Songfight! North America West Coast Live!

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:48 am

Well there were other covers too and those were just the first ones which came to mind. But yeah, your WreckdoM cover was brilliant.

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:51 am

<3 <3 <3 fluffy! Thanks!

...and now that the madness is over, here's some memories of the last two days (with pictures to follow, eventually).

Saturday 3/24: Albatross arrives, 6 hours, three delays, and one cancelled flight later. First complete band practice cancelled due to work schedules. Minor panic.

Sunday 3/25: 1st time we're all in the same room together. Jamie the drummer "What the f*#& do you mean we're doing a jazz change up in Brother-In-Law? That's not what we've worked out!" (Jamie's a bassist, not a drummer.)

...fast forward to...

Wednesday 3/28: Ken & Jennifer arrive at Casa de Entropy. The neighborhood italian restaurant that I thought was the expensive one turns out to be the cheapest. Last complete band practice delayed due to good food.

Thursday 3/29, Portland: Sean arrives. Luckily is able to give the Octovan directions to mi casa. # & fluffy arrive. anti-m arrives bearing my favorite beer (coincidence!). The whole lineup is on my porch and sidewalk drinking, smoking and damn but it's really, really cool.

Wagon train to the venue. Minor glitches abound on the setup end, and resolve.

anti-m gorgeous voice & playing, having fun, really good opener for the show. Maybe a coastal bias, but even cuter than bjam, IMO.

mico saudad hardware issue resolved (no digital piano) by having the p++ casiotone step up to the plate. More good music, good words. Show shaping up nicely.

sockpuppet hardware/board conflicts screwed you dude. I'm sorry. The sliders on your mixer channel(s) were down to 1 or 2 and we were rolling off the mids and such as much as we could.

p++ Oh wow. First PDX show for me, and first exposure to many friends of the sort of music we make. Heh. Surprise! Think the casiotone got bigger applause than we did.

The thing's a diva now.

ken Rico f-ing Suave, dude. Nice sonic relief after the p++ mayhem. Hope you sold some of the Notes of Hope discs.

# Bliss. Excellent, as always. If I was going by a clock that was actually set for daylight savings time, pro'lly wouldn't have urged one last song on you. But hell, I'm selfish and wanted more live #

We're fans, first and foremost. Mad Dog <3 <3 <3 from the p++ crew!

Albatross, Todd & Jamie, thank you for coming together from various corners of the bar to rock along with me (and help with the technical bits of this adventure). Y'all made it work goooood.

Friday 3/30, Seattle: Slings and arrows (and Seattle traffic layout) get us to the show way later than expected. Missed Ken and most all of Merisan

... Puce, Sean, cello (viola?) interlude woman, Marcus m-fing Kellis!, Fluffy (board was much friendlier to you tonight, dude) tres enjoyable. Then spud throws out "Ass Hammer" in our intro-ish (silliness from the PDX show that we weren't going to do with the wee ones in the audience) and that set the tone for our set (and for the audience, heh). Thanks, spud

! # cleansed the ears, hellos & goodbyes were said, and p++ slouched back off to Portland to be reborn. Closing quote: "6 hours of driving to play a fifteen minute set? That's f-ing awesome. Too fun." Yup.

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:01 am

Thank you to all of the organizers of the tour. That was a hell of a lot of fun.

In 2020 Songfight goes on a yearlong tour around the world. Ken does every show. Even the one in Baghdad, Iran.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:07 am

You think Iran's going to annex Iraq?

Post by **Spud** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:29 pm

I am pretty sure that that was not a typo, fluffy.

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:41 pm

In 2020, the unified middle east (or southwest asia, to you military kids) will simply be known as "Irate".

Thanks in no small part to the US' foreign policies.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:51 pm

anti-m wrote:Unlikely... But perhaps I'll have a change of heart.

Too bad... one of the songs I'd like to do there would be great with a saw solo.

