Mates of State

Two days after their new album, "Rearrange Us" came out, I took Jill out for a special date to get some dinner and see Mates Of State- her fave band- at Slim's. We've been MOS fans for about a decade now. One of my old bands played with them at one of their first CA shows, played with them several times since, collected their entire discography, and we often saw them in small, intimate venues around SF.

But standing here in 2008 at an all-ages show in a large venue with kids younger than we were when we "discovered" Mates who are all methed out and lighting cigarettes in my wife's hair, it seemed a little strange. Jill grabbed a strung-out school child by the arm and said, "This is not how we behave in a public place!" as Mates of State rattled off lines from their new album like: "I know when the kids are all grown we will still have this blue and gold print," and "Bought a home, we bartered right. Two kids, two car: delight." Not exactly your standard rebellious rock n roll fare.

And we were right there with them in their domestic state of mind, worrying about keeping the babysitters too late, feeling the indigestion from the Thai food we ate. We headed home early with a special edition screen printed poster commemorating the evening. Blue and pink elephants and giraffes handing each other ice cream cones. We put it up in the baby's room, and in a 29-year-old-going-on-30 way, I thought, "I know when the kids are all grown we will still have this blue and pink print."

Here's a great song off the new album. Haven't adequately explored the rest yet.