The latter part of 1989 and the beginning of 1990 marked the peak of Red Temple Spirits' impact on the wider music culture outside of the LA scene. A promotional video for "City of Millions" was shot, and aired on MTV’s "120 Minutes," and the band made their New York City debut with a stunning performance in October 1989 at the CMJ Festival. That night they launched into "Exodus from Lhasa" in total darkness, as Faircloth flung glowing flecks of paint all over the Under Acme ceiling, creating a panoply of stars that enraptured the audience. A buzz began, and four months later, the Spirits undertook a 17-date East Coast tour, beginning with a masterful LSD-fueled gala at Boston's Ground Zero, sparking a near riot in Burlington, VT, then down to NYC (where they wowed a packed house at Ron Wood's club Woody's) and a stellar set at Philly's Khyber. These shows featured an rousing cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and a passel of promising unrecorded material (including the haunting "Yeti," the hopeful "Smiling," "Village of Reeds," and "Going Home"), and both local and national music press began to notice the Spirits, leading to features in Alternative Press, B-Side, and Reflex among others.
-- myspace.com/red/templespirits