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The Meeting Places was founded in September 2001 in Los Angeles, California by four guitarists: Scott McDonald, Chase Harris, Dean Yoshihara, and Arthur Chan. McDonald and Chan had been friends since high school and met Harris at a Super Bowl party earlier that year at which they realized each was going to see a Mojave 3 show a couple of weeks later. Having a shared interest in music, the three guitarists later decided to rehearse and after a few practices they recruited Yoshihara, a college friend of Harris' at the University of Arizona, to play drums. Chan then switched to bass while singer and lyricist Harris remained on rhythm guitar. Original compositions started to develop immediately — "Wide Awake," "Where You Go," and "See Through You" were the first songs written by the group.

While McDonald became the architect of the quartet's signature reverberating washes, each member contributed to the songwriting process on their debut album for Words On Music (Dean and Arthur picking up the guitar again for passages in "Take to the Sun" and "On Our Own" respectively). In Autumn 2002 the band recorded their debut album at The Ship with Aaron Espinoza, the famed musician (Earlimart) and producer (The New Folk Implosion, Eliot Smith, The Breeders).

Find Yourself Along the Way (Words On Music, 2003) is a stream of ten peerless compositions that inconspicuously tours the best of the early 1990s dream pop scene. Due in large part to Harris' deliciously nonchalant voice, the band's songwriting progresses from that scene with momentum towards a sparkling style of noise-pop that is equally memorable and provocative. The album appeared on the Top Albums of 2003 lists of several publications around the world, with critics noting the record's crafty juxtaposition of ambience and tunefulness.

From late 2005 to early 2006 the quartet recorded their sophomore album with Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy, Earlimart) at The Ship. Numbered Days contains ten luminous new songs that combine infectious, melodic indie-pop with the tremulous soundscapes the band first explored on their 2003 debut. The album was released worldwide by Words On Music in October 2006.

In late 2006, after a sold out 1-off show in Taipei, Taiwan, McDonald left the band on indefinite hiatus, until April 2008, when the band reformed. In Autumn 2008, the band added a fifth member to the group — keyboardist and vocalist Laura Llamas (Spirit Radio); in Spring 2009 the band returned to its original quartet lineup. The Meeting Places are currently writing new songs and playing live shows once again.

The Meeting Places has performed live extensively in California, including the 2003 San Francisco Noise-Pop Festival. They also played at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas in both 2003 and 2005. The quartet has performed with luminaries such as American Analog Set, Film School, The Autumns, Timonium, and Experimental Aircraft.

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Words On Music Releases



Full Discography

Find Yourself Along the Way (Words On Music, 2003; Avant Garden, 2006) CD

Numbered Days (Words On Music, 2006; Smallworld, 2007) CD

Compilation tracks

Blisscent II (Blisscent, 2003) CD same lies as yesterday

Club AC30 #3 (Club AC30, 2004) CD two more hours

A Houseguest's Wish (Words On Music, 2004) CD outdoor miner

Breath of Stars (Auralgasms, 2007) CD until it's gone

Smallworld 002 (Smallworld, 2007) CD love like the movies