It was a good run. It was fun. But time to hang things on up - and get Time Spent Driving back together.

Yeah, we're going to call it quits on the whole GOJ thing - it was fun, we played some cool shows, made a good record, made some good new friends. But we parted ways with our 2nd vocalist/guitar player Pete a while back, and well, you know how it is.

The good news is - We're reforming Time Spent Driving (Jon & Kem of GOJ's former band which broke up in around 2003) - and we're going to start playing some shows again and writing a new record to kick of 2012! We're even going to play some Gentlemen songs still here and there - why not right?

GO TO TIMESPENTDRIVING.COM for more details.

I'm sure most of you are pretty happy about that, so here are all of the relevant TSD links and pages so you can help spread the word and do your thing:

Also Pete Johnson, the 2nd signer/guitarist/songwriter for GOJ also has a new project in the works - and word is it will be up and running full force soon - so we'll let you know about that when the time comes.

THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT!         

Good Night.

The Most Important News You've Read in Quite Some Time.

We've been neglecting you lately as far as the much sought-after GOJ news updates are concerned. With over 80,000 unique visitors to our site a month, we figured we better get back to a few updates here and there to keep those visitors happy.

Shows:
We've got one coming up on Sat. July 16th at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. We are playing last because the biggest most hugest bands headline, and that's us. The Huxtables and The Here are also playing and it'll be an ideal time for you to come out, wet your whistle, hang out, and pretend you like going out to shows at night.

Want us to play some more shows? Let us know and we'll think about it.

Recording:
Here's our new plan. We're going to start recording a few songs at a time, to try and capture those masterpieces while they're fresh out of the oven. Then when we build up a good chunk of songs, we're going to go back and put some frosting on them, then lick our fingers, and put them in the pastry case so you can see how pretty they look. And hopefully, you will order one with your morning cup of coffee and be all pumped out of your mind.

Sound good?

Well, if so, then you're in luck, because said recording starts today on 2 or 3 songs, which is going down at the Compound as usual.

Band Room Done. New Material and Shows Coming Up.

The band room turned out to be a bit larger of a project than we anticipated, but it's done and we've been rocking that thing for the past 3 weeks. Our keyboard player is currently visiting Croatia, he went all the way out of the country just to get some bread and cheese. So we've been working on some new material and are putting together some shows starting in July.

Thanks for looking out, and see you soon.

We're not dead, we're just building a band room.

Don't worry, we're alive, but we just need a new band room. So, we're building one, then we're going to do some other stuff. Until then....

Show: Sat. Feb. 26th @ Bocci's Cellar, Santa Cruz w/ Velvet Teen, Huxtables (CD Release Show!) and Themes!

Come out!

When Sweatpants Duty Calls.... Pete Volunteers!

We've got a line-up change in GOJ - so, with great sorrow we announce the untimely departure of one Mr. Pete Johnson, known for his blistering vodka-tinged guitar work and half of the lead vocal/songwriting duties in the band.

Why?

Well, we don't want to go into all of the explicit details, in respect to Pete and his family's privacy, but here's the gist:

As you may be aware, a new Kohls department store recently opened at the Capitola Mall in the place of the old Mervyns location. As those close to Pete know well, he has never been quite the same since the Mervyns closed and went out of business; not knowing where he would get his next pair of Cheetah sweatpants, half-price Tevas and mismatched oversized plaid Tommy Bahama button ups.

Turns out, Pete was at Kohls shopping (for the record, not actually buying anything, just browsing as usual) and somehow snuck into the back storage area. Low and behold, there were a few old dusty boxes FULL of off-navy blue Cheetah sweatpants - AND matching pullover crewneck sweatshirt tops. Pete went missing for days, until a security guard found him passed out laying on the boxes of sweatpants, with a birthday party hat on, some brand new Tevas and a box of Cinnabons. Somehow, he had managed to put on a few dozen layers of sweatpants - many think, in an effort to try to sneak out of the establishment with his find. The layers cut off his circulation, and caused him to pass out.

Don't worry, he's totally alright, but he had a lot of time to think while he was laying there in a euphoric state of sweatpants heaven - and came to the conclusion that he needs take a step back from GOJ for a while, and start a self-funded campaign to reinstate the Mervyn's corporation, something that was now closer to his heart then ever.

