CROSS CANADA TOUR

We just finished our first cross-Canada tour, and let me tell you, this country is fucking HUGE.

We spent over 120 hours in the van, traveling from Montreal to Vancouver and back again -- and boy, did our van smell SWEET near the end.

We drove over mountains, drove passed farms, drove through buttfuck-nowhere towns and cruised through cities with more lights than there are stars in the skies.

We saw eagles, falcons, dear, thousands of cows ( represent!! my people), horses, ponies, giraffes, pink elephants... did I mention we took acid? Just kidding. We only do crack.

Speaking of being high, driving through the Rockies was spectacular -- especially after driving through the plains for over 40 hours. The mountains were these giant towers filled with forest and waterfalls. We drove right through clouds up there, it was magnificent. There is something incredibly spiritual about gliding through majestic mountains while listening to Snoop Dogg, it's quite the experience.

I gotta say, I feel pretty lucky being Canadian. I mean, I took a lot of walks in the woods and I saw frogs, snakes, crazy spiders, and I thought to myself, 'How nice. None of these critters actually wants to kill me.'

I mean, in Australia, every living thing that crawls wants to sink its poison into you, but in Canada, there are no real creepy critters that wanna bite your bum -- except for me, of course.

Love CowBella

 

3:33 PM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

BLONDIE CAME TO OUR SHOW -- AND LOVED IT!

We'd played New York City for the first time last friday.

We were a little nervous because a bunch of big-time industry people were there, but right when we went on stage, Kim seemed particularly on edge. We've played showcases for important people dozens of times, but he was never this freaked out. What was going on?

Kim came up to see me and whispered, 'Deborah fucking Harry is here!'

It turns out our new music-buddy Guy from the band Goon Squad had seen us at Gay Pride in Toronto and decided to bring his friend "Debbie" to see us in New York.

I couldn't believe it. In terms of musical idols, Deborah Harry is up there with Tina Turner, Shiela E and Cindy Lauper for me. Blondie is a huge influence on us. We rent their videos and freak out at how incredible their songs are. I could only dream to write a melody as catchy as one of hers.

At the end of the show, I was packing up my gear and I felt a tap at my shoulder.

'Hey CowBella, my name is Debbie.' My knees shook. I turned around to see her. She was gorgeous. That wide, angular face with big, blue eyes framed by that famous, messy blonde hair... A true rocker -- and she was human. Flesh and blood breathing beautifully right before me. She took my hand and shook it. It was soft and warm.

'Great show, I really like what you do. You guys have a really good thing going. I wish you the best of luck,' she said.

WTF???? Deborah Harry liked us????

'Wow, thanks so much,' I said. 'That's an honor coming from you. We really need as much luck as we can get right now.'

She said, 'Oh, you always need luck with this type of thing.'

And then Sid came in, 'Hi! Hi! Hi! Wow. I'm Sid. I'm the drummer.'

'I know, ' she said, 'I was looking right at you.

She hung around and chatted with us for a bit. Then she was off before the next band played.

Deborah fucking Harry came to see us, and she loved it.

Now I know one thing for sure: There is a God.

CowBella 

8:18 AM - 5 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

WE ARE PLAYING THE APPLE STORE AUG. 21st

So the Apple Store just opened in downtown Montreal, and not only does it look super cool inside, they are having some of my favorite bands from Montreal play there.

This week we saw Woodhands, who were awesome, The Stills played, Plants and Animals, such talent and all good times,yo!

We are honored to be on the Apple Store roster. We are on at 7pm on Thursday, August 21^st. We're looking forward to shaking it up in a store this time. We've already done a classroom, but a computer store?

Luckily, people will not be throwing tomatoes at us. If they think we suck (which they won't cause we'll practice first, I promise), they'll throw apples at us – and not the edible kind… the kind of apple you can download stuff on, like Creature's No Sleep At All album that you "bought" off of "itunes" right? Rrrrrrright. 

See you there my fellow Montrealers!

4:15 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

DRUMMING ON THE BEACH TILL SUNRISE

The Magdalene Islands were one of the most beautiful places we've seen.

Turquoise, deserted beaches with white sand with miles and miles of red cliffs full of caves to discover.

If you're not looking at the beach, you're looking at rolling, grassy hills with purple and yellow flowers and bright-colored houses.

There are places that have wild horses running around and secret beaches where you can cover your whole body in clay.

