chickfactor zine

daniel handler: I usually foot the bill while dining with musicians.

stephin the magnetic fields: stephen sondheim freely admitting he is unable to cook at all has made me feel better about my own disastrous attempts.

corin tucker: seth, sara and mike (from corin tucker band) are all pretty much foodies and are very adventurous. we had a really fun tour of japan where we tried octopus balls in osaka. I liked the flavor but had a hard time with the chewiness.

ed shelflife: the fat boys.

bridget st john: john martyn revealed the mysteries of indian spices and the joys of grilled tomatoes!

gordon the fan modine: I look after ash’s goats and chickens a lot and get amazing eggs and veggies in return.

darren hanlon: it’s hard not to eat hot chippies while mark monnone (lucksmiths) is around.

james dump/yo la tengo: the fat boys, big pun, poison idea.

stephen the real tuesday weld: don brosnan and I talk about the dukan diet a lot.

gail cf: connie containe/pacific ocean influenced me hugely by cooking vegan food for me a million times and taking me to angelica kitchen. lupe too when we were flatmates as she is the queen of the improv vegan bakers.

fran cannane: james dutton (cannanes) is a fine cook. david nichols is an inspirational vegetarian.

tim dagger: tears run rings, I’ll now try seitan.

allen clapp: jill pries clapp! she’s been vegetarian since the late 1980s. I’ve been a vegetarian for 8 years.

joe pines / foxgloves: my interest in the go-betweens is gradually leading me to consider eating kangaroo. I am told that it is both healthy and tasty.

the legendary jim ruiz: I remember I ate my first tempeh reuben sandwich at the black cat in washington, d.c., in the ’90s. unforgettable.

john the magnetic fields: vega, copenhagen. helsinki hudson is a close second.

hannah grass widow: great american music hall.

corin tucker: I like the burgers at maxwell’s.

james dump/yo la tengo: maxwell’s, now and forever.

ed shelflife: cameo gallery in brooklyn that has the lovin’ cup cafe upstairs. good vegan options.

daniel handler: slow food festival, san francisco.

gail cf: I’ll have to say bunk bar.

pete paphides: festival food is the best food. the stall just beside the main stage at the green man that serves traditional welsh meals. faggots and home made chips with stellar gravy; beef stew with moist, heavy herby dumplings!

stephin the magnetic fields: helsinki hudson, in hudson, NY.

fran cannane: I remember most the butchersville pub in louisville, kentucky, in may 1991 as I was so amazed they would give us food for free. I cannot recall this ever happening to us in australia. no idea what the food was though.

kim baxter: rotown in rotterdam. it was so good that we went back for breakfast the next morning.

allen clapp: slims in san francisco has a wonderful veggie buffet!

matt lorelei: einstein a-go-go in jacksonville, florida. sadly it is no longer, but the spread they had for us was amazing. that’s the best we’ve ever been treated.

gordon the fan modine: the rooster’s wife in aberdeen, NC. they sit everyone down to a home-cooked meal from their garden in a beautiful old southern home.

stephen the real tuesday weld: blois festival france.

jennifer o’connor: it’s all a blur honestly.

ian musical chairs: maxwell’s, hoboken, NJ.

bridget st john: otterton mill, devon, UK.

jim ruiz photo courtesy of jim ruiz.

frankie rose: mexican food. pozole. enchiladas, which I made in glasgow, because there was a little mexican specialty shop that had all the ingredients.

cf: a lot of people in the UK don’t even know what mexican food can be like.

frankie rose: actually they don’t know what they’re eating. what they thought of as mexican food — I think they have tacos and burritos — but an enchilada was like a really foreign… they’d never even heard of it before.

gordon the fan modine: curried beets with beet green and almond “saag” and cucumber raita.

daniel handler: dandelion green pesto on gnocchi with aged gouda.

hannah grass widow: I’m told I make very tasty salads.

stephen the real tuesday weld: peanut butter, slightly burnt toast.

kim baxter: does taking the family out for conveyor belt sushi count? If not, I make a pretty good guacamole.

darren hanlon: wasabi mashed yams.

corin tucker: my son loves my beef tacos. I like to cook for him.

james dump/yo la tengo: v getting food from taco bell and pretending I made it from scratch.

fran cannane: mushroom fajitas this week.

tae won yu: it changes with the seasons. in the summer, I do homemade pasta with pancetta, heirloom tomatoes and basil. I also like risotto with mussels. seafood stew with coconut milk, very easy to make. I rely on seafood stew, never fails, always good. simple, cheap. I love getting an aged ribeye from ottomanelli. a perfect steak seared and basted in butter, that’s amazing.

