The Seedy Seeds' Road Blog

052810 Bavannacast Episode 3: Recording

2010-05-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Episode 3!

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.

Recorded in the dead of night…

Bavanna3MP by theseedyseeds

—Mike

050910 Bavannacast Episode 2: Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, Charlottesville

2010-05-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

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!

YAYEAR!

Bavanna2MP by theseedyseeds

—Mike

050210 Bavannacast Episode 1: Chicago, Pontiac, Cincinnati

2010-05-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

Uh oh we gots a Podcast on our hands!

Hey everybody!

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!

Bavanna1MP by theseedyseeds

—Mike

092909 The Treehouse

2009-10-01T17:58:00.002-07:00

The Legend of Ol' Rapey

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!

The Jaguar Club

Wing and Tusk

—Mike

092409 Midpoint Music Festival

2009-10-01T17:58:00.001-07:00

Haters : Go Hate Elsewhere

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.

Scott from Chemic in action.

Loyal Divide can't be captured by still images.

—Margaret

082109 Ladyfest Dayton

2009-09-07T17:37:00.001-07:00

NOM NOM VEGAN BAKED GOODS NOM NOM

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.

Bribot prepares for battle.

Mike curses the phantoms.

—Margaret

073109 The Rudyard Kipling

2009-09-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

Listen up folks, this is a good one.

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!

—Brian

072709 New York to Cincinnati

2009-08-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

The images, they speak volumes

This bagel was so good I almost cried.

We let this bum have a bagel too.

—Mike

072609 Union Hall

2009-08-04T20:47:00.003-07:00

words here

After our hand-chair portraits we brooked it down to Brooklyn, the third city on this tour I had never personally set foot in. I had a certain expectation about what my experience would be, and while the general ideas were still there (giant city with outrageous amount of people and endless canyons of concrete) I could not believe how good it felt to be in that city.

We arrived around 1am (party time!), found a parking spot immediately, and got situated at a friend's house. We shot the breeze for a little bit and then the Sleepy Seeds, having awoke in Philadelphia 21 hours before, and having played a show in Boston 10 hours before, passed the heck out.

In the morning, the Seeds split up to paint the town three different colors. Brian and I went to brunch with even yet still more friends, after which I went on a Ghostbusters / sightseeing tour of Manhattan. In a little over 2 hours I saw most of Manhattan; the fire station, apartment building, and terrace restaurant from Ghostbusters; the street on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan; and a personal favorite, the outside facade of the Cosby household. After that I walked through Central Park, got diverted on some under-construction subway lines, and made it back to the venue just in time.

We immediately scored the MOST AMAZING PARKING SPOT EVER, loaded in, ordered some beverages, and commenced the rock.

The show was hot, loud, and awesome, just the way we like it. Dawes and Childe were also amazing, as were their musicianship, candor, and personalities. One memory that I, and my back, will always remember, is the awesome teamwork all the bands exhibited while taking a full-sized piano down a flight of steps.

(Every once in a while, I get a call from a friend. It's not the usual oh-no-not-this-call, which goes something like "Heeeeyyyy.... man.. do you want to help me move?" No. This is much more feared and dreaded. This is the call not based on calling in a favor, but based on calling in a favor plus torture. The call I refer to is "Heeeeyyy.. man. I found this ad on craigslist for a free piano, all I have to do is pick it up!" Please, people. Hire a professional piano mover. It is worth it and they will tune it for you. Moving a piano is like moving a sleeper sofa made of lead. Thank you. -ed)

After the show, the Bocce Ball did flow. Margaret and Brian were quite inexperienced; Brian had, in fact, never even heard of the stuff. We quickly set that straight:

Shh...he's concentrating.

Shh...she's winning.

I AM HOT AND SWEATY.

Nobody knows who the guy in the gray shirt is.

—Mike

072509 Harper's Ferry

2009-08-04T20:47:00.001-07:00

There's beans in them thar hills

So the.. owner and driver are American built?

We awoke in Philadelphia to begin our whirlwind loop around Boston down to Brooklyn. On the way up, we picked a random lottery ticket and immediately shed a single tear for a friend who couldn't make it on this journey:

Today, the order of business was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the existance of our pals Freezepop. Way to go, guys! They actually played two anniversary shows in one night: one an early, all-ages show; and one a later, mega-drunkzord 21+ show. We played the early show along with Boston's own Mystery Roar.

(editor's note: for your convenience we have removed the part where Mike talks about food. All he does is talk about food and we figured you could use a break. The vegan pan-asian cuisine was plentiful however)

The show was really awesome, and we met a lot of really awesome people. We presented Freezepop with a giant aluminum-foil key to our hearts. Sound was great, venue was great, crowd was amazing, yowsa.

Mystery Roar roars mysteriously. Actually it's not that mysterious, it's tasty electo-pop.

In addition to the best shirt ever, Bananas Foster was wearing some serious pants (not pictured).

