Weekend Getaway #1: Please Quiet Ourselves at Amoeba in Berkeley

My 15-year-old cousin’s band is playing an instore at Amoeba Berkeley on Saturday at 2pm. They were recently spotlighted in an East Bay Express feature by Nate Seltenrich called Sounds Like Teen Spirit:

For Please Quiet Ourselves, it all started back in elementary school, when Jojo, classmate Haran Stern, and some other friends had what Jojo calls “a weird idea to start a band.” Then in eighth grade, he wrote and recorded a song tente gonflable named “Color Chart” for a school project. A simple, short pop ditty about colors (What about orange makes it so damn special?), it inspired him to found Please Quiet Ourselves as a vehicle for similar material, and appropriately kicks off the band’s first CD.

Jojo assures me that PQO will cover a Breeders song in honor of the Breeders playing the Amoeba stage a few days after them.

Link to article.

Link to PQO website.

Link to PQO on MySpace.

Dispatch From SXSW: Yo La Tengo Too Dissonant/Distorted

My cousin Jojo fronts this great band from Berkeley called Please Quiet Ourselves. Their label, Mushpot Records, sent them to SXSW this week, and I got the following tour diary from my aunt:

It is craz-z-z-z-y here in Austin @ sxsw – nonstop music. JoJo’s first gig was at Sonny’s Vintage – that’s sonny in the gray suit and hat on the right. It was a good start for their first show in Austin. JoJo wore his green KDVS t-shirt! Tomorrow they play at Lovejoy’s which is right smack dab in the middle of all the clubs – so they’re pretty excited. Tonight I saw Jens Lekmann – what a treat!!! I was right up front listening to him play – his mannerisms are just like Jonathan Richman‘s. then went to go see Yo Lo Tengo – a little too loud and dissonant/distorted for my ears – but it was in the Austin Music Hall which houses 4000. Great food here – had delicious bbq beef rifbs for $11 on our anniversary. Having a great time…you guys would love it here! See you soon, love, Jane

Link to bigger pic.