dealership

wednesday, may 29 (02)   [link]

jane:  good morning, webmokeys. today i am officially inaugurating a new dealerkids.com feature i'm calling, um, "Wednesday Mornings with Jane." actually that's a pretty bad title. if you can think of a better one let me know. but i decided that we don't write enough in the weblog here, and maybe if i had a schedule to keep - say, one morning a week in which i would update - then content would get posted in a more timely fashion. and since i thought of this last night it's going to be every wednesday morning, maybe "Weighing in on Wednesdays with Wacky Wjane."


alright, so i don't have a title. let's move on, shall we?


the end of last week saw dealership playing two shows, Thursday at the Stork (Oakland) and Friday at the Old Vic (Santa Rosa). they were very different indeed. at the Stork show we were representin with with likes of tinybirdmouths, Skyflakes, and Xiu Xiu. tinybirdmouths i'd never seen before - a boy-girl duo with bass and guitar punctuated by drum hits when the boy could spare a hand from his guitar. they reminded me a little of Deerhoof in conception though not really in style. and then the Skyflakes - if you have not bought their cd yet you should, it is a very well-recorded album packed with some of the most charming songs you will hear this year. plus they are just really sweet which is always good because we like making friends. then we played, and i for one had a really great time at the show although i didn't think we played particularly well, from a technical standpoint - still, people who've seen us enough to know said we did ok, so i think some of the happy energy i was feeling got through to everyone in the audience. then xiu xiu came on and they blew me away. i'd never seen them before, either (where, you might ask, the hell have i been? good question.) you must see them if you get the chance, they are something else. the last song they played was an almost excrutiatingly slow number comprised of maybe four notes (and vocals) and it was so incredibly compelling the audience was entirely, completely silent, rapt, enthralled, hanging on every single note. it gave me chills up and down my spine.


at Ye Olde Vic we played with a band called Glad Game, who were much less experimental overall but they also mixed it up by switching musical styles and lead vocals to create melodic shimmery guitary songs. we hooked up with them because one of the guitarists/singers, Darwin, writes for Section M - a little interview we did with him pre-show should be appearing in an upcoming issue. it was nice to meet some new folks in an area we don't get to play in very much, and i think we had a good show.


on the horizon for dealership: mixing round one (fight!) this weekend in beautiful sunny Menlo Park. This saturday we'll play a Smarties tribute show at the Voodoo Lounge during whch we will cover two of our favorite and Smartiest tunes. and near the end of June we will be playing a special event show at the Oakland Museum, with civilized accoutrements like hors d'oeuvres and wine - all ages! more details on that as i work them out.


ok. i think the Weekly Wednesday Briefing is done. see y'all next week. until then, i'm your host, Miyuki Jane Pinckard.

tuesday, may 21 (02)   [link]

chrisw:  Exhausted...finished tracking the 3rd album. Now just have to mix and master it. It was great fun. Our engineer, Guy was a real gentle bear with us. Now we get to argue discuss various aesthetic conceits regarding names of songs, album titles, and art concepts.


Which is also fun. Largely because I win on *so many* of these points.


This time, however, we had a vaguely defined "high concept" regarding video games. So, as form follows concept in this instance, some of the album will be a departure from THTS or SAL.


However, Chris G. does whisper in French on one of the (potential) songs. I mean, we just had to do it.


15 songs recorded. I'm excited to see what makes the final cut.

tuesday, may 7 (02)   [link]

jane:  Is that some kind of record for us now, two shows in one day last Friday? I wasn't sure we could make it, but we did. If we could just do this for the rest of our lives I'd be a happy girl.


First, the Sproul show at noon: great to see friends there again, fun to see them in daylight which we often don't get to do (a little intimidating but nevertheless, exciting). And it made me so happy to see folks we don't usually get to see - like Clare, who wrote us a sweet note of encouragement and and gave us pictures of her at Disneyland wearing her dealership t-shirt! She must have been the coolest girl there! Thanks, Clare.


As for those of you who cut school to see our show, I'll have you know as a former educator that this sort of truant behavior only leads to trouble and mayhem and independent thinking and teenage rebellion and wearing mohawks ... oh, it's too late! But I felt honored that you would skip your studies, which I know you are all so dedicated to, to come see our show. Thank you for coming, it was a pleasure to play for you all as usual.


And then that night we played Cafe du Nord (some of the more hardcore of you came to that one, too! Delightful!). At first I was nervous that our energy was spent, but somehow we called up these reserves. i think, as Jason Smith commented, that the Warlock has unleashed my inner rock. And I love it!