En route to Cleveland

xBsode oNe: Pittsfield, MA

Enjoy our first in a series of tour videos! Stay tuned all week long!

In french please

This post will be in french. It’s too bad if you don’t understand French because I am revealing very interesting details on Jeb’s and Johnny’ weird habits. It almost as good as a US Weekly.
Too bad you don’t read French.
I would accept $100 to write the next one in English.

Bonjour mes ti-amis du langage français.
La tournée américaine du meilleur groupe au monde, The Xbians, se déroule à merveille. Nous nous sommes rendus en sécurité maximale à Celveland, Ohio. Une chance que des ambulances et des polices nous suivaient avec des sirènes, on est arrivé à temps pour notre show.
Ça s'est déroulé dans un joli studio de yoga sur une rue sombre de Cleveland. Nous voulions garder le spectacle intime, alors nous avons permis à seulement 7 personnes de venir. Évidemment, nous avons offert une performance très précise, avec un son exceptionnel. La perfection, c'est ce qui fait notre charme.
En chemin vers Cleveland, nous avons mangé beaucoup de doritos, inventé des mooves hiphop et pratiqué des tunes. Jeb, notre supra-chauffeur qui a conduit tout le long, a aussi joué beaucoup de Piano, ainsi que du Blackberry.
Je dois dire que jusqu'à maintenant, les paysages américains n'ont pas trop réussi à me changer les idées, mais j'ai des grandes attentes pour l'Indiana. (En passant, les policeman de Indianapolis, ils disent-tu: "I am an indianapolis police"??? incroyable)
On se rend à Chicago aujourd'hui, une route d'environ 6 heures. CHICAGO !!!!!! Chi city!!!!!! J'ai bien hâte. Quand il va avoir une pancarte disant « Welcome to chicago », comptez sur moi pour pumper du Kanye West dans le Juxbox… Nous dormirons chez un ami de la famille de Jeb.
La nuit dernière nous avons dormi chez Shanna, une amie de moi et Jeb qui a fait le yoga teacher trainning avec nous... elle nous a réveillé avec l'odeur de brioches amish et du café équitable.
J'ai des grandes attentes pour ce voyage. Mais à date, la vie de star, ça l'a ses hauts et ses bas. Par exemple, hier soir, après le show, j'ai trouvé ça dur de signer des autographes ... j'étais pas mal fatiguée.
Que dire d’autre? J’ai pas encore gagné le contrôle du rangement dans l’automobile. J’ai affaire à des garçons coriaces. Ils ont pas encore réalisé que je suis wiseness en personne, mais j’ai confiance que je vais bientôt être appréciée à ma juste valeur.
La vie de rock star, c’est un peu tout croche et poussiéreux avec peu d’heures de sommeil.
Je vous bless.
Je vous embrasse.
Je vous fais une petite tapoche sur la tête.
Mh xx

cleveland

it is 8:15 in the morning and we just woke up in cleveland. we are staying at jeb's very kind/hospitable friend shanna's sweet apt. last night we performed at a beautiful yoga studio in cleveland, studio 11. i found out after the show that the movie ¨deerhunter" was filmed there. jeb and mh performed a song together and jeb busted out his jebediah zonfiah rap. i did a magic show and we attempted to put down one of our beats live for the first time but only had computer speakers that we couldn't turn up loud enough to get people going. today we have to figure out a better way to power my mpc..people were still very supportive of us and donated $ to us. my goal is to pay for all of our gas with money we make from performing at random places. we might do a spontaneous performance at a rest stop today. im having a very hard time typing on this keyboard because its mh's and everything is placed all different and it has stuff like this ù and this ç

we got some sweet footage from the copperworks show and the show last night that we will be posting at some point today.

we have successfully turned the scion xB into a recording studio. the car powers my akai mpc and jeb's digital 4 track pocket studio. i made a new beat yesterday during our trip to cleveland. i plan on recording and mastering it today while we are driving to chicago.

that's all for now..much love to all my homies

-johnny

xBians: KICK-OFF PARTY, TOUR UPDATE + PROMO VIDEO

Hey y'all,

If you haven't heard, our kick-off party has changed locations. We are no longer at Dream Away :(. Yeah. It kinda blows. But an equally phat offer came our way in the form of Copperworks, Pittsfield's best new venue. Opening at 8 will be Johnny doing his magic thang followed by the xBians celebration at 9. Closing out the night will be a special performance and dance party by Electro Bandit starting at 9:30.

Copperworks
34 North Pearl Street (at Melville)
Pittsfield, MA 01201

Our tour is shaping up nicely. A few theaters here, a few parking lots there. Here's the current run-down:

9/28 Pittsfield, MA Copperworks
9/29 Cleveland, OH Studio 11
9/30 Chicago, IL tba
10/1 Omaha, NE tba
10/2 Denver, CO UWP Warehouse
10/3 SLC, UT Mormon Tabernacle
10/4 Reno, NV tba
10/5 Grass Valley tba
10/6 San Fran, CA tba

We still need beds in SLC and Reno!

And finally, our first video, shot and edited exclusively with the Tony Hawk Helmet Camera:




Thank you for all your support so far. We'll stay in touch!

peace,
johnny, m.h. and jeb

xBians, the band, the record, the tour

Hey y'all,

Thank you for visiting our blog. I hope you are well and enjoying life.

After six wonderful years of living in the Berkshires (and one in Albany, NY) I am moving to New York City. It has always been my dream to live there. I will continue to play music with my band mates, all of whom have become NYC residents in the past several months. In preparation for city living, I am downsizing, selling or giving away much of what I own. For the first time since probably age 16 I will go car-less… I am selling my car to my parents in Seattle, WA and driving it to them at the end of the month with my new band: xBians.

When I heard that Johnny Kearns of local electronica outfit Electro Bandit was moving to California to pursue his hip-hop dreams I offered him a ride. We thought to keep ourselves entertained on the road we ought to collaborate musically, put some songs together and book some gigs, he with his Akai MPC (sequencer/sampler/drum machine) and I with a Casiotone (tiny synth with cool beats). I recruited my fellow Kripalu yogini and close friend Marie-Helene Larose-Truchon to accompany us on the trip and to lend her sweet voice and ukelele to the mix. We all decided that it would be cool to document our trip with daily updates on a blog featuring pictures and videos of our performances/shenanigans. When my friend, producer Robby Baier (Melodrome), caught wind of the idea he enthusiastically offered to produce a record for us to sell while on the road.

The name of our thrown-together band is inspired by the car that made this all possible: my 2006 Scion xB. With the name tie-in and Johnny's hip-hop influence, we are also intending to attract the attention of the car company itself. Recently, Fast Company magazine featured an article about how Scion is signing non-exclusive deals with up-and-coming hip-hop artists offering vinyl manufacturing, promotion and distribution. Why not? We figure at best we become huge mega commercial pop sensations overnight. At worst, it's a damn fun way to deliver a car across the country.

We have everything in place for a successful tour minus two small details:

BEDS & GIGS

Can you help?

We plan to be in these cities on the following dates:

9/29 Cleveland, OH
9/30 Chicago, IL
10/1 Omaha, NE
10/2 Denver, CO
10/3 Salt Lake City, UT
10/4 Reno, NV
10/5 Grass Valley/Santa Rosa, CA
10/6 San Francisco, CA

We appreciate any help you can give that will support us on this trip!

Thank you,

Jeb

www.xbians.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/xbians


p.s. - our transcontinental adventure begins on Sunday September 28 with a tour send-off celebration at the Dream Away Lodge in Becket, MA at 8pm. CDs will be available for sale.