was a boombox that played cassette tapes controlled by an old telephone.

Basically, we both know that there’s some kind of live chemistry between us on stage that can only be experienced in a club setting--i don't know if it's possible to capture even with video camera-- and we can’t wait to get out there and start playing.

Have you performed in Prague before and what are your views/experiences of the city and your thoughts on international touring?

Mona played in Prague with Victory at Sea quite a few times. On our first and only Victory at Sea/Metal Hearts tour we played at the 007 club too. Mona loves the beautiful city and is always impressed with the amount of people that come out to support traveling bands. She’s already talking about drinking Absinth, and she wants me to drink it with her, so we’re figuring out how we’ll get the car to the hostel. We live this way, always planning a month in advance.

Unfortunately, Travels missed one show on our last tour and it happened to be in Prague. We already had a 10-hour drive from the last city, and on top of that we got caught in a huge blizzard. It was actually impossible for us to make it there. Luckily, the longest drive for us on this upcoming tour is only 4 hours. And the drive to Prague will only be 1.5 hours, so we’ll be there! The promoter who offered to have us last time was incredibly nice about inviting us again. So I think that’s a good representation of the people of Prague.

And finally, what’s the funniest/strangest thing to have happened in your career so far?

Mona’s been doing this forever. She could write a book of bizarre tour stories but says she’s grateful that we don’t have any to tell from Travels’ “career” because those stories are never funny when they’re happening.

2010-12-06T13:03:00.004-05:00

i'm obsessed with numbers. (click on the map to blow it up.)

2010-11-29T16:07:00.012-05:00

It's hard to believe we haven't toured in almost two years. Mona's been a full time student and all around art-maker and I've been working full time and writing. Now we’re less than a month away from our 3rd European tour together and we’ve decided to properly document it. Thanks to our booking agent the drives will be much shorter, thus theoretically giving us more time to do this. Our plan is to record video footage of every show--we'll record a separate audio track too--walking tours of every venue, and basically anything else we have time to archive--the drives, radio shows appearances, etc. (It sounds more glamorous than it is.) Hopefully we won't be documenting anything traumatizing. And hopefully we won't just end up with nauseating footage of the inside of our moving car.

Worst case scenario: this is the last you'll hear from us until we're back because we'll get there and suddenly feel much less ambitious.

Anyway, we'll try to post bits and pieces of the footage here, but ultimately it all depends on how much our old laptop will be willing to process. Otherwise we'll try to write about the shows here and post photos and then edit the files and put together a proper DVD and live audio CD-R when we're back.

We fly out on Christmas Day and return in late January. We'll miss the cats and our apartment, but we won't miss the smell of shitty litter boxes. Luckily Mona caught Enchilada's diabetes early and got him set up w/ insulin and syringes for when we're gone. (don't worry, he won't be giving himself the shots; we're training the other cats.)

As for merch, we’re bringing limited tour-only artwork (remains of photographs Mona had to take for school last semester) for our first self-titled record (see below). And we’re giving them away for free at the shows! We'll make sure we save a pile for the last week of shows. We’ll also be traveling with copies of The Hot Summer and Robber on the Run.

I think that’s all I have for now. Here’s one of the setlists we’re ready to play. We'll be doing a similar but slightly shorter set at the going-away show at PA's on the 17th. I can't wait to be engulfed in sound for a month.

1. Fiction
2. Burr Song
3. Smile
4. There is Movement
5. The Forgotten
6. Favorite People
7. 65 and Sunny
8. Olivia Hurt
9. Staring Back
10. Swimming
11. Friends in Bands
12. Warm in Winter
13. City Lights
14. The Smell of Kerosene
15. Untitled
16. Shine
17. What You Haven't Seen

p.s. have you already seen the video Mona made for Smile? check it out:
http://vimeo.com/12033655

some copies of the first record that we'll be giving away:

and the tour postcard: