February 11, 2005

NEW ALBUM:
“YAWN + HOUSE = EXPLOSION”

OFFICIAL NATIONAL RELEASE FEBRUARY 22ND!!!!

We have been quiet for several years, as far as new recordings are concerned. We hope our latest makes up for this prolonged silence. To those of you who generously admire us from afar (that is, beyond the West Coast, where, thus far, 20ML has never traveled), we offer this humble 45-minute recording with our confident assurance that it is the best thing we have ever done.

Our CD release party was a smashing success. Greg baked three cakes that looked exactly like our new buttons. Even the ungrateful cad who complained later of one cake’s dryness (Greg admits he was caught absorbed in his Elizabeth Gaskell novel as one overcooked in the oven—heavens!) had THREE pieces! That’s like complaining about your meal in a restaurant after you have eaten it!

Besides cake, there was much ecstatic activity among many fine people at the Bottom of the Hill that January 8th. In fact, the show sold out, thanks in part to the support of two other bands that opened for us: Elephone and Every Move a Picture. Elephone enjoyed their CD release, as well. Our sincere thanks to everyone who attended and made the show such fun for the bands. There were many familiar faces there, people who, over the years, have made our thankless lives as freak-pop musicians more than bearable… in fact, deeply pleasurable.

As a result of this new CD thing, we have, in addition to the CD in question, new T-shirts and the aforementioned buttons. If you are so curious (because they are both so cool) click here:

> Lots of cool 20ML stuff to buy

Thanks also to our three-piece impromptu horn section—Steve Krchniak, Ethan Diamond, and Carroll Ashby—who were game enough to accompany us for one song toward the end of our set, for no remuneration except a free dinner down the street from the club. We had to do something special, since it was our first cover song ever performed: Hüsker Dü’s “I’ll Never Forget You,” a tender ballad from their easy-listening masterpiece Zen Arcade. The horn section acquitted themselves very well.

(Actually, come to think of it, we did play a cover of Mission of Burma’s “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver” for a Halloween show long ago, but since Kelly wasn’t there, we suppose it doesn’t count. Because, you know, Kelly Makes Things Count. And then there was the Def Leppard tribute at the middle school dance… oh, dear.)

Our freshly updated website includes artwork conceived by our 12-year-old amanuensis and artist Sophia, drawings and cryptic non sequiturs that can be found sprinkled throughout the liner notes of our latest album. They make up the dictionary stories that she has written over the last couple of years and has so generously contributed to our new recording. What are dictionary stories, you ask? Click below and write one of your own (we intend to post our favorites and have Sophia illustrate them):

> Read our Y+H=E Story
> Write your own DICTIONARY STORY

And by the way, who is Sophia? We’re not quite sure, but her picture adorns the front and back of our new CD. Greg has heard that she can dowse for water by holding the legs of a struggling chicken, which might explain why she tenderly holds them like holy infants in her arms in each photograph. They seem to be her bread and butter and have provided the sites of artesian wells to several eco-terrorist communities in Sonoma County. (They literally pay her with bread and butter. But because it’s vegan bread, it tastes like crap and crumbles in your hand. And the “butter” is really salted canola oil.) Have we mentioned that she might have the blood of Rasputin in her? Perhaps she is the descendant of an illegitimate relationship between Alexandra and that Russian charlatan, the great-great-granddaughter of their secret love child? She rarely speaks except to cluck at her chickens, particularly the Polish hen with the tuft of white feathers on her head like a Cossack’s shako. She often says, “Nyet,” contemptuously. We think this means, “No,” in Russian.

Here are some early reviews of our album, in case you are worried that we have become overly sentimental, libertarian, or born-again since our last album:

We hope to be on tour in the coming months, “expanding our horizons,” as the valedictorians often say in their tired graduation speeches. Perhaps as far as Gdansk, perhaps as far as Salt Lake City… who can say? Stay tuned…

All our unsentimental (and therefore deeply genuine) love,
20ML


P.S. Cora May, by 20ML, was played on LIVE 105/KITS on Sunday January 23. To request it, go to: http://www.live105.com/Also, Austin, Texas fans can request us on KVRX.

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