heather

07 Dec 2010
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Holiday greetings

Greetings from Eux Autres’ North Pole Workshop!

We are writing to share some special holiday glee with our friends.

First off, we have a few limited-edition red vinyl copies left of our Another Christmas at Home 7″ for sale in our store. The A side is our original Christmas song, “Another Christmas at Home.” The B side contains two covers: Slade’s masterpiece “Merry Xmas Everybody” and the Jacobites’ “Teenage Christmas.” The CD version of this album is out of print, but digital copies are available at Bandcamp, or any of your favorite digital music retailers.

Our staff of Christmas elves are standing by to ship your record immediately. Act now, or we’ll have to downsize!

Secondly, our version of “Teenage Christmas” is featured on Christmastime Approximately, released by England’s Where It’s At is Where You Are Records. It’s a great compilation chock-full of 20 poptastic tracks. There are a limited number of FREE downloads of the entire compilation, or you can order the CD version.

We hope your holidays are going swimmingly, wherever you are.

Thanks as always for listening. Without you, we’d be sad little melted snowballs in the gutter.

30 Nov 2010
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“Go Dancing” video

Hello friends!

Our record Broken Bow came out last Tuesday. Today, we have released the first video, “Go Dancing.” Many of you fellow Replacements-nerds will recognize the homage to the seminal anti-video, “Bastards of Young.”

Hopefully all your pre-orders have arrived, and your holiday seasons are going wonderfully. We hosted our first band Thanksgiving here in San Francisco, and now we’re writing new songs for a January studio visit.

Stay happy and well.

-Heather Autre

P.S. Your Aunt Thelma secretly wants a vinyl copy of Broken Bow for Christmas. She told us so.

01 Nov 2010
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Wild Flag shows added to West Coast Roundup

As announced earlier, we’re playing some West Coast shows in honor of the release of record #3, Broken Bow. And now we’ve just added three new dates which will also feature the unveiling of power quartet Wild Flag. We are totally thrilled to be playing shows with this awesome lady supergroup.

Updated tour dates:
11/11/10 : Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern (w/ The Pomegranates)
11/12/10 : Olympia, WA @ Le Voyeur
11/14/10 : Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios (w/ Candy Claws, Chain Gang of 1974)
11/17/10 : Sacramento, CA @ The Hub (w/ Wild Flag)
11/18/10 : San Francisco, CA @ El Rio (w/ Writer) [RECORD RELEASE SHOW!!!]
11/19/10 : Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland (w/ Wild Flag)
11/20/10 : San Diego, CA @ The Casbah (w/ Wild Flag)

Come out, so someday you can tell your grandchildren you were there! (in the meantime, you’ll get your face rocked off.)

29 Sep 2010
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New song available for free download!

Hello friends,

It has finally turned into summer here in San Francisco, just as the rest of the country is crisping up. No more sweaters in August for us.

New news is afoot.

We have posted a new free download for our Single “Go Dancing” which appears on our forthcoming album, Broken Bow. Get it before the kids next door!

The full album will be out November 23. Just in time for your Thanksgiving playlist. We are super excited about this. It’s been a long time coming, and was the product of many many long distance commutes. The massively talented Jason Quever (Papercuts) recorded it, and we think it sounds great. We’ll be doing a pre-order next month, complete with a free gift for the first orders.

Also, we’ll be playing some shows on the West Coast late fall with some awesome bands. Look for updates here.

Confirmed:
10/27 The Rickshaw Stop (SF) with Allo Darlin
11/11 The Sunset Tavern (Seattle) with Pomegranates
11/14 Mississippi Studios (Portland) with Candy Claws
11/18 El Rio (SF) CD Release Party with Writer

Thanks as always for listening. We hope that fall brings everything you want.

01 Sep 2010
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No Nickels Back

8/27/10 – Elko, NV

We think it’s an awesome idea to stay at a casino. We are wrong. Except for the cover band playing Nickelback.

01 Sep 2010
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The Good Life

8/25/10 – Omaha, NE

I go for a run in the neighborhood and then meet my mom on the trail. As we’re walking home, we pass a bootmaker called Dehner boots. I’ve had my eye on this company for years, but never realized their factory was blocks from my mom’s house.

We walk into the office and an older gentleman dressed like one of the British Raj greets us. He suggests that he take my measurements just in case I decide to order boots someday. One of his associates interrupts us, saying that the gentleman needs to get going for his cardiologist appt. The man waves him off keeps measuring, then offers us a tour of the factory. Behind the scenes, ten people are hand-sewing custom boots. It smells wonderfully like leather. I spot a mirrored plaque that reads, “Kissing a man without a mustache is like eating an egg without salt.” Of course, the courtly proprietor has a white mustache.

Nathan and Yoshi and I hit some thrift stores and my favorite, Second Chance Antiques, then we all convene at Ted and Wally’s ice cream parlor for a malted. Malts are hard to come by in some regions of the US, which is a crying shame.

That afternoon, Mom makes us a Nebraska feast–cucumber salad, slaw, baked beans, barbeque ribs, and peach pie. My dad brings some good tequila. We go to the venue stuffed. And a little tequila-d, to boot.

The Waiting Room is by far the nicest club we’ve been in on this tour. The bartender turns out to be a friend of mine from junior high. All our friends and family come out and we have a great show.

