Live tracks & video from The Barrymore Theatre 4/7/2012
The show April 7 at The Barrymore Theatre was fantastic! If you missed it, you can go HERE to download a bunch of tracks from the show. AND the first video from the show, Save The Baby is on our Youtube page HERE.
Live: April 7 at The Barrymore Theatre, Madison WI
Tickets are available NOW for our show Saturday, April 7 at The Barrymore Theatre! It's our only Madison-area appearance, and all hype aside, it's going to be an awesome show. In addition to our usual freakshow, there will be tons of special guests, and Ankur Malhotra (aka DJ Spincycle) will be spinning opening and closing sets. PLUS, we'll have a pile o' art on display from Tone Deaf, Skinny Gaviar, Andy Ewen, and Kristie Lee.
Tickets are only $15 - for all the details, go HERE
The Madison Area Music Awards
OK folks - the Madison Area Music Awards voting is open.... Kicksville has been nominated in a whole pile of categories, so take a minute and go vote!
Several of us have also been nominated in instrumentalist categories, including Conrad St. Clair (bass and "specialty instrument"), Lou Caldarola (drums), Chris Huntington (guitar), and vocalists Georgina McKee and Tone Deaf.
If you're not a member, it's only $5 to join, and the money goes to fund school music programs. And no, you don't have to live in Madison....
So, get thee to The MAMAs website and vote - the kids win, no matter who gets an award....
thank you to The Oatmeal for this wonderful, animated explanation of the case against SOPA/PIPA!
I. Piggy, bloated by his own self-worth, cuts a large swath thru rush hour down town, and being more important than you, rarely hears the word "no" or encounters much resistance of any kind to his asininities. Besides, he has the power of life and death in his hands. Why would you not just drop to your knees, pucker up, and say thank you? [YUM.......]
II. It was freakishly warm for February in Crackytown - 78 degrees Fahrenheit - a day that could tempt a lamb to open the first seal to a thunder clap of horse hooves, trumpets, and a whole lot of screaming. [WEEPY MEAT.......] Piggy, declaring it too hot to be of any use to humanity today, parades shirtless, fat and sweaty, waving "koo-ee" to the poor unfortunates he happens upon. With his ice lolly and his flip-flops, even from a distance he is quite a sight.
III. The smile is gone, and the knife in Luna's hand is ready to turn Piggy into porkchops. Oblivious to the broiler in his future, Piggy asks Luna to give his sneakers one more turn in the dryer. Luna thinks a turn of the blade might be better....
First things first: We'd like to thank you all for making this the most successful release series we've ever had. The giant spike on the right in that graph doesn't even count the last single (and to give some perspective, the bottom line of the graph is NOT zero). We do this because we love to make music, not to please record labels or cater to the flavor of the day. We can't tell you how much it means to get such an overwhelming response to our music - so all we can say is thank you, and there's a lot more coming....
Now for everyone who was involved in The Singles - Season 4.... The songs came out great (at least we think so), and we had a shite-load of fun making it all happen. So, without further ado, let the credits roll:
The Players: Conrad St. Clair, Mike Stehr, Lou Caldarola, Tone Deaf, Chris Huntington, Georgina McKee, Beaker Parpovich, Aya Peard, Ben Surman, John Beecher, Biff Blumfumgagnge, Geoff Brady, Jay Corey, Brent Davies, Andy Ewen, Andy Fitzpatrick, Jay Frigoletto, Shauna Lisse, Vusi Mhlongo, Cheryl Nystrom, Johnny Sarris, Eric Strom, and John Ware
recorded and mixed at Kicksville Dept. of Works engineered, edited, and mixed by Conrad St. Clair additional recording: - Mastersuite, engineered by Jay Frigoletto - The Lab, engineered by Lou Caldarola - Beeftone, engineered by Biff Blumfumgagnge - additional editing by Lou Caldarola
We wanted to give a laurel, and hearty thank you to Kristie Lee for providing the cover art for The Singles - Season 4. Sometimes beautiful and sometimes disturbing, her photographic art has been a wonderful complement to these releases. Give 'em all a closer look HERE - there are all sorts of beautiful details you're just not going to see in the wee little thumbnails....
On Oct. 17, we found out the infamous Kitty Zombie hacked into our Bandcamp site and published this week's single a day early. That's one of the major problems with today's zombies - they're pretty good hackers.
We have contacted Bandcamp and made sure the site is now zombie-secure, but we haven't been able to get his banner off the top yet.
For your own safety, make sure your browser's security mode is set to "Always use HTTPZ" so you can ensure a zombie-free web surfing experience.
Thank you - this has been a public safety message from the Kicksville Dept. of Zombie Control.
Welcome to The Singles - Season 4
We're back with more schizo-phonic hot aural action! The Singles - Season 4 kicked off Sept. 20, and you should really go get it HERE. Really - go right now. We'll wait for you to get back....
