SHoko's birthday on Wednesday the 10th!!

It's SHoko's birthday on Wednesday (Feb. 10th) if you like,

please "sign" this card with a birthday message.

Just click on the "comments" link & you can add something.

I will also print it out into a card.

It will be a surprise for her.

thanks!

Jesse

NEW XDS MUSIC VIDEO!!

Our first video ever,
we shot it in the basement & our wonderful friend Jeff Guay was the director.
See Shoko flying over Portland while playing drums, and Jesse's amps dancing,.,.
hope you enjoy:

Making music video.,.,.

We made a music video this past week,.,.,.our friend Jeff Guay helped us.,.,. 

it will be out in week or so,.,. mid august for sure,.,.

here are some pictures while making the video,.,.

XDS Garden,,. we wanted to save $$ so we tore up our back yard & grew vegetables,.,.check out our squashes & lettuce

we wanted to save $$ so we tore up our back yard & grew vegetables :

this was our yard before:

getting in shape for tour w/ painful exercise

dug up:

Started planting w/ the help of our neighbors & their kids:

4 months later:

somewhat fat cat,.,. actually looks slim here:

post Europe tour

We have been back for a couple of weeks now. I still look back and think...how wonderful that tour was..
We've met old friends and new friends.. we really like to thank to the people who:

-set up the shows for us.
-cooked us amazing food.
-let us sleep at their house.
-drove us, thanks so much Ingo, Gisela and Janne.

And most of all, we really appreciate everyone who came to see us play !
some pics are here.

geeky guitar meeting

Oh boy, endless adjustment to Jesse's guitar...he gets help from nice workers at trade up music.

FOREST FIELD

Our new album, Forest Field, is finally born and It's FREE on our website:
http://www.experimentaldental.com/free

Fun weekend trip

We traveled over to Sewanee, Tn this weekend to play a show.
Here are some of the highlights:

- JJ was an awesome host, he showed us around, fed us, told us Sewanee stories. Thanks so much!!
- We went to Piggly Wiggly supermarket, and it was a lot of fun.
- Our hotel room had a (secret?) door to the breakfast room, had to admit we went in and ate pican pie at 2am.
- All the people from Odis and the checkouts are so nice and their music was really good!
- After the show, all of us got stuck in elevator! It took like 10 min till the door actually opened again..it was scary!
- We had a nice time with Odis and the checkouts people, Sarah and Greg. It was really nice meeting you all!
- On the way home, our flight got cancelled in Nashville, stayed the night at Red Roof In near the airport. We watched a lot of bad movies, and ate greasy Chinese food...

It was a really nice weekend, and we really hope to see all our sewanee friends in the near future: )
ox

mixing goes on...

Our engineer is taking a major nap, she wouldn't help us anymore.


Here is Jesse's fancy duck tape headphone.

Trade Up fever

Trade Up Music is a really nice music store with full of nice workers in Portland.
They are sooo nice that they don't treat Jesse like a crazy person, even though he goes there more than you could imagine.
I sometimes think that they are like day care center.

I used to use old casio keyboard when i was a keyboard player. But I sold my main one to Trade up a while ago.
I used to drag that big old keyboard everywhere on the tour. Me and the keyboard have so much memories together. I sometimes wondered who would be using now..
Then the other day we went to Trade up. To my surprise, the casio i sold is now owned by our great friend, Dusty who works there.
I am very happy that he likes the sound : )

ox

basement fever

We've been working on our new album since december 08. It feels like it's been a long time.
But now that we have a date for mastering, which is on March 10th, it's definitely going to be done soon.
We are doing everything by ourselves, except for mastering.
Jesse is putting so much time and energy, learning how to record here in our basement.
I can't wait to let everyone hear it. and it's going to be free online!!

Meantime I will show you a picture of our special engineer who help us out sometime.

Happy 2009

Hi 2009,

Beginning of last year, around this time, I purchased my first drum kit, and Jesse and I had a very first practice as a 2-piece band. We were very worried, and didn't know how things were going to work out.
In March 08, we played our first show at Fort Awesome (house party).

Since then, we played so many local shows to get used to playing as duo, and we went off for Deerhoof tour for 6 weeks.
Deerhoof was incredible. I've learned so much from them and from their audience.

I feel so thankful for all the people who've seen us play in 2008. Portland people has been treating us really well, too.
There will be a lot of fun times and challenges ahead of us in 2009, but really looking forward to seeing many of you.

oxox, Shoko /xds

PDX POP

PDX POP was very fun, we were really glad to be a part of it.
It was very nice to see so many donuts in bands room...It was yummy : )

the morning after

When the morning comes after a fun show like last night, I usually tend to follow similar routines.

a. Waking up really early, although I go to bed like 3am.
b. Finding my sweaty t-shirt I wore at the show in my purse, and I go "let's remember to air dry it the next time.."
c. Start thinking about nice people we saw at the show (For last night, New Bloods girls, Au guys..etc.)
d. Start to wonder that maybe we should invite them for dinner party or something.
e. Then I think about what I would cook for them, and wonder if they are vegetarian or vegan.....on and on and on..

Father's day

The other day, my dad called me up to tell me that he saw you tube footage of us playing.
He was really surprised to see me playing drums. I've told him about it before, but he didn't think it was a good idea.
He had given us hard time for playing music in the past.
He is a traditional Japanese man who works 6 days a week, 12 hours a day...

So it was really nice to hear that he was so impressed, and could not believe that I play drums now.
I am so glad and feel relief to know that I don't have to be so secretive about playing music any more : )

Last night

Big Thanks to:
Valentine's (Jen!)
Sad Horse
Why I must be careful
Everyone who came and had a great time with us last night!

Valentine's has really nice atmosphere. It was also very close to Voodoo Donut (awesome donut shop!). Geoff and Elizabeth from Sad Horse and us went to eat some late night donuts after the show. Fun times : )

Gas vs Touring bands

We just played a show on Sunday at Someday lounge, it was fun. We played with Worms and Chubby Behemoth (NYC).
I baked Oatmeal raisin walnut cookies for the bands, but didn't realize Chubby Behemoth was 6-piece band.
I will bake more next time!

I feel very supportive to any touring bands right now, because of the gas price.
Chubby Behemoth's van cost $130 to fill up (and 8 miles per gallon or something like that...). We just did a week long mini tour not too long ago, but financially it was ridiculous. But we got to see old friends and family so in the end it was worth it.

We are actually playing a show tonight at Valentine's with Sad horse and Why I must be careful. It is free to get in, so please come and say hi.