MAY 8, 2008 NEWS! SUMMER TOUR! NEW ALBUM OUT SEPTEMBER 9! THE ETTES head to Nashville this week to play a show with our friend Grimey at THE BASEMENT on Friday, May 9th. Ya heard. RELEASES: THE ETTES are happy to announce that LOOK AT LIFE AGAIN SOON, our second LP and follow-up to SHAKE THE DUST, will hit the streets via the fantastic TAKE ROOT RECORDS (and on 2FER in Spain) on SEPTEMBER 9, 2008, with a digital release date AUGUST 9, 2008! We'll be having the release show and party in the hometown of TAKE ROOT (and of our delightful new management GUERILLA MANAGEMENT) in beautiful SAN FRANCISCO to kick off the ensuing fall tour, so stay tuned for details on that! It begins. TOUR: THE ETTES start tour with THE BLACK KEYS on May 19th at the Astoria in London. That show is SOLD OUT, but we do a reprise on May 29, and tickets are still available for that one! Check dates and info at www.myspace.com/theettes, but here's the rundown of our UK/Euro tour dates: May 9 2008 9:00P More dates to come! Check the myspace site for the most up to date tour dates! XO from THE ETTES
APRIL 3, 2008 THE ETTES IN MAYS: May 2004 - The Ettes officially exist, man. Poni and I are cool with being an air band, but Jem suggests we pick up real instruments. They're real in our mind, man. SQUARE! xoxo coco March 31st, 2008 SPRING TOUR WITH THE BLACK KEYS! Monday, May 19 - London - ASTORIA March 25th, 2008 WIKITY WIKITY WAHHHH! Now THIS is news. Apparently you can Wiki us now. That's a verb. Wiki. If you go to www.wikipedia.org, you can type in "The Ettes" and get a very tidy, succinct and (I'm happy to report) pretty accurate article about us. I'm so proud! Now my mom and friends from school will TOTALLY believe that we're in a band! xoxo coco March 18th, 2008 From NME.com: THE ETTES BLAST THROUGH SET AT SXSW The Ettes performed to a packed house at the NME party at Wave in Austin tonight (March 15), on the home stretch of the three-day party. Bringing their fast-paced brand of rock to the stage at 9pm, the trio performed 11 songs, a selection of which were taken from their new vinyl-only album 'Look At Life Again Soon'. Singer Coco Hames was clearly grateful at the large numbers that turned out to see them saying "I know there's a lot of stuff you guys could be doing with your time right now and I just want to say thank you. And thanks to NME for having us." Bassist Jem Cohen battled through the set with a broken string until Hames asked him “Do you want my guitar and I'll play tambourine or something? That busted bass is really boring me!” The band managed to get the crowd involved in a mass clap-a-long during 'We Repel Each Other' bringing their super-fast set to a close. FROM HARP MAGAZINE (c/o the epic and righteous Fred Mills): The Ettes (Wave Rooftop, Saturday): Judging by the crowd crush before the band’s set even began, this was one of those proverbial “buzz” sets. And the Ettes didn’t disappoint, feeding off the audience’s enthusiasm and serving up thrash-velocity tunes from their two albums. Two gals, one guy; femme-pop with a garage bent; hard-rocking fun from the get-go. A PLUS! Check out the great review of the vinyl-only release of LOOK AT LIFE AGAIN SOON in this issue of BUST MAGAZINE! You know, the one with Elijah Wood/Flight of the Conchords on the cover... We might frame the dreamy-Kiwi Tiger Beat shots for the van. Jem says Poni and I can do that if he can pin up the cast of Garth Marenghi. Also, I'm sure they learned their lesson, but do not admit the Ettes to a party and kick out their friends, or... else. Bastard in a basket! xoxo coco March 17th, 2008 A QUICK ONE WHILE HE'S AWAY Well... whew. This'll be an amalgo-blog because I wrote one just before we got to Austin but forgot to post it, so y'all get settled. Here's the news! The shows out to Austin from the southeast with the Selmanaires were awesome. We switched some