What happens when two Seeds rise from sleep and convene to talk about goings on into a microphone? Bavanacast Episode 3!!! We are back from tour and working on new music (yay!). In this episode we play you a snippet of a new song called "Flintlock Fire," which will appear in a more complete capacity on our next full-length.
Ain't nobody gonna break'a our stride, ain't nobody gonna hold us down, oh no
Yep! Episode two for your listening pleasure!
This one took a lot longer to finish for some reason because we tried recording music WHILE WE WERE IN MOTION, drumming on the steering wheel and such, and it kept being all DANGEROUS and INTERRUPTIBLE by horns and phonecalls and such.
So we stopped at a gas station, rolled down the windows and fired out "Coyote Song," much to the delight of the car full of kids next to us. Brian played steering wheel and foot well, I played guitar and Margaret played kazoo and claps. It was pretty awesome!
We'll have the next episode up shortly; we're playing in Buffalo NY tonight! Enjoy, and be sure to comment or email us (band at theseedyseeds dot com) about what you think of the Bavanacasts, what you'd like to hear, and song requests!
Phew. We've been busy. REAL busy. Like, CRAZY busy. And we have been SEVERELY NEGLECTING this here blog. We miss you guys, and we miss telling you about all the fun we're having on the road.
We decided, on this May 2010 Tour, to try a little experiment. To this end, we proudly present: BAVANACAST!
Every couple of days on this tour we'll be recording a podcast from our very sweet giant yellow van, Bavanarama. We'll be telling you about the tour, upcoming sweet contests and deals, and be sharing music that we've recorded in the van, and in other locations.
This first episode was a blast to record but QUITE AN ADVENTURE to get put together and put on the interwebs' facetubes. We definitely learned a lot and I think we've definitely got the kinks worked out so this will be much easier to do in the future. Let us know what you think!
Lastly, and we mention this in the podcast, but just to DRIVE IT HOME (haw haw) we're on our way back to Cincinnati to perform at The Mad Hatter tonight, and we wanted to let you know about our sweet contest, "Score for Four."
If you show up at the Mad Hatter with three of your friends / compatriots / relatives / etc, and tell the door person that you're here to "Score for Four," you will EACH receive a free CD, and YOU YOURSELF will get an extra special free gift just for organizing the thing!
Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you all soon soon soon!
Tuesday we rolled into Columbus (Capital of Ohio!) casually, but with purpose. We were greeted at the door to The Treehouse by the sweet sound of the guitar-accompanied ballad of a local legend, Zombie Dog. The tales of Zombie Dog were, in turn, told in song by every patron in the bar. That dog gets around.
It was then that we discovered the other legend, the more important one, the legend of OL' RAPEY. Ol' Rapey is the ghost that haunts The Treehouse. He is about 2' tall and hangs from a string that suspends him about the same height as your head. The line is pulled across the entire interior of the Treehouse. He runs back and forth on a motor (kind of like this GI Joe figure I had, except there is also the option to have Rapey go "AUUUUUUWOOOOOOOOOAAAHHHHHHHH... AUUGHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHH..." like canned-Scooby-Doo-ghost style).
Rapey.
Anyhow, Rapey starts and stops when he wants, where he wants, and then kind of just chills there for a moment or ten minutes and then starts again on his ponderous journey, back and forth across the room.
The "Ol' Rapey" part comes when you switch off his voice and he just silently travels to and fro, creeping up on you and molesting the back of your unsuspecting head as he comes by. It gets funnier as the night goes on, I promise.
So there's this band Jaguar Club from Brooklyn that freaking rocks and they did so this night, on command. They're very well trained to provide sweet beats and atmospheric guitar and extremely good bass playing at a moment's notice.
Next up were the Seedy Seeds, and we played to a warm reception of smiling folks, nestled happily around the giant tree that grows up out of the middle of the club. We like the Treehouse. There really is a tree and it's pretty big. I think I might be slightly allergic to it.
We were followed shortly thereafter by our pals Wing and Tusk. They are the artist-in-residence at the Treehouse for September and this was the last night of it; W'N'T pulled out all the stops. They are a very talented and engaging band and sweet folks to boot.
After an extremely long day we began the journey home. We stopped at a Pilot, where Brian successfully used the bathroom without being leered at by a Creepy Pilot Gas Station Bathroom Cowboy; this breaks his unbelievable streak of three cowboys in the last three Pilots in three states. Good job, Bribot!