You can literally spend the entire day naked on the beach and no one would find you – which is what one of our members did, but I'm not telling you who. Okay, okay, I'll give you a hint: We dedicated every show to "Sid's red lobster."

The nightlife there was awesome too. The kids at our shows were crowd surfing and boogying all night.

After our last show, people kept the party going by starting a bonfire where we all jammed on drums, guitars, beer bottles… whatever we could find.

This is when I was introduced to the Djembe drum. I was totally intimidated by it at first and unable to keep a beat. When people started running away in fear of my horrible drumming, our new friend Jaaz took Kim and I down to a secret beach at 4am.

We took our shoes off, rolled up our jeans and slammed on the drums while the water from the ocean rose up to our legs. We danced around and drummed and drummed -- our only listeners were the red cliffs that surrounded us.

I finally got a steady beat and was hooked, I couldn't stop; it was so primitive. Kim was like, "Awesome! You are all drummer WOMAN!" and it felt so good to hold down a big fat rhythm with a big fat drum at my womb while Kim made crazy noises and danced around in the red sand.

We drummed and danced and drummed and danced and there was no Lindsay Lohan, no billboards, there were no mirrors, no traffic jams or cellphones... just drumming and primal dancing to the sunrise on the beach.

I played until my hands bled. The next day I couldn't open door handles without screeching in pain, and I never felt better.

CowBella   

1:00 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

On Plastic Surgery

I am going to get facial plastic surgery

To make myself look older

CowBella

1:01 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Gay Pride Meets CowBella

GAY PRIDE QUESTIONNAIRE WITH COWBELLA:

1.      What are you most looking forward to playing Toronto Pride this year

We look forward to celebrating the freedom to be unique and extreme with people who are not afraid to be who they are.

2.      Describe your typical show in one paragraph.

At a Creature show, the crowd can expect to do a lot of head-bopping and hip-shaking, and if, from time to time, they look up at the band, they will see four really, really sexy people in hot outfits playing finely-crafted, danceable pop songs. There will be gold sparkles, crazy slick dance moves coupled with crazier guitar solos, and lots of cowbell. Most importantly, the people who come to a Creature show will see the four of us smiling and having a blast expressing our indiviuality through our instruments.

3.      Describe your sound in one sentence.

Dance-Pop-Party-Rock

4.      Have your parents seen your show yet? Their thoughts?

Yes, my parents have come to see Creature and ended up shaking their hot asses to all our songs -- several times.

5.      What has been your most embarrassing "performance moment" to date?

I had just finished telling all the women that we should stop caring what we looked like, and if we wanted to jump around like monkeys on the dance floor, then we should do it, damn it! So I started singing and jumping around like a primate when I felt something at my feet. I looked down to find my skirt had fallen off and was now hanging out with my boots. Based on what I had just said, I knew this was no time to be ashamed, so I kicked the skirt off and played the rest of the show in nothing but granny-beige nylons. Hot!!!!

Vinyl/Cassette or CD?

Cassettes in an old car with the windows down and the muffler dangling off the back.

Crunchy or Smooth?

Crunchy = more fun for the mouth.

Punk or Disco?

Punkisco

Black or White?

Blackest black

Day or Night?

Night until it becomes day

6:43 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

HOMOPHOBIA AWARENESS DAY

Yesturday was international homophobia awareness day.

So what did Creature do?

We motherfuckin played a show to celebrate the freedom to be who we are.

What's funny is we played at a university right in the town I grew up in.

This had particular meaning for me since the people in my highschool constantly made me feel wrong for experimenting with who I was.

You know, it was not cool to dress a certain way unless you did certain activities, and if you failed to do one of those activities but still wore that outfit, then you were a poser and you deserved to get the shit kicked out of you. If your were experimenting with other women, well then you had to "dress like a lesbian" and sit with the other "lesbians." 

For me, people are complicated. We aren't just one thing, we're constantly changing. So our personal fashion should be constantly changing as well. Your outfit should express your individual mood for the day, not the "group" that you belong to.

So if one day you're feeling particularly dark and the blue skies depress the shit out of you because they are too beautiful and all you can think is how ugly humans are, then go goth, baby! And the next day, if you love life again because you finally broke off with that bitch of a girlfriend for the guy you've had a crush on since grade two, then wear every goddamned fucking color of the rainbow damn it!

