But everything isn't exactly roses and wine, either.
"Nobody ever talks to us," Lien says of he and Nuñez, who were not a part of the Blast 1386 radio interview or the interview that led to a story in Flagstaff Live!. In fact, the latter story dubbed Lien "the silent partner" and only mentioned Nuñez once. Walker and Nicole tend to handle all of the band's press, and when Lien and Nuñez tease the couple about their relationship during an interview, Walker calls them "the peanut gallery." On several occasions, Nicole starts talking over Nuñez when she tries to answer a question.
Andy Hartmark
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Scheduled to perform on Thursday, August 24
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So what's going to happen when the band's stuck in a studio together, working nonstop for days straight, or crammed into a van night after night during a lengthy tour?
"We'll just talk shit. Like any family," Nuñez says.
"I haven't seen any personality conflicts here," Lien adds. "We all have the same sensibilities."
But what if they do have a real chance at success? How much energy can the members continue to devote to The Love Me Nots, given that all of them are in other bands?
"This is the question that's gonna make all our bands pissed off at us," Nuñez says into the recorder.
Lien is quick to point out that all of their bands have a lot of fans and the potential to do great things, but nobody objects when Walker says, "We've all been doing this for so long. I think everybody's ready."
"I think if the opportunity presented itself, any one of us would make it happen, however we had to do it," Nicole says. "We'll make stuff happen, just like we've done already."
But Lien and Nuñez are less committal. "It'd be cool to be able to pay my rent and not fucking kiss people's asses at a restaurant all day," Nuñez says. "But even if this does make something crazy huge, we can still do our other bands."
As for what's going to happen once the band finishes recording its debut album, nobody really knows. The plan is to shop the record around at indie labels like Dionysus and Get Hip, both of which have a lot of garage bands on their rosters, as well as some European labels. And they'd like to tour the places in Europe where they have a lot of MySpace fans, like Italy, Greece, Spain, France, and the U.K. What the band doesn't plan to do is play a lot of shows in Phoenix.
"We want to play in Phoenix for good shows and good crowds and make the most of what Phoenix has, but I think what we're doing has a lot of appeal elsewhere," Nicole says.
When jokingly asked if they're going to come back from recording in Detroit and announce that they broke up, nobody laughs.
"We might," Nuñez says. "We started as a side project. We might come back hating each other."
"You never know," Nicole says. "We'll come back and be playing country music."
"We'll come back as a sideshow project," Nuñez says.
Everybody chuckles at this, and the tension is finally broken.
On a mid-August Friday, The Love Me Nots have a gig at the Hotel Monte Vista in Flagstaff. After everybody gets off work, they convene at the band's rehearsal space, load their gear into a rented van, and make the drive to Flagstaff. Once they arrive, they unload everything, grab a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant, and head back to the Monte V.
The group barely has time for a drink before they have to cart their instruments and amps on stage, set them up in seconds, do a super-fast sound check, and play a 45-minute set to a packed house.
The band's a big hit. People crowd in front of the stage, dancing. A blonde woman in a black-and-white polka-dot dress does The Monkey next to a longhaired guy who's doing The Swim. A girl with long, black braids does The Mashed Potato. A goateed guy in a black tee shirt with some skull designs on it pours beer all down the front of his shirt and does a really wobbly version of The Twist. The area in front of the stage and all the way back to the bar is so full of screaming, bouncing people that clearing a path just isn't possible. But somebody does manage to toss a pair of black men's boxer shorts onstage. They land on Nicole's Farfisa.
The glaring stage lights, combined with the body heat of a couple hundred people packed into the venue, create an inferno onstage. The band's stage attire — long-sleeve jackets for the guys, thick polyester dresses for the girls — doesn't help, and by the time The Love Me Nots finish their set, they're dripping.
The band hasn't even put down its instruments before the crowd starts screaming for an encore. Some are hollering "One more! One more!" while others are chanting "Love Me Nots! Love Me Nots!"
The audience wants more, but there will be no encore tonight. Not because The Love Me Nots are too tired, but because they've already played all 13 of the songs in their repertoire.
"That's it," Nicole tells the audience. "Thanks for coming out."