CDs with them -- gave them our '90s dance mix and they gave us some easy listening. If you like pina coladas, you'd have enjoyed the drive. If you care to know the details of how uncomfortable it is to have some guy break into your hotel room WHILE you're in it, check that blog at www.myspace.com/theettes. I think the blog's named something in honor of shrimp busters. Best damn tarter sauce ever, Shreveport. Hugs. Come now! Check out the front page of NME.com news today for an apt review of another explosive show. And by explosive, I mean kapow. And by kapow, I mean, read the Rorschacht, Switzerland blog. This happens from time to time. www.nme.com/news/sxsw/35228 While Jem did indeed annihilate his bass, nothing can deter us, as you now well know. So Poni hammered on like nobody's biz, I cranked up the fuzz, Jem channeled some Pete Townshend and we did the loudest and most psycho-delic version of "We Repel" (our favorite gear-splosion exorcism) we've ever done. Yes, yes, I'm sure Greg's done it much louder, but what a great time. I really do want to thank NME for that festive sendoff to SXSW 2008. So thanks! Now, après-show, I mean... Poni can pull shapes, but there must be something about Jem's face, because he was getting kicked out of bars left and right. I only get surly with, you know... ANY authority figure, which is why I've been perilously close to getting us all arrested in New York (did you know a floor tom can be used as a weapon?), Berlin (sorry Hanno!) and now Austin. But it was late, dude. And I digress. Thank the Lord we made it through! SXSW was amazing this year, we met so many friends, new and old school; Diego (Spain tour manager and voice of hilarious future/imaginary cartoon characters!) and the Superdeluxe guys (we were intermittently funny! Swear!) and Jeff (the mayor!) and Cheap Trixie (Austin Rollergirl Extrordinaire!) Simon (Malma, Brak AND literature?!) and MANY more AND we got to see a lot of great shows. Awesome. Will post skandiluxe photos soon! In closing, friends, while "Ettes" certainly SOUNDS like "X" and we will normally correct you, you really should know Jem's not Exene and Poni's not John Doe, and for your lack of knowledge, we punish you by nodding in agreement at the band entrance door, "Uh huh, we're in X". So give us a beer. Love you, Austin. Semper Fry. xoxo coco PS - Poni sez she basically only remembers nouns, but can confirm the aforementioned.
February 29th 2008 GET THIS BEESWAX! The LPs have arrived! The artwork for LOOK AT LIFE AGAIN SOON was done by our very close friend ALEXANDRO SILVER-DURAN and it is incroyable. You will remember Alexandro from his previous paperwork prowess, and the new artwork is really electric on the LP. Open it up and you're visually accosted once more with the searing yellow vinyl! And the sound? Forget it. I wish everyone in the world could come over and listen to this LP. It's really EXACTLY what we wanted, so if you ever wanted to know what we sound like in our own mind tanks, you'll snag one of these LPs before they go bye-bye. Can't wait for next week when we do the celebratory in-store at PARK AVE CDS (get there early to see Vampire Weekend) and then tour begins on MARCH 6 at COMMON GROUNDS in Gainesville. I wonder if Tim Tebow will show and bring his Heisman. I heard that little Heisman trophy guy loves rock and roll. Of which there will be plenty, because we're also debuting SWIZ KIDS LOLLIES, where we spin the records that make us flip. So put your cat clothes on. xoxo coco p.s. Please do be aware that the MARCH 11 RELEASE of LOOK AT LIFE AGAIN SOON is on 12" VINYL LP ONLY. No CDs or downloads just yet, chaps! The transparent yellow vinyl LP is a LIMITED EDITION pressing of LOOK AT LIFE AGAIN SOON, which we're self-releasing and bringing on the road with us to SXSW. Stay tuned for details concerning the album's actual release...
