Okay, here's the first Asian Man newsletter in about six weeks. You were probably freaking out, thinking that we had become the next major victim of the deadly economic downturn, but it ain't so. The truth is that Mike has been busy with his BRAND NEW SHINY BABY, I (Skylar) have been on tour with Polysics, and Wayne unfortunately is unable to read or write.

How was the Polysics tour, you ask? AMAZING. Definitely one of the best live bands ever. If you don't know, Polysics is a Japanese electronic rock band. They've been coming to the US every year for about five years now, so America is pretty much old-hat to them. Even so, they still all go nuts every night, to the point of collapsing onstage (it happened twice this time). They asked me to come and do sound for them on this tour, and I said heck yeah! Highlights include Yano drunkenly arm wrestling Cody from Jaguar Love (he cheated and Cody wrestled him to the ground), the driver's side window of our van exploding while I was driving through the mountains, Hiro getting angry and karate kicking a door in Houston, Rob from Creativeman bringing a couple grills to the Glass House and serving up the best barbecue I have ever eaten in my life, and me just generally being a jackass trying to speak my horrible, broken version of Japanese.

But enough of that. Here are the new releases. These are available on a variety of different colors, so please go check them out at the website:
ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD "Only God Can Judge Me" 10-inch
GUERILLA POUBELLE "Rats In Paris" 7-inch
KEVIN SECONDS "Rise Up, Insomniacs!" 12-inch FINALLY AVAILABLE
MATT SKIBA/KEVIN SECONDS split 12-inch REPRESS

Dunno if this has already been mentioned, but Shinobu and Pteradon have launched an expansion pack called Hard Girls. It is comprised of Mike from Shinobu, Morgan and Max from Pteradon, and it destroys everything. They are my new favorite band. Please check them out at myspace.com/hardgirls and listen to the demos they have posted and then your brains will explode. As an aside, please do not do an internet search for "Hard Girls" on Google unless you are looking for something else entirely.

I think that's about it. Mike is playing some shows with Kevin Seconds and Jesse Michaels in December. Jesse Michaels played in a little-known band called Operation Ivy. Have you ever heard of them? Here are the dates:
MIKE PARK w/ JESSE MICHAELS, KEVIN SECONDS
DEC 5th-SAN JOSE, CA-NICKEL CITY
DEC 12th-STOCKTON, CA-PLEA FOR PEACE CENTER
DEC 19th-SACRAMENTO, CA-TRUE LOVE
DEC 20th-SAN FRANCISCO, CA-BOTTOM OF THE HILL
FEB. 6th-HOLLYWOOD, CA-ALTERKNIT LOUNGE/KNITTING FACTORY

Take care,
Skylar
skylar@asianmanrecords.com