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Guerrilla Seeds
In celebration of all things Chicago (great music, great food, great town) and also of the anniversary of the birth of our Margaret (great music, great food, great town), Team TSS headed up to Chicago for a show at The Empty Bottle.
"Hello, Empty Bottle? Yeah, I'm going to need you to double it."
We arrived with plenty of time to visit Earwax, a place with TREMENDOUS WAFFLES. On our way back we saw that there was already a line outside the venue:
We tried to work out the math regarding how many of them it would actually take to carry a piece of paper currency to pay the cover, and how cute and tiny it would be if they had their own.
Being my first time at the Empty Bottle, I was pleasantly surprised to find it attached to a vegan eatery, which definitely came in handy later. I was also pleasantly surprised at the pleasantly surprising beer selection, and also at the sweet, sweet picture of "Tory Anus" in the dressing room:
The night of music started with an amazingly rocking set by a fantasy drum-synth outfit by the name of M. Sord, who amazed the pants off of people.
Next, we put our pants back on and fired off a tidy set of TSS hits. "Take that, Chicago!" said we. The sound was really good that night, it's amazing when you walk into a venue and there's a real sound system and a soundperson who knows what they're doing. Way to go, them.
The night was also the CD release for local faves All City Affairs, who are also labelmates with our pals The Pomegranates. All City Affairs was completely awesome and they were like musical bread and butter with us Seeds.
That kind of made me hungry.
We realized all too soon that our fun would have to end shortly, as we had to head back to Cincy in the same evening; a few of us had local promises to keep, and miles to go before sleep. Margaret trucked the Bavanarama like a...trucker... back to Cincy, being careful to avoid any wandering senior citizens:
Hats go off to Margaret, who had to drive home at 2am on her birthday, because I was too tired to not wreck us into a tree.
Brian is 40.
M. Sord doesn't just rock the house, he punches it in the neck and takes its lunch money.
All City Affairs, FREAKIN WAILING.
—Mike
of Dwight Yoakam and Maxell…
Each year, Jake Speed puts together an all-out jamboree at ye olde Southgate House with bands that run the genre gamut from folk and Americana to hip-hop and experimental music—and all this in the name of cleaning up the banks of the Ohio River. The wild night is called Rivertown Breakdown and we Seeds tore it up this year in the Parlour.
Mike and I loaded our gear in around 5 p.m. and promptly hit the road at 90 MPH a totally reasonable speed—we had to book it to Belterra, Indiana where the amazing Dwight Yoakam was crooning a bunch of high rollers (and us!). After the 2-hour set we re-booked it back to the Southgate House and met up with Brian just in time to catch the end of Magnolia Mountain's set.
When we entered the Parlour, we discovered that the fine folks charged with setting up the Breakdown event had put rows of chairs in the room. Most of the bands playing the Parlour were bluegrass or folk of some sort and we found a nice group of folk appreciators sitting patiently in place while we got our gear set up. We got ourselves on stage as fast as possible and proceeded to pump up the jams. I like to imagine that the folks sitting in their rows of chairs had their hair blown back and their skin blown back and their clothes blown back and their beers blown back with terrific force like the old Maxell ad because we were rocking it so hard. Since I primarily sing with my eyes closed, it was easy to imagine. In reality, however, this didn't happen unless there were wild, wild, rocking winds while I had my eyes shut that quickly ceased when I opened them. Kind of like the idea that my stuffed animals *might* have been partying down in my room as a child when I'd leave it, and would jump back into place when I'd return so I wouldn't suspect anything. Well guess what, stuffed animals? I did suspect fun and games. All along I did.
Despite playing to rows of seated folks—which for us is a little stiff since we encourage dancing and the such during our sets—we had an absolute blast. The stage manager had not anticipated us having so many instruments and outputs, and thus had not allotted adequate time for us to set up and break down our equipment. We had to cut our set 3 songs short—something we really regret, especially since our audience had no way of understanding why we weren't playing longer. Even so, the event was fun as heck and we're very glad to have been a part of it this year.
—Margaret
Le Le Le Le Lexington!
It is really funny to think about, but at this point if I go more than two or three shows without playing a club in a curious neighborhood, I feel somewhat out of place. Needless to say, Al's Bar in Lexington made me feel right at home. Perfect location and venue for a DIY festival.