February 11th 2008 Oh, how happy I am to be able to tell you THIS! The presale for our new LP is up and running! We have pressed a LIMITED EDITION yellow vinyl LP of our new album LOOK AT LIFE AGAIN SOON! We recorded it (like SHAKE THE DUST) with Liam Watson at Toerag Studios in London, and we're so excited that we have a rad limited pressing of it for you! We're touring out to SXSW in March and will have it with us on the road. If you aren't able to catch us on tour (see dates at www.myspace.com/theettes) then you can purchase the LP through our online store. The presale begins today, February 11th, with the release date scheduled for March 11th. CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY! Now check out our SXSW tour dates and come get a record, alla y'all! xoxo coco January 3rd 2008 Hellooooooooooooooooo! Hope the new year finds you well! We're going to celebrate the general month of January on the 18th in Brooklyn where our friends the Mooney Suzuki are hosting MTV's "Made" at Luna Lounge, a show that Poni and I think is so cute, omg y'all, one time, when we were snowed in the hotel in Massachusettes, we saw an episode where this girl really wanted to be a hip hop dancer... I mean, she just wanted it so bad! So if you're in New York on January 18th, do come by! The Nouvellas (a new incarnation of the Dansettes) will be there too (we embrace our co-suffixers and love parentheses) and it is cheap-as-free: $5 advance, $8 day of show! Hope to see you out! CLICK HERE to buy tickets for the show in advance! xoxo coco December 21 2007 EURO TOUR BLOG PART 6 GOREY, GOREY HALLELUJAH! I just picked up some Edward Gorey holiday cards to send out late, as I always do, so they'll arrive sometime in early January wishing you your happy holidays. I'm not that forgetful; I do it on purpose. Gives you a little post-holiday boost. Remember the good times. So here we are, back in the USA, and it has taken me a few days to remember my name and address, etc. PARIS was awesome, and our friend Simon shot some footage from the stage and everything, so we'll have a cool video of that show soon. After PARIS, we flew back to SPAIN (Ettes don't sleep!) and spent one last night with our papis at 2Fer and our dearest Diego, terrorizing the streets of MADRID. It was very hard to say goodbye to them, but a lot easier to say goodbye to our luggage, which is still meandering the skies. Dear Delta, please return our stuff, why you gotta play us like that, dang! Don't forget to check out www.myspace.com/theettes for photos of the European tour, and there should be a video up there of us in Amsterdam, too. Stay tuned for news of the Radio 3 "Top of the Pops"-style video from Spain, as well as the Parisian madness as captured by Simon. We have video documentation of us all up in Europe, I told you! And now, the Ettes will burrow down for the holidays in our borrowed nightclothes and Target undapantz, and sleep until 2008, when we will awake and come at you like eleven malicious ferrets! Mama, we've got a new record and a bonkers SXSW schedule, and that's only the beginning! Love you, miss you already, xoxo coco December 14 2007 EURO TOUR BLOG PART 5 BIFF! BANG! POW! Man, you shoulda SEEEEN the explosions last night in Rorchact, Switzerland! First, no sound. No sound! Then came the sound. Then, like a Batman villain, BIFF! Coco's guitar breaks! Then, BANG! Jem's guitar breaks! Then, POW! Poni's kick pedal breaks! It was a show of epic destruction and musical duct-tape reconstruction and we rocked it out! KAPOW! We also played with our favorite Austrian trash rock band, Man-Made Machine. We like them for their rock, but also because the drummer set a man on fire for hassling his wife. Pssh, they say chivalry is dead! And while the guitar player is simply too cute to hide behind his gimp mask, he CAN smoke a cigarette through the zippered mouth hole, so it's cool. He is the hero of the night, not only for their awesome set, but for lending me his Danelectro when my baby went out. We are on the train now to Montreaux, and languages abound! I can see if my French still works, Hanno has the German under control, and Jem's English is pretty good, so I'm sure we'll get by. We just have to find a music shop so we can attempt to fix the damage we did last night! Tomorrow we head to Paris for the final show on this European tour, and we are very excited about that. Though we'll only be in Paris for a mere 12 hours, we plan to eat as many baguettes as we can, and our friend Simon will be shooting the show for all to see! D'accord, a bientot! xoxo coco December 11 2007 EURO TOUR BLOG PART 4 SCISSOR ME TIMBERS! Poni and I have been giving ourselves slight daily trims. It passes the time backstage. Which is where we are right now! In AMSTERDAM! Last night in BERLIN was totally awesome, sweat storm of the century, with two encores and a LOT of fuzz pedal abuse! It was great. Our friends the Branded from Sweden were there, so great. Now we're in AMSTERDAM, Of Montreal is getting ready to go on