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Well kids, the band recently referred to as "hyper-literate irony rockers" by San Diego City Beat are coming off of 5 shows in 2 weeks with a week and a half nap followed by enough cool stuff to fill several boring band mass e-mails. Adam has even stopped doing that lame "cd of the day" thing in his e-mails to make room for Rookie info. Check it.....
We now have 1000 shinier, longer, better versions of our debut demo EP. You can check out a lot of the tunes and info about the EP online right here. Since we sold all of our shoes to print them up please pick up a copy at our shows, your favorite local San Diego record store or send us $6.00 for your own copy to:
Adam Gimbel
4645Q Ruffner St
San Diego CA 92111
Movie night at Lestats was a blast. Spirit of 76 elicited a few giggles, Marie Haddad blew everyone away with her solo debut and Rookie Card did "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers (per your votes) dressed in red, white & blue clothes. Actually, the preceded the BCR cover with a medley of ALL of the nominated 1976 songs (phew!). Check out our "old" friend Lynette's review and pictures.
With fours hours notice and no practice, Rookie Card backed Ron Fountenberry from Incredible Moses Leroy on three songs at last month's 91X Loudspeaker show. With help from Jianda Johnson on lead "la la la"s, the band did IML hits "Fuzzy" (featured in recent Vespa ads) and "1983" plus a countrified version of Prince's "Kiss". It was actually the first time musicians had ever performed "Fuzzy" live (the music is a looped sample of a song by the Sandpipers). The band was interviewed by mp3.com after the show and you can hear it on our mp3.com page.
RC commemorated the passing of Fred Rogers by using the Mr Roger's Neighborhood theme as their entrance music at their show at Cane's last month. Adam also hung up his jacket on a hanger and changed his shoes before playing. Check out a cool online review of the show by our new buddy Amber right here (photos too).
Some of you might remember our feud with Tenacious D in an article in SLAMM Magazine. It ended with Jack Black screaming for us to send them a copy of our album so they could throw it away. Well, Adam slipped Kyle a Rookie Card cd at a recent San Diego Trainwreck show. He was rushing on his way out so he probably threw it out later. See our friend Joe's pics of the show here.
We recently received an e-mail through the website that simply said "you suck". An e-mail exchange followed of some idiocy/hilarity. When Adam told him he was going to post it on our website, the guy said that he'd already done just that on his website. Turns out this guy does Google searches on the phrase "my band", sends out an e-mail that says "you suck" and watches the fun begin. A genius idea but, sadly, he's not very funny.
RC had a blast acting like Letterman's band on the San Diego Humane Society's annual telethon on Fox 6. We played instrumental bits in and out of commercials and pre-filmed video sections and sang a minute or so of our own songs once an hour for five hours. Supposedly 12,500 new viewers watched every 15 minutes. The highlight was the folks in big puppy and kitty costumes dancing along. Thanks to Kelsey, Amy and everyone else who made this happen!
RC with Convoy & Congress of the Cow at the Casbah 11/08/02, RC at house party 12/14/02, RC & Marie Haddad at Lestat's 1/22/03, RC at Cane's 2/27/03, RC at SD Humane Telethon 3/1/03
plus
WHITE XMAS STRIPES AT CASBAH 12/19/02
and
RABBI GIMBEL'S JEWS EXPLOSION AT CASBAH 12/23/03 SLIDE SHOW (photos by Kim Musser, edited by David Gimbel)
That's all, folks.
Until next month,
Us
The prize-winning* moniker thought up for a cancelled Bay Area acoustic duo performance in 1994 has been revived by Jason Hee & Adam Gimbel because they both feel that they don't have enough side projects. Inspired by local acoustic duo the American Folksingers and tired of constantly waiting for the other Rookies to show up for practice, the two have decided to play the occasional tag-team show. Look for originals and covers you won't hear at Rookie Card shows. Sean O'Donnell (Reeve Oliver/Bad Credit/Honking Geese) was nice enough to let us make our smalltime debut before his regular solo acoustic gig at the comfy Blarney Stone pub. Check the website for more info.
*The name, created by ex-COB singer/guitarist Jim Cathcart Jr, won a Magnet Magazine band name contest last year. Adam wears a spiffy green Magnet t-shirt prize as a result.
1000 revised copies of "First Day of Class", now with 4 (fore) bonus trax and spiffy in-between song cleverness, are almost ready to send to the printers. Should be ready next month! Check our mp3 page for two of the new tracks, "Dear John" and our Strokes/Tom Petty medley "Last Nite She Was An American Gurl" (which got a nice mention in San Diego CityBeat).
