hey hey LA +++

San Francisco was Crack whores, trannies + the Gulch
Berkley was Gilman
LA was the Kellers, a dangerous loft, a strange white room with a blown out bass + a lost friend
San Diego was stripclub disneyland +++

Coco66

...a slow burn of anarchic pleasures moving between pounding, tribal vigor and creeping, Gothic slither, few bands can make music this cold and abyssal so fiery and enticing... the band's sound live comes across as more vital and unique. Not merely a tarted up younger sibling of Christian Death or the Virgin Prunes, Entertainment forge beyond their influences with inimitable style, snapping sonic sinew in their wake, leaving listeners bruised and scorched in an auralgasmic aftermath. Post-show, you'll likely require a frozen cold shower.

http://www.shadowtimenyc.com/2009/09/entertainmentrevel-hotelwhite-light.html

Rain +++

It has been raining for days. i've been driving listening to The Fan and Bellows + the associates. suffering Protools crashing... producing the Gold Party's song for our split 7".

Lip Gloss Shine is on hold. Duchess Archive is out of money. we're still re-writing / destroying songs for the second album.

titles:
Plastic passion and distance
Turn and face the strange

tour dates for fall

09.22.09 Go Bar w/ The Jaguar Club
09.25.09 Coco66 w/ the Opposite Sex
11.07.09 Kimo’s w/ Blessure Grave + New Thrill Parade
11.08.09 924 Gilman w/ Blessure Grave + Swann Danger
11.12.09 Music Trader (Sports Arena) w/ Blessure Grave
11.13.09 Silver Factory w/ Blessure Grave

"give me something for nothing, writing very long letters as soon as it rains"

Entertainment / Christian Death

We listened to the making of Purple Rain from Wendy and Lisa's perspective while driving. It fits. The genuine excitement, bored and heading to the most boring city we've ever visited. Everyone goes home at 2am, so we get a bloody nose and stories from the 80's about Valor having our synth in the 80's and Tones on Tail.

It's strange playing somewhere and being recognized by staff. We walk in on Christian Death playing frisbee, at least it's black frisbees. They sound check and bicker in a hilarious way. The last time I saw Christian Death they were horrible, this time they're fantastic. They shed a lot of the gothic theatrics and do it straight. Way better.




I don't really remember feeling anything between sound check and getting on stage, make up frustration, talking about the punk scene in Philly and a weird feeling from Maitri while she asks me what we're doing backstage.

We go on and a stick breaks on the first hit, Christian Death watch us from back stage and we blow out the electric breakers in the club halfway through the set. Fantastic. They loved it and we broke it.

The night ends with everyone dancing to ABBA, tequila wrestling, a bloody nose+ Max Michael's secret love.



Video: Christian Death Do Ashes


Video: Maitri from backstage


More at Donovan's blog

Shirts

Entertainment / Deathrock.com

A new review of Gender by Mark Splatter is up at Deathrock.com:

Entertainment Gender 2008 Entertainment from Atlanta, Georgia, are back with a new album, 2008's "Gender" available on CD/LP. Entertainment take dark, post-punk, gothic concept back to the drawing board, removing the complication and dispensing with the miserable pop-sensibilities of the latest crop of 'post-punk' bandwagoners over the past half decade. What they achieve with surrealistic, visually descriptive lyrics, and the opium-den like pace is ultimately parallel to none other than 'Only Theatre of Pain', oddly enough.

The album opens with two warbling numbers laden with clawing guitars and somnambulistic wailing, while dissonant keyboards float off in the distance. From there it picks up, but the percussions maintain a steady pace throughout, keeping 'Gender' not simply sedate, but more opiated. Not until 'New Joy', into the last half of the album does the guitar seem to sober up, if just for a moment, before sinking back into the haze. Ironically, the last song is the one that starts showing teeth and claws, outside of the back-and-forth of the rest of the album.

read it HERE.

Gnsvl / Jax Pics +++

more pictures of a cavern:





goodbye.

Entertainment / Gnsvl, Jax / the sun always shines

We drove to Jacksonville in the morning. something was on the news, sharks, death celebrity, something. We discussed whether Jane's Addiction was our Bauhaus.

Leaving Gainesville left a strange taste in my mouth, through spotty Florida rains. We saw some strange man crazy on the side of the road, rocking back and forth, hitting his own head. I see these things all the time, like a future.

Jacksonville is the most boring city in the US. Max Michaels from Movement magazine made it worth our time. Gracious and fantastic. We sat for hours in the club, laying on couches being forced through Jacksonville Idol, a local rip off of American Idol, that happened from 8-10 at the club. then the goth queens filtered in exchanging with the local talent queens.



The music here is still techno and ebm. I've avoided this for so long I didn't know it still exists. We get the worst advice on our music.



The crowd was a completely a surprise and friendly and vocal and then they disappeared 5 songs in. A weird reaction from a gyrating mess to a hollow room in 30 mins. We are the first thing a young girl fresh from a mental ward that afternoon sees when she gets out and she loved it.



More at Donovan's blog

Entertainment / Gnsvl, Jax

We played Gainesville + Jacksonville FL June 26h and 27th. It's the first time we've gone there.

