Wednesday, December 18, 2002 Rollingstone.com had some kind words for Denison Witmer's Philadelphia Songs, so be sure to check it out. My stay in Singapore is getting ready to end. I'll be leaving on Saturday night, but not before another short jaunt into Malaysia. On my way home, I'll be stopping off in Amsterdam for one more day to visit some friends and then back home to the US. Orders of 2 items or more that are received before 20 December will be sent priority mail at no extra charge to arrive just in time for Christmas. Will and Matthew seem to be doing fairly well at staying on top of the incoming orders. If you see them, give them a high five from me. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 11:05 PM CST Monday, December 16, 2002 Denison Witmer, Unwed Sailor, Circle of Birds, and Ester Drang have all been accepted to play at South by Southwest 2003. More details about the actual dates and times will be posted as soon as they are available. I was in Malaysia this past weekend, with my friends Justin and Sanna, visiting an historical town Melaka, which was originally settled by the Portuguese in the 15th and 16th centuries. Night markets are always entertaining in southeast asia where dozens of vendors sell all kinds of things on the street and huge crowds of locals and the occassional tourist go shopping. I just talked to Denison and the touring seems to be going well with the full band. Be sure to catch them play one of their remaining shows as they tour with Tracy Shedd. There are a lot of articles and reviews for Denison and Philadelphia Songs in the works and hitting newstands. 24 Turned 25 will be on the CMJ New Music Monthly sampler in the upcoming issue and there will be an article in the next issue of Harp. There was also a very favorable review in the issue of Big Takeover that just came out. Unwed Sailor and Ester Drang are touring in March together and have a few dates set. If you are interested in setting up a show, feel free to contact Johnathon from Unwed Sailor. E-mail me if you need that information. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 08:37 PM CST Wednesday, December 11, 2002 The audio master for the Damien Jurado LP has arrived. The release compiles songs from various cassette releases before the Sub Pop years. It will be a limited edition (1000 copies) vinyl only release and will be in stores in May 2003, exclusively distributed by the kind folks at Secretly Canadian. Some fairly big news for us here...Ester Drang has officially joined the Jade Tree roster. Their full-length Infinite Keys will be available on cd from Jade Tree and on vinyl from Burnt Toast Vinyl in stores in April. The vinyl will be available direct from the band and btv website sometime earlier. We're still pals and in love, etc. and wish them the very best of success. They're recording the album in Texas as I type this. They will be touring with Denison Witmer and Unwed Sailor in March 2003. Not much other news, other than for me to make fun of everyone being really cold on the east coast while I am toasty warm here in Asia. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:49 AM CST Monday, December 9, 2002 Greetings from Sunny Singapore. In music news, there was this interesting and fairly high profile article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about sad music in Philadelphia. Denison is out on tour now with Tracy Shedd (Teenbeat Records) and they both played together with The Trouble with Sweeney and Reels of White Softly Flow on Saturday night at the Fire. I was devasted by missing the show, especially since no one worked it out for me to perform by cell phone. Amateurs. The Trouble with Sweeney are in Miner Street studios toiling away on their sophomore full-length with Producer Brian McTear. Jamie Hunt is slaving away over artwork for Unwed Sailor's The Marionette and The Music Box. Artwork is also nearly complete for All American Radio's Fragments Of release. Audio material is finished for the Damien Jurado pre-sub pop greatest hits vinyl only release. No official release date is set for that yet. Last night, Brandtson headlined the Baybeats Music Festival here and shared the stage with several Asian bands of the emo, punk, or rock variety. It was very different to see my friends on such a grand stage and to see devoted fans taking their photos and asking for autographs. I was off to Thailand earlier in the weekend for a very brief visit to Bangkok. It was the King's 75th birthday when we arrived, so there were many special events, including some huge outdoor concert with a million people (according to our cab driver) that my friend Mark and I attended. Lots of crazy things happened over our very short time there, too many to do justice here. Some of the highlights included Mark singing Tears from Heaven in some karaoke bar, which apparently melted a waitress' heart. This led to us going to some techno club where there were maybe half a dozen Westerners in a sea of thousands of Thais. Very authentic and interesting experience. I attempted to get a tailored suit from a tailor advertising cheap prices. After some intense negotiations, we arrived at a price that I thought was fair and I'm sure made he and his friends laugh after we left. In any case, the final suit was the wrong fabric and they weren't able to fix it before we left. I kept telling Mark that on the way to the airport, we would look over and see these shady tailor characters next to us on the highway holding up a suit and pointing for us to pull over. It didn't happen and now I'm sorting out some messy details with my credit card. My DVD purchase was also very exciting. Needless to say, I'm now the proud owner of "Punk-Drunk Love" among others. Things are very Westernized in Singapore, so there is much less drama here, but plenty of good food. I've been experimenting with a lot of my friends from work. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 02:28 AM CST Sunday, December 1, 2002 I am now in Singapore after a very long flight. Lucas dropped me off at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam 2 hours early for my flight...which eventually left almost 6.5 hours later than scheduled. We had to make a stop in Bangkok on the way in order to change the crew who had been on the plane for so long. The last few days in Amsterdam were excellent. On Thursday, Q and Not U (dischord records) opened up for the spirit that guides us in Rotterdam. Lucas, Diana, and I went to see the hott rokk. On Friday, Dorien and Lodevijk stopped over to have brunch with us, then Lucas and I went to Dordrecht to see Brother Danielson (in the tree with fruit), June Panic, and Scout Niblett. It was great to see Daniel in another country. The show's atmosphere wasn't the most ideal for these fairly quiet acoustic performances, but it was a good night all the same. I was quite shocked by the way Scout attacked a drum set during the first songs of her performance since her full-length on Secretly Canadian (in the US) isn't so very loud and intimidating. The three performers each played two sets of 4 or 5 songs and rotated so that we could get a nice variety. It was a great show concept. I'll be working on some album artwork this week and awaiting Brandtson to arrive on Sunday. Oh yeah, a belated happy thanksgiving... :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:45 AM CST [ Archives ]