achachay

Pagosa Springs and the Hot Springs!

We make our way south from Telluride earlyish. I use the word ‘early’ loosely… When we are on the road we rarely get on the road before 2 pm so leaving around noon is early… We get to Pagosa about 5 and the sun is just starting to go behind the mountains. We have a few hours to kill and Pagosa Springs is known for its hot springs. Everytime we mention Pagosa people say, “Did you visit the hot springs?” and until now we always said “no”.. But I can now happily say we have been to the hot springs and it was just what a back that’s been sleeping on floors needed! When I heard springs I expected some sort of rock landing with water spewing out of the ground… But it was really nothing like that… It was a nice resort type place. They had tubs indoors as well as outdoors on the roof. The roof was pretty crowded but it’s still sweet to check out the sunset and stars over the mountains while soaking in the tubs filled with spring water. After a couple hours of soaking our tired bones we head to the venue. The Bear Creek always takes care of us. The staff there is super friendly and the locals are awesome too. We play a long 4 hour set and then we hit the road to head back to Austin. That does it for the Colorado tour. It’s been a blast as always and if we weren’t heading back to Austin it would be hard to leave! 23 hours and we are home! Hooch over and out!

I’m Going Going, Back Back to Teullride…

After our amazing impromptu show in Salida, we made our way back to Telluride. Telluride is a small ski town in the mountains that has an incredible view from main st and is home to some really cool people, including our friends and perennial hosts, Kate and Wily.

The show this time around was at Fly me to the Moon. Originally we had a show scheduled at the Bubble Lounge, but between December and February (we had just played the Bubble in December) something changed and the venue shut down (apparently without warning the staff or patrons). BUT luckily for us, the booker and our friend Roxy, didn’t make us cancel the show and worked out a deal with Fly Me to the Moon so that we could still play in town.

The first time we ever played in Telluride it was at FMTTM in March of 2010 and it was cool/funny to see our tags in the green room from back then. Our show went well, but we had to compete with a few other shows that night and the weird situation explained earlier causing the venue change.

Telluride is still one of my favorite places to go and to play, so I am looking forward to coming back. Hopefully next time it will be smoother!

“I Feel Fine” Release: Free Download!

We’re thrilled to release our newest single, “I Feel Fine,” for free! Download it today, or come to one of our SXSW shows to get a free physical copy.
Click this link to automatically start the download. You can also listen to it first, then download it from Soundcloud.

Click on the “Share” button on the above player and tell your friends on Facebook, Twitter, email, and more. A simple post on your Facebook wall helps us immensely. If you like what you hear, please pass it on!

The long awaited bonus track “Forgot About Achachay!” is also now available. Click on this link, click “Free Download” and enter your email address to get the free download link. You can listen to it below (and also share):

Download the digital booklet by “control clicking” (PC users right click) this link and selecting “Download Linked File.” Below you’ll see the artwork, prepared by Jordan and featuring photos from a variety of local Austin photographers.

Now please click on “Share” on the Soundcloud Music player and spread the good cheer! We can’t do it without you.

SXSW Show Schedule

Tues March 13th: FireFest Preview Party, Trophy Room, 12PM
Thurs March 15th: Northeast by Southwest House Party @ 1180 Sol Wilson Ave (78702) 1-6 P (Free Beer and BBQ!)
Thurs March 15th: Townhouse, 10P
Fri March 16th: EchoCloud Unoffical SXSW Showcase, Hole in the Wall, Midnight
Sat March 17th: Thirsty Planet Brewery St. Patty’s Day Party, 11A-2P
Saty March 17th: Betsy’s Bar, 10:30 P

Achachay! is staying quite busy this South by Southwest. Keep in touch, and forgive us if times change at the last minute! See you out there.

Salida: A last minute show to remember!

Today we are traveling from Preblo, CO to Telluride, CO. We got a late start and didn’t get out of town until about 2 PM. We have a night off so we decided to stop in Salida to see a friend of ours Ty. We met Ty through couchsurfing a couple years ago and have been tight ever since. We also decided since we had the night off we should see if we could find a place to play. We hit up a couple of bars and they were all very receptive to live music but were booked. There was also a place with a patio that we could play on. But playing a show in 20 degree temperatures didn’t sound too appealing… The last place we popped in was the Tenderfoot. Ryan did the talking and the Bartender Mary was more than happy to let us play. We decided to go have dinner and make a decision about whether we were going to play a show or drive across an icy mountain pass after dark. Looking back now, it seems like the obvious decision was to play the show… The show was awesome. We had the bar packed all night. People were dancing and having a great time just like we were! It was another one of those times where we are on tour and randomly things come together for an awesome night of music. We will definitely be back in Salida. A big thanks to the Mary’s at Tenderfoot for having us play. It was such a blast!

Puebloooooooooooo!!!!!

Us and the famous Slopper!