OK, now a few words about the cover art and liner notes:
The Season 4 covers are by the photographer, Kristie Lee. She has an incredible eye for composition, and takes great care in hiding unusual elements in plain sight. For example, do you see that hot chick in the foreground of the cover for Woof Woof? Yeah, well....his name is Joe. For more info about Kristie, visit her HERE
The liner notes for Season 4 have been written by the disturbingly talented percussionist and City Council Member-at-Large, Geoff Brady (in other words, he wasn't fast enough to duck when we threw this gig at him). You should visit his blog page HERE. After you get done listening to Season 4, of course....
So, without further fucking about, let's get to the music!
The Singles - Season 4 starts Sept. 20!
The Singles - Season 4 officially starts September 20, yet another schizo-phonic collection of music ranging from South African techno grooves to good ol' punk rock. In addition to the usual suspects, there are quite a few new faces, including Vusi Mhlongo (The Lion King), Ben Surman (Jack DeJohnette's Ripple Effect), and Pauli Ryan (Phat Phunktion). We'll also finally get to share the first studio recordings featuring key members of our live show, Georgina McKee and Shauna Lisse.
The singles' cover art for Season 4 will be by Kristie Lee - if you've poked about on our websites or have any of the CDs, you've already seen her live concert photography. Kristie has been working so closely with us over the last few years that she seemed like the natural choice to be the featured artist this time around. Her work will also be a great companion to the art from previous Seasons by Andy Ewen, Tone Deaf, and Skinny Gaviar.
For those of y'all new to Kicksville, here's how this whole Singles thing works: Think of it like a TV series. You can watch the episodes each week for free, and at the end of the season, you can buy a DVD with all the shows plus some bonus shite. With our Singles series, you can download a new song each week for free, and at the end of the season, you can buy a DVD/CD with all the music plus videos, liner notes, each single's artwork, and so on.
Pretty simple, right? Right. So, stay tuned....
Now available: The Results of a Higher Mission remasters+
To tide folks over while we're working on mixes for The Singles - Season 4, we've released a remastered version of our second album, The Results of a Higher Mission. Its original release got kinda, well, bungled thanks to the "label" we were working with at the time, and it never really got the love it deserved ;-) The full-album download includes all the remastered tracks, plus new live versions of some of the album tracks and a high-res PDF with lyrics, photos, and other silliness. SO, get thee to kicksville.bandcamp.com and be the first kid on your block to have The Results of a Higher Mission remasters+
New video from The Singles - Season 3: Radiation Emanates From the Box
The Singles - Season 3
According to City Council member Beaker, The Singles - Season 3 is the coolest collection of songs we've put together yet (and the rest of us think y'all will agree). We've got all sorts of weirdness waiting for its turn, including the introduction of two very important characters in the Kicksville mythology, Luna and Piggy. And yes, it's the usual schizophonic collection of musical styles - we wouldn't have it any other way!
Following in the footsteps of Andy Ewen and Tone Deaf, who provided the covers for Seasons 1 and 2, the art for Season 3 has been provided by the renowned Russian artist/illustrator, Skinny Gaviar. His work is uniquely twisted, disturbing, and quite beautiful - we're pretty sure you've never seen anything like it. If you'd like to find out more about Skinny, you can visit his web site HERE or his Myspace page HERE.
Over the last two release cycles, The Commissioner wrote all the liner notes. For Season 3, we've opened up the floor to the City Council members so they can get in on the fun. We also thought it would be a good idea to get some other voices in here talking about the music and recording process so you, our faithful audience, can see a little more of the many personalities involved with Kicksville. [Well....that, and The Commissioner is getting a little lazy....] FYI, when you get to the liner notes written by Tone Deaf, we suggest reading 'em aloud with a heavy British accent - they make a lot more sense that way (usually).
Thanks to all of you who braved the St. Patty's Day weekend insanity to come see us at the Kinetic Playground a few weeks ago! The Zombie Army was out in force (thanks, Kitty!), and we were lucky enough to have had an amazing opening act: Citizens Biff Blumfumgagnge and Geoff Brady improvised a soundtrack to the classic film, Nosferatu. Biff broke out his alien electric mandolin technology, a theremin, and a violin, while Geoff whacked away on his aqua harp and a pile of percussion. If you haven't see them do this, you're missing out....friggin' incredible, if we may be so bold. The Kicksville portion of the night was a blast - we can't really put into words how much fun we have once the 10,000 pieces are assembled and we can just play. Really. We might have this really cool multimedia show with all sorts of bells and whistles, but after everything's said and done, it's all about the music. After all, it wouldn't matter how much flashy lighting and wacky video we had if the songs sucked and we hated playing with each other!
