It’s hotter than Satan’s balls here in LA! Y’know what that means… A LOT of time spent indoors where there’s air-conditioning, which inevitably leads to me writing another unending, blabbering, novel-sized update, with way too many run-on sentences. So yeah, if you’re already scared, just stop reading now, and instead go google “Underage Filipino Tranny Amputees” like you normally do with your free internerd time.

Where do I start? There’s so much going on, and so much has happened, that even I’m not sure what is or isn’t “news” anymore. The most significant thing would obviously be the addition of our two new band members, Jenni Tarma and Tony Bevilacqua. To say that it’s immensely reinvigorating, and a joy to play and make music with these guys, would be a massive understatement. Life has a funny way of falling to pieces on you all at once, and convincing you that things couldn’t possibly get worse… And then suddenly, somehow things are even better than you’d ever thought was possible before.

So maybe some of this will bring answers to a bit of the speculations we’ve gotten wind of… Or maybe it’ll just raise even more questions. But it’s actually been well over half a year now that the decision was made to part ways with Jeff and Mike. This outcome had nothing to do with any type of personality conflicts among us. Obviously there’s always more than one side to every story, so if you want theirs, you’d have to ask them. But as far as I’m concerned, Mike and Jeff have always been respectable, stand-up guys. They’re also great musicians. It ultimately boiled down to differences of opinion, taste, and direction. I suppose that’s the simplest answer I can give, whether it comes across as opaque or not.

I’m well aware of the fact that the longer you keep your mouth shut, the more assumptions that will be made… And the sillier they’ll get. Adding Tony and Jenni into the mix was not a knee-jerk, or hastily made decision. These are two people that I’ve not only been friends with, but have admired for years. And as I’ve stated before, my aim has always been for this Jubilee thing… As crazy and confusing as it may seem sometimes… To be a BAND, first and foremost. You can throw a rock from anywhere you stand in this town, and hit a dozen guitar and bass players. But finding ones that have similar taste, ambitions, and don’t provoke strangulation while confined to tiny spaces for extended periods of time, is like searching for a needle in a haystack. And suddenly, Troy and I had to find two needles if we wanted to take this thing any further. I guess it’s true that sometimes the answers yr looking for are so close in front of you, that you don’t even think about looking there.

I feel like a cat with 99 lives, and can’t wait to get on stage with these guys and make some ears bleed. Jubilee couldn’t possibly get more LA than it is now. One guy lives in We-Ho… Rain-Beau Brite Land… And I know, I know… Naturally you’d assume that’d be Troy Boy, but it isn’t! Then the two newbies with actual musical talent reside over in Echo Park… And finally, there’s a dude who lives in like, EAST east LA. Anyway, lemme attempt to describe the two new kids, and how I met them...

I first met Jenni in England at the Leeds Festival in 2003. Oh, and by the way… Her name is pronounced like the J is a Y. So it sounds like “YENNI”. Y’know… Like when you’re going through the Jack In The Box drive-thru, and the lady confirms your order by asking, “OK, so you want one Yumbo Yack weeth chess?” Yeah, yeah… I KNOW. Not only did we let a GIRL in the band, but a FOREIGNER too! We done lost our minds! Where was I? Oh… Leeds, 2003. That turned out to be an interesting day for a number of reasons. I was still serving time in The Icarus Line, and after our set I recall seeing The Duke Spirit for the first time, absolutely KILLING it in one of those tiny tents in front of about 100 people. This was also the night that our drummer decided it would be a good idea to take on the entire band and crew of Revenge Sevendust, or Avenge Centerfold, or whatever they’re called. That incident finally dissipated when TV On The Radio’s drummer, Jaleel, fended off the Suicide Girl-lookin’ dudes with a broken lantern and a machete. I shit you not. Oh, sorry. Got a lil sidetracked again there...

Anyhoo, at the time, Jenni was playing bass for Har Mar Superstar, and I remember being very impressed with her rock action skills. After that, I kept bumping into her in various locations around the globe, or occasionally shared the bill/stage with her. (My memory from that period is a smidge hazy though… There was a west coast Icarus Line / Yeah Yeah Yeahs tour, and Har Mar played some of the shows too, right? Dammmmn. Brain damage.) Then in 2005, (I think. Ha.) Jenni ended up in L.A., played with a bunch of other bands and people, including her current day job in Kylie Minogue’s band, playing bass to like, 744,692 people a night. Again, I shit you not.

I must admit, it initially struck me as a bit bizarre and ironic, seeing this (for lack of a MUCH better term) “indie rock” girl, playing on a massive stage with like, 200 other people up there… Dancers, pyrotechnics, wardrobe changes, and…… Kylie Minogue! But the next thought I had was, “Shit Yeah Jenni!” To me, it kinda echoed how odd I felt in my time with Nails, at least in terms of feeling a bit out of place. Yes. Be warned… The kids who grew up listening to Sonic Youth and the Pixies are slowly but surely infiltrating the music even your parents have heard of.

