Sunday, March 05, 2006

Those People...

If I had to list any one year as being the most influential in my life...I'd say 2003 was that year. I fell totally in love for the first and only time, and I met three people that would kind of change my life, in a small but weird way. The first, Sarah Saturday, is probably the biggest person in my life, in a way that would change it. But we're gonna get to her in about a week, for I have an interview with her and some cool items.

The other two people are PJ Paslosky and Tommy Cooper.

I first met them in August of 2003. I was hanging with a girl that my mom worked with at the time, at this bar called Elbos. Now, at the time, I had never hung out at a bar before, for I had just turned 18 a few months earlier. Anywho, we were there to see a few bands, no one I had heard of. Two bands took my notice: Late Nite Drivers, a trio then, who played cool bar rock. The other....The Dead Like Presleys. This five-piece band played very cool rock. Kind of laid back, but not lazy or anything. I ended up buying their CD that they had: The Ritalin EP. At the time, I wasn't really impressed as I am now, but one track really stood out to me:

Friends In The City

I think this was really the start of my love of PJ and Tommy's music. So I tried to see DLP again as soon as I could, but I only got one more show, one of their last. I never really found out why the band broke up, I kind of figured I'd never hear about any of those guys again. But at that last show, I said I'd like to hear anything new that PJ and Tommy came up with because, "I'd love to tape any solo shows you guys do or something." They said they'd keep in touch and they did.

They invited me to a show, where they were to debut they're new solo act of sorts. Mañana, as they were called at that point, was just PJ and Tommy playing guitars and singing....and it was so cool. I had heard plenty of acoustic acts before, but these two, the way they could play and sing really just wowed me at the time. At the end of their set, they came over and handed me a ten-track CD they had just made. Lots of great songs that wound up on their EP Hasta Mañana. But my favorite track at the time was this very quiet, very beautiful piece called:

Airplanes In Veins

They would go through a few name changes, a very good one being Viagra Falls, but wound up calling themselves The Motel Beds. I found it really funny one day when I saw this surge of popularity for them on the internet, all because I suggest Matt should try them out. It really does show you what kind of popularity this band has. When I started working with them though, I started to hang out at their recording sessions and was receiving old demos from the DLP days. And I got some great ones, like:

Bambalam
Knock Me Up

I was privy to a lot of cool moments and even troubled shot a few things about songs. They even asked if I wanted to sing a tiny bit on background vocals, which I refused, for if you've ever heard me sing, you would never want it recorded. I probably saw them more times than any other band I've ever seen, cool shows with Captain Of Industry, Bishop Allen, We Are Scientists and Saving Face. More demos followed, always advancing their sound. Great songs like:

Somebraro Shake
Sunfried Dreams
Systematic Destrux

They always set me up, put me on the list. It made them a class act in my eyes. And with songs like these, how can you not love them?

They went through many lineup changes, as most local bands do, and after fighting it for a long time, the band just sort of fell apart. Which really irritates me, because they could have been big...well, big for them. They had another EP ready to come out that would have knocked people's socks off. It still might get released I hope, but if not, I'll try to get a few tracks on here.

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