Rabid, what is p++? I mean, how do you pronounce that? p-increment?
-bill

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:59 pm

bill-
Pronounciation guide: "p++" = "Primitive Screwheads"

It's easier to write on gear & key in the threads. And Albatross being a coder makes it funny. To us, anyway.

That & we've got # envy, heh.

Albatross · Post by **Albatross** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:12 pm

Also, the "++" is meant to resemble the tops of Philips screw heads.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:05 pm

aha! makes sense now. that's pretty obscure, now, screw heads. coulda been just as well p-- though. flatheads! p**?
-bill

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:23 pm

HeuristicsInc wrote:...p**?

Heh. Don't you hex us now! Or are those torx?

Obscure is our middle name, bill.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:28 pm

torx, yeah. primitive obscure screwheads?
-bill

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:51 pm

P.O.S., heh. Got it in one.

mc3p0 · Post by **mc3p0** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:05 pm

Video/audio links! If I had paid attention I would have visited the goings-on. The one time SongFight plays Portland and I miss it. :[

Fluffy - You could have done your version of Rhymes With Lucia.

the_prisoner · Post by **the_prisoner** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:12 pm

All,

I want to start by saying how impressed I was with everyone. You are a collective powerhouse of creativity, personality, musicianship, originality and basically damn nice people!

After not having gigged steadily in about 7 years, I am now addicted! I forgot just how much fun it was to play for live audiences outside of my company's cafeteria!

The Culver City gig was a true potpourri of talent. You all compose and sing so well, and your desire to be experimental and current, while still paying homage to musical roots was evident that night. Playing the Zipline set with brushes and rods was a bit different, but it was also cool, in that I almost felt like the songs had a jazz feel. I was also able to hit up the Getty Museum the next day, so that was also a treat.

For those of you who don't know, we had to move the Monday gig to my place in Berkeley. I want to send a big shout-out to Bob, who spent a few hours the next day cleaning up what was actually very little mess at all. You were all so respectful, but mostly fun and interesting, and I really enjoyed all of your company! You are welcome back anytime!

The Tuesday gig in the City by the Bay was great - from the venue to the crowd, it was lots of fun. I want to thank Minty Handy, Tiny Robots, and Ken's Super Duper Band 'N Stuff for allowing me the privilege of playing drums with your bands. All of you are consummate songwriters, and true professionals . . . but you also know how to have a good time too!

Ken, thank you so much for working your ass off arranging this tour. It was not easy work, and you poured your heart and soul into it, and deserve much kudos for making it happen.

And finally, to conclude the love-fest ; - ) thanks to Glen and Martin (Glenny and martyr), my Zipline counterparts who composed and sang all of our tunes. For those of you who might have missed the gigs (and Billy, no excuse for not making the Culver show), our set consisted of:

The Wedding Song - Time signatures played were 5/4, 7/8, 7/4 & 4/4
Pink Ribbon - Went into double-time at the end
(Covered in Bugs in SF)
Living at the Corner of Dude and Catastrophe - Featuring the vocal styling of Martin Turon
Glutton - Remember the "Get Fat" drum breaks?

Thanks to my wife Kimberly for videotaping all three shows. I will do my best to try and post videos soon, and will update the site when I know more.

Ok, thanks for everything, and I look forward to seeing you all next time out!

Sam
Zipline drummer
Minty Handy, Tiny Robots & Ken's Super Duper Band 'N Stuff live drummer

mkilly · Post by **mkilly** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:15 am

good work everyone! had a great time, everyone rocked, was really cool to see ken-sam-erin-adam-primitive screwheads-mico-emily-jennifer, anyone I'm forgetting, and the usual suspects of crash-spudnut-fluffy-spud. I should really retire at least a few of the songs I played tonight, given I did three of them in 2004 at Austin and the fourth is not original :/. anyway it was wonderful.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:39 am

Your fourth song was original, just not in the traditional way. I mean, okay, live mashups have been done before but not by Marcus Kellis.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:46 am

