Thursday, January 24th, 2002
Girls Against Boys Sign to Jade Tree
And God said, "Do not eat from the tree of jade."

Ryan Schreiber & Will Bryant report:
After having been dropped from DGC in the wake of one of, like, a hundred mergers over the past few years, D.C.-based sexx-punks Girls Against Boys recently announced that they've inked a record deal with Wilmington, Delaware's infamous Jade Tree label.

As any GVSB aficionado will rush to tell you, their major label debut, 1998's Freak*on*ica, was hardly the band's finest hour. But with their return to the indie scene comes a return to the indie rock. The band has reportedly dropped the electronic bullshit and come crawling back to veteran post-punk producer Ted Nicely, who is said to have re-endowed them with their original fervor. According to the label, the result is an album that's more "stripped down" and "abrasive" than Freak*on*ica, and harkens back to their sound circa Tropic of Cancer. We're praying that by "stripped down," they don't mean nekkid. I mean, Eli's nice and all, but dude ain't no Lance Bass.

The new album doesn't quite have a title yet, but the Jade Trees are shooting for a May release. And to get the old sex machine rolling over ladies like back in the day, Girls Against Boys will be greasin' their way back across the States in March.

In related new, Jade Tree is releasing its first-ever retail label sampler, with the George Michael-esque title of Location Is Everything, Vol. 1, on April 16th. The "economically priced" 23-track sampler will feature previously unreleased songs by Jets to Brazil, the Promise Ring, Pedro the Lion, Milemarker, and aforementioned sword-swallowers Girls Against Boys, among others. The disc will also contain album tracks from label tentpoles Owls, Trial by Fire, Euphone, Strike Anywhere, and OneLineDrawing. And now, for the sake of total disjointedness, is more shit about the GVSB record. Like a tracklist:

01 Basstation
02 Kicking In The Lights
03 Miami Skyline
04 Reso
05 BFF
06 Hollywood
07 All The Rage
08 Rock Dead Stuff
09 Tweaker
10 Let It Breathe
11 Zero Pop Life

And their tour dates:
01-26 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
03-10 Bowling Green, OH - Howard's Club
03-11 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
03-12 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (w/the Standard)
03-13 Kansas City, MO - Hurricane (w/the Standard)
03-14 Norman, OK - The Opalis (w/the Standard)
03-15 Austin, TX - SXSW (w/Clinic, the Pattern)
03-16 Dallas, TX - Trees (w/Clinic, the Pattern)
03-18 New Orleans, LA - Shim Sham Club (w/the Pattern)
03-19 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge (w/the Pattern)
03-20 Carrboro, NC - Room Four (w/the Pattern)
03-21 Washington, DC - Black Cat (w/the Pattern)
03-22 Philadelphia, PA - Unitarian Church (w/the Pattern)