After the show, we all went back to Freezepop's headquarters for some R+R, before beginning our journey south to New York City. We discovered some outstanding things while we were at it. One item of note is that Freezepop is friendly with Chris Onstad, purveyor of Achewood, our favorite comic strip.

The other item is that they had a hand chair and we all posed for portraits. Hand chair!

"... wait what?"

Serious face.

That's right.

—Mike

072409 The Khyber

2009-08-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

She's a maniac, and she's parking like she's never parked before

Stepping foot (well, wheel) in Philadelphia for the first time, I was struck by its...parking fees. $1.00 in quarters per HALF HOUR in the area around the venue. This is of course only until 10pm, after which they simply tow you. On top of that, no business within several square blocks were happy about giving change, and some simply refused. Otherwise, you can find a garage or surface lot starting around $13.

HOWEVER the city was pretty awesome. We got out of the van and were immediately coerced into having a Yuengling on the curb with the guy that owned the bar a few doors down from The Khyber. This was an excellent decision.

The Khyber is a gem, a dusty diamond in a district of velvet ropes and shiny zarconias. The bars around it don't have their drink prices listed, while The Khyber is a genuine rock and roll bar where you drink cheap while listening to Black Flag and simply enjoying yourself.

As the twilighte glistenede over Olde Towne, more and even better little niblets of joy peeked out from behind the posh upper crust. Margaret and I took a short walk and stumbled upon an entire street of Afghani restaraurants, one of which served us a 14" pita completely jammed with falafel and fresh veggies for like 7 bucks. Well done!

We opened the show to an enthusiastic crowd of rockers, and somehow it felt like they were all our best friends. As it turns out, there was only one other band on the bill, Doctor Scientist. This picture accurately describes their awesomeness I think:

"Doctor Scientist," or "going on a warpath to battle the evil mastadons"

I think the entire Philadelphia experience was only enhanced by the blessing we received on the way into town, a cloud that looked just like Falcor:

Having a luck dragon with you is the only way to go on a quest.

—Mike

072309 The Beachland Tavern

2009-08-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Lean, Green, Seedy Machines

Following the success and gas mileage of driving Hollandaise Firebot (our minivan) instead of Bavanarama, we decided to see if it was physically possible to pack all the things we need for a short tour as a full band into a smaller space. As it turns out, the manufacturers over at Nissan planned exactly, down to the cubic inch, how much room it takes for a standard Seedy Seeds show to travel to your town. The nice part is that if there's even a gnat's width of room left, we know we've forgotten something.

This is my "I have enjoyed the success of a job well done while packing the van" face.

We, as the Seedy Seeds, have this problem. The problem is Margaret's mom. Margaret's folks live in the Cleveland area, and her mom is a fantastic cook. What's the problem, you might ask? Well the problem is that every time we roll into town, we gorge ourselves to such a ridiculous extent that they literally have to ROLL us out of town. Pound after pound of mouth-watering foods and fresh baked goods fly past our teefs like the Road Runner outrunning a giant slingshot.

HEAR THIS. ON OUR WAY OUT OF TOWN BRI-BOT AND I EACH ATE A VERY LARGE LOAF OF ZUCHINNI BREAD. LIKE, ONE LOAF PER PERSON.

On top of all that, The Beachland Tavern attempted to pummel us into submission with tasty vegan food, just to see if our meals would brawl once they reached our stomachs.

The evening began with 19 Action News playing an energetic set, while being filmed by a cameraman from the real 19 Action News, though I don't think they're necessarily affiliated. Next came we, we who do the Seedying. I think we played pretty darn well, and the sound on stage was fantastic. Thanks, Clint.

A quick line up change shifted Doublethink into the next slot, and they played a raucous set of Foo-Fighters-esque straight-ahead rock and roll. The Guile finished off the night with some really really awesome Beatle-based punk rock, tied down by one of the best drummers I've seen.

As an added bonus to our Tavern show, The Walkmen were playing the main stage and so we stopped by for a few songs of their set. That band's pretty awesome.

So once again, Cleveland tries to spoil us. We start off on a tour leg with tons of fantastic food in our bellies, sleeping in nice warm beds, having a great show in a great venue. It really sets you up, because you worry that this is as good as it gets and it can only be downhill from here.

BUT SEEDS DON'T ROLL DOWNHILL. WE ROLL STRAIGHT TO THE TOP.

19 Action News (foreground) documenting the performance of 19 Action News (background).

Doublethink.

The Guile.

The Walkmen.

