July 2002:
...so we played with Weezer at Irvine Meadows and we signed a record deal and we played a haunted hotel in Arizona and we got some cool new stickers & T-shirts and Sabrina got a great new crop of third-graders and we are getting ready to unleash the new recordings on all y'all and the band's been busy these past months and there's so much to tell you and and and -- oh, we'll post more here VERY soon! :)
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July 2002:
Hola folks -- happy summer!
Our multi-talented pal Chris Freeman from Pansy Division and new L.A. locals Dart, is in a new movie, Luster, directed by Everett Lewis. Many fine bands are featured in the soundtrack, too, courtesy of our friend and associate producer Garret "Scully" Scullin (oh, yeah, 3GT has music in it as well!) It's screening at Outfest in Los Angeles on Friday, July 12 and Tuesday, July 16.
Garret says: "It's got a bunch of cute people in it and the music is great! Some people have even said it was "Sexy" and "Beautiful" and "Punky". (?!)
It's been doing festivals around the world and has now made it to the USA.
It has sold out its screenings in Australia, NYC, Toronto, and San Francisco - So rush out and get your tickets now.
I told somebody once that it was 'High Fidelity' meets 'Kids' - HaHa.... :) "
We're in some high-flying company...For more info, dates, reviews, etc. please check out the Luster website!
In other news of 3GT onscreen, John Perry has just finished up editing our new video for "Schoolboy". Much love to him and to Kevin O'Connor, who together shot the footage, and without whom we'd probably never get anything done. At least, none of the great visuals like the "Tongues" video from 3, another example of their camera work & John's mad production skills.
It's pretty much a straight performance (yeah, a contradiction in terms for sure) of us playing in a room, just like all those old new wave *videos* -- not film -- from back in the days when there was zero budget for such things and only cool underground artists bothered making them anyway 'cause no one really played videos except late at night on the occasional music show and then when MTV first started and didn't have much else to play to fill the time except a lot of those weird bands back when the "M" stood for music and not reality shows...but we digress, by cracky!
Anyway, we can't wait for you to see it, but you'll have to -- just a little longer. More news coming your way soon, just you wait 'n' see...
Meanwhile, why not enjoy some reading over at the new BarTabs site, featuring this swell article on 3GT, while we keep you in suspense a little longer?
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June 2002:
Boy, have we got some 'splainin' to do, as well as some catching you-all up on what's been going on with us-all. We'll get to that...but in between all the travels and tales, the 3GT HQ ISP SNAFU, in which we were offline for a couple of months, slowed down transmissions from homebase. Such tragic tales of billing grief/customer non-service/subsequent limbo are commonplace, we're told, but we have so many adventures to tell you about instead!
Let's see, where did we last leave off? In March we ventured far from home to play some shows in Chicago, and it was an amazing trip. (Some of you may recall that we were originally scheduled to go there last September, but it was postponed in the days following the 11th.) We played with our new pals Pistol Whipped, who not only ruled -- great songs, dueling vocals (& genetic harmonies) from bro & sis John & Laurie, instrument swapping, rocking drummer Shelley -- but rolled out the red carpet and showed us the sights. (They just played 2 shows with us here in L.A. & Long Beach too -- if you missed them, check them out at http://www.pistolwhipped.org.)
The first show, at the Hideout, got a dandy write-up in the music section of the Chicago Reader:
Pistol Whipped, Third Grade Teacher
3/15, Hideout
The local trio Pistol Whipped show scruffy heart on their second release, Too Much Excitement (Beluga); with their fresh-blended boy-girl vocals and passionate leaping after notes they can't quite reach, they sound at times like the waifish teenage love child of X and, well, Love Child. They share this bill with Third Grade Teacher, an LA quartet making their Chicago debut; they're tighter and grittier sounding than Pistol Whipped and could pass for classic hard rock if it weren't for that name and the decidedly new-wave delivery of Sabrina Stevenson (who really does teach third grade). Their most recent full-length, 3 (Third Grade Records), is a double CD (enhanced with photos and video) that threatens to overstay its welcome with its warped take on everything from funk to Led Zeppelin to crisp college pop, and yet never does.
Other highlights: snow flurries (well, it's a highlight for us, OK?), the Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick's Day, food of course (White Castles, deep-dish pizza, Healthy Food Lithuanian restaurant -- hearty home-style, with all that healthy bacon...), and local poet/author Thax introducing our Underground Lounge show with a poem for us -- click on it to read at near-lifesize...
And best of all, many great new fans! Rock over Chicago!
Back on the home front -- and you can't get much closer to home than this -- one of the coolest, and strangest, shows we've ever played was the Fountain Valley High School Battle of the Bands. Cool because of all the FVHS students who played and dug the show -- strange because it's Laura's old high school (OK, for only one year, but it was senior year). They didn't have shows like this in the Bowl back then, she assures you. This was a big deal...we even had laminates to pass through the secured area -- lookee here:
(We didn't actually compete with the students in the Battle of the Bands...this was the big night for the Loud Music Club, which is headed by Jamie Sparkle*jet -- also known as Mr. Knight, librarian at FVHS! All the bands did a great job competing for a spot at this year's International Pop Overthrow festival; we were on hand to entertain the students, which is pretty much always our job, come to think of it. And if any concerned parents are reading this now, don't worry about Sabrina's ever-present flask...just water, folks...)
Many thanks to the great FVHS kids, and to Jamie for inviting us, for the most fun we've had at a show in a long time! And cheers to Sparkle*jets UK who rocked extra hard -- and lugged all that gear...
(P.S. Susan Sparkle*jet is also an FVHS Baron!)
And, saving the best for last (but certainly not least) -- belated congratulations and best wishes to Rob and his beautiful fiance' Amy, who welcomed the New Year by getting engaged. Together they are an amazing couple, and we wish them many years of continued bliss!
