Tuesday, July 04, 2006

femming out

we left the panic tour for a one-off show in san jose...flew out to california and spent, literally, about 16 hours in the state.
the show was outdoors, and we were filled with immense happy joy joy to be invited onstage to play with the violent femmes. we sat in for about 4 songs, including "good feeling", "confessions"...they were so mellow and cool and the whole thing was like a little dose of music medicine for both of us. you couldn't wipe the grinsd off either of our faces....though gordon gano came back to my piano with a towel and bound my arms because i was so happy and banging away that i didn't realize i was stepping all over what was supposed to be a drum solo. hopefully somebody got some good pictures.

the land of contrast continues, back to the airport to come home to boston for another 16 hours, make love to my own bed, and get back on the bus. one good thing did happen: i invited the panic boys over to the cloud club since we were all in town at the same time and ryan, the shy and retiring lyricist, took me up on my offer. there was a raging party here the night before, so wading through the carnage and hungover vibe i showed him our magic house and we watched some ghetto impromptu fireworks from the roof. we had a wonderful time...the way it's supposed to be, everybody in the cloud club sitting around til late late, drinking and philosophizing about nothing important, michael pope in true michael pope form chain-smoking and entertaining us with his every utterance, becca talking about sleeping in the bathtub and wanting a pony, lee probing sweetly deep into all of pschyes and mother issues, noah and pope arguing about media, brianna soaking it all in with her beautiful wide eyes and agreeing with me (thanks brianna) that honesty is always the best policy when dealing with normal-people-relationship adultery. peter sand came by at about 1 am and showed us his vintage volkswagen cartruck (cruck? or trar?). things were still loud down on the stoop when i went to bed, in heaven under my own quilt. now it's morning, we leave for hampton beach in an hour and i won't see this paradise of home for another month. i wish i could beam myself back here every three days for just an hour. it's fuel for me. i think i am going to take this last hour, and instead of blogging like an idiot, ride my bike to the public garden and look at the ducks and get some edamame succotash at whole foods.

ach: some business before i forget. the songbook is OFFICIALLY FINISHED (aaaahhh!) and has been shipped.
you can order it here: www.jsrdirect.com/bands/dresdendolls
only one snag: the DVD is still in production and is being shipped separately to everyone who ordered the book.
if you already received your copy and are wondering, it's on the way.
don't despair. i've already been getting fantastic feedback on the book, so hopefully the painful wait was worth it.


love & happy The Man Day



a

16 comments:

June Miller said...

Damn. I was thinking of going to that Live 105 thing down in San Jose. No dinero nor a reliable car was available to me, unfortunately. Glad to hear it went off splashingly, though.

Your group of friends and my group of friends would probably compliment eachother rather nicely.

And a happy Go Amurka Day to you. Why the national anthem hasn't been changed to "America, Fuck Yeah!", I can't quite say for sure.

Unknown said...

This post made me happy. It was almost like I had friends like those myself, instead of cheap wankers who don't know the meaning of philosophy. Of course, it could just be because I'm in a Badly Drawn Boy high.

It's been said a million times before, and it's no groundbreaking statement, but I adore you. : D

And Happy 4th if you're into that kind of thing.

unknown said...

You?! you played with the violent femmes, christ. Put them in you suitcase and ship them over for the Edinburgh festival, they can be your support band. Now THAT would be a nice early christmas present :).
highly unlikely and I'm just so typically jealous. But a girl can dream right?

When money grows on trees, or when i learn not to spend my money on stupid things, I'll be flying over to see you perform once again.

keep up the blog, keep up the music, keep up the happiness. And just keep...you know what....sod it..
YOU ROCK.


x

christie said...

Dear Amanda,

I'm madly in love with your songbook, and my kitten hates it. She keeps trying to attack it and can't understand how the pages mysteriously turn as they do. She thinks this is some sort of evil activity that must be terminated at once. She doesn't understand the sacredness of music and books, you see.

I really wanted to say, however, in addition to thanking you for putting it together, that you really need to tell us the pubic hair story. When I read about it in the songbook, my interest was piqued impossibly. What exactly IS the long story that explains how you were trimmed for the album artwork when normally you are a Wild Jungle?

I'm just burning with curiosity.

Mikaela said...

Well, I wanted to comment, so I just spent a couple minutes making a blog so I could, but now I don't remember what I was going to say....fuck.

Well, keep on keepin' on.
Oh, and in my livejournal I said that you guys were like my happy pill. Your music builds up a lot of creative energy and confindence in me, and I really appreciate your existance.

rachel said...

come over to asia. =( i wanna see you guys live!



p.s. i love reading your blog! you take care now!

perra de la ropa said...

everybody has something to say, but me. i do like you, i dont know you i know, but you as a person, i love what you write and everything.

i just hope you can read in spanish or something well i dont know.
neverming

take care darling :*

the Kate said...

The Wall. I just got it. Hahahahaha! The song isn't better, though- it was best when you sang it.

