Portland, Oregon. It's cloudy. In the Pacific Northwest, it rains all the time. Drive out of the city, pass the last espresso hut and you're amongst the endless trees and owls in a white lodge/black lodge zone. Nothing is as it seems. And it rains. All. The. Time.
That’s not a negative, really, as Bill Hicks may well have been right about summer. The atmosphere of Portland in the drizzling winter means there are fewer distractions.
That’s essential for redefinition and rediscovery once you’ve achieved everything you initially set out to do, and have a burning desire to continue moving into regions so far undiscovered. Practice every day, work on new material, a new sound, and start recording anew. Don’t forget, The Mint Chicks are now playing as an unknown band again, and you know what? It feels good to be back in the struggle.
There’s a lot to do. Playing live up and down the Pacific coast, causing a bit of trouble at SXSW for old time’s sake, making friends with Morrissey’s guitarist, impressing old school LA punks, and being offered recording and production assistance from characters as varied as Adrian Belew of King Crimson, the producers of Peaches’ Impeach My Bush, and various Breeders affiliates. You take the rough with the smooth.
But the USA is a vast continent, and not all the bands you come in contact with are kindred spirits. Luckily, there’s always the option of taking a break from hearing all that current buzz-music which sounds like a skipping-CD Beach Boys meets the Lion King soundtrack, and making a quick trip back home to New Zealand for a national tour. That’s right, back to the people who were with them all the way, or at least since the second album. As they say, you can take the band out of New Zealand, but you can also welcome them back for a few weeks. Especially since nobody has any idea what the changes of all these months has wrought.
It seems like we’ve been without The Mint Chicks for a long time, but now everybody gets to see them again, if only briefly. And the underground hip-hoppers who make up the community of the district where the band reside in Portland will probably be breathing a sigh of relief that for a few weeks they won’t have to be bothered with the question, “Who are those weird guys?”
That’s a question most of us here have already answered, to some extent.
THE MINT CHICKS AUTUMN NZ TOUR:
THURSDAY APRIL 24: TAURANGA - COLISEUM
FRIDAY APRIL 25: AUCKLAND - KINGS ARMS
THURSDAY MAY 1: DUNEDIN - RE-FUEL (ALL-AGES EARLY SHOW / R18 LATE SHOW)
FRIDAY MAY 2: CHRISTCHURCH - AL’S BAR
SATURDAY MAY 3: NELSON - PHAT CLUB
THURSDAY MAY 8: PALMERSTON NORTH - BAR MODE
FRIDAY MAY 9: WELLINGTON - BAR BODEGA
SATURDAY MAY 10: HAMILTON - YELLOW SUBMARINE
Tickets from Real Groovy, Tracs Records Tauranga, Everyman Records Nelson, Mango Music Palmerston North and CDS 4 Nics Hamilton.