Yeah, tons of fun was had by all. Thanks first to Lunk, Erin, fluffy, Marcus, and of course Ken for making the Puce set happen beyond all odds. Also thanks to Merisan and The Marcus Kellis Experience for not letting me embarrass myself on backup vocals; you made the right decision

. Thanks to Minty Handy for writing a song that will be stuck in my head forever: ever since we played it I've spontaneously been bursting into rousing renditions of "Photocopy my ass!", nonplussing friends and strangers alike. Thanks to Bradsucks and 15-16 for writing totally kickass songs, which I butchered without permission, but you'll never be able to prove it. Huge thanks to mico saudad, who sacrificed a good night's sleep to let me have one. Thanks a ton to spud and amy, for creating order from the chaos, and for having such a crazy looking practice-space/future-home.

Everyone was awesome, but some random shoutouts:
- Mr. Spot's Chai House! You guys were cool, and you smelled like a particularily fancy soap shop. Sorry that we deafened your barista (why does firefox think this is spelled "Cristabel"?). Thanks for serving me that crazy chai and espresso and chocolate concoction. Kudos to the yuppie patrons who came, who saw, and who donated 5 bucks to the cause of rock.
- Primitive Screwheads, you guys rock. It's hard to find adjectives that describe P++, although for moments you sounded like Octothorpe with guitars ("Rocktothorpe"?). The Wreckdom cover was a special treat, and it's really too bad there was no recording; it's nearly impossible to imagine a whole tea-house singing along to a Wreckdom tune, but that's what happened.
- #, I totally lost my voice shouting along with Skyline. Fluffy (and I only capitalize it here because it's the first word of the sentence) really rocked the kit on your whole set, and Maddog was in top form.
- Boo-urns to Seattle. Not only did I get totally lost in you're half-crazed infrastructure multiple times, but you also appeared to have a combined Starbucks / Tacotime drivethrough... as I gazed upon it I knew your black heart, and I wept.

Oh man, there's more, but I've got to go to work.

Post by **Spud** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:31 am

Speaking on behalf of Octothorpe, we had a blast. Thanks go to Ken for such a great idea, to the individual organizers for making it happen, and to all the bands for participating. This is the first time Octothorpe has ever played the same songs two nights in a row!

The show in Portland was definitely worth the trip, and we would especially like to thank Rabid for arranging it, and for playing bongos with us. Anti-M was a kick and a great addition to the roster of usual suspects.

Thanks also to Ken for stepping in on bongos in Seattle, and to all the bands that made the trip to Seattle. Kudos to all for helping out with equipment setup and removal, and for staying on schedule all night. Practice was great. Can't wait for the house to be done so that we can do more of that.

SPUD

Post by **Lunkhead** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:48 pm

Just to clarify, Merisan closed our set on Friday with a cover of Minty Handy's "Our Love Violates Corporate Policy". I woke up that morning with the song so firmly lodged in my head that I thought that if I could pick out the chords by ear on our BnB's piano we'd try to cover it. Then Erin showed me that her lyric sheet also had the chords, which sealed the deal. I had wanted to suggest to you, MH, that you do an a cappella singalong with the crowd at the end, but I forgot to mention it before the SF show. So we did it on Friday, with the help of Puce and Ken, and it was a blast. Anyway, we love that and your other songs, and it was great to meet you and hear you play a few times in CA. Everybody was awesome, and the Seattle show was really excellent, and a great closer to the tour. More notes to come. What an amazing and wonderful time it was, though. Yay SongFight!

mkilly · Post by **mkilly** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:06 am

I have fourteen pictures up here: http://glitterandtwang.org/songfight/Seattle/

If your set is not present and you'd like it to be ask me if I can dig out a decent picture to add to this little gallery.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:13 am

god damn I'm fat

Songfight! North America West Coast Live!

Reflections on the California Tour . . .