The Sads are a Los Angeles based musical project that has existed in multiple formats for many years, yet finally came together as a complete band in early 2007. Members are Aaron Rose (Alleged Gallery, ANP Quarterly, Beautiful Losers) on guitar, synthesizers, vocals; David Scott Stone (Melvins, Locust, Get Hustle, Unwound) on Moog, guitars and modular synthesizer, Aska Matsumiya (Moonrats) on keys and vocals. Past and current drummers include Dan Monick, Nick Dewitt and Joe Plummer. The band spans genres, making each their own, from somber, minimal electro-folk numbers, to child-like, Satie-esque, piano-based compositions. The band takes a somewhat “street” sensibility, yet redefines it through the filter of experimental instrumentation and sometimes elaborate staging. Live, they have been accompanied by performance artist/filmmaker Miranda July on amplified typewriter. Since 2007, in addition to selected performances in Los Angeles, Milan, Rome and Berlin, The Sads have performed what they call a “silent show”, in which the band plays all electronic instruments and the audience listens only through headphones. The first silent show was held in late 2007 to an intimate crowd at New York’s Journal Gallery, followed in June 2008 by a larger performance to 350 people at the Westwood Art Forum in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles show was accompanied by a six-channel video installation by designer/filmmaker Mike Mills. The performance inspired features on the group in both the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. In addition, the band was presented in a feature news story for Weekend America, a nationally syndicated news program on NPR (National Public Radio).

Margaret Wappler of the Los Angeles Times writes on the Silent Performance:

“Tucked into a warren of flowers and cables, the four members faced each other and played their digital instruments — two keyboards, drums and a soundboard — but the byproduct of their efforts came out through headphones that the audience listened to while sitting on brown pillows in a ring around the band. If you pulled off your headphones, you could hear the pinging sound of a hit on the digital drums or Aska Matsumiya singing a cappella into her microphone or David Scott Stone, longtime Eno-like multi-instrumentalist for the Melvins and former one for Unwound, shuffling around, twisting knobs and unraveling what looked like a noisy spool of wire, likely one of his homemade creations. But with headphones on, the music was intimate, enveloping and lush. The payoff wasn’t in staring at the band, the usual protocol; it was in abandoning the visual and turning as inward as the music itself.”

The Sads debut EP, ‘Rough Stabs’ was released in early 2007 through Los Angeles’ budding indie-label “Teenage Teardrops”, who have also released records for acclaimed LA bands such as No Age and Mika Miko. The album is a lavish vinyl package released in an edition of 500 copies and featuring cover art by New York artist Matt Leines. The Sads second release is a 7” single titled “Pas Deux” with cover art by Mike Mills. A recorded “silent show” LP will be released in Autumn, 2008. The band is currently writing music for their first full-length album, with an expected release of Summer 2009.