The very good-looking "Possibilities" in Fort Davis, TX. (21 miles away from here) On Flickr.
It's been months. Since we last spoke, Claire and I drove down the west coast of the United States and made our first stop in Los Angeles about 16 hours after leaving Portland (epic time!). We hung around for a couple days then headed off to Tucson to visit our friend Molly, then on to here, Marfa, Texas, where we've been living for almost two months now.
We essentially came here to complete new projects in what we thought would be a mild (and slightly more social) version of isolation. This has proven to be a pretty inaccurate assumption on more levels than we could have anticipated. First off, the people we've met here have proven to be great friends that we hope to keep for years and years. Secondly, this town is manic: both in its physical being, which has delivered giant cartoon-like snowflakes and 80-degree sunshine over the course of 72 hours, and in its incredible social climate. Claire and Flint have compared it to their "college years." There have been many events ranging from artist talks to minimal techno DJ sets in our living room. True story: the only party in Marfa we chose not to attend, out of sheer overload, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were at. Sometimes we have to make an effort to stay at home and work on our junk. Other days we have really felt the smallness of Marfa. There is no Thai food. One time we had to drive 25 miles to buy an ink pad. No one here has a Nintendo Wii for us to play. There is only one FedEx drop box and the post office is closed on Saturday.
Flint has not been this social, ever.
Claire actively says "y'all" now. It's actually a pretty effective and endearing phrase.
On top of our manic social life here, we went ahead a invented a laptop sleeve and subsequently started a real deal by-the-books LLC business. We never saw this coming! We watched Steve Jobs' keynote address and we instantly had an idea that we decided to fully realize. I'm a huge fan of this kind of fast action, but neither of us expected this project to yield such an immediately intense response. We thought we would sell 100 tops. OK, I don't want to type about this anymore. It has been such a rough and crazy experience starting this weird business. What next?
We thought we'd self-isolate and work on projects in Marfa, occasionally kicking back to drink a Lone Star while watching the tumbleweeds bluster by. That would have been nice, but we fully transcended that way of life by adopting some relentlessly fun hang-out patterns.
When we're not freaking out about our accidental laptop accoutrement empire, we're spending a lot of time with our Marfa friends, like our across the street neighbors Anthony and Alex, who are epic BFFs from Marin county who moved to Marfa for the hell of it to make awesome music together and snack super hard. Marfa is all about making your own fun: playing checkers in theJudd foundation parking lot, drinking beer on the roof of the radio station, and driving an hour to Fort Stockton to go the arcade. In any case, we're so happy that we've met all these amazing people in town, and we wouldn't trade our time here for anything.
We've also been lucky to have some great visitors from the Northwest; friends who braved the crappy flights and 3 hour drive from El Paso to come vibe the desert. Curtis came for a week and we threw a huge party for him, drank chocolate cokes, and went to see the Marfa lights(get into it). My parents spent a cool weekend here, too, and our friend Rich Jensen was an amazing houseguest: by the time he left, he was saying that he had more friends in Marfa than in Seattle.
We're excited to leave for tour soon, but we'll definitely be back.
Really, we're in love with Marfa. Here are some more photos:
We're leaving Marfa on the 5th of March to return to our on tour forever lifestyle. We'll be back in Portland only for a couple days before sticking around for a bit in the middle of May and making some new music and/or product stuffs. We are so stoked to tour with Vampire Weekend!
YACHT: STILL ON TOUR FOREVER
3/5/08 - Santa Fe, NM @ College of Santa Fe
3/6/08 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Mirage Hotel & Casino (The Beatles Revolution Lounge)
3/7/08 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Natural History Museum Los Angeles (w/ Why?)
