pat & i went to a great plain parade show at tritone on friday night. we missed saeta but were treated to sets by the method & result and buried beds. you know it’s a weird night when M & R are the loudest band of the evening. they brought out the rhodes piano and it was cool to hear some new arrangements, especially the one for ‘no one’s ever what they seem’. they’re playing again november 12 at the legendary blue horizon as part of the philadelphia underground music and philm festival. man, buried beds were flat-out amazing. any description i’d write would sound stupid. go to the website, check out the mp3s, buy a cd and be done with it already. they’re playing the millcreek tavern on november 12 as well. toss up a coin if you can’t bring yourself to decide.

happy birthday to our own ass ace of bass, nolan! his fiancee colleen threw an awesome surprise party and then matt, kellee, monica & i got stranded in ventnor when the ignition lock of matt’s much-maligned 2000 ford focus fell apart at one in the morning. ugh.

friday night i went to the city to see the silence kit. they were real good and a lot of people came out despite the weather. TSK played about five songs. i liked ‘when it’s time’ the best; it had a drawn out ending to it with everyone going nuts. dave from the secession movement plays drums for them now. he has a tattoo on his arm that says secede but it looks a lot like it says suede. for a few seconds i thought, ‘damn! who ever liked suede that much?’ either way, i had a really good time and you should check them out when you can.

what hasn’t happened in the past few months?

well, we’re not quite dead yet. we got the revenge & regret ep mastered at gradwell house recording in september, so we’re crossing our fingers and hoping to get it out by the end of the year. our friend brian newell (ex-english system) is going to be helping us out on drums as we put together the next bunch of songs at the new single spark this fall. i decided that we’re not going to be actively booking shows with this lineup. after enough nights of playing the rock toilets of philadelphia one realizes how little it has to do with making art. sure, in our case it’s bad art, but who’s keeping track?

the dvd is kind of at a standstill for now. audio still needs to be mixed down and the video needs to be edited more to fit onto the dvd.

a big congratulations to matt, who got married last sunday! it was a beautiful ceremony and a gorgeous autumn afternoon. it was a 1920s themed wedding in his parents’ backyard; beforehand people were milling about in hats, dresses and styles of the time while ragtime music gently trumpeted through the air. it was quite a scene and we’re honored to have taken part in it.

r.i.p. the ambient takeover & the switch: steve shomo from TAT has always been a big supporter of us and hopefully his band will get back together soon. i’m almost heartbroken to see the switch go. anthony chu wrote so many great songs and they had an awesome lineup with mike on guitar, erik on bass, pat on drums and jamie on keyboards. their old tagline was “our pop will fuck you” and somehow, it really fit the music. anthony’s moving back to PA when his lease runs out. maybe we’ll get our chance to form the ultimate asian supergroup then.