All-ages shows are great, especially in bars that open their doors to everyone from all walks of life. Hipsters, punk-rockers, and hippies from all over the Midwest and East Coast came to be a part of this gathering.
The show opened up with our good friends, The Rough Customers (formerly The Iron Mikes). With ska/punk-based songs about dinosaurs, filled with a dynamic horn section, how could you go wrong? We followed with our sweet dance moves and mid-song high fives. The new songs were received very well, and of course the crowd turned into a full-on dance party by the end of the set.
We were followed by Arkansas?, who are an amazing straight-forward pop-punk group. They are extremely tight, and, shockingly, fresh out of high school. Next up were The Sidekicks, who really caught my attention. Indie pop-punk-rock in its truest form. Brought back some solid memories from a few years past. They certainly had my can of PBR swaying in the air for most of their set. Finally, Bloomington's Good Luck closed the night. Spastic pop-punk from No Idea Records that was extremely tight live. Put on a great show.
The night was capped off when I randomly bumped into a musical acquaintance that I had not seen in several years. Fred Oakman, most known for his lead part in the Pittsburgh area band Signal Home, was on tour with his acoustic solo project, Weekends. I had played with Signal Home a couple of times throughout a three-year span, and was always impressed with the band live, as well as the members' personalities. With a list of mutual friends as long as the Ohio River, Fred and I could have B.S.'d for hours. Margaret and I watched him play a few tracks off of his new split CD with Fleets. Indie-alt songs about personal life experiences from the wears and tears of being in a band. Some things just can't get old.
Great times, good show, amazing crowd, and a stroll down memory lane. Thank you Lexington.
—Brian
Just a perfect day // Drink sangria in the park // And then later, when it gets dark, we go home
At CincyPunk Fest there was a silent auction, where the musicians that played the fest auctioned off items to raise money for charity. TSS chose to auction off a picnic with The Seedy Seeds.
Three rather sweet folks pooled some cash and bought us for a day. After a couple of reschedulements, it was on.
WE ARE HAVING FUN DO YOU SEE.
Margaret and I (ok Margaret) cooked up some vegan goodness that was truly remarkably delicious.
Salad of corn, asparagus, summer squash, zucchini squash, black eyed peas, fresh basil, onion and sweet bell pepper, dressed with lime juice and salt and pepper
Corn and potato soup with sweet bell pepper, caramelized onions and summer squash
Doubledecker PB and J's, with multigrain seedy bread and blackberry jelly. Handcrafted by the Bribot.
Seedy spread.
YAY! THIS FOOD IS AWESOME!
After enjoying some delightful food, beverages and company, we decided to enjoy some fine cigars while we retook our senior photos:
What a long, strange trip it's been!
WHAT A TOTEMLY AWESOME PICNIC
(It's worth mentioning at this point, as a reminder to all, that Margaret really is in this band, and she is not a vampire, she's just not in a lot of photos because she takes most of them. Every once in a while we try to photoshop her in or hire a street performer to take her picture. We've lost a couple of cameras that way so we decided to stop.)
After a completely awesome evening of carousing and merriment, we were run off by the local constabulary, so we decided to head on down to the local watering hole and continue the fun over some sweet, sweet Karaoke.
A very special thank-you to Kate for lending me her get-out-of-jail-free card.
—Mike
Tornadoes, ghosts, a speakeasy, and a meowing toothless man… welcome to Indy
It was the perfect day to ride downtown. I stashed my laptop, keys, wallet and phone into my pannier, adjusted my fancy cleats I picked out exclusively because they were the prettiest available, put on my helmet and started out for Findlay Market by bicycle. Most folks in Cincinnati retreat from hot, humid weather like Custer's men running from Little Big Horn. This means there are fewer motorists to deal with on nice, sunny days in late May. Yay for me. I picked up some pickles and headed toward Main street to meet Mike and Brian for a quick meeting at Iris Book Café before hitting the road for Indy.
Drum drum drum drum drumming on the steering wheel.
Bribot Gigglefest.
