First of all, hearty thanks to everyone who aided and abetted our ridiculously overdone weekend of record release shows for 'Rosenberg's After Dark,' especially all the lovely record designers who helped create our best album covers yet.

     The art show Friday evening was a stunning success and almost all of the handmade, individually designed covers were sold. There's still a small handful of great covers available for purchase, but don't sleep, as they say. At the very least, you owe it to yourself to head to Moxie sometime in the next two weeks and check out the Great Wall Of Santa Rosa. Cruise for some new threads, and say hi to Martina and Meredith, who handled it quite well as 75 people crammed into their store to watch us perform alternate semi-acoustic versions of our songs in calypso rhythms, skiffle beats, and death waltz tempos.

     Even though he will never read this, we need to say thanks to Nick Jackson for helping us perform one of the greatest albums ever recorded, Built To Spill's 'Perfect From Now On,' Friday night at the Forestville Club. I swear, somewhere in the middle of 'Velvet Waltz' the roof split in two and the brilliant light of transcendental divinity shine down upon us. It was surreal. Thanks also to the multitude who turned out and stayed up past their curfews, as well as Exit Flagger and HugeLarge for representing the Guided By Voices and Ramones catalogs.

     On Saturday, we joined The New Fucking Trust, The Fucking Highlands and A Pack Of Fucking Wolves at the Phoenix Fucking Theater. Do we need to explain our excitement, or does our jubilant overuse of expletives give us away? We had not one, not two, but THREE new t-shirt designs for sale, as well as some limited, hand-silkscreened posters made by Jared Powell and James Williams. Oh, and pins, finally. Not to mention this new album that everyone's talking about, freshly available as a beautifully packaged LP in tandem with the substandard CD format.

     The Highlands: A total unbridled insanity. "It wouldn't kill you to get closer." Yes, it would. Redirecting your conception of entertainment into frentic and unpredictable waters. The hope of a new day.

     The New Trust: A storming of the stage, the decades of machetes and tiny little nips on the bottoms of lips. Are they kisses? We can only dream. Brothers, sisters, buddies, pals, comrades, friends. Until the end.

     A Pack Of Wolves: Charging in for the save and overcoming the embargo. Answering machine message, later that night: "This is Sweet Lou's, where are you guys?" The satisfying and obscenity-filled callback: "You guys fucking cancelled." Ah.

     Sunday afternoon.

     Courthouse Square, 2:35 pm, setting up a smattering stage of stolen signs. Writing a two-hour set list. Dedicating songs to a dead mother while an irritated cat walks around on a leash. Listening to the fountain's white noise wash over the end of each song. Jennifer Hurst, bringing Lilly to her first show. Bernie Schwartz, ratting out the Christians and offering bribe money so we won't rip down his store's signs. Robert, Desiree, A-Head, Caitlin, performing the self-evident. Ava.

     What's the difference between Hugh Codding and the American Flag? A woman from City Hall stops by and wants to buy 20 CDs. Two people actually buy cassettes, and who says time marches on? Packing up, a group of kids plug in to an amplifier. Distorted 808 beats with a microphone. Life, the endless freestyle.

     Thanks again to everyone who made it out. Especially Liz, who was the only one to make it out to all four shows. Houghton, Myers, Izen, and Conrad all came damn close.

     Make sure to stop by Moxie throughout the month of August and check out the 50 handmade covers on display. After that, they'll be up on our website gallery at www.deathbysantiago.com. Our CD and LP is available at The Last Record Store, Backdoor Disc, www.interpunk.com, and www.cdbaby.com. We're already busy writing new songs and thus we have no upcoming appearances scheduled, unless you count a morning lecture for the Fountaingrove Hilton Breakfast Club at 7:00 am on August 25th, discussing the album with a group of old-time Santa Rosa Senior Citizens. No, I do not know why the hell they asked us. We have been promised breakfast.

     Hurrah and exeunt. Thanks for still believing in this beautiful city. You have made our hearts full.

     Love,
     Santiago