Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker share their secrets for good coffee and soft hands on the road.
Corin Tucker : I be intimate to locomote , but I do n’t really do it that much because we do move around so much for going on spell . There ’s certain places that do n’t really do rock show as much that I ’d screw to drop more time in . I ’d like togo to Italyand just go on holiday there .
Sometimes we ’re capable to check out a city on tour , and I always require to take advantage of that , specially with international stuff , places that we have n’t been before or we do n’t get to ofttimes . I want to go out and do affair and take advantage of seeing things . I roll in the hay discovering something that ’s exceedingly uncanny and cool , likethe City Museum in St. Louis . It ’s so bizarre and specific , and there ’s nowhere else like it .
We’vebeen to Parisa few times , and I always wanted to see the Louvre andthe Eiffel Tower . So I ’ve definitely made those trips and enjoyed it . But once you ’ve seen the bucket inclination thing , it ’s like , okay , I want to go back and find a really unspoilt restaurant or just wander around or see the other museum that I have n’t see .
Design by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist
Carrie Brownstein : I’ve gotten well at go on vacation . It used to be more where being at dwelling house and the whimsey of a staycation was always what I was more attracted to , because that was the contrast to working . But after the pandemic and that forced isolation , that enforced settling and stasis , it made me experience a footling unsatisfied , so I ’ve done more travel since then . I try not to impose a strict itinerary , because , from touring , change of location can get very structured and almost pedantic in terms of how you approach it . And so , the trick for me when I go on holiday is to not do too much pre - planning — just the correct amount so that I have a sense of where I ’d care to go , but not enforce anything .
The first sentence we went to Europe was the first time I had travel to Europe in my intact life , and I crammed acculturation down my throat the entire clock time . I ’d wake up and be at a museum when it opened or be at a cathedral . It was amazing . I also thought I ’d never go back . But now that we ’ve been back subsequent times , I ’m normally looking for an interesting flea market place or a uncanny junk shop or a deep brown store that someone recommended or a street fair . Something that ’s very specific to a city , very specific to a neighborhood , and maybe something slightly off - the - beaten path . Walking and just pass upon an interesting book shop or cafe is also the best way of life for the physical process of discovery .
Rapid fire
Window, middle, or aisle seat?
Corin Tucker : Aisle . Carrie Brownstein : Aisle on a poor flight , window on a long flying .
Pack light or overpack?
CB : I overpack . CT : I overpack as well . I ’m really adjudicate heavily for this go but … CB : I’m not , I ’m no longer trying hard . I ’ve just ease up into the fact that I ’m an overpacker . It ’s intemperate not to , especially with time of year . We ’re endure from ostensibly winter to spring on this go .
Favorite way to pass time on a plane
CT : Reading . CB : Probably an audiobook .
Biggest travel fear
CB : Corin ’s just like : Death . CAT : I’ve lived through some moderately gnarled single . I think just , yeah , getting tired of . CB : Getting pallid is mine too . Being hospitalized would be really rough .
Best tip for fighting jet lag
CB : Don’t pass asleep too ahead of time . “ Avoid naps ” is the well-to-do thing I can say . CT : If you may get in the sunlight and walk during the day when you get there , as long as you may , that really help .
Favorite travel snack
CB : Peanut butter . I ’ll take peanut butter on anything when I travel — orchard apple tree , rice cake , cabbage . It ’s an inst protein attack that ’s a very unnoticeable , unproblematic solid food . CT : There ’s a Clif Bar that ’s like a mini goober butter bar . I enjoy that .
Go-to drink order on a plane
CB : I usually care scintillate water with burnt lime . CT : I’ll go with a Coke Zero if I ’m really live it up .
Must-have travel items
CB : I’m wearing them right now . They ’re the good indoor / outdoor horseshoe . If you ’re traveling for an extended period of time and you ’re out of your puff zone , it ’s significant to bring something from home that aid ground you , that help make the hotel room or the tour bus or whatever itinerant docket you ’re on , feel like house .
