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Alan Wright BIO RELEASES NEWS UPCOMING SHOWS PRESS PHOTOS LISTEN! LINKS
10/24/05:
It’s been a pretty wild ride
since the last update, here’s the skinny: Our
Comet gig was a
really rockin night. The
Thankless Dogs turned out a fine set with some
interesting tunes, then
4
Easy Pieces came out and
really turned up the heat in that joint. If you haven’t seen
them yet, get going pal! This is one h-h-hot ensemble.
We came out and finished the job to a frenzied house packed with dancers and
frothing drunks. Oh, the Comet…
We finished out September with a pair of back to back gigs.
First at the High Dive with those crazy kids
The Emergency
and the mighty rock thunder that can only be described as
The Valley.
Gotta say, we really loved this club: Great stage, great room, great sound,
and an awesome staff. The crowd was killer that night and we
really fed off their energy for one of the longest sets we’ve ever played
live. Steve Jones just cranked that shit out despite feeling
less than human pre-set due to a lingering illness. Glad to say
he’s much better now. The next night we stormed the small stage
at the Rendezvous
to take part in a benefit for PAWS
to fund relief efforts for animals affected by hurricane Katrina.
Animal welfare is a cause that’s close to our hearts, so we were proud to
participate in helping to raise over $1500 at this event.
The Vaccines were a bit
loose but who cares? They fuckin rocked anyway, so did we.
Headliners Hater came out and kicked the remaining audience's ass. Thanks to the other bands and everyone who turned out in support.
October was like the licking the icing off the cake. First we
hit the airwaves at KEXP to show ‘em exactly what we
mean when we say HIGH OCTANE. We turned in four blistering
numbers and even had an interview where I managed to speak in complete
sentences with a minimal amount of “um, er, uh.” Cheryl Waters
was even nicer than she sounds on the air and everyone at the station was
really cool. We even got to record a version of John in the
Morning’s ‘theme song’ which we whipped up in about ten minutes. Be on the lookout
for their upcoming
podcast featuring
'Fake Radio' from that performance and
thanks for all the positive feedback from people that tuned in.
Another set of back to back gigs brought us up to Bellingham for one of the
best sets we’ve ever had. Man those college kids know how to
party down. It was cool to see people actually dancing as
opposed to the popular ‘stand and nod’ routine. After our set we
were stunned to hear Japanese exchange student Minoru say “What is weed?”
Ever the corrupters of youth, both domestic and foreign, we made sure he
knew before he left. Unfortunately I had to blow after that and
missed the
Boss Martians.
Word is they kicked ass yet again.
The next night we returned to the good
ol’
Funhouse in Seattle for another round.
Those Electric Kisses
just keep getting better with every show and the
Mexican Blackbirds got
everybody going with their
aural assault.
Our own set ran pretty smooth and we left ‘em asking for more. The Urgencies
set suffered a little from the fact that their bass player ended up in jail
and one of the two guitar players filled in. What is it with
bass players on tour? Catchy little numbers that sounded thin from time to
time but it was hard to judge them given the circumstances.
We give ‘em a lot of credit for still getting up on stage to play. Overall
it was another great night and we really enjoyed talking to all the new
people we met over that weekend.
Finally, we closed out the month at the Lobo.
Ape City R&B
tore the place up for the entire dozen or so folks that were there.
Fortunately the crowd grew a little for 4 Easy Pieces, who rocked so hard
they forgot about the miserable colds they had. They were nice
enough to slobber on the mics and share the love - I got sick the next day.
Zak, who powered through two other sets with two other bands at two other
clubs before showing up, brought a drunken posse with him and the place
filled up nicely for one of the most fun sets we’ve played all year.
I should mention that he had black makeup all over his
face and was wearing a dress, which prompted me to lick his stockings on
bended knees during a particularly hot solo. I ran into his
hairy leg though and I’ve never had a more disgusting experience on stage in
my life. We started the set wearing masks of
Ray’s
(from 4 Easy Pieces) face,
much to his horror and delight. Look for
pictures soon.
As if all that wasn’t enough already, we’re happy to announce the release of
the
“Hot Rod Girls Save the
World” soundtrack on Go-Kustom records.
We contributed the engaging track ‘Monkey Knife Fight,’ another fine Zak Schnieder instrumental. There’s a ton of other great bands on
this and from the sounds of the dialogue between tracks this is gonna be one
great flick. The soundtrack is available now and the film should be released
this month, check out the
Go-Kustom website for more
details.
I know I ended the last update with the death of a personal hero, and I hate
to do this again but I have to pay respect so:
R.I.P. Rosa Parks
There’s not much I could say about Rosa that hasn’t already been said. Never underestimate the power of the individual to bring about change. If you don’t know about Rosa Parks, please take a few moments to learn about her: http://www.rosaparks.org/
time, Live Until next time, Live Free – Fizzy Lipton, Minister of propaganda.
HEAVY ROTATION:
August:
1. Bob Dylan – Biography, Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde On Blonde, Blood On The Tracks, Highway 61 Revisited
2. Swervedriver – Raise
3. Mercury Rev – Yerself Is Steam
4. Dead Kennedys – Plastic Surgery Disasters
5. Sugar – Copper Blue
Joe:
1. Glorious Day
2. Stranglers
3. GBV
4. Kent 3
5. Gropers
Steve:
Hello,
I'm losing my mind!
Here is my top 5:
1.
The Damned -
Smash It Up (Anthology '76-'87)
2. The
Pretenders - The Singles
3.
The
Dead Vampires -
13 songs from upcoming CD release
4.
Led Zeppelin -
Box Set
(Disc #1)
5. KEXP 90.3 FM
Zak:
1.
Iron
Maiden - BBC Archives
2.
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
3.
Captured by Robots - The
Ten Commandments
4.
Glorious Day - Welcome
to the Front
5.
Die
Toten Hosen - Kauf
Mich!
CREDIT: Associated Press Photo. "Woman Fingerprinted. Mrs. Rosa Parks, Negro Seamstress, Whose Refusal to Move to the Back of a Bus Touched Off the Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama." 1956. New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.