—Mike

070409 The Empty Bottle

2009-07-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

Freedom isn't Free

"Sometimes it takes waking up at a seemingly ridiculous hour (by way of your banjo player) with an OTR-induced headache only to drive 5 hours in the rain to Chicago to put freedom into perspective." —Margaret

On our way out of Cincinnati, this particular Birthday of Freedom was christened by the visceral image a guy sleeping on the front lawn of a house nearby Seedy Central. We were driving through a relatively nice, old-timey part of Cincinnati, and it struck us that it is more likely that this guy was somebody's dad visiting on holiday that got drunk and locked himself out accidentally, and just happened to be sleeping on the front lawn, not necessarily a full-on bum. We picked up a SleepyTroy and set out on the way to Freedomland on this day of freedom.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaad, you're emberassing me!

SleepyTroy! I Choose You!!

Further up the road in the great state of Indiana ("The Crossroads of America"), we did what any law-abiding, freedom-loving free citizen of the free country of These United States would do; we earnestly endeavored to destroy a piece of it with explosives.

FreedomMobile!! I Choose You!

SRSLY.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN TWO FOR ONE?

Back into Bavannarama we piled, all holding our enormous caches of perfectly legal munitions. Shortly before the show Bribot ate so many peanut butter pretzels that he began to turn into one.

POSSIBLY THE CREEPIEST PICTURE EVER TAKEN

we rolled into the great City of Chicago, loaded our gear into the club, and headed down to the Chicago Diner for extremely awesome vegan reubens, raw nachos, and vegan milkshakes.

Best Friends Forever!

The show was opened by the exuberant, guitar-wailing hotness of The Victory Gins. We followed them with a freedom-laden set of Seedy hits, including a spontaneous rendition of "Proud to Be An American." Loyal Divide closed things out with a majestic set of awesomeness.

After the show, we retired to ~~the alley out back~~ an undisclosed location and began to celebrate American Freedom, Chinese style, with fireworks. Margaret fired her first-ever Roman Candle. A mortar misfired and exploded 6ft off of the ground directly in the center of a busy intersection. Blessedly, no fingers were harmed in the making of this revelry.

I had to remark, during it all, that being in downtown Chicago on the evening of the 4th, it was incredible, it was like a (very festive) warzone. Everywhere, all night long, and constantly, you heard explosions, machine-gun blasts, bigger explosions, and the night sky was constantly aglow with reds, whites and blues, each one brighter than the previous. It was pretty spectactular.

Margaret loves pinball, especially inappropriate pinball.

Hey you!

The Victory Gins.

The Loyal Divide.

MARGARET CASTS MAGIC MISSLE! SUCCESS!

—Mike

070309 Northside Rock 'N' Roll Carnival

2009-07-23T05:29:00.000-07:00

We will play for anybody. Anybody.

Chris Schadler charges his genius beam all year, then lets it go and pulls together one of the best music festivals in the city; annually held over the 3rd and 4th of July. He calls it the Northside Rock 'N' Roll Carnival. The giant party, which takes place in Hoffner Park in Northside, had us sharing the stage with great bands like Wussy, Culture Queer, The Chauncers and (dare I say the now-legendary?) Man Halen, among others.

Mike and I met Brian for load-in around 7 P.M.ish behind the main stage. The weather was really mild and folks were already spread all over the park in lawn chairs, on blankets, and by the beer stands. Approaching the stage from behind, the guitars and vocals of local alt-country indie-rockers The Turkeys bounced off of all the buildings around the park, and the echoes coming back made the band's material sound like the theme song to Pete and Pete (not a bad thing if you ask me!).

We started our set at 8 P.M. and a pretty wild dance party orchestrated by a group of five-year-olds ignited almost immediately. An occasional adult would find their way to the front to join in, but the pressure of having to constantly bust sweet moves proved too much for many. As our set went on I'd spot a familiar face here and there among the Carnival-goers—one particular friend, who has an impressive (and very easy to spot) mane of hair reminiscent of a medieval knight, stuck out in a way that makes him a good player for a "Where's Waldo in Hoffner Park?" book.

We love to talk to fans after our sets. For me, a particularly special moment in the evening occurred when, on my way back from the beer stand, a mom approached me and thanked me and The Seedy Seeds for playing an entire set of kid-friendly music. I'm really glad that her kids could enjoy our music right alongside my friend sir knight and all the other Rock 'N' Roll Carnival-goers.

The whole event kept going with amazing vigor throughout the evening, culminating in an indescribably fantastic set from Man Halen, my new favorite band. And while at the end I definitely found myself having had more OTR than I'd anticipated, I'd say this was, hands-down, one of my favorite nights out with the band.

—Margaret

062009 Skull Alley

2009-07-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

I want to ride my bicycle

Ah, Louisville. Land of the Sluggers, home of the nitrogen-pushed microbrews and best french toast I've ever had. Oh, and Skull Alley, a completely awesome venue that happens to be 1 Year Old! Congratulations, guys.

Skull Alley is a venue / artspace / screen printing facility that has all-ages shows, sells local crafts and art, and is run by two seriously sweet people.

Congratulations, guys, you are 1! And you are also very photogenic!