MidPoint Music Festival is awesome! It is a three-day, city-wide festival during which close to 300 bands from the city, the region and all around the world showcase their music in bars, coffee shops and makeshift venues. We Seedy Seeds were booked to play the Contemporary Arts Center opening night of the Festival with Chemic, Loyal Divide and The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir.
I love MidPoint. No other show can ever compare; each year we're in a new setting, playing to our hometown crowd with excited, anxious energy all around. I woke up on Thursday morning already practically too excited to do anything besides pace and not speak in clear and proper sentences until show time.
I was totally excited about premiering the song we'd just finished, "We Are Missing." Since our very first MPMF showcase three years ago we've made a tradition out of debuting a new song during our MidPoint set. We're all particularly excited and proud of "We Are Missing," and I was anxious to get a response from our audience on it.
Brian picked me up in Bavana shortly after 6 P.M. and we began our descent on downtown.
One of the neater aspects of our showcase this year was that we were just about as excited to see every band on our bill as we were to actually play the bill. Chemic's Scott Kirkpatrick is a personal friend of mine and a darn good musician, Loyal Divide are a band we've played with several times and are incredible live and The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir were using their slot to celebrate a new release, so basically our stage was going to be a party all night long.
When we arrived Loyal Divide were unloading their gear as well. We gave each other high fives, smiles and hugs, and got our stuff into the CAC via a very large service elevator. We were to play the black box theater, which boasts a capacity of 200 and a very large projection screen. There were some 100 or so chairs set up in the room, which clearly weren't going to make nice with a dance party—and clearly Cincinnati agreed because as soon as folks started arriving, chairs started leaving.
Brian and I began to situate our gear on the side of the stage as the first MPMF-goers entered the venue. A particularly animated gentleman introduced himself to me as our biggest fan and told me the tale of how TSS first won him over during a set of ours at the Northside Tavern. He had a nickname not uncharacteristic of a super hero, and even offered me a drink. I took him up on his offer and began setting our discs and stickers out. While I was setting our merch display up, Scott arrived and we exchanged high fives, smiles and hugs.
Right before Chemic took the stage, our stage manager informed us that The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir had been in an accident on their way from Chicago to Cincinnati and wouldn't be making it. We all volunteered to play longer sets to fill up the now-empty slot with music.
Scott nailed it. Chemic is presently going though a lineup change, and he played material from that project and from his side-project Bro. Stephen to kick the night off. Loyal Divide, easily one of my favorite live bands, took the night to a whole new level. "You're welcome, Cincinnati," is what their set seemed to say in the absence of an official statement. Next up, The Seedy Seeds. When we took the stage, the room was packed! Cincinnati had clearly taken the 200-head capacity of the room as a personal challenge and delivered what was easily 250 if not 300 in attendance. Some might say more… is this how legends are born?
My favorite shows are the sweatiest shows. If my fingers are slipping off my instruments, rendering our songs particularly difficult to play, we Seeds have done our job. To say this show was sweaty is an understatement. This show was like someone decided to shoot a fitness video in a bath house. By the end of it all my glasses were fogging up on stage, Mike looked like someone had cruelly sprayed him with a hose to get a good look at his boobies, and Brian had pounded welts into his legs. "We Are Missing" went over super well, and while we are grief-stricken that The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir were in a wreck, we had an absolute blast.
Dear MidPoint. We love you. We had the best time ever. We look forward to seeing you next year. Love, The Seedy Seeds
SYGC were seriously injured in their accident and their van and gear were destroyed. If you are so inclined, they could definitely use some help. Click this link to donate online.