On a serious note: Pete is a good friend, and was a valuable and important part of the band. He will be missed, but we'll keep you updated on his whereabouts and musical happenings, which are happening even sooner than you might think.

Upcoming Shows & New Material.

Hi faithful fans, we have some shows stacking up, it'd be swell if you come out and see us:

1/28/11 - @ Jose's Underground Lounge, Monterey, CA w/ Black Love, Christian Slater, Tire Swing. 9pm, 21+ Probably $5 or something like that.

2/3/11 - @ The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA w/ LUCERO + Others TBA. ALL AGES. $15 at the door, $16 in advance.

2/26/11 - @ Bocci's Cellar, Santa Cruz, CA w/ THE VELVET TEEN (SONOMA) and THE HUXTABLES (CD RELEASE). 8PM. Cheap.

Been working on some new material as well, and will be test driving it at the shows when/if it makes sense. I know you don't want to miss that.

First Show of 2011 - This Saturday Jan 8th @ The Catalyst.

You heard that right, you have another chance to see the Gentlemen, perhaps sooner than you would have thought. Our uber-cute keyboard player's birthday is this weekend too, so let's celebrate.

We're playing this Sat. Jan. 8th at the Catalyst in Downtown Santa Cruz with Humboldt Squid, Doors to Nowhere and Culo A Boca. Humboldt Squid is awesome, and we haven't heard the other two bands, but maybe they will be good too.

We play last, cause we're all big and stuff, around 11pm or something like that, but just stop at Starbucks (or preferably Peet's) before you come to the show, and you'll be all set to rage it.

If you don't have our brand new CD yet, this will also be a good time to pick one up, along with a t-shirt if we can find a place to print some by then.

See you there - TheGents.

Gentlemen of Japan is Now Available on iTunes.

That's right, Versus Utah is now available at your favorite buddy, iTunes. You can order it using this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/versus-utah/id403700472

Versus Utah available at Streetlight Records.

Yeah, we're going bigtime now, you can get our brand new cd "Versus Utah" at a real live record store - Streetlight Records in Downtown Santa Cruz.

Go buy one, and we'll get them in some other record stores soon as well. This DIY stuff takes some time.

Versus Utah CD Release show at The Blue Lagoon in Santa Cruz, CA on Friday Nov. 26th.

If you're in town on the day after Thanksgiving this year, why not come get sloshed with some of your favorite Gentlemen? And while you are at it, you can pick up your soon-to-be favorite new CD... Versus Utah.

The Huxtables and The Cryptics are also playing, and we are the manly meat in the sandwich, going on second. Come out and we'll buy you a drink, so long as you like a $2 Hamms. Or you could buy us a really nice top shelf item, Pete likes grey goose vodka mix drinks I think. Kem will take a white russian, or 10 of them. Jonas will take anything you will throw at him.

www.thebluelagoon.com

VERSUS UTAH NOW AVAILABLE AT CD BABY.

The full album is now available at CD BABY as well, you can order the digital version or have them mail you the physical version for your vast record collection.

ORDER ONLINE AT CD BABY

Even if you aren't ordering our record from CD Baby, it would be great if you could go and put in your two-cents by reviewing our record on the CD Baby site so others know how amazing it is. Or, how mediocre, or how terrible. It's up to you, but we appreciate any words written about us, both good and bad, so let's do this.

VERSUS UTAH: Out Now.

Versus Utah came out today. All preorders for the CD were shipped out on my lunch break, and all incoming orders will be shipped out when we get them.

Right now, BANDCAMP, is the best place to order either the online or physical version of the record.

It'll start popping up in stores, cd baby and itunes soon as well, so sit tight and save your pennies.

Thanks for your support and happy listening.

VERSUS UTAH: Out Tuesday Nov. 2nd, 2010

Yes indeed, the Gentlemen's debut full length is available to the legions of fans across the world on November 2nd, 2010. That's a Tuesday. The record's called VERSUS UTAH and we hope you like it, and we hope you purchase it from us, the old school way, with green money that we can use to buy Pete some new clothes with. Jonas is also running low on scrimshaw, and Jon hasn't seen a new pair of jeans in ages.

We've also got a dirty little secret, you can pre-order the physical CD along with an instant digital download of all the tracks, NOW!