stage, and we're getting ready to make us some cocktails! Someone is whistling that Christmas song, "Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up, let's go..." and I reckon it'll be in my head for the next eight hours or so. AMSTERDAM is beautiful, not surprising, and tomorrow we head to COLOGNE! Never been there either, and am sure glad we've got Hanno to German things up for us. I'm also looking forward to Switzerland, I wonder if we'll see some Alps. Rock on Chicago, rock on Berlin, xoxo coco December 10 2007 EURO TOUR BLOG PART 3 THE SHOW MUST GO... WRONG! Not really. The shows have been great! Last night in BARCELONA was a sweat fest for the ages! It was AWESOME! But it was bodily painful to leave Spain yesterday (Diego, noooooooooo!), and Poni and I both slept with our scarves wrapped around our faces to hide our tears on the flight to Berlin. But then we remembered, we're going back to Berlin! HOORAY! BERLIN! Amazing, amazing. We're back in the company of our German booker/host/hero Hanno, and are super excited to play Berlin again tonight! Bang bang! Tomorrow we leave inexplicably early for Amsterdam, and for those of you who can't make it (or hear Poni humming Supertramp songs to distract me from writing this) the show will be broadcast on the web (check the link below!) and we will see you there! xoxo coco AMSTERDAM WEBCAST - Here's a note from the our friends at FABCHANNEL: Tomorrow (December 11th) The Ettes will be playing at the Paradiso in This entire concert will be webcast live (in video and audio) at It's totally free to watch this webcast. Afterwards the show will be JEM
December 6 2007 EURO TOUR BLOG PART 2 IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT WHEELS... This and other deep thoughts have been roaming our minds and conversations as we drive around Spain with our tour manager and best friend Diego. Jem has put forth a new theory of the Evolution of Man, I have dramatically paraphrased about 20 books, and Poni has been coining such phrases as the aforementioned existential masterpiece, as well as the threatening "PREPARA TE!", aimed at our beloved Diego, because we do not intend to make his job an easy one. Spain is AWESOME! It is so great to be here, seeing the scenery, eating the food, hanging out with everyone. And the shows have been great! The Fernandos at 2Fer have been taking care of us and our last few gigs with Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts have been a blast. On my first tour of the US, when I was like 18, we listened to a mix with Joseph's "In the Sun" on it, and it's so cool to hear it live these days. I enjoy it so much that I've become Homer Simpson, asking them to play it like it's "Taking Care of Business", and then when they do play it, yelling "The chorus! Get to the chorus! Working overtime, work out!" Thrilled for Bilbao tomorrow, then on to Barcelona before we accost Germany, Switzerland and France! xoxo coco
December 3 2007 EURO TOUR 2007 BLOG Part 1 THERE WILL BE BLOOD!! Well, I mean, there already has been. As promised, THE ETTES have arrived in SPAIN and have brought our rock and roll and smiling violence to MADRID, GIJON and MURCIA! The first show was in GIJON ("hee-HONE") and it was sold out and so much fun. We've been doing some shows with our friends the Right Ons, getting into trouble, giving tambourines to strangers, etc. The show in MADRID was also sold out, a VERY good job done by 2 Fer/Pias Records. Do you know these guys? Two guys named Fernando? We met them at SXSW this year, and they've been taking very good care of us and our limited Spanish-speaking abilities. Speaking of which, Poni has been doing an excellent job of ordering food, asking directions, and having secret conversations in Spanish. I know several nouns, but was very glad to have her speak for us on Radio 3 about "Shake the Dust", the European tour and the new album. Then we played a little acoustic set for Radio 1 as part of their coverage of the film festival in GIJON. Also, I'm really enjoying the two-cheek kisses, Euro style. I'm enjoying kissing everyone we meet. It makes me giggle. Obviously, I'm very mature. Yesterday our tour manager and new best friend Diego drove us back from MURCIA ("MOOR-thia") where we caused a ruckus with Joseph Arthur and friends. We're in MADRID now, nursing our injuries (sprained thumb and shredded throat for me, bloody fingers for Jem, blistered hands and a busted lip for Poni) because it is time for the Radio 3 live show, with people and lights and everything! You should see this dressing room. It's an old studio, very Toe-Rag-ian. Where's my camera? We're putting photos up on our Myspace (www.myspace.com/theettes) so make sure to check in for the visuals on this tour. We've got another week in Spain before we head back to BERLIN, so I hope we run into Javier Bardem before we go. OR I hope we don't. If you've seen "No Country for Old Men", oh man, you will know what I mean. xoxo coco CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME PICS FROM THE TOUR!