The Viaduct Theater show rocked, but don't take our word for it.... Next up: The Kinetic Playground 3/13/2010
So the first Chicago show at The Viaduct Theater is behind us, and we thought it went pretty damn well. But to give y'all an objective view,here's what Jeff Elbel (Chicago Sun Times and/or The BIg Takeover) had to say about it:
"Madison, WI-based Kicksville are determined to break into Chicago. If anyone can do it on word of mouth alone, they can - but hopefully it won't come to that. To say the band's stage show is ambitious for club touring is an understatement. What immediately struck neophytes like myself was the feast for the eyes. Got ADHD? No problem. I have found the band for you. The band's production level is much more in tune with a theater presentation - think Blue Man Group. The music, however, is not as streamlined. Fans of at least three entirely separate genres of music could have walked away from the Viaduct with a new favorite song. Progressive and edgy darkwave stylings appealed to fans of Tool and Porcupine Tree. A cover of Monkey Man was a spirited romp to thrill fans of second wave ska or devotees of the Specials. Anyone who has followed Blur frontman Damon Albarn down the rabbit hole into world music was clamoring for more of the band's Malian fare. And the playing was superb.... Kicksville has been semi-accurately compared to Frank Zappa's later period, but that really just means they're unclassifiable - and perfect for people ready to engage with intelligent, crafty, witty virtuosos. Don't miss them."
Pretty nice, eh? Thanks, Jeff! Anyway, we've posted a shiteload of photos on our Myspace & Facebook pages, and you can download free MP3s from the show HERE - including some newer stuff we've never played live before. And even better: we'll be at The Kinetic Playground in March to do it all over again!
Madison, WI-based Kicksville are determined to break into Chicago. If anyone can do it one word of mouth alone, they can - but hopefully it won't come to that. To say the band's stage show is ambitious for club touring is an understatement. What immediately struck neophytes like myself was the feast for the eyes. Got ADHD? No problem. I have found the band for you. The band's production level is much more in tune with a theater presentation; think Blue Man Group. The music, however, is not as streamlined. Fans of at least three entirely separate genres of music could have walked away from the Viaduct with a new favorite song. Progressive and edgy darkwave stylings appealed to fans of Tool and Porcupine Tree. A cover of "Monkey Man" was a spirited romp to thrill fans of second wave ska or devotees of the Specials. Anyone who has followed Blur frontman Damon Albarn down the rabbit hole into world music was clamoring for more of the band's Malian fare. And the playing was superb, from XXX XXXX's various fretted and fretless bass workouts to frontman YYY YYYY's enthusiastic vocals or psychedelic guitar leads, female vocalist WWW WWWW's flights of pitch perfect rapture, or the jaw-dropping polyrhtyhms of drummer UUU UUUU. Toward the back, resident artist MMM MMMM crafted his found-object sculptures and spouted leftist political non-sequitirs to kick-start even deeper mental engagement. Kicksville has been semi-accurately compared to Frank Zappa's later period, but that really just means they're unclassifiable - and perfect for people ready to engage with intelligent, crafty, witty virtuosos. Don't miss them.
Enter the Flavor Hut: LIVE in Chicago
We're invading Chicago! Starting in early 2010, Kicksville will be performing a special series of multimedia events in conjunction with Zombie Army Productions, the folks behind the Statesville Haunted Prison and The Fear Haunted House at Navy Pier. Enter the Flavor Hut: LIVE is the story of Johnny, a good kid led down the Path to Ruin by Bob (The Pusher) and Candy (The Evil Temptress). Along the way, Johnny meets a sordid cast of characters, including The Mayor, Luna (the Innocent), Piggy (the Not-So-Innocent), and a cranky armchair revolutionary called The Brick. With lots of black humor, flaming pinko political satire and a firm one-finger salute to the music industry, Enter the Flavor Hut: LIVE is definitely not your typical night at the theater ;-)
...just be careful around the zombies - we'll feed 'em beforehand, but you never know....
The Singles - Season 2 Collector's Edition
The Singles Season 2 Collector's Edition is available now HERE. That's right - you can still download MP3s for free, but you can't get these good old-fashioned CDs anywhere else! In addition to the full-resolution hot aural action, each disc comes with a beautifully printed 20-page booklet containing each episode's original cover art, track-by-track liner notes, and "Weirdo Recording Techniques." Even better, it includes three bonus tracks not available anywhere else!
Special Announcement: Kicksville Stimulus Package Stiffens Economy
In light of the still-struggling economy and its effect on everybody, we've decided to implement our own musical stimulus package. Starting with The Singles - Season 2, we are instituting a "pay what you want" policy. You can download the tracks for free, but you do have the option of paying whatever you think they're worth through our secure Paypal link. We just want you all to hear the music, and since we're pretty much pinko commie bastards, this seems like the fairest way to go about it.
According to City Council member Beaker, The Singles - Season 3 is the coolest collection of songs we've put together yet (and the rest of us think y'all will agree). We've got all sorts of weirdness waiting for its turn, including the introduction of two very important characters in the Kicksville mythology, 
We're invading Chicago! Starting in early 2010, Kicksville will be performing a special series of multimedia events in conjunction with 