Just go to our Official Gentlemen of Japan Bandcamp page: http://gentlemenofjapan.bandcamp.com/

Once there, you'll see what we mean.

We have also added another track from Versus Utah to our music player - "Safe" - a band favorite and one to watch.

Thanks and if you are in the Bay Area, we'll see you on Oct. 30th for our CD Release/Halloween show at the Stork Club in fabulous Oakland, CA.

On the floors of Tokyo, Down in London, town's a go-go, With the record selection, And the mirror's reflection, I'm a-TALKING with myself

That's right, we like to talk to ourselves here at the GOJ online headquarters. And we are here to tell ourselves a few important things:

1) DEATH CHAIR is posted in the player on this here website. It's a remixed, album version that is going to be on the Upcoming VERSUS UTAH full-length record. All other spam outlets are rocking tha shiz as well.

2) We're going to upload the rest of the songs to the player by the time the record comes out, I guess that makes it 2 a week?

3) We're still shooting for a record release date of Nov. 2nd.

4) We have ONE show coming up, the Stork, Oakland CA - OCT 30th - a pre-halloween show and we are all dressing up as young men. A few other shows in the works.

5) The artwork is 99% there, If all goes well, I'm heading down to get those off to the printing presses on Friday. After I fix all of Kem's spelling errors.

6) We're making some t-shirts! Well, we're going to try. It will feature the infamous ITALY design. After about 23,009 email requests from our fans wondering if we will make a t-shirt with that design, we have finally caved. So fine, you get it your way.

7) Should we make stickers? Do people still stick those on stuff?

8) I guess I better see about getting this rekid available online for download too, huh? Ok, I'm on it.

xoGOJ

Mastering the Duck out of Peking. (yeah, that's not japanese but I couldn't think of anything else.)

You heard that right, we just finished up the mastering up in Trakworx in South SF for our upcoming full-length, "Versus Utah." We don't know how often we'll be putting out records, so you better savor this moment!

We don't have an official release date, but I'm going to call it November 2nd 2010.

We are streaming the first 5 songs off of the album at the following:

1) Here on this website, in the flash player on the right, dummy.

2) Our Facebook Music Tab: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gentlemen-of-Japan/112628093449?v=app_19935916616&ref=ts

3) On our Myspace Page: http://www.myspace.com/gentlemenofjapan (yes, we have known myspace is a pile of shit since it's inception, but our mission to spam every oriface continues.)

4) On iLike: http://www.ilike.com/artist/Gentlemen+of+Japan

5) Oh, and these jokers here: http://www.reverbnation.com/#/gentlemenofjapan only let you put 8mb of songs up there. But we got a few up.

Other than that, we're lining up some new shows and writing some new stuff.

xoGOJ

Moving on up, to the G side. A deluxe apartment, in Japan.

Ok, we've been getting non-stop emails daily with so many questions, that we can hardly keep up! I mean it, it's like crazy town around GOJ headquarters and some of the inquiries are verging on stalker-esque. We have day jobs too so please be patient. So, here goes:

1) Yes, we have a new bass player. After Josh left for Star Wars part 10 the revenge of Donahue, we thought it might be GOJ's last stand, but we got a new bass player formerly of the band DOGSTAR, we're not going to say which guy he is, but you're smart and you will figure it out.

2) Yes, we are in the process of booking some more beautiful and delightful GOJ shows.... and in fact, we played one the other night in Oakland - oh you missed it? Well, not to fear, we have some shows in the works for Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Los Angeles and beyond. We're going to hook you up here and there so please don't lose sleep thinking about how great it's going to be when we play your town.

3) Yes, we have a record coming out - it's going to be called "Versus Utah" and it sounds like some major shreddage, so get ready. Release date? Not set in stone yet but we're mastering the thing next week and finishing up the artwork and shipping that sucka off to be made tangible soon. If you like music you will like this, it will blow your mind and then some. Let's go with late October for a release date. And yes, it will be on iTunes too.

4) Yes, we are amazing, and we already know that, so please keep telling us so we know more.

5) Yes we tried to go to a place called "Uncle Dougies" after the show in Oakland to eat something and it was pretty much the most amazing excuse for a menu we have ever seen so we walked out.

6) Yes, we are all over 21. I know it's hard to tell, but yes, we can play at bars that are 21 and over so please keep us in mind.

GOJ Show #4 coming up this Friday 8/27 in Oakland, CA at the Stork Club.

http://www.storkcluboakland.com/Flyers/2010/flyer097.html

Out with the Old, In With the Dew.

Just posted a new song - No Stick, All Glue - on this site's muisc player - our FACEBOOK PAGE, and our MYSPACE PAGE.

If you think of any other places we should post them, please let me know cause we are running out of spam outlets and desparate for new fans, even though we've obviously got a lot, and I mean, bigtime, a lot.

The mix is so fresh it smells like your hands after you've been picking tomatoes barefoot in overalls.

We got rid of the other three songs we had up before (yeah we were sick of them too) - and those are going to get a new coat of tomato dew all over their sound as well.

We'll probably post one more within the next week, but the rest you are going to have to save your pennies for when our album comes out.

Tracking for our first full length is done - and we're shipping it off to be mixed and mastered.

We just finished up all the tracks for our upcoming debut full-length. Alex Newport (who has worked with the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Knapsack, At the Drive-In, Mars Volta, Two Gallants, the Melvins and more) will be mixing all 10 songs in early August. We're hoping for the bells to be belly and the whistles to be wet.

Then all we need to do, is come up with a name for the record, and put together a pretty package for it.

Here's the track list in no particular order:

We are the Ones

Single File

Not Over

Chanterelles

Accelerate the Corners

No Stick, All Glue

Death Chair

Safe

My Hands Have Failed Me

We Pretend

No release date yet, but Sept. is looking like a possible contender.

Recording 7 more songs right now.

Yep - we're adding 7 more songs to your recent collection of your favorite songs you've ever heard. Besides the one we ditched - that means we'll have 10 songs for a full-length which we are going to be done with in at least 2 years. Cool?

Gentlemen Show #3 / Do you play Bass?

We're playing tonight at the Blue Lagoon in Santa Cruz, CA with Black Love and the Luxury Sweets. It's the last show for our bass player Josh, so we no longer have to refer to the Gentlemen in the third person all the time (his mundane stipulations for picking the name). Why is he leaving? Well, there's a new Star Wars trilogy in the making, and he got offered the Darth Vader Roll.... so yeah, we can't blame him, he has to do what he was born to do: be in Star Wars.

So, if you play bass, aren't super good, and you are not a goon - let us know and we'll get you in there.

We're looking for someone that can prove us wrong for the case that bass players are the musical equivalents to plumbers.

New Website & Writing for full-length release.

Welcome to the new (and first) Gentlemen of Japan website put together by Sleepless Media. Please use it. It's a little sparse but we'll be cramming this thing full of treats as often as Pete mentions that keyboards will make a song better.

Speaking of songs, The Gentlemen have been busy not missing enough practices in order to get at least a few parts of new tunes sounding like they are done on purpose.

Josh has only been missing about 28 notes per song, (only about 8 more than when playing live) so we figured it was time to book some more recording time. We're slated to go back into the Compound in late April to torcher ourselves with 6-8 new songs.

Keep checking back and we'll post a track listing and anything else that is totally worthless to you.

The Gentlemen's First Show.

Yep, the first Gentlemen Show.

Saturday Jan. 30th at Cafe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz.

7PM Sharp. All Ages.

With Black Love.

I think the Gentlemen are playing first.

FREE! / Donations.

If every one that can make it could wear sweatpants, that'd be killer.

DEATH CHAIR uploaded!

The moment you've all been waiting for: another fine new Gentlemen of Japan song has been added to the myspace music player. Enter: Death Chair.

Listen and enjoy.

The Gentlemen are Planning something BIG.

Ok,

We'll maybe not - but something's going to happen, eventually. A set's starting to happen. A show may turn up. More recording may be booked.

Gentlemen Out.

"Versus Utah" Debut full-length CD - Out Nov. 2nd 2010 Order at iTunes Order at BANDCAMP Order at CDBABY

"Accelerate the Corners" - Live @ The Blue Lagoon, Santa Cruz, CA March 2010

All materials © Gentlemen of Japan, only take our stuff if it will make the band bigger and/or make the band a lot of money. Thanks.

Please do not send us any solicitations for hair growth products. Thank you for your cooperation.

Website Design & Dev by Jon Cattivera @ Sleepless Media

Robot Artwork from Versus Utah by Eric Joyner