allen clapp: spinach and cheese omelets. I’ll make ’em for anybody. It’s really the only food I know how to prepare, thanks to my older sister who taught me this skill when I was in second grade.

joe pines / foxgloves: baked salmon with lemon, leek, risotto, rocket salad + pinot grigio. or we could just go to the chinese, it’s only 5 minutes down the road.

matt lorelei: pasta with chard.

jennifer o’connor: vegan cajun cornbread casserole.

pete paphides: apparently it’s my wraps. the sweet potato falafel, tzatziki, red onion, tomato, mango chutney and coriander goes down well – although recently, I’ve been making this: peppered mackerel, tahini, tomato, red onion and toasted pumpkin seeds. also, roast red peppers stuffed with pearl barley, figs, goats cheese, caramelised onions, cumin, chilli and cinnamon. whilst I’m blowing my own trumpet, I prefer my tomato and basil pasta sauce to any other one I’ve eaten elsewhere. liquidised caramelised onions – that’s the key. my kids (and bob stanley) like my wholemeal pizzas.

janice cf: pizza.

stephin the magnetic fields: vegan bento box. I assemble a beautiful lunch.

tim dagger: toast.

gail cf: asian noodle salads. blueberry peach crumble. hummus.

rachel blumberg: I make a really mean eggplant parmesan. did it again the other night. the secret is the sauce. it’s all about ratios and timing and cooking it slow and low! I also love making soup and curries.

bridget st john: roasted vegetables with quinoa.

frankie rose photo by lauren bilanko.

what is the best country/city to tour when it comes to eating?

ed shelflife: I have to vote for portland, oregon!

fran cannane: mexico, japan and the usa. england is really coming into its own I have to say.

stephin the magnetic fields: stockholm: I live for their industrial-strength combination of horseradish and mustard.

corin tucker: france is pretty amazing, for someone like me who has a sweet tooth.

daniel handler: san francisco, bologna, vancouver.

hannah grass widow: I like eating in new york for the polish food. although I must say we have pretty great food in san francisco.

james dump/yo la tengo: japan and nashville.

frankie rose: san diego. amazing mexican food there everywhere. we just randomly walked into a mexican place recently and I had the best lobster burrito I’ve ever had in my life.

bridget st john: kyoto, japan.

stephen the real tuesday weld: los angeles – hands down.

rachel blumberg: new york is pretty fantastic, city wise!  I look forward to polish food, pizza, katz’s, and then all the nifty new places. oh, I had the most amazing ramen ever in new york. georgia recommended it. I can’t wait to go back. my favorite country for eating on tour is france because of all the amazing cheese back stage. ohhh the cheese….

joe pines / foxgloves: arlington, virginia, for ray’s the steaks, where I was taken by my friend stephen wood – a keen supporter of both pop and steak.

jennifer o’connor: southwest usa.

mark teenbeat/unrest: there was an incredible restaurant in minneapolis called the sri lankan curry house. probably the spiciest food I have ever had. it’s unfortunately not there anymore.

ian musical chairs: big cities seem to be the best for food with more veggie options. chicago, boston, and nyc are pretty amazing. israel has fantastic food. there are so many countries I’d like to eat in!

gordon the fan modine: everything is at your fingertips in NYC.

rachel blumberg: new york.

gail cf: portland, oregon!

allen clapp: new york, ny! I love being able to walk out of the club after a show and have the whole world at your feet. In san francisco, everything shuts down way too early, and it’s like walking out into a foggy ghost town (which is kinda cool — but not if you’re hungry).

do you have any advice / rituals / pharmaceuticals to recommend for coping with stage fright?

stephin the magnetic fields: courvoisier.

corin tucker: deep belly breaths, and really warming up before going on stage.

stephen the real tuesday weld: you have to look at yourself in the mirror in the dressing room and say: “pull it together you pathetic piece of shit. what the F*** IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? get out there right NOW” very, very loudly.

james dump/yo la tengo: seek another line of work?

bridget st john: 1. breathe. 2. don’t have company backstage before you go on stage – it’s a distraction. 3. no pharmaceuticals! but if you have a sore throat singer’s saving grace herbal concoction works very well for singers.

daniel handler: I have a great self-hypnosis program in which I say to myself, “nobody cares one whit. not one flying fuck.”

