The Decoration is a San Francisco foursome making blissful and emotionally charged music that is gently refined, yet raw enough to evoke a discernible level of pandemonium. They quarantine their parent's 45' bins and collect song structures, then apply them to their angular rock songs, drawing from not wholly unrecognizable post-punk, emo, and post-rock influences. "Quiet Games For Hot Weather" is the bands first full-length release, released on their own imprint label, Major 7 Records. Infusing intricate layers of weaving guitars, keyboards, samples, tasteful jazz influenced drumming with a translucent sheen of pop, "Quiet Games.." stands on it's own. Vocally, Pinq sets themselves apart as Tim Mitchell's vulnerable falsettos and sometimes-desperate croon lure you in. The lyrics are personal, if not slightly obtuse, and the dark themes are more reminiscent of Jean Paul Sartres than Morissey, but equally as engaging.

Tim Mitchell (guitar, keys, samples, vocals), Ben Montesano (drums), and Greg Bertens (bass, vocals) started playing together in 1995 as of a very loud but somewhat scattered project called Goldenrod. They floated around the SF club scene, recorded a demo, but never really found a sound. In 1998, Tim and Ben continued to play together and soon formed Pinq. Line-ups and instrumentation rotated, songs were written, a few shows were played, and then Greg came back into the fold on bass. Andrew Simas joined on keys and engineering for a three-song demo recorded on a computer in their rehearsal space. The demo received an alarming amount of accolade for an un-released CD-R, and a few months later, Tad Ro replaced Andrew and added his adept skills on guitar, piano, and keyboards. Pinq's sound took on an amazing new depth cohesion, and Quiet Games was recorded. A recent re-tooling of the rhythm section brings Pinq into a new era with Kurt Hobson (formerly Peppercorn) and Mike Alexis (AM Magic) now handling bass and drum responsibilities respectively, and the music is bigger and tighter than ever. Pinq is now one of the well-respected bands in the San Fran area, alluring adored press and phenomenal show turnouts.

In the late spring of 2000 Pinq went into the studio to track this here gem at Lucky Cat (A Minor Forest) then manipulated and seasoned it at Tim's home studio. John Croslin (Spoon, Mates Of State, Beulah) then added his magic and mixed the tracks at Tiny Telephone in SF. The result was a recording that accurately demonstrates this bands sonic depth, cohesive performance and songwriting strengths, "Quiet Games.." is a record that will stand the test of time.

{ Credits: Marla Aufmuth > headshots }

Contact: info@thedecoration.net