We did three really fun shows in January. First we did a fun show at the Honey Bee Hive and surprised our friends the Displaced by switching instruments (Nasr sang, Gabe on drums, Adam on bass & Jason on guitar) and doing their song "High Plains". Then we did a fun battle of the bands at an ice skating rink, winning our "round" and doing obligatory "Ice Ice Baby" and "sk8rboi" references. The best part was making signs for each of our songs for people to skate around with. You haven't lived until you've seen a 10 year old kid skating with a "Put Your Honey Where My Mouth Is" sign. Lastly, we played a 1976 themed night at a local coffeehouse, showing the cult movie Spirit of 76 and dressing in red, white and blue 70's outfits. Gabe even wore an afro wig! We got a ton of votes from you for what 1976 song we should play and the Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night" won. We still busted a surprisingly quick medley of "Rock n Me", "Slow Ride", "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover", "Dancing Queen", "Beat On The Brat" AND "Don't Fear The Reaper" (with Nasr's new cowbell) in respect to the runners-up. A City Beat feature and Marie Haddad's stunning debut packed the place like no one had ever seen before.
PS We just got enough new rookie cards to last us forever. Come to any of our shows and maybe get one of the following:
SPINAL TAP - 36 CARD SET
HOOTERS 1993 CALENDAR GIRLS SET
Saturday Night Live - 150 CARD SET
YO RAP BOX sealed box of unopened packs
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS -72 CARD SET
BACKSTREET BOYS PLATINUM EDITION 24 PACKS
TV'S COOLEST SET - GET SMART + BRADY BUNCH etc
BILL & TED'S TRADING CARDS sealed box of unopened packs
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK TRADING CARDS sealed box of unopened packs
Sorry it's been so long since we've updated the site. A lot has been happening. Please sign up for our mailing list to get the latest before it's too late. Here's some of the 8 billion things that have happened in the last 60 days:
The first batch of 250 cd's is gone, other than a few left at local music stores. So we're pressing up 1000 more copies with four extra tracks: "TEH Typos", "Dear John,", "Mazzy Starship" (a lo-fi recording from our acoustic set at the Wilco movie preview) and the Petty/Strokes medley "Last Nite She Was An American Girl". We also added some new eye candy and squeezed in some fun in-between song bits to make you giggle. They'll be available at our January shows. You can exchange your old copy for free to save space around the apartment or keep it for collectibility. If you can't wait, check out the Petty cover and "Dear John" now.
We've passed out over 2000 promotional "rookie cards" (fun trading cards in a clear "ROOKIE CARD" holder with our website stickered on) and show no sign of letting up. Adam unearthed his baseball cards from his parents house, friends Roger & Charlotte sent us Growing Pains, Three's Company, Welcome Back Kotter, Alf & He-Man trading cards and Jason won a bunch of auctions on E-bay which netted us tons of Elvis, Desert Storm, 80's videogame and American Bandstand cards. They were even a news Item in San Diego City Beat. If you want to donate any fun, weird, random cards of any kind to our cause, let us know.
Jason did a set of holiday related White Stripes covers with Emily from Bunky as The White Christmas Stripes. Cover Me Badd ended their Oasis act (for now) and started Rabbi Gimbel's Jews Explosion. This stuff distracted us from Rookie Card for a bit but we're back and ready to rawk!
(Adam sez) Just had to note the passing of one of my earliest musical heroes. It's rare that a musician's passing affects me so much. I wish I'd got to see him back in the day but was stunned at how incredible he still was when I saw him earlier this year. Ten times cooler than anyone half his age just by walking onstage and then turning in fierce versions of songs he'd written 25 years earlier. I finally bought the incredible Clash documentary "Westway To The World" yesterday. You NEED to see it. The Jews Explosion played the day after he died (Mick Jones is half-Jewish and we were originally going to do Should I Stay or Should I Goy or some silliness), so I dusted off my cover of Rock The Casbah/London Calling. Always thought he might get a kick out of such an unpunk kid giving it an acoustic crack but the more I learn about the man, the more unworthy it all feels....
Traditional anti-mood killer: I saw the cutest puppy today!
Happy new year everybody.
STOP THE PRESSES!
We got a keen write-up in the San Diego Union Tribune, complete with a band photo. Check out the verbage here.