Margaret and I rolled into town and were immediately struck by our familiar pangs of trying to find delicious food. Jamie told us about a new place right near the venue called Swan Dive, so off we biked. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with their beer selection and tasty vegan food.

Tonight we shared the stage with Poetic Jay, C+, Two Hand Fools, and Ooh Da Lally. Poetic Jay started the show off with a short set of rhymes. C+ and Two Hand Fools made the rock that makes the folks sweat, and Ooh Da Lally played their set using folk instruments and no microphones at all, which was pretty interesting I must stay.

Poetic Jay

C+

Two Hand Fools

Ooh Lah Lally, unplugged.

Enjoying a refreshing beverage with friends!

Brittanie Canon made us a friend. This is Frankie! Do you need a friend? Because you probably do. Clicky clicky!

—Mike

061709 The Empty Bottle

2009-06-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

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

061309 Rivertown Breakdown

2009-06-20T08:31:00.001-07:00

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

060509 Crucial Fun Fest IV

2009-06-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

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

060409 The Picnic

2009-06-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

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

053009 The Vollrath

2009-06-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

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.

My Old Kentucky Blog and Upland Brewery like to party as well; and they're buying.

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

JAN–052909 catch you up

2009-06-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

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

031709 Dallas to Austin

2009-03-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Get Ready to be Assailed by Photos

The Seedy Seeds departed Dallas in very good spirits with a belly full of sammiches and a twinkle in our eyes.

We arrived at our homestead just north of the city, burrowed ourselves a niche, and packed the niche full of our luggage and gear, and set off on a scouting mission.

Austin by night.

We discovered several interesting things about the city of Austin, Texas. For one thing, I love this city. People here are accommodating and polite. The entire city is on fire with good nature. After a brief foray into the city limits, Dr. Saint Augustine Nytehawk, Sir Franklin Redhawk and I went to have a beer on St. Patrick's day. After a few attempts, we found a local watering hole and, as you can see, achieved complete success.

Dr. Saint Augustine Nytehawk O'Malley enjoys himself.

The next morning we woke up and headed down to registration. The festival organizers really did a bang-up job of getting people in the right lines and moving them along.

Registration is fun.

Austin by day.

Austin by day again.

To drive the point home, I like this city a lot. Not just the festival but the whole shebang.

Anyhow, our sweet badges in hand and wristbands on wrist, we went exploring for a short time before loading into our venue, finding a totally awesome parking spot, jamming some food in our gullets, and oh yes, riding jackalopes:

Margaret likes them.

After getting a pretty good idea of the lay of the land, we went back to our venue, Waves, and got ready for our first show of the trip, our official South by Southwest Showcase. It was completely rocking.

Jam it out, Mike!

Sing it Margaret!

After our show we split up and took to the streets for a little bit. Redhawk and I found the most amazing thing in the world, a band that was playing to synchronized, music-producing Tesla coils. They actually worked out the frequency of each one and used them to play music. The sound of the air between the two coils exploding, at a certain rate, produced a tone that was in tune with the music - it was unbelievable and this picture does it no justice:

Music by lightning.

We also got to catch our pals Seabird.

This festival is simply fantastic. I'm going to have to apologize for being a little behind on my blagging, it's pretty crazy down here and I love every second of it. There'll definitely be more blogging to follow!

Perhaps one of the best things about this festival, aside from all the awesome music and people and places and things to do and see and buy and sell, is the fact that one street over from the main drag is a 10ft by 10ft trailer, constructed like a lincoln-log cabin, that sells AMAZING VEGGIE BURRITOS FOR THREE DOLLARS AMERICAN. And they're really, really tasty. It's the cheapest and best festival food I've ever found anywhere.

OMG SXSW OMG.

—Mike

031609 St Louis to Dallas

2009-03-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Conversation Survivalist.

We left St. Louis Monday afternoon for Dallas. We’d spent the morning reorganizing the boxes in which we keep our merchandise and auxiliary percussive instruments, writing emails, and printing handbills ahead of our Austin showcases.

Seeds Temporary Mobile Remote Headquarters, St. Louis, MO (STMRHSLM).

Mike tried to eat a baby garden gnome.

Mike also played some piano. NOT PICTURED: Brian singing on top of the piano.

With BaVanarama all packed up, we set out west. Brian E, Brian P and Mike (who have, at this point, knighted themselves with “tour names” (Sir Franklin Redhawk, Dr. St. Augustine Nighthawk, and The Micklen Man, respectively) shared stories back and forth of times past on the road in the American Southwest. Afraid that I would be forced to listen to tour stories with Creedence Clearwater Revival in the background for hours (CCR’s Chronicle is the only tape we have in BaVanarama), I thought it wise to pass out. When I awoke, we were nearing the border of Oklahoma. The boys were still sharing stories, so I was pretty happy with my previous decision to fall asleep to avoid the aural assault.

Greetings from Sir Franklin Redhawk.

Greetings from The Micklen Man.