A skid like the Teva does that for me . I can take off my lawn tennis shoes or whatever outdoor shoes I ’m wearing , put the Tevas on , and it cue me of home . It allows my feet to breathe . It reminds me to baffle a little more and not stay in that frenetic mode that traveling can bring on . Especially if you ’re locomote for piece of work , you ’re often in a heightened DoS . It ’s hard to unwind or relax , and getting out of your horseshoe , but putting on something that you ’d also wear at home , is really helpful for consistency and constancy .
CB : There ’s nothing more humbling than pulling out a vitamin or oral contraceptive pill case from the pharmacy or chemist’s shop . It immediately signals all of the connotations and association that none of us want — no matter what historic period we are . You straight off sense rickety and helpless and ancient . But these cases are sleek and attractively designed . They search like something you might put a sumptuousness vigil in .
CB : I be intimate making a great espresso on the bus , and Aeropress is an light way to make a individual or double shot espresso . you could add a niggling red-hot urine and make a great Americano . It ’s important to have a go - to coffee berry method that is n’t too cumbersome , that ’s really portable , that ’s easy to clean . That ’s a crucial aspect to the Aeropress .
It ’s the variety of thing people add on camping trips , but it ’s also perfect for the motorbus . Then , I can grab it and take it backstage if the backstage garment rooms are n’t going to provide us with great coffee . I take my Aeropress almost everywhere I go when I travel if I ’m going for longer than a few days , because it helps me have a consistent coffee experience . I also care the ritual of arrive at coffee , so while I do like to go out for coffee when I ’m on tour , it give form to my morning in a way that I appreciate and I ’m accustom to .
CB : These helping hand are hungry , and I can not stand lotion with fragrance , specially on your manus , because you bring your hand near your nerve and I do n’t require to be inundated with a perfumey , herbaceous odor . I want neutrality there . But , sometimes , the unscented lotions get really oily , and seem like they ’re catering to farm work or something . It ’s like , if you ’re work on your automobile all day , this acute unguent is for you . But Working Hands , despite its name , is a great neutral and not too heavy . It ’s a perfect consistency lotion that you’re able to reuse over and over again without build - up . I have them all over my house and in my car .
CB : I’ve been playing a quite a little of pickleball in Portland ; it ’s a great way to encounter people . So I ’m calculate forward to the chance of bet on turn . I ’ve had a couple other friends and bands tell me that they ’ve brought their pickleball racket , and that it ’s a keen elbow room of getting outdoors on enlistment , being active , getting exercising , and breaking away from the insularism of touring , which is important because it can get very routine , very humdrum . In pickleball , too , there are a lot of variables , a lot of surprise , a lot of weirdness . And so , I ’m desire bringing a illegitimate enterprise is the way that I show that into my travelling experience . I ’m ask over chaos , really , with the pickleball racket .
computerized axial tomography : Despite being able-bodied to remain in enough hotels , they ’re still so noisy . mass just do n’t see they ’re being noisy . And so , earplugs help when you ’re remain anywhere . Even in my own house , earplugs are helpful — and the masquerade party too , if it ’s weirdly bright in the morning . Or if you ’re just exhausted on tour of duty , you get to a dayroom , and the mask can help you take a forty winks .
CT : There ’s a C.C one that ’s pop in some Portland shop , and I have it in a couple colors . It help me not get pallid on tour . It keeps the oestrus in when you ’re suddenly freeze . The best means to keep warm is with a chapeau .
CT : On tour , you wake up on a charabanc , and you have to all of a sudden interact with people . And so , although I ’m a safe brusher , it ’s still a good thing to have Altoids around . They ’re not too fresh or eldritch .
CT : I sometimes feel like protein bars are too big and bulky and foreign . These , though , are the perfect size of it to keep you going until the next repast .
CT : I’m a bad aviator , and I get really nauseous sometimes . The trivial acupressure wristbands help steady my nerve and my stomach when I ’m vanish . It ’s like a ritual affair for me that makes me find like I have sex what I ’m doing on a flight of steps .