Hayden’s Blog

Land of Oz

August 30, 2007 – 11:59 pm
We’re in Australia, and the tour has officially begun. I’ve finally started to realise just how big this tour is going to be. We’re in Melbourne right now, and I’m absolutely exhausted after only 3 shows. But I’m getting into the swing of it I think. We’re just learning to get sleep when we can, because you can never bet on getting enough when you want it. Our first show of the tour, in Brisbane, was at a cool little venue called the Troubadour. The place had such a relaxing atmosphere, which was a good thing after a really hectic day of driving around in rush hour traffic and (trying) to get to interviews. Managed to miss what was probably the most important one, JJJ, because of a number of things. Mostly the fact that there are about 10 different Sherwood Roads in Brisbane, and it takes about 5 hours to get ...

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Cover page

August 3, 2007 – 12:47 pm
Well, after a certain well known international indie band decided they were too good to do any NZ interviews, The Brunettes managed to score the front cover of this month's Real Groove. Hoo-rah. The new album was finally released on Monday, which means the Brunettes PR machine is in full swing. I wish I played on the album (it was recorded over the last couple of years, so I kinda missed the boat by the time I joined the band), but the good thing is I can count it as one of my favorite records without sounding like a complete narcissist. And it is. I really really like it. Love it maybe. And even though I'm not on the album, I do get a little glory. If you order the CD from Lil' Chief's website you get a bonus colouring book. And just in the middle, right there in the back, just behind ...

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US Tour Dates!

July 15, 2007 – 10:10 am
Yuss, we've finally got our US tour itinerary more or less nailed. A holy jeebus it's pretty intense. It looks like we're playing almost 6 days out of 7, with some massive drives between consecutive nights. Oh well, you've gotta do the hard yards to reap the rewards I guess? Something like that... The good thing is, after a solid month and a half of driving across the US, we get to spend 2 weeks in NYC right on my birthday. I got kinda excited, so went ahead and drew a rough tour route on google maps: Here are the dates. The venues aren't confirmed yet. 5 Sep 2007 8:00 p   Vancouver, British Columbia 6 Sep 2007 8:00 p   Seattle, Washington 8 Sep 2007 8:00 p   Portland, Oregon 11 Sep 2007 8:00 p   San Francisco, California 12 Sep 2007 8:00 p   Santa Cruz, California 13 Sep 2007 8:00 p   Los Angeles, California 14 Sep 2007 8:00 p   San Diego, California 15 Sep 2007 8:00 p   Tucson, Arizona 18 Sep 2007 8:00 p   Austin, Texas 19 Sep 2007 8:00 p   Denton, Texas 20 ...

Posted in USA, Tour Dates, brunettes | 2 Comments »

Devo

June 23, 2007 – 4:00 pm
I've always thought that Devonport sits in the most ideal part of Auckland. It's far enough away from the city (by land) to have a safe, suburban feeling to it; yet it's close enough to the city (by ferry) to enjoy the convenience of a central suburb. And then, of course, it's on the waterfront. All that and my girlfriend lives there. We played two gigs on Saturday. The first was an all ages show, upstairs at the Masonic Tavern. Having never played a show during the day, we were a bit worried about how dry it would feel with the sun beaming through the windows. But it all went fine. It was dry; not as dry as expected. And the view of the harbour was a great distraction while playing. There is something kinda strange about playing to little kids. Most of them sat there with such deadpan looks on ...

Posted in All Ages, Devonport, brunettes | No Comments »

The Southern Isle

June 8, 2007 – 7:18 pm
Great. I've proved yet again that I'm hopeless at updating. So, 2 weeks after the fact, I'll let you in on the highlights of The Brunettes' south island excursion. I've decided I could happily live in Dunedin if I wanted to. I've found it kind of depressing and boring on previous trips, but this time it felt like the kind of place people had previously described it as; gothic, creative, snug and interesting. We flew into Christchurch from Auckland on the Thursday night and drove straight to Dunedin, which made for a good full day for general bumming around on Friday. There are some great second hand clothing stores in Dunedin, but for some reason I've lost interest in op shopping. The bar we were playing at was right in the middle of the university (kind of like a grotty version of Shadows I guess, but with a bit more character). The ceiling ...

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Slacking off

May 12, 2007 – 2:55 am
Man I'm slack at keeping a blog. So, our first Auckland gig went really well after some initial technical problems and general stressing out. 20 mins of the set aired on National Radio today (after a fair amount of tweaking from national's sound engineer...). Anyway, the Kings Arms was fairly full by the time we played - we got around 350 people through the door - which was a relief after the disappointment of Hamilton. I didn't see Teenwolf and Pie Warmer this time, but they sounded good through the floor of our band room, no less. Heather. KA 27th April 07. Me and Jonathan. KA 27th April 07. The next weekend we were off to Palmerston North and Wellington. Having experienced many hire vans before we were pretty amazed with the one we got. A brand new Ford Transit, tinted windows, and enough seats for us to all have a spare seat ...

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Take the bypass. At all costs.

April 28, 2007 – 11:52 pm
Well, it's only been about a month since I started this blog and already I'm getting slack at updating it. The Brunettes have played the first two shows of our NZ tour, and The Cosbys played their last show ever last night, so let me update you on all of them in different posts (WHEN I GET TIME...), starting with Hamilton... Diggers Bar, Hamilton - 20th April Basically Hamilton sucked balls. Well, most of it did. We had about 15 paying people come through the door of the terrible bar we were playing at. There's something that doesn't really sit right in your mind when you arrive at the venue you're playing at that evening and a covers band is setting up in the front room - their name on the blackboard, no mention of your show. "Oh, hey, you guys are playing in the back room tonight." So there we are, setting ...

Posted in stuart island, Hamilton, crap bars, covers bands, brunettes, pies | No Comments »

Not long to go

April 4, 2007 – 3:05 am
Well, we've now got just over 2 weeks to get our shit together. The Brunettes' first gig in our national tour is on the 20th of April in Hamilton. Ok, so Hamilton isn't the most glamorous of places to start your national tour, but we figured we should probably have a bit of a practice gig before we perform to our home crowd at the Kings Arms on the 27th of April. No offense Hamiltonians. From there it's on to Palmerston North, Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch, Hamilton again, Napier, and Devonport of all places. See the tour schedule on the right for dates and venues. Her Hairagami Set, the first single off the album (called Structure and Cosmetics, by the way) has made its way to number 2 on the bFM top ten after being on playlist for a mere week. The choice thing is I neither wrote nor performed on the song, so ...

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Fucking Blogs

March 3, 2007 – 7:25 pm
This is my first post. So, I don't particularly like blogs. Well, I like other peoples' blogs, but I never have the time to keep my own. But since I'm going away I thought I should probably put some effort towards letting people know where I am, what I'm doing. All that crap. I'm hoping I'll take enough photos to rely mostly on posting them and doing a minimal amount of typing. But, with all the downtime I imagine I'm going to have perhaps I should fill time by typing. I guess I should explain what all this is about. Well, a couple of days ago I joined The Brunettes. They're going on a tour around the US and Europe to promote their new album. And I'm going with them for 4 months. It's going to be rad. I'm pretty fucken excited. So, in the next 3 months before I go I'll be leaving my ...

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