Saggy Boobs, This Exit.

We had dinner and got back on the road just as the sun was setting. We had a tremendous view of the night sky which would otherwise have held our attention all the way through the state had it not been for all the fires! No joke, there were fields ablaze everywhere we turned. It seemed that as soon as we passed one fire, another would begin. My impressions of Oklahoma are at this point : 1. totally beautiful, clear night sky 2. fires, fires everywhere, and soon 3. giant monuments of Indians hanging out in front of strip malls. I fell back asleep and when I woke up we were pulling into Dallas.

I’m an early riser. The boys were fast asleep when I got dressed and got antsy to move around. I convinced The Micklen Man we should do some exploring and he, after resigning to the fact that he wasn’t going to get back to sleep, took me and BaVanaramma to the grocery store for breakfast.

When we got back, Redhawk and Nighthawk were up and assembling some TSS promotional samplers to hand out at the festival. We ate together, relaxed a little, and set off for Austin.

"No I'm totally awake."

"summunahWHERE AM I! DIJOO TAKE MY FISH had me a DOGCAT once DONTTOUCHMYSTUFF!!"

—Margaret

031509 Cincinnati to St. Louis

2009-03-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Creepy Pilot Truck Stop Bathroom Cowboy

Leaving for tour is pretty much the best feeling ever. Working hard to make sure everything is prepared, and all checklists have been scrutinized to ensure we are not forgetting anything- even though it is bound to happen. Seems like the only real time to relax is when you are finally on the open road. So true.

The first fill-up is always the greatest, “The point of no return” in my mind. BaVanarama needed to fill-up, while us Seeds needed to empty out. Now, I could tell some stories of truck stop bathroom visits completely based off of sitting in a stall and observing the nocturnal sounds of the general trucker / road dog lifestyle, but that is reserved for another time and another place. If you stay in one place for long enough, you are sure to find a humorous story to run back to the van with, worthy of interruption of our Subway picnic.

One phrase sums it up: “Creepy Pilot Truck Stop Bathroom Cowboy.” Letting it all hang out, surveying the scene for his next attack. He didn’t only stare- he observed his prey. With a tip of his ten- gallon hat, and ruffling of the feathers, he was there for business.

Back on the road, no looking back. We arrived in St. Louis mid-afternoon, greeted by milk, cookies, and yes- apple pie. It is so great to stay with family. They usually take you in as if you were stranded puppy on the side of the road. After a great dinner with even better people, Seeds business took over. After seventy or so emails sent, fifty shirts rolled, and about two hundred samplers stuffed- time for lights out. Busy days of long travels ahead and more emails ahead. South By SouthWest - we’re coming for you.

We also passed the LARGEST CROSS IN THE WORLD. Eat your heart out, Touchdown Jesus!

—Brian

012309 Skull Alley

2009-01-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

My love affair with Louisville.

I really look forward to playing in Louisville because it always feels a little like a home away from home. Every time we play Louisville we meet new people, see old pals, and each and every time we gain a new set of friends. The city's just plain awesome and so are the people. This show was no exception.

This time we played at Skull Alley, which is an all-ages art / music / screen printing venue run by some great folks who really care about being a quality venue and furthering the cause of independent music.

The show was opened by an awesome, angular set from Paper Airplane (no relation to our pals Paper Airplane from Columbus, yet awesome nonetheless).

After that, we were graced with the glorious sounds of some good friends of ours, Flotation Walls. I can remember about a week or so after the very first TSS show ever, Flotation Walls and The Seedy Seeds found each other on MySpace, fell in love, and vowed to play shows together forevermore. It took a while to pull it off, but not long ago we finally worked it out schedulewise. Their set was great and we're also playing a Newport, KY with them soon. Cheers to the Walls.

Following Flotation Walls was a totally awesome set from Stick Figures. They tore it up, sounded great, played my favorite song, and were hella tight. But what else is new? That's what they do, they're professionals.

We closed out the night by dropping the hits so hard that the power kept going out to the PA. But it usually happened near the end of a song, exactly on beat with the music, so some songs simply ended with everyone singing along acoustic-like. It was a super awesome show and you can find some video over at the Youtubes.

Paper Airplane brings some angular rock up in here.

Floation Walls family portrait! AAWWWW!!

Carlos from Flotation Walls brings some rock vocals up in here.

Max from Stick Figures brings some rock vocals up in here.

Sarah from Stick Figures puts some rock keys up in there.

Nice shirt, man!

I was just getting over some Bronchitis but I felt pretty good, that is until I remembered that bars in Louisville close around 4am! We all went out with some friends and had a great time, I chugged water and kept it real, fantastic night overall.

The Morning After

We stayed in a pretty awesome loft and this was the view out the window. Good morning, Louisville!

Good Morning, Kitty Cat!

Wake up, Mike! Being awake from 6:30am to 4:00am is no excuse MISTER SLEEPYHEAD.