October 29 2007 Thanks to everyone who came out in New York to hang with us! And now, we shall prepare for our visit to Europe! Everyone has been really cool in Spain, and we are so excited to go there for the first time. We're also visiting Amsterdam for the first time, and happily returning to Berlin and Paris. All our fall European dates are up on our Myspace, so check them out! For now, your Ettes are in another secret state of motion and commotion, so keep checking back for updates! xoxo coco September 29 2007 CALIFORNIA DATES POSTPONED Dates in California have been postponed! We will be on the East Coast, headed up to CMJ, but will definintely be back in California soon! September 21 2007 Lots of you have been asking us, "When did you meet?", "What does your name mean?" and "Where ARE you, anyway?" so I thought I'd write and let you know where the Ettes are, where we've been, and where we're going. Standard biographies and questionnaires will not suffice. This is Coco speaking. WHERE ARE YOU FREAKS? In Western North Carolina, between Asheville and Tennessee. There is a little house in the woods, lately we've been hiding in it when we're not on the road. But mostly, the Ettes live on your couch/floor/spare room/dog bed (it's been done, and I was comfortable, Hawk!) or in the van. It is a good van that is having electrical issues right now. Jem is going fuse crazy. Poni and I are letting him. When we were in England, the van sat in the Florida heat, and the carpet turned to mold. Mold. Turned. To mold. Now the van has new carpet, and is ready for the road, which she will be seeing again shortly. In this van, we sleep and listen to things -- things like "His Dark Materials" -- and attempt to learn conversational Japanese. WHY DID YOU NAME YOUR BAND AFTER A NOW-UBIQUITOUS SUFFIX? DIDN'T YOU KNOW THERE ARE LIKE 50 "-ETTES" BANDS OUT THERE? Uh... we do now? Though I think we did it for different reasons. Poni and I didn't mean it in a '60s girl groups in matching pink satin dresses singing "Be My Baby" kind of way, but more in an ironic (wow, we're girls, who'da thunkit, that's right) Switchblade Sisters kind of way. But anyway, since we ARE the ubiquitous suffix, by my kindergarten logic that means we are IN every "-ettes" band there is, and are FILTHY rich. HOW -- AND WHERE -- DID THE BAND FORM? Most of you know the Ettes are all individually from the East Coast of the United States. There are some creepy but very true similarities. All Ettes went to high school in Florida, Jem and Poni just miles away from each other. All Ettes lived in New York City after school. And then all Ettes moved to Los Angeles on a whim the SAME WEEK in October 2003, where we all met up and started this band. Poni and I met working in a shop. The first time we met, I thought she was too cool for school and she thought I was the boss. We were both right. Jem officially joined the band a while after Poni and I had been playing with several friends in the bass position. Then we got in a van, went bonkers all over the US, and went to London to record with our friend Liam Watson at Toe Rag Studios. That record is called "Shake the Dust" (SFTRI), and there are some 45s out there, too. WHAT'S UP WITH THE NEW RECORD? I like to entertain my whims and we are an impatient band. After touring for a year, we had all of these new songs and were ready to make a new album, so we went and did it. I took out a credit card to do it the first time, and so I did it again this time. The first one was an American Express Blue card. The second was a World Points Visa. They are both maxed out, have stupid APRs, and the credit card people won't give me any more of them. I really need to get that under control. But when you do things your own way, you get to make your own decisions, and I like that. Someday I'm going to have to pay these credit card people, but I'm not worried, because you know why? SOMEDAY IS FOR LOSERS! We've finished the second album, we really like it, and we're shopping it around to some people. We want it out and available to you ASAP, and then we want to tour more and bring it to you personally. We just can't stop touring. It's a compulsion. What can I say. We need to see you. WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR? In October, we're playing some dates up to CMJ in New York and taking some new pictures with our friend Matt Wignall (www.mattwignall.com) Our dates are always current on our Myspace (www.myspace.com/theettes) and will begin to be current here. Then we're hanging out with our friends at Bust Magazine, eating some pizza/eggrolls/bagels, visiting friends, and eating some more. I'm like Pac Man in New York. Not even Lady Pac Man, I don't even bother with a bow. Just chomp-chomp-chomp. After New York, we are going to Spain! We're going to play some shows and take some pictures for you. Then we're going to Germany and Switzerland and back to Paris, where our friend Simon will be filming the show. So even if you can't make it, we'll show it to you. So. Are the Ettes vaguely mysterious and endlessly mobile? Yes. But now you know most of what's going on, so I don't want you do be confused anymore, 'kay? Bye Jerri. xoxo coco
September 17 2007 The Ettes have finished the second album, recorded once again at Toe Rag Studios in London, England with Liam Watson once again at the helm. Today The Ettes are going to see Cry Baby at UNC Asheville because we're nearby and John Waters will be there this week. |
