Sterling Silver have broken up. But here's the story anyways... Mike and I were bored. It was his spring break and he was back in town and we were at his parent's house. The night's entertainment was either rent a movie or make the usual round of phone calls to the usual round of friends, but in the end we knew we'd just end up renting a movie. But Mike had found a flyer for a show at The Che Cafe that night, so we decided to fight the Thursday night boredom and go to the show. All I knew is that Kill Holiday was playing and I hadn't seen them in awhile. We walked in mid-set of this band we've never seen before and all I kept thinking was "oh my god this band is so good." I asked Mike what he thought and he agreed with me. So we came to two conclusions: Number one was that this band had to be from out of town because no band this good could be from San Diego and us not know about them. Number two was that if they were from San Diego then we were definitely going to put out their record. Demetrius used to play in the Trans Megetti, which ironically was one of my favorite bands. He quit that band and moved out to San Diego a couple of months before starting Sterling Silver. Brent used to play in The Cardinal Sin Quartet and Marielle. Susanna and Marc have played in a couple other bands, but they escape memory. It turns out that I had met Demetrius before. It was outside a show in LA, he remembered, I didn't. We agreed to put out their first record. They had four songs that were recorded by Gar Wood (former singer of Tanner) and we jumped at the chance to release them. But to liven up the record a bit we made sure the packaging for this record would be unforgettable. It's a full bound book with metallic cover, complete with photos and lyrics and on the back is the record. Pretty. In early February, the band headed up to San Francisco to record a full length record with Tim Green, former guitar player for The Nation Of Ulysses. Green has recorded for Bikini Kill, Lync, The Melvins and Tristeza. With his assistance Sterling Silver expanded their sound and the end result was Leave Before It's Black, a twelve song symphony of the honest truth. Who have they played with? The Farewell Bend, The Black Heart Procession, Burning Airlines, The Lapse, Tristeza, Jejune, Red Monkey, The Wicked Farleys, No Knife, The Enkindels, Jimmy Eat World, The Dismemberment Plan, Boilermaker, Ben Lee, Versus... plus way too many more to mention. This past January the band toured the west coast with Portland's Kind of Like Spitting and City On Film (which is a side project of Bob Nanna from Braid). For Sterling Silver, the summer of 1999 was a whirlwind of shows all across the country. They toured the West Coast with Sunday's Best and Rainer Maria, and then finished off the rest of the country by themselves. Then they broke up. The final chapter for Sterling Silver will be with "Melodica", their contribution to our "Slightest Indication of Change" compilation. The end. Email Sterling Silver