3/12/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Emo's Main Stage (2:15pm)
3/12/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Fader Fort (6:45pm)
3/13/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Wave Rooftop (11:00pm)
3/14/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Ms Bea's (2:00pm)
3/14/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ Urban Outfitters (3:00pm)
3/15/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ BUST Magazine Party (3:00pm)
3/15/08 - Austin, TX (SXSW) @ JellyNYC Texas Garage (9:00pm)
w/ Vampire Weekend:
3/19/08 - San Diego, CA @ The Casbah (SOLD OUT)
3/20/08 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey (SOLD OUT)
3/22/08 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent (SOLD OUT)
3/23/08 - San Francisco, CA @ The Rickshaw Stop (SOLD OUT)
3/25/08 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge (SOLD OUT)
3/26/08 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos (SOLD OUT)
3/27/08 - Vancouver, BC @ Richards on Richards (SOLD OUT)
3/29/08 - Missoula, MT @ Badlander (SOLD OUT)
3/30/08 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux (SOLD OUT)
3/31/08 - Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue (SOLD OUT)
4/01/08 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater (SOLD OUT)
4/03/08 - Minneapolis, MN @ The Triple Rock Social Club (SOLD OUT)
4/04/08 - Madison, WI @ High Noon (SOLD OUT)
4/05/08 - Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall (SOLD OUT)
4/06/08 - Chicago, IL @ Metro (SOLD OUT)
--
4/16/08 - Brooklyn, NY @ Studio B
4/17/08 - Annadale-on-Hudson @ Bard College
4/19/08 - Purchase, NY @ SUNY Purchase (w/ Deerhoof, High Places, & MORE)
4/24/08 - Rouen, France @ Club 106
4/26/08 - Paris, France @ Fleche D'Or (w/ Junior Boys DJs)
4/29/08 - London, UK @ Cargo
4/30/08 - Dublin, Ireland @ Whelans
5/1/08 - Galway, Ireland @ Roisin Dubh
5/2/08 - Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival @ Oh Yeah!
--
5/3/08 - Manchester, UK @ Charlies (w/ Health)
5/4/08 - Helsinki, Finland @ Kuudes Linja
5/7/08 - Bergen, Norway @ Straedet
5/8/08 - Oslo, Norway @ Bla
5/9/08 - Rome, Italy @ Dissonanze Festival
5/11/08 - Milan, Italy @ Atomic Cafe
5/12/08 - Faenza, Italy @ Clandestino
5/14/08 - Cosenza, Italy @ PRTYZN Vivo FESTIVAL!
5/15/08 - Pescara, Italy @ Mono
5/16/08 - Brussels, Belgium @ Les Nuits De Botanique
5/17/08 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Svenska Musikklubben
8/23/08 - Leeds, UK @ The Favesham
8/24/08 - Creamfields Festival
8/26/08 - Sheffield, UK @ Bungalows & Bears
8/27/08 - Brighton, UK @ Barfly
8/31/08 - Ireland @ Electric Picnic Festival
9/02/08 - Cardiff, Wales @ Shape Function @ Clwb Ifor Bach
9/04/08 - Bristol, UK @ Stutter
+ MORE SHOWS TBA
Also, http://yachtisyournewbicycle.com/
Dear god, is that 'western' song a MIDI? Also, I've been trying to get that Waffles invite for you, but they seem to be perpetually closed, but trust me, I'm trying
Yay - an update! Good to hear you guys have been enjoying yourselves. Keep up the mad work, can't wait for some more movies + music.
You're coming back to the UK soon, that's great!
I was reading dazed and confused today and Stephen Malkmus name drops Yacht in an interview.
I see Vampire Weekend will be on Saturday Night Live this coming Saturday. Hope to see you on NBC too!
love,
dad
YACHT @ Brussels in Belgium!!
Thought I'd never have the pleasure to see you in flesh ^_^
Can't wait!
Love from Belgium
XxX
I was going to go to your show in Minneapolis but I didn't realize how popular Vampire Weekend is and now it's sold out! Darn!
hey, you were excellent last night, you were also great opening for lcd soundsystem, keep it up and hopefully come back to LA and play some more all age venues!
Yacht,
I saw you in L.A., opening for Vampire Weekend. Immediately my friend and I really liked you. So imagine my distress when I discovered your show was so full of strobe lights, pointed directly at the audience! Yacht, a lot of people are very sensitive to strobe lights, myself included. They make me dizzy first, then nauseous, then immediately start a migraine- in which my vision is so blurry that I can't even drive home! Even though I closed my eyes, they seemed to come right through my eyelids anyway. I imeediately got sick and had to take a cab home, leaving my friend alone at the show before the end of the third song. You guys were delightful and funny, but because of your constant strobe lights, I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SEE THE BAND THAT I PAID TO GO SEE! And, as I mentioned, I had to ditch my friend. What an awful night.
Please don't do that anymore- a lot of people have a hard time with strobe lights, not just me. They are harsh and really not that funny.
I saw you at high noon saloon, vampire weekend couldnt come close to your energy, and also i enjoyed how you got the crowd involved. Great job!
Public Radio's "Marketplace" just used "I Believe In You" as a bumper for their last segment 40 min in the show. It is so cool to hear your music in unexpected places!! should be available tomorrow as their podcast. http://marketplace.publicradio.org/RSS/
love,
dad
Please tell me there is a Badger King tongue and tooth/Badger King break up split 12" or 2XLP in the works! Please!
I DRINK YOUR DORKSHAKE!
I GET IT! The fonts change to fit the "MOTIF" of wherever you are!
best part was jona's extending face touching post tobacco-juice discovery.