Fine. Stay sleeping and waste the day, Brian.

AWWWW THE PUPPY ALARM CLOCKS HAVE BROUGHT THE DAY BACK TO NORMAL!!

AWWWW PUPPY ALARM CLOCK BAILEY IS THE CUTEST (but don't tell his sister Bella!)

I have one more thing to say about Louisville. It has generally some pretty great food, much of which is vegetarian and vegan (aka Seeds-Friendly.) But then we found the Meridian Cafe.

And I had this:

WTF OMG.

There's not much I can say about this french toast. You know how when you remember something it's always a lot better in your memory than when you actually experience it again? Like watching old episodes of Knight Rider, or Fruit Stripes Gum? Yeah. This stuff tastes like the best thing you can ever remember eating, times ten. Except when you go to take another bite, it actually still tastes BETTER THAN THAT.

Blueberry BASIL and CHEESE and HUH? DON'T ASK QUESTIONS. JUST GO ORDER SOME.

If Louisville keeps up the amazing food thing and isn't careful, they'll have to roll us Seedy Seeds out of town like Violet Beauregard.

—Mike

011809 Bernie's

2009-01-25T15:10:00.000-08:00

Rock and Roll.

It snowed a lot in Cleveland:

After our show at The Matinee, Brian and I had run into a mutual friend who

somehow finagled some free tickets to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! We didn't have to be in Columbus until evening, so we went that morning and scoped it out.

We had a pretty good blast but I didn't necessarily take any fantastic pictures. Brian and I were a little disappointed that the toilet that Elvis died on wasn't there but I guess it's probably still in Graceland. But what more important piece of Rock and Roll than the piece that Elvis left behind?

We did get to see some totally awesome things (part of the airplane that Otis Redding died on, the 4-track recorder that the Beatles recorded Sgt. Peppers on), as well as some mediocre / uninspiring things (whole wall of Aerosmith, a conspicuous lack of Led Zeppelin in the overall history).

We did hear that the best parts of the museum were the documentaries and films; however, we had to breeze through the entire museum pretty quickly. We'll definitely be back.

Artist's rendering, apparently, of how awesome it would be if Brian played air drums in The Spin Doctors with Elvis' Toilet.

After the Hall of Fame we ate a lot of good food and headed South for the evening. We pulled into Columbus, met up with some more friends, and shortly thereafter the fantastic Paper Airplane took the stage. After that came a stream of hits from Blastronauts! and yours truly.

I've been coming to Bernie's for quite some time now, and I marveled at how far the place has come over the years. When I first started playing there it was loud and smokey and rock and roll, and now it's better sounding, clean and non-smoking, and rock and roll. Way to go, Bernies!

The members and music of Paper Airplane are completely sweet.

Beware the Benevolent Blastronaut!

The Seedy Seeds closed out the evening with a super-fun set that included Brian performing on THREE songs (I'm Asleep in All My Dreams, The Little Patton, and Earned Average Dance America) he had never played before, much less practiced by himself! Brian is a robot. A robot that pulled off three new songs just by using his ROBOT BRIAN BRAIN.

We were also joined onstage by Paper Airplane for "I'm Asleep in All My Dreams," who happen to do a rather splendid version of that song on our Count the Days companion album (click here to buy). Thanks guys!

We ended the night with an interview for Ohio Rocks! and a long, cold drive home. Thanks to everyone in Columbus for making the night great; no thanks to Bernie's toilets for still being pretty heinous.

—Mike

011709 The Matinee

2009-01-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

When it rains, it snows.

We all woke up in my parents' house in Cleveland to a steady falling of light snow. The goal for the day was to just relax and take care of some Seeds business. Sitting by a fire with snow falling out the window put all of us in a very comfortable place—though constantly on the brink of dozing off.

Brian working on Seeds business.

We made some phone calls, wrote some emails and discussed the details of a video shoot we have coming up. We ate well (especially Mike and I, who have been treated to homemade Indian food compliments of my parents' neighbors since we arrived) and at eight o'clock we set out for the West Side. Mike working on Seeds business.

The drive to The Matinee wasn't as treacherous as we anticipated given the steady snowfall. We arrived, loaded our gear inside, set up our merch table, and got into a very interesting conversation with Josh of Run Run Addington, who, as it turns out, builds his own drum kits. Yes. He builds them. With his bare hands. And they sound great. Genius.

The Matinee! Our new CD on our merch table.

Run Run Addington were really engaging. Their live performance was polished and energetic. We followed them with our set, and we were in turn followed by Promise Hero, whose set was played with some emotional urgency as their lead singer apparently had to pee real bad their whole set.

Run Run Addington in motion but as a still photograph. Hmm… kinda weird.

Hey, that's us!

Must have been a loud part… Belt it, Mike! I love this picture. Promise Hero : This guy was super vocal about his bladder. Hope he's okay. Mike relaxing at the bar following Promise Hero's set.