And then we have Tony Bevuhwhutthafuckaicanneverspellhislastnameuh. I met Tony when The Icarus Line toured with The Distillers. I think the tour started somewhere in Scotland, and when Tony introduced himself that first day, he immediately struck me as an out-going, no bullshit, non-jive dude. I think the bill for that tour consisted of Eagles Of Death Metal opening the shows… And if I remember correctly, it was also the first time they’d even ever played together live. Yeah, must’ve been… I’ve never seen Jesse as nervous before or since… Shaking like a leaf before goin’ onstage. So yeah, Eagles, then us, and then The Distillers. One memory that DOES stick out from that tour, was playing Leeds University on Valentine’s Day. This was particularly exciting for me since we were playing in the exact same hall, and on the exact same stage that The Who had recorded “Live At Leeds”, EASILY one of my top five favorite albums of all time. I was playing on stage left, and standing in the exact same spot Pete Townshend did for that show/album. I played some Who songs at sound check, and could hear my guitar echo, and slap back at me exactly the same way it does on the album. Not to mention that The Who had recorded that record on a Valentine’s Day as well in 1970. So yeah, to say the least, I was PSYCHED. Oh, I also remember that some of the dudes in our band and crew had somehow gotten lice, so I christened the night “LICE AT LEEDS”. I’m rambling again, huh?

So yeah, Tony was the guitar player in The Distillers, and probably the one guy in their camp I really spoke with at any length during the tour. As it progressed, I began to notice that apart from being a super cool, down-to-earth guy… He was also one BAD ASS of a guitar player. I think I remember his rad-assness being confirmed the night the tour ended at the Henry Fonda Theater in LA. At some point during our set, I decided that I’d had enough middle fingers pointed at us by some Warped Tour/Hot Topic/faux “punk” kids whose moms had dropped ‘em off at the show. When I was finally able to spot one of the malorkuses that was throwing quarters at me, I jumped in, and quickly discovered that stiff, pointy mohawks make really good handles while decking dipshits in their head-first-into-a-tacklebox faces. Seeing Tony just cracking up when we walked off stage, while pretty much everybody else couldn’t decide if they were either confused, irritated, or both… That was kinda the clincher to me that Tony was definitely a stand-up dude. We’ve been friends ever since. Wow. I’m telling more old guy, “Back in the day when I USED to be cool” stories, huh? Sorry...

Coincidentally, sometime after The Distillers broke up, it was Tony who took over bass duties for Har Mar after Jenni’s departure from the group. Weird, right? Tony and Jenni also both actually live on the same street! That’s some Twilight Zone-type shit right there. Oh yeah, and… They both currently play in bands with female singers that are from Australia… And even from the SAME TOWN! The plot thickens, eh?

Between his time in The Distillers and Spinnerette, I always made a point of seeing Tony tear it up in the bands he was in. For those of you not “in the know”, Tony’s been in lots of cool bands, including Darker My Love and The Drips. And oh yeah, homeboy still plays with Har Mar occasionally, and SLAYS it on bass.

Blahhhhh… Have I covered everything? Oh!… All of our world-wide-web destinations have either finally been fixed, updated, etc… Or will be quite soon. Go on, check ‘em out...

Jubilee website - http://www.Jubilee.LA

Jubilee on I-like / Facebook - http://www.ilike.com/artist/Jubilee+%28LA%29/

Jubilee on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/jubileeband

Jubilee on Vimeo - http://www.vimeo.com/user2031836/

And I hope that everybody who paid for their 2008 Jubilee/Topspin memberships received their “Live In Belfast” and 7-inch B-sides? It was a tedious job tracking some of you down, and for those of you we missed, please email: jubilee.web@gmail.com , and we’ll make sure to get ya sorted.

Oh, and while yr out there on those damn internets… Go here, and sign up on the mailing list: http://www.jubilee.la/wgb/wgb.htm 

It’s for something we’re starting called White/Grey/Black. In a few days er so, WhiteGreyBlack.LA will be up and running, but for now, you can wiggle yr way through with the link above. We’ll explain more of what that’s all about soon.

I know this ain’t The Oscars er anything, but I do wanna take a second to publicly acknowledge a few comrades of ours. I’d like to graciously thank Siobhan and Vanessa for their invaluable help and hard work on our behalf. If it weren’t for them, our website, as well as Jubilee’s presence everywhere else online, would simply not exist. We couldn’t possibly begin to explain our gratitude here without it turning into a post much longer than this one already is. I’d also like to thank Emilie for the awesome photos she took of us at Shabbey Road, and Lyndxe for the killer candid shots she took of us hangin’ out. And of course, Devon and lil Ro-Ro. If it wasn’t for them… I don’t even wanna think about it.

Oh, and that website / record label that I started with that other guy, did for over ten years, and still happen to legally own half of… I quit sometime late last year. I have nothing to do with anything or anyone associated with it now, and never will again.