Other Rookie News Bites:
We were one of only several bands invited to take part in a charity
bowling event for the San Diego Music Awards. I don't think it was for our
bowling skills. Good times, though.
We passed 3000 plays on our mp3.com page.
SD Union Tribune's Bart Mendoza gave us a nice mention in the paper
about the acoustic sets we did before the Ken Cinema premiere of the Wilco
movie "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". Our friends Rick, Brad, and Paul
made us sound real purdy by playing banjo, mandolin and harmonica with us.
We should've been exhausted after two sets but went next door and did our
best rawkshow ever at the Ken Club on Adam's Avenue. Long, fun nite.
Jason got three wisdom teeth removed and dripped more blood
than Gene Simmons. Send him get-well e-mails: jasonhee@yahoo.com.
We were asked if we'd like to participate in a VH1 Bands on the Run
style reality TV show. Apparently, someone found our website and loved it.
We got e-mailed a follow-up questionaire (see our answers at
http://rookiecardthemovie.com/realitytv.html). Somehow I doubt we'll get
picked.
We played the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown San Diego and ended with an
epic finale with opener Adam Marsland on keyboards. Adam plugged into a KK
Downing (Judas Priest) guitar on the wall and made a bunch of noise before
security unplugged it. Instead of getting banned, they want us back.
We're that charming.
Rocktober! Our heads are still spinning from our record release show. Our best show, our biggest Casbah crowd and Robert Schneider from Apples In Stereo said such nice things about our set that Adam was practically in tears. The reaction to our demo has been great and 91X even gave "Green Glo" a spin in primetime. In the next few weeks, we'll be sending them all over the world. Give us advice. We can't believe our good fortune with our next few shows. October has turned into the craziest month ever for us (and the Fookin' Wankers). Please keep checking the site for updates so we don't have to keep flooding you with e-mails.
OUR BAY AREA FIELD TRIP It was great except for one little thing. Here's a kwik report:
Flew in. Felt like rockstars w/our guitars in tow. Rented minivan. Went & saw supercool Mover & The Court&Spark at Club Metro in Oakland. East Bay hipsters everywhere looking cool 60's/70's britcountryrock. Great club, great music. The scene up there is incredible.
Had lunch w/family, friends and rockstars at Zachary's Pizza. Bummed around bookstores & such on Solano in Albany and then went to Telegraph Ave. Quick stop at the bride & groom's open house. Went to the Oakland club, Talk of the Town, to find no amps or drumset for us to use. Long story, bad mixup. Fracas' guitarist lent us his guitar amp and no one else would let us use another guitar amp, bass amp or drumset. Niiiiiiiiiiiice. So we didn't play but they fed us & gave us free drinks. Hung out with friends and went home. We only thought the next day how hilarious it would've been to have played with just vocals, one guitar and the rest of us jumping around without being plugged into anything and Nasr playing air drums.
Got equipment and went up to the big, beautiful Rockefeller Lodge where the wedding was in Richmond. Pat & Dana had already been officially married, so the two of them got up and just said really nice things about each other and then gave each other rings. It was really beautiful and the lack of official-ness was surprisingly nice. We got fed good and played two long fun sets of originals and covers. People walked in and out of the room we were playing in. They'd asked us to learn the Stones' "Dead Flowers" and we did it with Mike & Billy from the Cables singing, Peter Ford (Luminar/Thumb of the Maid) on guitar and Steve St Cyn (Tucker/Beulah) on drums. Twas great. They'd also asked us to learn a Supremes song, so we did "Someday We'll Be Together" as a sort of first dance. Adam couldn't remember the words so I did the first verse 3 times. Everyone had a great time. Fun fun fun. We can't wait to do it again with better planning & maybe do a Portland/Seattle trip too. We shall see...
Choose one: http://www.rookiecardisaband.com, http://www.rookiecardisrock.com, or
http://www.rookiecardisarockband.com. E-mail us your favorite or sign up and vote here.
It's been mastered.
Hear the results at mp3.com.
The artwork is done.
See the cover on our homepage.
We are having a cd release party of sorts.
Come to the Casbah (of course) on Wednesday, October 2nd and get a free copy of the 4 song cd First Day of Class. Did we mention that the incredible Apples in Stereo are playing too? Oh, we must've fainted and forgot.
, we played a last minute "friendship festival" in Chula Vista on a huge Radio Latina/Jammin' Z90 bus(?!). Had a blast trading rhymes with the hiphop guys on the stage at the other side of the field.
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