After the show we set out to meet some friends of Brian and Mike at a bar not too far off. It was a cozy spot and a great place to continue our trend of unwinding.

Mike and Brian pose with some friends outside The Matinee. Why do we always hoist our adult beverages up in photographs like people really want to see us like "this beer is SO my jam!"? The best thing about this other bar for sure was the planetlike revolving Schlitz light. Also the gentleman dancing like crazy to the Americana band that was playing when we entered. Not pictured : the dancing gentleman.

Tonight we drive to Columbus for a show with our good friends Paper Airplane and Blastronaut at Bernie's and following that, we'll head home to Cincinnati for a few days.

—Margaret

011609 Berea House

2009-01-17T13:14:00.000-08:00

Coldest Day Since 1994, Apparently

Well, what can I say? House shows- probably one of my favorite things in the world. Starting out in terrible punk rock bands, I was naturally raised in the sleaziest basements the great city of Cincinnati had to offer—indulging whenever possible in whatever possible. This being said, not even the -4 degree temperature could contain my excitement to play my first house show as a Seed.

Arriving well past when we were expected, of course there was no easy way to load in, intoxicated crowds to fight through, and clouds of smoke as thick as Vietnam's—it was on. Keeping warm next to a flood light in the corner with our adult beverages, we were greeted with the hottest of hot licks provided by THIS LEVEL IS CLOUDS!. Brought back some memories of more young and careless times, a theme that was continued throughout the night.

After some back and forth between the rest of the order, and quick set filled with smooth jams by Yorick, we packed ourselves into the tightest of corners in the common living area of the house. Nothing better than a room full of energy, folks fighting to get up front to see your band, ready to dance their pants off. Grabbing the last necessary item for the drum set, I heard someone say in passing, "I can't believe they came...this is gonna be sick." It was at this point that I knew it was going to be an amazing show, and these peeps were ready to break it down.

And break it down we did. Mostly our equipment, as a band using as much electronics as we do will be prone to failure from time to time, but nonetheless we set that building ablaze. You would have needed a bulldozer to take the energy out of that room. Good times, great set, even better memories. The Seeds will sleep well tonight.

—Brian

011609 Scribbles Café

2009-01-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

It's -4º Up In Here

After a splend-tastic breakfast at Casa Nueva, we departed Athens in the best of spirits. With the help of one of them fancy GPS boxes (on loan courtesy of our lovely and talented and best put-up-with-us friend Sarah S.) we headed out on the road.

There is no sour mood that a healthy breakfast cannot reverse.

Brian and I have been in touring bands in the past and we share ideas for doing it that seem… well, antiquated. Before this tour Brian came to me and said "This is going to be awesome, we're going to get a power inverter and plug in a 13-inch TV and a DVD player and watch movies!" And after talking about how cool that is going to be, we realized that you can watch movies on battery-powered laptops and this isn't 2002.

Speaking of this wave of new technology, I'm still a little amazed at the fact that we had one person driving and TWO people online, using the actual interweb, while driving the entire way up to Athens. Mobile internet is a fascinating achievement that I only discovered this past year. Thank you, Neal Armstrong, we couldn't have done it without you landing on the surface of that movie studio set in Arizona.

Scribbles! We love this place, good coffee and good people, great energy. We've had a run of shows lately (starting with our Artist-in-Residence stint at The Southgate House) that were in smaller, intimate venues, packed full of people. It's nice to get to play smaller places after a while of playing much bigger stages, it concentrates all the show's energy into one small energy-bomb. If we could harness it we could power a city; as it is it gets wasted all over the walls and ceiling of the place. Sometimes people in the room do that too.

One remarkable part of the evening was when I finally met my long-lost brother, Andy Ingram, who sang for the opening band, XL427. It's a little wierd because we had separate parents but he promised to say hi to Mom and Dad for me and I said the same.

Dylan from Set Fire Films

"Setlist from the evening" — 2009 The Seedy Seeds, Crayon and Newsprint.

Mike configures the beeps and boops.

Brian configures the bangs and the booms.

Mike's glasses took one for the team. They are currently healing well and we expect them to return to duty tonight. Donations can be made in their name at your local record store.

Fellow bearded traveler Cory joined us for the next leg of the evening's tour.

The show / shoot went pretty swimmingly and we can't wait to see the results. Thank you to Scribbles, Dylan and Set Fire Films, as well as everyone who helped out that evening. We piled everything back into the Bavanarama and headed to the next show of the night.

In Closing:
"Hey this might be a weird question, but what did Margaret's mom do with my pants?" —Brian

—Mike

011509 The Union

2009-01-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

Look out below!

The Beardy Seeds loading the van.