Anyhow, adultry is wierd... and I played you strategically for my troubled friend tonight, and I think she was listening intently...

anyway, robert crumb is awesome... and my pants said Hugo Ball with a big heart around it that night, and i felt guilty because i think he's only my favorite because i can't read german. Or speak it. All i can do is fail my second year of it in high school... but what's really important is that the birds are chirping and i need to go to bed.

- kate from c-bus

kuba said...

damn... at times like this i really wish that everyone could speak polish. communcation would be so much easier for me. ah well...

but still. i've been retyping this goddamn comment [if i can call it a comment] too many times.
and still so much stuff to say.

hmmm... let's start with simple things. i fell in love with dresden dolls. i love your voice, Amanda. i love how brian plays on drums. i love how you play on the piano.
for a music junky like me this music is a new drug.

still i can't say that you guys are the best band in the world, but you have monstrualy big advantage above other bands. you feel human. because of music and because of how much you give to your fans, Amanda.

i read this whole blog and now i feel really close to you even if i am some anonymous dude from the middle of nowhere. we will probably never meet, but still i consider you as my friend. or maybe more like imaginary friend. i'm crushed by your honesty. i'm amazed how easily you write about things many would try to hide deeply into their brains.

for me you are a human being. not just voice on the album. and that's amazing. for a while, i thought, i was falling for you. "why the fuck my mom did not let me out from her body earlier and in boston?" my mind screamd. thankfully i am my own shrink and i calmly explaind to myself that this is just a feeling of desperate wanting to have someone similiar by my side. i think in some ways you are very much like me, or i am very much like you. whatever. the important thing is i honestly regret that we will not meet. we will not drink tea. i will not make you laugh with my stupid jokes. we will not bond.
maybe my mind is just playing tricks with with me and we would never get along that well, but still it's a big pain in the neck for me, that i will not meet you.
damn.
someday maybe dresden dolls will come to poland [i hope i'll be back from china at that time] and i'll see you on stage, but nothing more. of course i'll wet my pants from joy of just seeing you, but... i'm a greedy person. especialy for the best things. i want to meet you in person. i also love communicating.

but after i finish this crazy comment i will have to bury this stupid wish with some other childish stuff and just listen to the music. or just hope that my novels will be the next shit and i'll be enough famous [dan brown level maybe] to make my way to your tour bus, kekekeke....
will see.

wish you the best, and hope to see next kick-ass album soon.
kuba

kuba said...

and do you guys plan on touring again in europ soon, maybe? somewhere near poland maybe?

Sophie Yanow said...

The Femmes rocked so hard... and of course it was totally sweet (in the sugary, rather than rad, way) seeing you guys play with them.

Of course, ya'll were great, too.

Mr.Cerne said...

Dear A and all the other blessed peeps, here . . .

Glad to see you have a brief respite from your average hellacious life . . .

Keep up w. your 'me time,' dear A. And if B needs it, LoL, get on the bugger's butt to do so (considering I rarely ever find out how he deals w/ the touring).

I just hope that the whole experience for you hasn't been a moment of Kalopsia . . .

Love to you and the world . . .

- Frankie

Holly and Tom said...

hello, its 1.35am here dunno what will come up in the time thing, whatever, i went to bed and lay there thinking and decided to get up and leave you a message about whats on my mind. im emotional tonight for personal reasons but i was listening to my mp3 player to help me to sleep it had the opposite effect and played placebo followed by the dresdens....

the thing is, right i went to a placebo gig at alexandra palace a couple of months ago. Placebo are my favpurite band but ive never seen them play before, i love that band, and i mean love, theyre amazing and helped me through some of the roughest times in my life and i went to that gig and this band that i love and cherish so much broke my heart. i didnt feel like i was in a room full of friends listening to a band that wed all waited ages to see, instead i was in a cathedral full of strangers worshipping three emotionless statues of saints. The band seemed not to even realise we were there and left as soon as they could.

the reason im telling you about one of the most disheartening experiences ive witnessed so far is because i know you just posted a blog about how much you love your audience but more often than not you say you dont like touring, and the thing about forgetting the words to your own songs and getting the audience to do it instead made me draw the comparisson (that and the random shuffling of two mp3 tracks in a cosmic act of fate).

This has come out as a rant which i didnt mean it to be, i meant it to be a way of explaining how it feels when a band DONT care about their fans (like sleeping with a prostitute posing as a gentleman)

sorry
ill go to bed now and wont be so emotional (bloody coldplay-ill change the track to billy idol)

Holly and Tom said...

god i need to quit this posting when tired that last thing didnt seem to make any sense at all, look my point was that we appreciate you appreciating us but dont turn into placebo

thankyou

(i really am going to go to bed now)

Leoni said...

Why, why can't you have a one off show when you're up here in Portland?!?

I would gladly host one in my bedroom ;-)

David of New York said...

Soycutash. Amanda, that stuff is amazing. but fuck WHole Foods, get it from Trader Joe's - cheaper and goodummer. Love, your A&R guy.