After a few days of R&R spent in Colorado Springs, we headed south to Pueblo. Pueblo is a cool, little town that is famous for a food  dish called the Slopper. A slopper, for all you N00bs, is 2 hamburgers (meat (cheese if you like it) and buns) smothered in green chili sauce and topped with fries. For those of you not familiar with the Souther CO and New Mexico ‘green chili’, this is more of a sauce than a soup and is quite tasty. Sloppers can have as many as 6 hamburger patties and can also have red chili (beans/meat typical chili) on them as well. Our new couchsurfing friend Jenny took us to the Coors Bar, known for the best sloppers in town, and we were not disappointed. I should also mention one  can order a slopper “Christmas style” which is a combo of red and green chili on top (yum!). I think, personally, I need to create a sort of Texas-slopper. Maybe chopped beef or brisket sandwiches, covered in red chili (with more tasty TX BBQ meat), and then with some bacon (because bacon is FUCKING AWESOME) and yeah, I guess, if you want, you can add cheese (I’d be down for queso!).

Anyways, enough food talk (can you tell what my favorite part of Pueblo was?), our concert was also fun. Wednesday nights aren’t typically the best, but this show wasn’t bad at all. we played a place called the Downtown Bar, and we had a good crowd including our Couchsurfer and her friends, some friends from CO Springs that came down, and other locals. We went over well and had a great night which ended with a late night trip to Denny’s, the second in three days (no joke).

Friends and fans with our new T-shirts on!

I’m stoked to come back to Pueblo and play again for our new friends!

BLATTTTTTTT!!!!!!

Motherloaded in Breck Pt. 2

We started our day off right with breakfast out our Couchsurfer Mark’s home outside of Durango. The night before we arrived at Mark’s place and managed to get the van stuck in the driveway… Turns out the tires aren’t as good as they were new! After some slipping and sliding and pushing and well… all that fun stuff that comes along with having a 2 wheel drive van on the snow… We finally managed to get the chains on the tires and drove out of the driveway with ease. Man I’m glad we picked up those chains! So moving on… We had a 6 hour drive from Durango to Breckenridge through some amazing mountain passes including the Red Mountain Pass. Fortunately the passes were clear of snow and it was just a gorgeous drive. We arrived in Breckenridge around 8 pm and the Motherloaded was already hopping. The Motherloaded Tavern is such a fun venue. It’s the perfect environment for funky upbeat music like ours. They have a table that is bolted to the floor so you can dance on the table and people use it! The drinks were flowing and the crowd was dancing and eating up every bit of funk we could cook for them. It was such a fun night. I really can’t say enough about the Motherloaded. They really take care of us(check out the pic of the tip jar, lol)  and this place is just a blast!

Ska Brewery, Y’all!

Another reason I love Ska: the awesome branding!

After our very fun night in Grand Junction, we headed to Durango to play the Ska Brewery. If you haven’t heard of the Ska Brewery, it is an awesome micro-brewery that’s been open almost 20 years and produces a variety of awesome beers. Check them out at www.skabrewing.com.

So the show was an early 5 pm show and we played for a few hours. It was fun, and between our new CouchSurfing friend Mark and the other patrons at the brewery, we got down! Not to mention we also got free, delicious beer!

We ended the night hanging out with Mark and getting the van stuck in the snow outside his house. It made for a pretty hilarious/arduous process the next morning that entailed pushing the van, putting chains on the back tires and praying for traction. I always enjoy Durango, and this time was no exception!

Commentary on a Fun trip to Junc Town

Grand Junction feels like a small town, yet there are 50,000 people in it. Our show was at a legendary venue called the Mesa Theater, where this month alone Los Lonely Boys and Rebelution are playing. David, owner and self described “one of the last mom and pop venues of this size” is a good guy who really likes to party.

We played a great two set show with lots of jamming and improv. Something about the space made us feel more open and we did some of our classics like “Tour Song” in entirely new styles. A decent crowd came out, partly due to our on air performance either that day on KAFM.

The station is really cool – community / volunteer run and totally solar powered. The DJs are always nice and everyone there liked our music. They all seemed very supportive of independent music in general.

It’s funny how people like to project whatever they like onto us. As soon as we got in the KAFM building, one of the guys started bashing Republicans and Conservatives, assuming we agreed with him- I guess because we’re from Austin and are in a band.

Yet a couple days later, another guy made a few incredibly racist comments as jokes, assuming we’d laugh. I guess he thought, “They’re from Texas, they must be racist too.”

Well, they were all wrong. I don’t think of us identify as Republican or Democrat, and we certainly don’t judge people’s character based on physical characteristics they are born with.

Anyway, we also had a really great couchsurfing host Jodie. All in all it was one of our most fun trips to the crazy city of Grand Junction.

Ft. Collins at Hodi’s

Ahh we are back in Ft. Collins. We have had so many good times taking brewery tours, hosting jams, and playing jams. This is our first real showcase type show in Ft. Collins at a great venue Hodi’s Halfnote. Hodi’s is a great place to hang out as far as just having a good vibe but then on top of that there is a great room with a big stage and excellent sound. We played with another band from Colorado called Able Minds. They are a cool mix of electronic and traditional (guitar, drum, etc.) type music. It made for a great night of upbeat danceable music. We had fun catching up with a friend of ours Liza as well. You may remember her as our merchandise representative for our last west coast tour. It was great to catch up and it was just a great night in Ft. Collins. Hooch over and out!