The cold couldn't stop us. Well, it's entirely possible I suppose that it could've—if we were left out in it long enough without heat… I vaguely remember some Jack London short story I was made to read in the 8th grade that discussed the bitter cold and its effects on a traveler… but that was set in Alaska! Anyhow, we packed our van and set out on the road yesterday afternoon for Athens with nothing more for the ears than a greatest hits tape of CCR music. 3-hours down and 7 and a half to go…

Mike looks frozen solid! It's the eyes that say so much without saying anything at all.

We arrived at the Union, let our hands thaw for a minute, and loaded our gear into the club—though not without injury! Brian, in an apparent attempt to remind us that he believes himself to be indestructible / a robot, decided to pull our heaviest bit of gear out of the van all by his lonesome and then dropped it on his toes. As it turns out, Brian is not indestructible or a robot ("Whatever! I'm fine!" —Brian). We hurried to get all our stuff inside—by this time temperature outside was reported to be below 0°. Despite the cold air, we all had quite a good time playing in front of the blacklight-lit mural that runs along one side of the club.

At this point in the night, impressed by how totally awesome my shoes look under the blacklights, and clearly already suffering some sort of loss of brain function due to the cold, I've decided that without a doubt when I return to Cincinnati, I'm going to replace all the bulbs in my bedroom with blacklight bulbs and write myself totally sweet secret messages in highlighter all over the walls.

She Bears opened the show up with a relatively short set of their angular goodness. We followed. I had a really great time! Of course, I didn't have a broken instrument to worry about… Mike, on the other hand, rocked his banjo so hard, he broke it! This, in addition to his glasses (which he broke the day before tour and currently has taped together!!!) forced us to forgo a couple of songs we had planned to play which are particularly banjo-dominated. When we arrive in Kent today, Brian and I will high-five each other and tell jokes while Mike solemnly tackles his banjo ahead of our video shoot.

She Bears playing their set.

Brian warming up ahead of our set.

Kaslo, with whom we have played in Athens before, closed out the night. They were terrific! They are also all terrific guys (+ 1 gal—well, girl really… woman. Not a gallon). Big thanks especially to Teddy for putting us up twice in a row. We just learned we might be playing an upcoming Louisville date with Luke's other band, Flotation Walls, which is really exciting.

Teddy and Kaslo busting out the jams.

We all said our goodbyes and ran next door to Goodfella's Pizza which, Brian informed us, is open until four in the morning (and which Brian had been thinking about / desperately yearning for since probably two or three days ago). Brian and Mike were both swayed from their original intentions of picking up 2-slices apiece into the 3-slices for $5.50 mega-deal (these slices, as the gentleman behind the counter informed us, are "fat"). Had it not been three in the morning by the time we reached our sleeping destination, I think the food coma alone would have knocked them out. Honorable mention to the serving staff at Goodfella's, who, upon discovering we are a touring band and, as if they have a lever that they pull for just such an occasion, immediately cued up "Travellin' Band" by CCR. AWESOME. I cannot get enough CCR in my day!

Besides playing the show, for me the highlight of the evening came just before bed, when Mike found a hairpiece lying around that made my biggest dream come true (see picture).

HECK YES! Now all The Seedy Seeds have beautiful, beautiful, bushy beards.

In a few minutes, I'll wake Mike and Brian up and we'll head to Casa Nueva for breakfast, and then we'll start our journey towards even colder temperatures and possible lake effect snow… and two shows in one day!

—Margaret

Toilet humor at The Union. We played here! Well not exactly here, but still I couldn't resist snapping this photo.

011409 Athens to Columbus

2009-01-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

Tonight we sleep. Tomorrow we drive.

Brian, Mike and I will buckle our safety belts and hit the road tomorrow afternoon to chase the snow to Athens, Ohio, where we begin our first mini-tour of 2009. In four days we will play 5 cities, do two interviews, shoot one music video, visit a set of parents, and write about all of it here.

Brian and Mike worked last night to get the van in tip-top shape, and today Brian ran out to get his favorite tour snacks. Tonight I'll put together some brand new buttons for our merch table. We are ready.

Check back in on our travels often! Here's a list of where we're headed :

1/15 TSS @ The Union
18 W Union Street, Athens, Ohio
w. Kaslo / She Bears
$TBA / all ages / 9 p.m.

1/16 TSS @ Scribbles Cafe
237 N. Water Street, Kent, Ohio
LIVE VIDEO SHOOT (Drive Me To The Center)
$FREE / all ages / 5 p.m.

1/16 TSS @ The Berea House
75 East Bridge Street, Berea, Ohio
w. THIS LEVEL IS CLOUDS! / Discussions Inside the Color Wheel
$5 / all ages / 9 p.m.

1/17 TSS @ The Matinee
2527 W 25th Street, Cleveland, Ohio
w. The Promise Hero / Run Run Addington
$FREE / 18+ / 9 p.m.

1/18 TSS @ Bernie's Distillery
1896 N. High Street, Columbus, Ohio
w. Paper Airplane / Blastronauts
$5 / 21+ / 9 p.m.

—Margaret