fran cannane: francesca recommended vodka and grapefruit juice. just for the voice you understand…. It seems to work.

allen clapp: used xanax for a few years, but absolutely HATED it. yoga 2-3 times a week is way more helpful. also, talking to people before playing and not being a hermit is helpful, just to get out of my own head for a while. also, ruby port.

hannah grass widow: we actually made a very spontaneous shrine in our dressing room at that celebrate brooklyn show. it was very therapeutic. we just took a bunch of comfort objects and music supplies and made a really epic and weird shrine in front of our mirror. but unfortunately we usually just drink before we play to take the edge off and warm up the vocals.

matt lorelei: I used to drink heavily and then take max alerts (over-the-counter trucker speed) to focus. it did or did not work depending on your perspective. I would not recommend it. my heart rate became an issue. now I’m just less nervous because I don’t worry about reproducing the recording live. live is a separate thing and the tracks can take on a different life.

joe pines / foxgloves: the night before you play, go on stage with ld beghtol and accompany him by playing one note on an electric stylophone for four minutes.

erin a girl called eddy: there really is nothing that makes it easier for me personally. a very large guinness after though always helps.

gordon the fan modine: a slight buzz is usually nice. and, always eat after the show unless you are playing pretty late.

kim baxter: only when I’m playing acoustically for a small audience. my band mate tasha and I recently played at a small bookstore here in portland. we were opening up for our author friends joe meno and nathan larson. we were so nervous! I forgot to breathe the whole time and couldn’t look up. it felt like I had never played a show before. we laughed the whole ride home about how ridiculous it was that a small bookstore crowd totally intimidated us.

james dump/yo la tengo: I do not.

mark teenbeat/unrest: definitely. especially and most certainly if I’m up on stage all by myself. at the chickfactor show I played I got up there and my mind went blank. suddenly I was lyric-less. If I’m playing with other folks on stage it’s usually not a problem.

stephin the magnetic fields: just the reverse: I suffer from stage ennui.

fran cannane: once I had to get off stage and be sick in the middle of a set in chicago at an outdoor festival but that was not caused by stage fright.

corin tucker: I do get nervous, especially in front of large crowds, particularly if I’m singing for someone else’s crowd.

matt lorelei: yes and yes. lorelei was invited to play a gig in princeton, new jersey, in ’91 that ended up being in a living room. those assembled were within arms length of me. I had luckily brought a flask but I had one swig before we started and shook like a leaf the entire time. it was not fun for me.

hannah grass widow: I used to get really nervous, but it’s been a while. I definitely still get an adrenaline rush that infuses the set. there was this one time we were opening for sonic youth at prospect park for celebrate brooklyn. we hadn’t played very many big shows at the time and I can say in retrospect that we were not ready to play for 15,000 people. I got this weird freak allergy attack and my hearing got all weird. It was probably psychosomatic. then we played and it sounded really weird and I realized I was so nervous I forgot to turn on my amp and I was just playing direct. I wish we could play that show again now.

joe pines / foxgloves: it is usually very scary preparing to play, especially as I have no idea how amplifiers, tuners or microphone stands work.

erin a girl called eddy: yes. no specific incidences, but it always amounts to a feeling of sick, hollow dread right before the show. and that’s just the audience.

daniel handler: I watched a friend break down during her bat mitzvah in 1983.  everything about that is a horror story.

bridget st john: most of my stage fright comes in the days leading up to the performance – doubting that I should have agreed to play etc. by the time I am ready to go on stage I am usually quite focused and in a zone. any horror stories have been in recurring dreams of being unprepared and sloppy and starting a song and changing my mind when I can’t get through a song – but then I always wake myself up before it gets any worse!

jennifer o’connor: no, not usually.

gordon the fan modine: if I’m not nervous before a show, I might as well not play it. I think it is a gauge of energy.

gail cf: yes. I only sang onstage with the cover girls in 2002 and it was awful. I was all liquored up and had a cold and seeing the footage of it ensured that I will never do it again.

ian musical chairs: I get quite nervous at first but it wears off pretty quickly.

allen clapp: opening for the ocean blue at the troubadour in 2001, we went to dinner before the show and leisurely walked back to the club. when the stage door opened, the stage manager started screaming at us for being late, and said they had a sold out room and that we were supposed to go on in 1 minute. massive panic attack ensues. I look out, and sure enough, there is a sold-out crowd standing there waiting! the whole set I thought I was going to pass out. In between songs, I kept looking for a secret exit and couldn’t think about anything except running away. argh!