There are certain points in the year our band finds easily marked by festivals… March is South by Southwest, April is CincyPunk Fest, September is MidPoint Music Festival, October is CMJ, and August—well August is Dayton's Ladyfest… Ladyfest is a multi-day celebration of women in performing arts, and it's one of those neat ideas that many cities chose to host in festival form throughout the year. We played Dayton's Ladyfest last year and it was a major blast—we've been looking forward to this year's incarnation since…
I met the boys +1 (Mike's dad, Mark, joined us as Merch Guy Extraordinaire) in Dayton for load-in (I'd been visiting family in Cleveland). Dayton's Ladyfest is held in a DIY art venue called C{Space—it's a large, colorful, L-shaped spot. The festival organizers had moved some things around this year and we loaded our gear directly into the vault. From there we high-fived some friends of ours from Chicago-by-way-of-Dayton Hospital Garden, explored the prospect of a bright future made possible by vegan twinkies (there was a booth!) with some good folks who drove from Cincinnati for the event, and watched a giant spider spin a web in the open doorway leading the the back lot where all the smokers were hanging…
We had some sound problems that complicated our line check and put Mike in a prematurely sweaty and slightly anxious state. Thankfully the problems were resolved, and with Mike just a little wetter than usual, we got going. During our set I found myself adjusting to the view from our stage, which had been moved from its location last year. Rather than looking out from the vertex of the L upon the front doors, we were facing the second stage perpendicular to the entryway. While the stage this year seemed higher and larger than last, and jumping on and off it with gear was kind of fun, I do think I preferred the location of the stage from Ladyfest Dayton 2008. From there I probably started contemplating something entirely inappropriate to think about on stage, like what it would take to turn my home office into a sweet room for a (future?) pet baby bunny, or how large an AU really is in comparison to my height (as a graphic), or how great it was going to be to get a vegan twinkie after our set… Every so often my mind wanders off while we are onstage—something I generally try not to let happen, but I accept that sometimes it does. Whatever it was, I was brought back from Reverie Land with the help of some particularly loud and enthusiastic "wooooooo!s" from the Cincinnatians. We had a great time playing just as we did in 2008. Sadly (for me), the vegan twinkies had all been sold by the end of our set, so I'll just have to wait for next August to get my "Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling" on.
It seems somewhat rare these days to find a bill with just two bands. Not just two bands, but two awesome bands who really love what they do, and especially love one another's band (both personally and musically). This is exactly what fell upon the great city of Louisville on Friday July 31st. Home to the standard instrument used in our greatest pasttime (the Louisville Slugger), and some of the most ridiculous nights of drinking in bars until 4:00 A.M., this city expects a good time. Well Louisville, you got what you deserved.
We had just arrived a few days earlier from our east coast tour. One of our most successful spans of shows ever, it was easy to say we were riding relatively high after melting faces in Cleveland, Philly, Boston and Brooklyn. Four shows in four cities through seven states and over 1600 miles is enough to take a toll on anyone—especially in Hollandaise Firebot (aka our mini-van). Bavanarama (our 15-passenger) sat this one out, and we crammed all of our instruments plus our Seedy selves into some pretty close-quarters. Good thing we love each other!
Needless to say, we had been rushed around and required a new kind of show to bring us back down to Earth. Again this is where the love for a two-band bill sets in. Not a lot of equipment to fight through, or long sets with still two more bands to play before your 1:00 A.M. slot. Everyone is equal, and is there to equally have a good time.
The fine folks at Buzzgrinder.com, one of our favorite music blog sites, invited us and our buddies J Roddy Walston and the Business to help celebrate their 8th anniversary. After a scheduling conflict and a last-minute venue change, we were still stoked to play what we knew would be a great evening.
We arrived at the Rudyard Kipling early enough for some fine summer brews and vegan pizza, and shared some great laughs with the men of J Roddy. Sean Cannon of Buzzgrinder, along with his lovely with Brittanie, treated us to as many red, white and blue PBR headbands and wristbands as we could handle. Nothing spells freedom superfun like good, cheap 'Merican beer.
We opened the night with a fury. A solid hour with non-stop Seedy hits—the "Rud" (Louisville slang) certainly sustained some structural damage. The energy was up all around, and we played to a large crowd packed tightly around all edges of the stage. You know its a great show when you come back with a couple bruises.
Next up were one of my favorite live bands I have ever played with. J Roddy is simply fantastic live, and the more intimate venue to witness their madness will guarantee the best of times to be talked about around campfires for months to come. The boys bring it like it should always be brought, a mentality common in the Seedy family. Hair-whips, piano-fits and broken sticks are just some of the images I can offer. Do yourself a favor, and please check out this band… worth every penny of every dollar from now until eternity.
Zach from J.Roddy rips it up while simultaneously tearing it down.
Did we mention the evening also featured a visit from Green Man? Because it did.
Post-show became a slight blur, mostly due to exhaustion. I can tell you that it involved drinking some more PBR in a stationary '57 Chevy Convertible while eating pizza that was cut the size of Rhode Island. Joined by our friend Scott of Bro. Stephen, and with crocheted sea-monsters and stories of Seedy and Buzzy world domination, we finally settled on the Cannon's floor—Mike and I sharing a blow-up mattress big enough to float across the Ohio River on… Speaking of that, see you soon on a boat!
Rapey.
The Jaguar Club
Wing and Tusk
Scott from Chemic in action.
Loyal Divide can't be captured by still images.
Bribot prepares for battle.
Mike curses the phantoms.
Zach from J.Roddy rips it up while simultaneously tearing it down.
Did we mention the evening also featured a visit from 
