Dahlak IMed me from Amsterdam the other night saying that he had read my post about moving in, and that I didn’t mention whether or not I was having a good time. I told him that I was having a good time, though in my head I was calculating just how much more fun he was having while in AMSTERDAM. Seriously, we’ve both probably been spending the last week purchasing things with names that we can’t pronounce, but while I’m at Ikea looking at lampshades, he’s in the redlight district getting magical brownies. There’s no comparison.
HOWEVER, the new spot is looking saucier and saucier! So D, here’s your first glimpse of the apartment pre-decoration. Heed my last statement. Pictures coming soon.
ps: sorry for my hair in this video. i’m in the middle of that awkward asian dude growing hair phase. about 1/6 of you can relate.
The other day Nico was sitting on the stoop admiring our new Brooklyn neighborhood when someone walked by, stopped to look at our building, and said, “Wow…that used to be the drug building. Crazy…”
AND SO IT BEGINS!!!!!!!!
Apologies, my iLL-internetlings, for the sparse number of posts in the past couple of weeks. Rest assured that big teeeengs are headed this way. As of last Monday our days have been filled with endless visits to Ikea, Home Depot, and Target. I now despise them all. If I see another Trones cabinet, I will hit somebody.
Ahhhh, the sweet smell of gentrification. In our block people still get their chain snatched in broad daylight, but it gets to happen in front of a wine bar amidst people with berets and pugs. About 25% of our meals have come to consist of Jamaican patties and Jameson, and we have collectively spent over 30 hours in department stores deciding on what kind of sponge to buy.
Meanwhile, our apartment, which was supposed to be finished on the 10th, continues to welcome construction workers at 7am to drill holes in the wall while we try to get past our hangovers (they’re only seldom). If there’s any advice I can give you as a new New York tenant, it’s don’t pay the landlords ANYTHING until they’ve installed toiletseats in all the bathrooms. If there’s any other advice I can give you as a new New York tenant, it’s don’t talk shit about your landlords on a high-traffic blog that everyone has access to. Poof.
Oh, the things we do to save money. In order to pay the least for shipping our stuff from Cali to NY, we packed all of our lives into a Uhaul in Oakland, drove it to Sacramento to pick up Dahlak’s stuff, and packed it at the pod company’s terminal, which was shipped to Brooklyn while we were at Bumbershoot. When we got to NYC, we packed up all that shit into another Uhaul, and drove it to our spot, where we were met with the fun challenge of figuring out how to get our mattresses and boxsprings down the narrow stairway.
I don’t know how or why we thought moving into a new apartment would be as simple as shipping a few boxes of clothes and buying a toaster when we got there. Our apartment is by no means run-down or shabby, but it’s ridiculously stripped down. Like, no toilet paper rollers stripped down. Like, exposed wires that have been painted over stripped down. But alas, it’s the quiet of the storm before we release our music and go on tour, so we’ve been spending the past week getting our Martha Stewart on. Here’s a picture of Nico post-hit-his-head-on-the-corner-of-the-cabinet.
While we waited for our rooms to get set up, we positioned our mattresses along the floor of the downstairs area (where our studio will be) like a slumber party. A sawdust-filled, dusty-bedsheeted, 3-hours-of-sleep-per-night slumber party. Wheeeeee!
Jumping on mattresses with open circuits sticking out of the ceiling = fun.
I don’t remember where or how I took the following picture, but we no longer have that mirror. Or that guitar. Or that bottle.
If there’s yet more advice I can give you as a new New York tenant, it’s don’t put one in the air before going to the Atlantic Mall for the first time ever, or else you might end up getting lost in this hallway:
So with the apartment filled with cardboard and bubble wrap, we begin to make home. I’ll post pix when we’re done!
Come home Dahlak! Weee meeeeeess youuuuu! And also, we don’t want to move your boxes around anymore. I tried to use one of your bins as a stepping stool and I broke it. Sorry.*
Well kind of but not really. I’m here in BK. Dahlak’s in Europe still. Nico and Ada went to Providence because our apartment managers TOLD us we could move in today but called us 2 days ago and said the spot won’t be ready till the 15th. But yooooooooooo new yawk we are slowwwwwwly infiltrating your system muahahhahahha.
So instead, FLASHBACK!! Here are some vlogs from 2 years ago when we made our NYC debut. Oh, dem days, dem days.
ROOBZ! what u doin today? need u for some track vocals. hollerrr.
Ohhhhh life on a budget. To maximize money-saving, on Tuesday Nico and I packed up all our stuff onto a Uhaul, drove it up to Sac, packed up all of Dahlak’s belongings, and played Tetris in a couple of 7×7 pods that shall be shipped promptly to Brooklyn for our move-in next week. And then what do you do after driving upstate in a rickety freightcar and transferring your entire life in a cage?
RECORD THE ALBUM INTRO WITH OUR REMAINING EQUIPMENT IN DAHLAK’S PARENTS’ LIVING ROOM!!
The tracks are sent to the mixer, Dahlak jetted off to Europe yesterday, and the rest of us spend the weekend in Seattle for Bumbershoot before beginning our new chapter in NYC. Here’s to autumn.
IT’S OFFICIAL!!!! Last night we signed our lease for the new iLL-house, a dope 2-story apartment nestled in between Prospect Heights and Crown Heights. Just 2 blocks from the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, and hella parks. We have no excuse to not be inspired.
Today we fly back to Oakland and over the next two weeks we pack up all our stuff, kiss our mamas goodbye, jet to Seattle to rock Bumbershoot, and fly straight into NYC for the official move-in on September 15.
Speaking of Bumbershoot, we’re hella excited to be a part of the festival but I’m kinda bummed that our Sept. 6 slot is at the same time as one of my all-time favorite jazz musicians, Roy Ayers. We’ll just have to have this on constant rotation.
After being through hail and back, we’ve finally arrived in the Big Apple!!!!!!!!! Well, actually New Jersey right now because the hotels are cheaper BUT we’re heading into Brooklyn in an hour and spending the entire day scouting habitats. Hopefully we find our home quickly, knock out a couple of meetings, and I get to reschedule my flight back to the Bay early to spend the last week at home with the famsss.
We’ve been busy little beezees driving across the country and finishing the first installment of iB4the1 at the same time in our car studio. Finally, here in Omaha we’ve finished prepping all four of the songs that will be in the first release, and we’re mailing it off to get some mixing samples! Ooooooh the funk is coming soon! Do you smell it?
Yooo we are in the CUTS!! Somewhere in Utah or Colorado. Amidst this move we have a record to finish! So we hooked up our car charger and iPod transmitter to the Mbox and voilà! Traveling studio! We’ve got 5 more hours before we hit Denver. Let’s hope we finish the track by then…
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