australia quoted me in regards to the grates

from a piece called “The Grates win hearts in US”, ABC news in aussieland wrote about their local band’s trip out to america, an excerpt:

The Grates are three-time SXSW veterans, and their live show, which features ribbon-twirling and colourful costumes, ensures they stand out among the crowd.

Their 2006 debut album, Gravity Won’t Get You Down, was released in the US, but last year’s sophomore album, Teeth Lost, Hearts Won, is yet to secure a US deal.

After their past disappointments, the band returned to the US with no expectations, and has been thrilled with the response.

The LA Times declared: “The Grates no doubt will soon be laughing their way to the bank, for if the world embraced the Ting Tings last year, Patience & Co are sure to be everyone’s new darlings any day now”.

“It’s been super encouraging actually, because we worked so hard with the first album that we put out over here, and that didn’t really work out with our record label, so that was a little bit of a kick in the guts,” Hodgson said.

patience told me that she broke guitarist john patterson’s iphone, so i didnt expect to see their disneyland pics so soon. in their tumblr blog they have pics from their trip out here. including a visit to Poquito Mas, and the video above of Burn Bridges, which was their last tune at the spaceland show on monday. amateur video directors out there take note of the vid – when in doubt ignore the zoom feature.

today is sarah’s birthday

shes 24.

born to a latina mamacita and a persian poppa, sarah is the perfect blend of both cultures.

shes funny and crude and sexy and sassy. shes an ‘sc grad so shes smart and shes an LAist alumn so she knows how to rock it.

when sarah first came to Metromix i used to have lunch with her so she would feel welcome at the times building and it has turned into a regular thing.

since then i really thought others would join us more and sometimes ali comes with but most the time its just sarah and i and its very nice. during lunch i try to find out which of her super hot friends shes gonna hook me up with and she tries to find out which one of my xbi superhero former marine buds will tear down her door and sweep her away.

i first met sarah when she was working for a pr firm that would pitch crazy things to me when i was at LAist. they wanted us to write about their stuff and her pitches were so good that i was all, if you really wrote those things, could you write about things that you actually like? and sarah ended up writing super personal very funny things for us at LAist and im glad that has turned into great success for her at Metromix and now Brand X.

happy birthday hot stuff, cant wait to party with you this weekend at our favorite bar with all your single ladies.