OMG! WE TOTALLY READ JANA’S DIARY!

By now, you have no doubt read somewhere that much of Jana Hunter and tour-mate Ray Raposa (Castanets) gear was stolen while in part of the hella suspect non-Texas part of the country. Sucks. Sad story condensed for those not in the know: The pair were in Tuscon, van door got damaged and couldn’t be locked, Ray slept in van, triflin’ bitches quietly open van door and jack gear with Ray inside. Check out the story on Pitchfork for all the details. If you are of good heart, consider donating some scratch to help get some replacement gear in time for the next leg of her tour – paypal it to mutualincarnation@gmail.com.

Sadly, that wasn’t the only mellow-harsher on the tour, as Jana originally set out with Ray and friend/photographer/driver of van Yoni, who got sick and had to fly back to Portland before the tour was even over. Damn.

And what a mellow it was, for it seems like, up till then, the tour was going pretty well. HOW DO WE KNOW, you may ask? WELL – like you know we would, we’ve gotten a sneak peak at Jana’s tour diary, one that she was keeping for the good folks at Plan B Magazine. HIGHLIGHT REEL:

Playing with Dan Deacon:

we played on oakland with dan deacon, video hippos, scary mansion and michael leviton. i've seen dan and the hippos several times before, but never played with either, and found it kind of intimidating. these are acts that compel dancing, among other things, directly and indirectly. people sometimes say that our performances are compelling, but it's hard to know what exactly, if anything, we compel people to do. regardless, our show was good, maybe the best of this tour to date. one label boss said, just as he did last time, that it wasn't even all that bad. video hippos and dan deacon were fucking great, and i danced, against my will. i got to see dan's extensive stretching routine, some awesome kids lit off fireworks, some friends had a refreshingly casual, intimate and disturbing conversation that involved, among other things, bestiality and "spotting," and the folks at 21 Grand were, as they'd been on a previous trip, truly wonderful.

Vegas and a show with Deer Tick:

i drove us to vegas. we're still mostly rocking yoni's double ipods full of heavy jams and ray's booted copy of the most recent lil wayne mixtape. we got to vegas very early. i'd never been. it's been 13 hours now, and i still think of it as i first saw it, as a series of strip malls, everything stinking of the past decade or two at most. i had a conversation with a deer tick member at the show about how it's difficult in vegas to associate it with any of the references pop culture has made of it most of our lives. we played an in-store; folks were nice. yoni and i fought-danced while ray played and got a disapproving-dad look that turned out to be a jealous-of-your-fun look. we played with deer tick and jacob smigel at night in the live room of a magic studio, and didn't learn any tricks. there was a hidden doorway, behind a secret bookcase! castanets threw in a set, during which i made a booze run for castanets. i shot-gunned a beer for, somewhat incredibly, the fist time right before out set. i liked our set very much, but it was most certainly not played to our crowd; it was loud and cryptic, quite indulgent.

deer tick as a full band is a full-blown emotional experience for me. i wouldn't necessarily expect this effect on anyone else, but i cried. fantastic.

Gotta love Deer Tick. Not only has he recorded a duets album with Jana, but, as we previously reported, his is to be the first release by the local Feow! label (War Elephant, currently slated for a September 2 release). Yuss. We’ve bumped into Jana a few times since she’s been back, and gotta say her sprits are high all considering. Ever the prankster, she has already been to the gun range, and texted people standing right next to her about her show tonight. And speaking of tearjerking, we are bummed as a hobo to be missing tonight’s happening at The Orange show (we will be DJing at the GRAB) which has a totally wicked aces lineup, including Jana, The Castanets, Pink Nasty and Macon Terry. Its an early one – 7pm, so get there and take pictures for us. No, really, take pictures.