Three Tribe TV alums -- The Famous, Invisible Cities, and the Girlfriend Experience -- rock the Rickshaw Stop on Jan 13th to celebrate the official release of "Light, Sweet Crude" the debut album from The Famous.


THE FAMOUS -- CD Release Party!
with
The Girlfriend Experience
The Invisible Cities
Toshio Hirano


Thursday, January 13, 2005
at the Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell St @ Van Ness, San Francisco
Doors: 8:00, Show: 9:00
cover: $5


Indie/americana artists "The Famous" celebrate the official release of their debut album "Light, Sweet Crude" Thursday, January 13 at the Rickshaw Stop. Girded by the raw sounds of '50s-era country, but imbued with the spirit of The Pixies and other post-punk pioneers, THE FAMOUS forge powerful tunes that combine the intense desperation of X, the sincere melancholy of Hank Williams Sr. and the interstellar psychobilly of the Reverend Horton Heat.


SF Weekly Review:
"Here's a band that doesn't live up to its name -- at least, not yet. The Famous plays no-frills country music of the Bakersfield Sound variety (that is, the old-fashioned Buck Owens style, a genre now known as "classic country") mixed up with some good old indie rock. So the Famous isn't famous, except among those who've heard the group in action, because practically everyone who's listened to the band's cheese-free, slightly punkified hillbilly jangle thinks it's the greatest. Here's the kicker: A common sight at Famous shows is a guy walking away afterward shaking his head and saying, "I don't even like country music. But they were really good!" Whether fame finds Victor Barclay and Laurence Scott or not, you can be one of those head-shaking guys."
-- SF Weekly


THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
The Girlfriend Experience sound comes from a variety of seemingly conflicting musical notions. Can two minute pop songs co-exist with 6-minute psychedelic bursts of rage, and a shoe-gazer meets stoner rock aesthetic? Damn straight! While The Girlfriend Experience sound can seem, at first, difficult to put one's finger squarely on, common comparisons have been made to Jeff Buckley, Queens Of The Stone Age, Catherine Wheel, Ride, Joy Division, Blur and Bauhaus.

INVISIBLE CITIES
The Invisible Cities is a San Francisco-based band that makes incandescent rough-around-the-edges sometimes-quiet sometimes-loud rock'n'roll pop music with wiry guitars and boy/girl harmonies. Taking influences from Pavement and the harder songs of The Pixies, The Invisible Cities make a great lo-fi racket with simple but devastatingly catchy Breeders-like songwriting.

TOSHIO HIRANO
Toshio Hirano is from Toykyo Japan. He really, really likes Jimmy Rodgers and other country music from the '40s. He strums a guitar and sings with the cutest accent. He sings old time country in Engrish. It's adorable.