We drove into Florida listening to an overinflated description of Joy Divisions career talking about myth and legend. The same reasons it's been so hard for a breakthrough. Another small journey of small cities at night. Couches and hours on couches. We had no idea what to expect for these shows. The idea of playing another college town during the middle of summer is stifling.

We arrived in Gainesville, at the Atlantic, too early, cross the street to the Top and burn time in beautiful weather and clinging humidity. I can't remember the discussion.

In the Atlantic we take in air-conditioning, surrounded by Spanish portraits on black velvet in a broken black vinyl booth. The show is Blood-sucking puppets on Alien rap, a rave, us uncontrollably, pounding viciously at the moving crowd and biting 80's synth pop. We applied make-up like grease paint over glazed faces in the back of the van, it stays on for seconds. Always like foreign faces from out of town. The crowd is fantastic to us.
the line up:
Sarcastic
Oddknock
Entertainment
Girls on Film

We were taken for late night pizza by Electronic SubSouth, caught in drunken street hussle as cops like battalions sweep over streets. This is a town that becomes martial law and crazed herds at 2 am. We went to a hotel with a thick green pool, and slept.

I've seen pictures from this show, we look like crap. people stop using flashing....

More at Donovan's blog

Entertainment / Post honeymoon

Cymbals reappear in the form of "left at club for a week" w/ Post Honeymoon the drums decide to run off the stage instead.

timing

last night was GO with THUNDERS. no expectations. Still working new songs live, half written and visceral, we played "secrets" with the wrong beat and it was better, always good live and boring on tape.

Ilisten to shit liek Wavves and the bedroom bands from Murrieta and wonder why i even bother pushing these sounds.

+

the bonus disks for GENDER on vinyl came in, there's 100, to get one order from Duchess Archive ++++

the speed of life

we're changing tempos in pieces. something we didn't do for GENDER which shows in the faster version of NEW JOYS for the ep.

the attempt to make this process more cohesive then GENDER is failing. Time apart is all we seem to have. We'll be together for the first time in two weeks this weekend. so half of us make changes, songs we' ve been playing live for months are starting to get ripped apart finally.

hours at night in headphones tweaking mixes, reading Casanova vol 2 and I am Death.

"displays so helplessly histrionic they were in a way I did not understand until too late, violent, and consequently false" - Gary Amdahl

Lip Gloss Shine sounds huge.

Tracking

We started preproduction on 5 songs for the new album 2 weeks ago and then got distracted. Tonight we're re-recording the guide bass tracks for Wraps of Waste and Arms +  Entity because we recorded them at the wrong tempo. Confusion is done for "Lip-gloss Shine" , we're still mixing the rest, which is taking up most of the time, but they sound huge.

A few months ago I bought Panasonic RP-htx7 headphones, too frustrated with the Alesis I used on Gender. They open everything up. All the dimm-ness came from those Alesis.

So, we have 8 tracks so far for the next album, in various pieces, stages, whatever. Most of these we are playing live this summer.

1. Dreaming of you
2. China walls
3. Entity
4. Secrets
5. Untitled(Harlequin)
6. Wraps of Waste and Arms
7. the Cold
8. Fraction

the title is maybe "Plastic passion and Distance"

Deathrock.com 2008 Album of the year

Gender has been voted Deathrock.com Album of the year for 2008

We're celebrating by redoing Flesh, Confusion of Senses and New Joys for the "Lip-gloss Shine EP"

scratch the past.

A Matter of Gender

The cover of the bonus disk "A Matter of Gender" with the First 100 copies of GENDER on Vinyl from Duchess Archive

Gender Demos / Out-takes

We've been spending the last two weeks starting pre production on a new songs, trying to finish the mixes for "the Lip Gloss Shine EP" and going through all of the Demos / Mixes / Out-takes from the Gender recording sessions

Duchess Archive went through them and are including a Free CD to the First 100, when you order Gender on vinyl directly from them. The track list is:

01 China Walls (Demo Mix)
02 Swing Movements (Alt Mix)
03 Swing Movements (demo)
04 Threshold (Demo)
05 (Seeking Strange) Flesh (Demo)
06 New Joys (Kris Sampson Mix)
07 the Nervous Talks (Demo)
08 Patroness (Instrumental Demo in Studio)
09 Patroness (Guitar Version)

Most of these are very different.

Sound design

the concrete room where we write and record. this is the reverb.

Gender Interview questions

The best questions still come from Europe. Especially the last one. The level of interest is much better.

for an Italian zine (i think)

1. How are You guys?

2. "Gender" is Your debut album, are You satisfied of the result? How has the public reacted after the listening?

3. I know that You are not so easy on critics, is it true?

4. "Entertainment" name looks like the opposite of Your music style because it is very difficult to understand and to listen, why this name?

5. What is the source of Your inspiration for the texts lyrics?

6. I know that You don't inspire You to past bands, on the contrary to Kafka's literature and historical terms, can You explain this more?

7. You are a new dark/gothic band, we are living in year 2009, what do You think You have lost about the passed best 80's gothic years?

8. What is the most representative "Gender" song for Entertainment?

9. Who is the girl on the cover?

10. Is there anything that gives You creeps or makes You scared? Are You afraid of darkness?

New Logos

The final "Gender" logos.++

Gender / Remastered / 180 Gram Vinyl

Our debut album Remastered on 180 Gram Vinyl Limited to 500

available at www.myspace.com/duchessarchive