So last night at our show, there were lights, huge amplifiers and smoke machines... but it was still an auditorium in a school in my hometown and it was anti-homophobia day. The crowd was on FIRE! They broke free and danced all over the place, turning a stale room into a dancefloor party explosion.

We played the song Brigitte Bardot which is about free love in the 60s, and we all shook that motherfucking classroom to pieces. During Kim's guitar solo, he disapeared from the stage. I looked around for him while I frantically tried to play my notes and -- low and behold: he was walking all over the chairs with the little desks attached, playing his solo and jumping from chair to chair with the kids in the crowd.

It never felt more right. It was like we were saying fuck you to everything we were taught in highschool -- inside and outside of class.

Everyone in that room partied it up. We celebrated who we are now. We celebrated our bodies for the way they are and not what they should be. We celebrated our clothes, our dance moves, our freedom to be unique... and during the song Kandahar, we shook it for people all over the world who feel they have to hide who they really are inside.

All people really want is to love and be loved. Why this gets messed up with hatred and competition is a long and complicated story. But until then, let's change our minds, let's change our style. And let's smile while we get wild.

Love always,

CowBella

7:33 PM - 5 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

WE OPENED FOR MOTHER F*CKIN’ GZA!!!!!!!!

Texas was a blast. We opened for GZA -- that was the highlight for me. In highschool, I strictly listenned to classical music, so when i ran away to live in a trailor park in Florida, I was like, "What’s this hip hop thing? I don’t get it." So these guys gave me De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, KRS, Gangstar, Kool G Rap, Easy E, The Roots, Diggable Planets, OutKast etc., etc,. and Wu Tang Clan’s 36 Chambers, Wu Tang Forever, Method Man’s solo album, as well as ODB -- and GZA’s Liquid Swords.

My new trailor park Florida friends were like, "Go. Take these headphones, take these records and come see us in a month, young jedi. Oh, and take this weed too."

So I went to work. I put my Puccini and Chopin aside, and started listening to this rap stuff. I’d wake up at noon every day to a lovely breakfast known as a "bong hit" and went to work with the headphones. Day after day, I still didn’t get it. 

Then I heard ODB and his, "Yo bitch! You walkin’ wit yo’ bra on too tight! That’s a’ight! You’ still gonna get fucked tonight!"

And it was love.

I was offended. I wanted to hate it. But his jazz-influenced voice and RZA’s rugged beats... Why, my classically-trained head bobbed for the first time in my life. I put on 36 Chambers and there was no turning back. Method Man’s rhyme about green eggs and ham was bumping all day in the 1963 Chevy I got to drive once a week, and GZA pumped into my ears as I walked the flat Florida streets smoking my first blunt made out of a Black&Mild cigar. 

Months later, the other hip hop all made sense too and it was crushes on Andre 3000, Quest Love and Black Thought, and respect and honor for KRS -- I finally saw it all as art.

But Wu Tang will always be in my heart as the first thing that made me like hip hop the way I do.

So when Creature opened for GZA, we got to the venue and started unloading the van, and, from outside in the street, I heard, "To snort COCAINE! To act INSANE!" I screamed like Kim Basinger in Batman and ran inside, leaving all my gear in the street.

His show was a hit. He was beautiful and suave. No jewelery. Just a $2000 brown leather jacket, a brown shirt and a wireless microphone. It was an outdoor show with over a thousand screaming fans making the Wu Tang sign with there hands. And I wondered how many people there owed their love of hip hop to this man and his clan, just like me.

Love,

CowBella

6:14 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

DANCE LIKE NO ONE'S WATCHING The 12-Step Program

6:00 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

WE LOVE MIKA (AND THE BELL CENTER)

Mika is the SHIT! What a show. We all had crushes on him and all the super foxy, super friendly people in his band. Damn those British accents are sexy - where can I get one?

Their fans are awesome too. Everybody danced. No one threw tomatoes at us. The harshest things they threw were teddybears, which was great cause now I don`t have to go to bed alone at night.

The cream of the crop was playing the Bell Center. It was a wet dream come true.... definitely the wickedest day of my life. Thanks Mika, you hot, hot, amazingly talented, sexy thang, you!

Check us out at the Bell Center:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_Wx-_hSJow

May all your wet dreams come true too,

CowBella

P.S. Did I mention that Mika is really hot and sexy? Well he is.

10:13 AM - 5 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment