Earlier this month, the band Trailer Bride played LA in support of their awesome new CD Hope is a Thing With Feathers. As you may know if you’ve perused this site before, we are honored to have two Trailer Bride songs in our little movie, “Graveyard,” and “Bird Feet Feelings.” Thanks to Nan Warshaw at Bloodshot Records and Bob DePugh at DePugh Music, they set up a meeting with the band.

The show was at the Silverlake Lounge in Silverlake. I had never been there before, and being the anxious, over-worrying type, I left early. I had my Thomas Guide and was only 18 minutes away according to my Yahoo directions map. Now I’m not sure what hideous, vile bastard laid out the streets of Silverlake and Echo Park, but I spent the next 90 minutes driving around them. Along the way, I discovered parts of LA I knew existed, but seriously, Rampart and Temple is not really an intersection designed for pasty white boys at night.

Well, after finally finding the club, I went inside and ordered a well-deserved drink. Then a crazy old barfly sidled up to me and asked if I was gay. I said ‘no’ then he chuckled and mumbled something I couldn’t understand. I ordered another drink. And moved to a different table.

I had bought a batch (gaggle?) of Devil Ducks to give to the band. I mean, who doesn’t like satanic waterfowl. Kian and I had also ordered AGR t-shirts for the band, but due to the vagaries of UPS, we had no idea if they’d get here on time.

Anyway, I went outside and nearly bumped into Melissa Swingle. Melissa is the uber-talented songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, and saw player of Trailer Bride. I introduced myself and preceded to do what I do in situations where I meet people I admire—I rambled like a teenage girl on three cans of Red Bull. I explained our movie, what a great inspiration her songs were and how much I liked her music.

Melissa was very gracious and excited to see our opus when it’s finished. She introduced me to guitarist Tim Barnes and drummer John Bowman. They were remarkably nice as well and interested in the project. Just before they took the stage, Melissa called me over to introduce James Emmenegger, the drummer for The Blacks, who had come to the show. We used their song “Horrorshow,” unfortunately the band had broken up and we had no idea if any of the members even knew we were using their music. I told James all about the movie and we had a great conversation about movies and other creative endeavors. He also reported he had been in touch with Danny Black recently and they were talking about playing together again. Great news indeed.

Kian made it to the show with the t-shirts (after getting as totally frickin lost as I did) and we spoke with James at length while Trailer Bride set up. He told a lot of fun road stories about The Blacks and about their times touring with Trailer Bride.

Trailer Bride finally hit the stage and they were incredible. They energized their unique brand of Goth-country-punk and had the entire crowd pumped up from the first song. Besides playing a number of tunes from their new album, they played both “Graveyard” and “Bird Feet Feelings.” It was a great to hear these songs live, seeing as we had listened to them over and over again during the course of editing the movie.

Melissa told us afterward they were two of her favorite songs and wanted to play them since we were there. Kian and I were both knocked out by this…I mean…how frickin cool is that.

After the show, I got the chance to speak with stand-up bassist Daryl White. He was equally courteous and kind toward us and the movie. The band hails from Chapel Hill, North Carolina and clearly Southern hospitality lives and breaths—even in the wilds of East LA.

Melissa thanked us for the ducks and the shirts and Kian and I said our good-byes. It was a fantastic meeting and by all means do yourself a favor and pick up their new CD. Good music by good people.