My mom stays til the last second. Who knew she was built for this life?

01 Sep 2010
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Zombification

8/24/10 – Ames, IA

After a totally humane drive, we arrive in Ames, Iowa. I confess I love how Iowa looks. Rolling hills, cute farmhouses. It’s one of my favorite states. Nick’s special friend Sara is along for the ride, and it’s sort of embarrassing for someone else to see how far we’ve devolved. We cackle maniacally at the stupidest things. It’s like a loony bin on four wheels.

The tour is nearing its end, and we’ve had an inversion of our expectations. We’ve showered every day–which is inconceivable. However, we’ve slept less than we thought humanly possible. Every day is a Sophie’s choice between sleep and “doing something”–breakfast, thrifting, hanging out, reading, whatever. If we sleep as much as we need, we have no life whatsoever outside of the car. If we don’t sleep enough, we get to seize the day, for at least an hour that is–but we seize the day as zombies.

I want to make everyone eat a Maid-Rite, a special strain of burger endemic to Iowa. (Nathan is still being virtuous about his meat consumption, but I think I can corrupt him). I use my phone to locate a Maid-Rite and walk us there. But the storefront is now a dodgy-looking tapas place. I grab a strapping Iowan boy on the street and ask where Maid Rite has moved to. He laughs and says it’s been closed for years.

I expect Christopher Lloyd to screech up in a smoking DeLorean at any second.

Our show reminds me of the shows I went to growing up. All ages, in whatever space we could find. (For example, a very early Pavement show while the leadership of the Fraternal Order of Eagles stood around with their fingers in their ears.) But in many ways, those are the best sorts of shows. Everyone is there to see the music. Not to get drunk or pick up girls or whatever.

The show end early enough that we decide to drive to Omaha, where we each will have our own room. Everyone except me–I’ll be shacking up with my mom.

Mom wakes up at 2 AM when we arrive, and stays up til 4 with us. She is officially on Rock Time.

28 Aug 2010
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Hold My Life

8/24/10 – Minneapolis

Yoshi and I rise early to go walk around Oak Park and look at Frank Lloyd Wright houses. It’s cool to imagine the furious neighbors a century ago, complaining about the eyesore going up next to their houses.

Our objective is to get to Ames, Iowa, one of the shortest drives we’ve had on the entire tour. This means we actually get to hang out in Minneapolis. I use Chowhound to find a great breakfast place. There is a counter that runs the length of the room, and people are standing around waiting for a spot. It’s daunting for a moment, but we tough it out, and it’s so, so worth it–this breakfast is one of my favorite moments of the tour. The Replacements blare over the stereo, the chef is screaming at everyone in a familial way, the food is perfectly Americana. We linger for a while afterwards and have the waitress take our photo so we can remember this moment of total grungy bliss.

Before our long drive, we go hang out on the Macalester campus, Nick’s alma mater. The boys lay down in the sunny grass and I go for a walk. I end up in Whole Foods, having a long discussion with an employee about the vilification of kombucha. She blames Lindsay Lohan.

28 Aug 2010
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The Long and Windy Road

8/23/10 – Chicago

Another very long drive. We are bagging states like NBA players are bagging girls.

Chicago marks a major reunion for us. We are staying with Merch Man Mike, whom our devoted readers might recognize from our ’06 tour blog. We’ve invoked Mike’s name, his jokes, his stories many a time on this trip, and boy does he seem happy to see us.

He and his lady Annie have set out hors d’oeuvres and wine for us. They are nothing if not classy. Mike is like a brother to me and I keep looking around his apartment and saying, “You’re a grown up!”

At the show, i get to see my dear friends Tim and Vic.

We have a good show. The whole thing is very civilized.

Back at Mike’s I can tell he never wants us to leave. At least until tomorrow.

28 Aug 2010
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Trees Lounge

8/22/10 – Columbus

The compound’s patriarch shoos us out the door by noon, insisting we’re going to be late for our gig. At one point he yells, “Get OUT of here! GET IN THE CAR!” It’s nice to have that pressure be external for once. We’ve been carrying it around ourselves for over two weeks. Someone is always drill-sergeanting, and someone is always dawdling. But the duties seem to rotate among us; no one ever gets too calcified in his or her role.

The drive hurts. I mean really hurts. Our R&R seems to have backfired, sending our battered bodies into full-on “what-the-fuck?!?” mode.

We’re playing a club called the Treehouse. And the Treehouse actually has a tree in it. A giant tree strung with Christmas lights. It smells damp and rainy, but it has a fantastic jukebox. We put in a long queue, including plenty of GBV, in honor of their home state. Within two minutes of our arrival, Tommy, the doorman, tells us an amazing story about being arrested at Disneyland–he was handcuffed and put into a rowboat and forcibly rowed off of Tom Sawyer’s island in front of all the gawking children. Oh, and he watched Tinkerbell fall to her death. The guy spent a lot of time at Disneyland. Obviously, we bro-down with him all night.

Our crowd is small but attentive. As we’re loading, a Bulgarian music aficionado named Boris tears up the alley in his car, nearly running over Yoshi’s drums. He hits the brakes, spitting gravel everywhere. He leaps out of his car, inquires about merch, and peels some cash from his fat wallet, purchasing our entire discography.

People, we have ourselves a patron.