Troy, our new merch man with a mustache, mullet/rat tail/kind of majestic back-of-head stylized hair style, and jean vest was going to miss the show due to a prior engagement. We called upon the services of my sister Rebekah in his stead. She spent the bulk of our drive asking if we were "there" yet. She's a "good traveller."
Margaret's Hawt Sister stood in for mustache merchguy.
The Vollrath was built in the 1920s and supposedly operated as a speakeasy and brothel for some time until the end of prohibition whereby it became a legitimate bar. The place is said to be haunted. I had a chat with Debbie, a bartender at The Vollrath about "Joe," the presence that haunts the bar. She told me that he used to keep the mirror behind the bar clean to help the previous owner (who was blind and old). We Seeds plus one sat down while Blind Pilot prepared to soundcheck and chatted up the locals. One leathery man, toothless and seedy, meowed incessantly at me each time I passed him. I had unconsciously put on a T shirt when I awoke that alludes to a kitty cat. Eventually I turned to face the man and asked "Really?!" "Ahhhhhhhhyyyyeeee like yourrrrr aaaaattituuuude," the old man remarked in a voice that might have suited a wizard and slowly as if he really had to consider every syllable as he spoke. Brian, Mike and Rebekah all found this to be pretty funny. We really liked the place a lot.
We had a beer with Joe, the local ghost.
Awww!
Seriously the cutest picture ever taken of Mike.
Folks started arriving around 8 PM. The tornado warning came around 8:30. The lightning show was great, but the neighborhood folk hanging out on their front stoops watching the lightning was slightly better. The other show aka the one we drove to play was presented by My Old Kentucky Blog—all the MOKB folks were as welcoming as can be. We started shortly before 10 PM on the smallest stage area we've ever played upon. Good thing we Seeds love each other because we were standing pretty much standing on top of one another, practically forming a magical TSS obelisk. We played nine songs including our two newest tracks Ethel and Tired Enough To Dive (listen to it on our MySpace page : www.myspace.com/theseedyseeds). Considering our close proximity to each other and especially after a few of Mike's compulsively delivered "jokes" the stage was getting particularly hot. After a day of biking, riding in a giant bananavan without A/C, and talking shop with the locals, we were all sweating enough water to fill a baby pool. We finished our set, pulled our gear offstage as quickly as possible, and gave some high fives and wet hugs.
Blind Pilot started shortly after we finished. They were super good. They also had SIX FREAKING BAND MEMBERS ON THAT TINY, TINY STAGE. Wow! They've clearly got some sort of clown car magic going down.
Blind Pilot rocking the house.
Margaret and Kelly like to party.
Relaxing with a brew. Shortly thereafter Mike fell out of the van and "hurt his arm or leg or something."
As the night winded down, we loaded up our gear and set out for my cousin John's house. He and his wife Mandy were super awesome hosts. Somehow they had ten million beds for us all. John immediately got started making "party nachos" for the brave (aka the drunk aka pretty much everyone not vegan aka not me but everyone else). Once the nachos were done he put on The Big Lebowski and we all sat and relaxed for a minute before heading to bed. Probably everyone had dreams involving bowling, nihilists and Dudeism. We woke up the next morning, walked to the stripmall where the brave (aka everyone but Brian) got Indian buffet. Brian ate a boring bagel. We got back in Bavanarama and headed back to Cincy with Rebekah asking if we were "there" yet the whole way home. She's a "good traveller!"
—Margaret
Three months in pictures
So we three Seeds have been back from Austin for two and a half months and have yet to finish additional posts on our SXSW 2009 experience. It is with a heavy heart that I project it's probably safe to assume we'll continue to put it off. Trust me though… the festival was AWESOME. We played three showcases including our "Official SXSW" showcase, met a lot of new folks (including Kris Kerry, our new booking agent), caught some amazing sets (my personal favs were Jason Lytle (who played a Presbyterian church), Mirah (Brian would probably have dumped his girlfriend and run straight for the drummer had he caught their set), and The Decemberists. Oh yeah—we also met up with some sweet friends including These United States and Joe and Shiv of WOXY.
In not writing about SXSW we've also not written about lots of shows we've played in between January and late-May. We've opted to catch you up in pictures (scroll, scroll to view! scroll!)
80 pictures = 2009 so far
