Dress Me Up, Mess Me Up, I'm Ready to Go.

Andrew Kendall took some AMAZING shots of Pretty Girls Make Graves at the Astoria in London on April 14th. Ok, so really, they're pretty much all pictures of Andrea. But can you blame him? She's gorgeous and awesome and has an incredible voice.

When I was thinking of a name for this blog, I really wanted the site address to be speakerspushtheair.blogspot.com. Since Speakers Push the Air is a an older Pretty Girls Make Graves song (and probably the most popular song from Good Health), I didn't have a lot of hope that I could get that address. And of course it was already taken. Oh well. So my next choice was moresweetsoul.blogspot.com and thankfully, that was still available.

Speakers Push the Air and More Sweet Soul are two songs from the first PGMG full length, Good Health. I heard Pretty Girls Make Graves for the first time on April 18th, 2002. Normally, I wouldn't remember the exact day I heard a band for the first time, but I remember this day because I wrote about it in my LJ. The fact that I made the effort to even mention PGMG shows how much they impressed me after just one listen. And now I list them as one of my favorite bands (they are a close and respectable second to The Cure). They are indie rock at its best: Energetic, thoughtful, a little volatile, and heartfelt.

Pretty Girls Make Graves is a Seattle band made up of Derek Fudesco (ex Murder City Devils), J Clark (ex Kill Sadie), Andrea Zollo (ex Death Wish Kids), Nick Dewitt and Nathen Johnson (both ex Bee Hive Vaults). I'm not absolutely sure if Nathen is back in the group (he left to take care of his new born baby, and Seth Jabber from Les Savy Fav took over on guitar for tour) but if he's not, the band says he's more than welcome back anytime. PGMG either got their moniker from The Smiths song of the same name, or from Kerouac's The Dharma Bums.

For the longest time, I missed Pretty Girls Make Graves every time they came into town, usually because I couldn't get a ride to whatever venue they were playing. I finally saw them in May of 2003 when they toured with Alkaline Trio. I met Andrea and Nick after the show so that was pretty cool for me. The second time I saw them (about a year later, this time with Seth on guitar) I met Derek and J, who thought my Sad Girls Por Vida hoodie was pretty rad.

Speakers Push the Air is a bit of an anthem for me. I think it is for everyone who has ever heard it. It opens up with Derek and J shouting, "Do you remember when we couldn't put it away? Do you remember what the music meant?" Andrea goes on to sing, "I found a place where it feels alright. I heard a record and it opened my eyes." She ends the song stating proudly, "And nothing else matters when I turn it up loud." Ignore cd reviews, gig flyers, shirts with band logos, or whatever your friends may think. All that should matter when you listen to a song is how you feel when you turn it up loud. If it's doing what it should do, nothing else exists in that moment but you and that song.

More Sweet Soul is a song about touring. I imagine that it would be difficult for a band that tours heavily not to write a song about being on the road. I think when people dream of being a musician and touring, they don't really think about how hard it is when you're a smaller band, and you don't have a big label to help you out. Maybe you're on a small label that helps a little, and maybe you don't have a label at all. You have to deal with finding a place to sleep so that you don't have to spend another night in the van in 20 degree weather, eating whatever you can find for $1 at convenience stores 'cause you have to save your money for gas, double booked shows that bump you off the bill, stolen equipment, car trouble, getting sick 'cause it's winter and you don't have a heavy coat 'cause you're from Florida. And that's just the little stuff. That doesn't even compare to being away from your friends and family on holidays and birthdays, and missing everyone so much that it drives you crazy. Could you handle all that with a month left to go? It's not something that everyone can do. Most bands aren't financially, physically, or mentally able to handle tour. You really have to want it bad to make it work for you, 'cause everything can (and will) go wrong.

Of course there are awesome parts to touring. Like getting to meet new and different people, hearing your fans sing back your words to you verbatim, seeing parts of the country (and world) you never thought you'd see, and doing what you love to do the most for a living. Bands that get to that point, and can take the good with the bad are the ones that are most appreciative of the great things that happen for them. Pretty Girls Make Graves is one of those bands that works hard and deserves everything good that comes their way.

So go listen to them already would ya?

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