A couple years ago, four or five to be inexact, I went on tour to Japan with a band I was playing in. It was a tour sandwiched in between two other tours, and wound up getting sick just about the time we landed in Tokyo . I spent an inordinate amount of time asleep, in every picture I look pale and disoriented–there is a picture of me, curled up asleep on top of an amp a few days into the 10 day tour. I did not have a raging time, unfortunately. The main things I remember, aside from immaculate malls, the smoked deviled eggs from 7-11 and a temple in Kyoto, was playing shows with Nisennenmondai. The drummer Sayaka would play so hard, flail so exuberantly, she’d fall off her stool.

In the last few years, they have occasionally been able to to tour the U.S., and different labels have been making their music available outside of Japan. Their new one, Destination Tokyo is coming out in August and I hope it means they get to come to America on tour.

Dude! Dude! I am psyched! All the way psyched! Laurie Lindeen is going to introduce the Minneapolis book event (7/16). Laurie was the second woman I ever saw play a guitar, when she was in Zuzu’s Petals. Her band was a major inspiration to my very young teen ideas. She’s also one of the few women musicians that have written memoirs of their years in a band–which is a pretty exciting development, speaking as someone who suffered through multiple John Lennon tell-all books just to get more information on Yoko Ono.

At the gym this weekend* I almost fell off the stepping-machine I was on out of anger while reading an article in EW about No Doubt’s appearance in a recent episode of Gossip Girl. The No Doubt performance was in a flashback to Lily’s rock n’ roll past, which the producers hope to turn into Gossip Girl spin off–and here’s the quote from GG producer Stephanie Savage that makes me barf in my mouth a little: ”It would address the question ‘How did this woman who grew up with all this Upper East Side snobbery once end up in the back of a Nine Inch Nails bus?”’ The bigger question: How did these successful producers end up with their heads so far up their butts? The three biggest publicity grabbers for Gossip Girl, since the weakly scandalous ad campaign of season one, are GOSSIP GIRL STAR TAYLOR MOMSEN HAS A BAND, GOSSIP GIRL STAR LEIGHTON MEESTER GETS A RECORD DEAL & NO DOUBT APPEARS ON GOSSIP GIRL. WHAT PART OF GOSSIP GIRLS FANBASE IS ENERGIZED BY GIRLS BEING IN BANDS DON’T YOU RECOGNIZE? I mean, other than all of it? I don’t know what posters are on the walls of the cave where Savage and fellow producer Josh Schwartz reside, but in contemporary pop world, the girlfriend-of-guy-in-the-band-archetype has been replaced by girlfriend-of-guy-in-the-band-is-actually-a-more-famous-pop-star-than-him=Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, etc. Girls want to be Taylor Swift (who had eight songs simultaneously on the Billboard charts last year and sold out Staples Center this past weekend, by the way), because she is a glamorous and talented girl rockstar who is singing songs that reflect their hopes and lives and high school struggles–they don’t want to be her because she dated a Jonas Brother.

(Like Maria in Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays swears in the opening sentence about things she will never do–writing a sentence where I reference being on a step machine is one of mine, but alas)

Last weekend we shot six little films–”infomercials” though the info in them is dubious at best–for the book. Five of them are “commercials”–but one of them is what we were calling “the Adventure film”. It’s a two-minute long no-budget ensemble epic, a saves-the-day friendship plot; like Goonies except the ghost ship is a band practice. Here’s a little outtake. That’s Monika Bukowska of Brilliant Pebbles on the right and my friend Morgo on the bike.

Guardian article on the huge amount of British women finding success in music:
“However, even seasoned music business insiders are surprised by the huge number of young women currently getting record deals. It’s like riot grrrl actually happened. “It’s massive, and it’s not all one genre,” says Sophie Williams, press officer for Ladyhawke, garish funk noisenik Ebony Bones, school-age tweepop quartet Poppy & the Jezebels and swamp-blues trio An Experiment On a Bird in the Air Pump. Williams sees this avalanche of new female talent not just as a “backlash against lad rock” which has been dominant for several years, but also as testament to the enormous influence of two recent musicians: Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, whose catalytic effect on this generation of performers could be compared to that of the Sex Pistols and the Clash during punk.”

“Female rappers push limits in conservative Morocco”

You can now read/peep/peruse the first few chapters of the book online.

The Workman blog has a behind-the-scenes bit about the cover of the book, which is rad to see after only hearing about it.

Mika Miko is playing the book event at the Santa Monica public library 7/15. Bizerkatron. The last time they played the LA Public Library, everyone had to sit down. The folks that booked this show said that dancing will be permitted and encouraged–”we want people to have fun”–thats a direct quote. Mika Miko is the funnest, so that certainly wasn’t in question. It’s going to be outside. TENT SHOW!
Look at this video of them, all this hopping–and Jenna’s cape! That cape is pure adventure.

Also, I am working on getting some more bands/ladies to play at the other events. If you want to volunteer yr own band (do it!) for the task, PLEASE EMAIL ME. There is also going to be a tour in August, me and a band. Me reading, them rocking. I am so psyched, but cannot tell you yet–all ladies. And no, it’s not the Pat Benatar/Donnas tour, so stop guessing that.

Jules Dales, age 17, going for the gold.