The World Famous Melne

Têtes Noires

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Published on Wednesday, 20 July 2011 22:00

Written by melne

I happened into Têtes Noires almost by accident. I was at a party, and was chatting with some party-goers, one of whom happened to be the bass player for Têtes Noires, which was the pre-eminent all-female post-punk band around the Twin Cities. They had recently lost their original guitar player, and I was asked to audition.

I was excited by the prospect--this band made records and toured! A dream come true for me! I did audition, and I got the gig! I can't remember every show we played, but I did participate in a short weekend Chicago tour (the three songs in the player above come from that show), and a headlining Christmas show on the main stage at First Avenue, the best nightclub in Minneapolis. The below image was from City Pages (our local arts & entertainment weekly) in advance of that show: (top row: Cynthia Bartell, Jennifer Holt, Angela Frucci, Camille Gage, melne. Bottom row: Bitsy Byron, Renee Kayon)

I think I was only in this band about a year--maybe even less. It wasn't that I was unhappy with them, but I was young and inexperienced, and I let some peer pressure color my decision. I decided to leave the band, move to New York and join my Borrowed Time singer and "make it there."

I knew the moment that the resignation words left my mouth that it was the wrong thing to do, but I felt like once it was laid out there, there was no going back. To this day I regret that I left this band. I feel it was likely the worst decision of my musical career. How things would have been different one can't really speculate, but at the time I was simply too young and inexperienced to see the bigger picture.

Before I left for New York, I went into the studio to help them as they recorded some demos to shop for a record deal.

I put my stuff into storage, and moved to New York with $1200(!) in my pocket [yes, I thought that would be enough], lived in a shared-bathroom-down-the-hall hotel with roaches, got a menial job, and within 6 weeks used up all nearly all my money. Finally, it came down to where I had enough to stay in New York two more days and be completely broke, or purchase airfare back to Minneapolis. I couldn't live on the street, so I had to wave farewell to The Big Apple, put my tail between my legs and fly back home, where I had to couch-surf with friends until I got a new job and a new apartment.

In the meantime, Têtes Noires got a record deal, made an album, toured that album.

C'est la vie, no?