First President of Summer
Sorry for skipping July! We've been working on our EP and I've been in my feels about the shows we've been playing (and not playing?)!
Hi my friends!
I kept telling myself I won’t start this post by addressing/making excuses for not having made a post in July but I can’t stop thinking about it so here I am. Letting you know that I am back from my “Summer Vacation.”
I’ll admit, this summer has been difficult for me! We’ve only played four shows since June! I know, it seems ungrateful. ONLY!? FOUR!? SHOWS!? Just a year and a half ago, we were playing zero shows. That we haven’t gone a single month since we started playing (in New York, where everybody’s boyfriend is in a band and venues are closing everyday? RIP St. Vitus - I had dreamed of us playing there, but alas we can’t have it all.) without getting booked is unbelievable.
Seriously. I don’t know how the music scene works, and I’ve just been letting vibes and the music take us wherever they’ll take us. It was usual in comedy to do shows multiple times a week, sometimes multiple shows in a single evening! I’ve been thinking we’re probably doing an average amount of shows. An average amount of practice. We could be doing more, we could be doing better, etc. etc. etc. OF COURSE we could always be doing better.
As my undergrad Viewpoints professor quoting Anne Bogart would always say, “Could be more! Could be cake! Could be elephant falls from the ceiling!” Does elephant fall from the ceiling at our shows yet? No I wouldn’t be so bold to claim so.
But, I’ve started occasionally hanging out with the me-s of other bands. The people who are in bands that they formed, and are doing the bookings, and the logistics, and sometime fall in dark spirals about perhaps being the only person in the world who cares about the band. And guess what. My band? Kind of great? Yes elephant doesn’t fall from ceiling yet, but we might actually… be cake?
We have been invited to play so many great shows by cool bands, everyone shows up to practice once a week, and none of my band members have quit the day-of-show (which seems to be an alarmingly common thing?).
So you know, while it will always be my nature to be striving for MORE! I guess we can give ourselves more credit.
In May, our drummer who has been mixing and mastering all of the music in our upcoming EP gave me a little slap on the wrist. I’m saying yes to too many shows and he doesn’t have time to work on the EP! So I said okay, I will learn to wait to eat the marshmallow so we can have our music out in the world.
So finally, on September 13th, our FIRST EP,
The FIRST EP of FIRST president of japan,
Will be OUT! Unfortunately, Yoko san will be in Japan for the rest of the month of September (she literally flies out on the 14th lmao) so I will have to endure one more month of JUST ONE SHOW.
In October, the floodgates are back open. We have three shows, 10/2, 10/17, and 10/28.
But fine, I do believe in quality over quantity, and each show we played have specifically been BLASTS.
6/15 at Sleepwalk had the queer punk lineup of my dreams (Low Presh, Funeral Doors). I’ve had to learn to accept that the New York music scene is still replete with cis het rock n roll white guys, and hey, we have fun shows with them too. But there is something special and affirming about getting to be loud as hell with a bunch of Black and Brown femmes and queers. I get to be like “OH YEAH THIS is why I was infatuated with punk music as a teenager!” More of this please yes!
7/5 at Bar Freda was presented by Deli Mag!!!! And SO MUCH FUN. Like I still get kinda sweaty thinking about how much adrenaline was coursing through my veins during that show. The lights and sound in that space is always on point, the lineup was chaotic high energy throughout (Turbo Goth, OPERA) and the CROWD! They really brought it. Wow. Deli knows music, they know how to curate a show, and they have a fantastic self-selecting audience.
7/13 at Gutter Spare Room. A BOWLING ALLEY! Oh god this show was LOUD (Sonic Taboo, Live Ones, EAT) hahahaha. And the age range was WIDE. Earplugs had to be passed around. The space had multiple projectors and our Marky Puddles projections looked really good. (One day we will be able to invest in our our projectors and will have these visual at all the shows!) The overstimulation show that we were absolutely meant to be a part of. My friend brought a second date and they’re still going strong. Of course we will take credit. Isn’t me screaming in your face the romantic experience that bonds you in love for life?
8/15 at The Broadway was special because it was a family show! Maria, the Chief Sound Engineer at The Broadway is a good friend of Yoko and mixed our OWL show last summer. DUMPS is a friend of Aki. I have been friends with Eye Röller since before first president of japan came to be. And while I had completely forgotten until the week of the show, but The Broadway used to be called The Gateway, and it’s where I got married in 2017. And in a strange coincidental full circle, this show was the first time the person I am married to, the guy who was the witness, and our former roommate all saw first president of japan. The romantic in my heart can’t help but shed a happy tear for the four 21 year old miserable broke ass comedians who were fighting for our lives. Look how much we’ve all grown! We hate ourselves less! We all have jobs now (well, “arguably” for me… but I wasn’t legally allowed to work then, so I’m winning too!)! But the best part was that while we leveled up in each of our lives, aspects we appreciate about each other were present as ever. Still being able to lock back into the intense friendship dynamic we had after years apart was just… SO CUTE??
There was also something that was uniquely validating about people who really know me as a stand up, seeing first president of japan, and having no question that this is a logical expansion of my comedy. I still feel most seen when people recognize the DNA that make up my body of work.
Alright then!
I gotta get back to organizing our EP release. As my boy Willy Shakes says, the course of true love never did run smooth, and the process of getting this EP out has been wrought with as much hijinx as a Midsummer’s Night. As much as I am genuinely excited for this EP to be out, there is a part of me that just wants to be on the other side of this process. To have little Puck say “Okie, you can wake up now.” God, you know I’m tired when I just start leaning on Shakespeare to process life.
^More on this in September when I have enough distance from all of this to write about it 😅
What else is up with first president of japan?
As mentioned above, our one and only show is on 9/13.
It will be at Bushwick Public House.
And it is our EP Release!
Our EP will be available on bandcamp and on streaming ON 9/13!
I’m very excited about how it sounds, so I hope y’all mark your calendars and check it out!!!
Then, we have:
10/2 at Arlene’s Grocery - yayyyy a Manhattan show for all my city friends who still live in the Sex and the City mindset (remember when Miranda was moving to Brooklyn and they made an entire episode about how the girls feared they may never see each other again?)
10/17 at Mama Tried - I LOVE this venue. The owners, the bartenders, the people who hang out there. It might be the only business I’ve been to where everyone involved seems to genuinely care about community and music and WALKS THE WALK!!! I’m excited to be back, the lineup looks so fun.
10/29 at Starr Bar - HALLOWEEN SHOW YESSSSSS! I love Halloween. I love dressing up. I’m so excited to play our first Halloween Show! Starr Bar is cool, and it’s also Strawberry Glass’s Single Release show so it will surely be a PARTY. We kind of talked about doing a band costume, but I am not convinced that everyone will step up and show out? We shall seeeeeeee.
And there ya have it.
Hopefully see you at a show.
Hopefully see you in your ears.
BIG LOVE <3,
Non
