Hello Friends and Strangers, Fans and Critics,
The Pajamas are playing a few shows in early December with Matt Piucci's (ex Rain Parade) new band called the boatclub (all lower case). We'll be playing in Portland and Seattle. Below is the press release written by Jud Cost (famous rock scribe).
Happy Holidays,
-Joe Ross
GREEN PAJAMAS and boatclub in the GREAT PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Seattle psych/pop icons the Green Pajamas play a pair of rare live shows in Portland and Seattle to kick off the December holiday season—and this time they've brought august rock 'n' roll company along with them! Oakland,Calif. -based combo boatclub, helmed by legendary Rain Parade founder/guitarist Matt Piucci, will also be on hand to help blow out the ceiling tiles of a few select Pacific Northwest nightspots. When Jeff Kelly and Joe Ross founded the Green Pajamas in the Orwellian year of 1984 after they'd discovered a mutual affection for the Beatles' 1966 single "Rain," who would have known their band would still be thriving well into the new millennium!
Dozens of thrilling albums—many like their newest work, Poison In The Russian Room, on their current label, Hidden Agenda/Parasol, others on Australia's Camera Obscura, Bevis Frond's vaunted U.K. imprint Woronzow, and Greg Shaw's storied Bomp! label have assured Pajama addicts of never being too far away from another life-sustaining hit. Though they don't play live often, the Green Pajamas, now fleshed out by guitarist Laura Weller, Eric Lichter on keyboards and drummer Scott Vanderpool, have delighted their bevy of hardcore fans with international appearances at several of the Terrastock festivals, from London to San Francisco, Austin Texas' SXSW, and at Seattle's own annual Bumbershoot extravaganza.
Who better to play alongside these indie-rock heroes than the man whose Paisley Underground band heavily influenced the GPJs in their seminal years. "We always wanted to sound like the Rain Parade," Kelly told Jud Cost of MAGNET magazine in 1997. Finally, Kelly & Co. get their chance to play with Matt Piucci and fellow Rain Parade lead guitarist John Thoman in their recently launched outfit, boatclub. With guitarist Mark Hanley and Stephan Junca on drums, boatclub has been making a lot of noise on the Bay Area scene...literally, and their debut album will be available at the upcoming shows.
Piucci also has an occasional side gig playing with Neil Young's famed backing band Crazy Horse whenever they play without Neil. Piucci also bends strings every now and then with his good friend, Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot.
If you're too busy doing the Christmas shopping the first weekend in December, you may miss a sweet chariot that won't pass this way again anytime soon: the Green Pajamas and boatclub together in a lysergic twin-bill made in heaven (Harps not included in price of admission). See them now or forever hold your peace.
—JUD COST
NORTHWEST TOUR SCHEDULE FOR DECEMBER 4-6
Friday, Dec 4, 2009
9:00 PM
Green Pajamas, boatclub, Class M Planets
at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St.
Portland, Oregon 97204
Cost: $10
Saturday, Dec 5, 2009
1:00 PM
Green Pajamas, boatclub
in-store performance at Music Millenium
3158 E. Burnside
Portland, Oregon 97214
Cost: free
Saturday, Dec 5, 2009
9:00 PM
Green Pajamas, boatclub, Drug Purse, DJ Brother James
at Lo Fi Performance Gallery
429 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, Washington 98109
Cost: $7
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
9:00 PM
Boat Club (see below)
at the San Dune
Manzanita, Oregon
In probably the craziest musical invasion of Oregon since Ken Kesey and the peach-fuzzed Grateful Dead lived out their paisley-hued, Merry Prankster dreams of "an Acid Test in every town" in late 1965, guitarist Matt Piucci, the man who helped assemble legendary Los Angeles rockers Rain Parade in the early 1980s, will play the foam-flecked coastal resort town of Manzanita on Sunday evening, December 6 at storied venue The San Dune. And Piucci's bringing his current band, boatclub, along with him, a wild and wooly (and sometimes lyrical) electric combo that features Rain Parade's other great guitarist John Thoman, along with guitarist Mark Hanley and (yes, they have someone who doesn't play guitar) Stephan Junca on drums.
Manzanita and the San Dune are locales close to Piucci's heart, since spending many a family vacation there collecting sand dollars on the beach, making exact replicas of medieval sand castles and dreaming of the day when he'd become a professional surfer. Those dreams, sadly, were never realized, but his deftness with the guitar has brought this kid fame beyond any reasonable expectations, especially when he occasionally fills in for Neil Young in Young's backing combo, Crazy Horse.
Come and hear boatclub play music unheard in these parts since Kesey and the Dead daubed a former school bus with dayglo paint, dubbed it "FURTHUR," pointed it northwards and turned Oregon upside down. In trying to further emulate that legendary pilgrimage, the Oakland, Calif.-based boatclub has asked second-tier Bay Area rock scribe Jud Cost to go along for the ride and document what happens. You might be part of that document if you drop by the San Dune on Sunday, December 6. It might be more "Cowgirl In The Sand" than you can handle.
About Jud Cost: In 1987 Jud Cost lugged a six-pack and his battered old college typewriter into his music room, whacked out a couple of record reviews, and, amazingly, they were published in U.K. fanzine Bucketfull Of Brains. Residing in Santa Clara with his patient wife Jenifer, Cost has never looked back, with hundreds of features in Bucketfull, The Bob, BAM, Option, Harp and the Ptolemaic Terrascope. Since he grew up in the ’60s, he began to pen liner notes in 1993 for CD reissues by Jan & Dean, the Beau Brummels, Moby Grape, Flamin’ Groovies, Syndicate of Sound, Janis Joplin, Count Five and 200 more artists for upstate New York’s Sundazed Music. He’s also the west coast editor for indie-rock bible Magnet, freelances regularly for Sony/BMG, Blurt and Swedish mag Sonic, and is on a first name basis with Ray Davies.
The Green Pajamas NEW ALBUM
Poison In The Russian Room
Poison In The Russian Room is veteran Seattle combo The Green Pajamas’ new album, a conceptual piece split into two distinct parts. This is their seventh release for Hidden Agenda Records, seven among several dozen official releases since their inception in the mid 80s. While The Green Pajamas’ trademark psychedelia has gone through many moon phases (both gibbous and crescent) on the last 25 years, here in 2009 the band might rock harder than ever (they’re from Seattle after all, grunge finds a way), but also invert all expectations with a Pentangle-influenced acid-folkiness that will charm and enchant.
To hear hear the bands check out: