I said this last year about Strip Mall Seizures' awesome LP...
Over the last couple of years, the Strip Mall Seizures have grown into one of the most cherished DIY bands among East Bay youth, mostly through the local buzz surrounding their energetic live shows. Now, it’s been years since I was part of the 924 Gilman roll call, and in the years since, I’ve been blinded by the ubiquitous Grimple (and other overrated bands) patches adorning the freight-rider-chic punkpants and backpacks of Berkeley punk kids. It’s like these kids have been frozen in time since 1993, only if they were actually frozen, they wouldn’t smell so bad, right? So even as I heard of their burgeoning rep as a great live act, I willfully ignored the Strip Mall Seizures. What a mistake? I finally did see them in June at Ghost Town Gallery playing in support of Coughs and Dynasty, and they were pretty fantastic. They brought a lot of their young fans there, and they really freaked for them. And it was then that I learned that East Bay kids weren’t only digging on crustpunk and pop-punk. The kids are alright again.
With that vampy lead keyboard sound and rollicky rhythms, the Strip Mall Seizures inevitably invite comparisons to a great East Bay live act of yesteryear, the Phantom Limbs; but where the Limbs had a debauched druggie vibe, these Strip Mall Seizures are an upbeat, freshfaced, fun party band, and also very intelligent with metaphor-rich lyrics about sociopolitical issues. Distinguishing them even more is the flavor of traditional Russian folk music, unmistakably rendered by a prominent accordion and a junk-encrusted drumkit. What’s that Russian folkdance where the dudes get really low with those gravity-defying, alternating kick-steps? (You’ve seen the Dschingis Khan video for “Moskau,” right? No? Then google it now.) When you hear Strip Mall Seizures’ new LP, you’ll wanna do that dance, seriously. There’s also some cool lofi klingklang noise during between-song interludes. If Alternative Tentacles is smart, they will put out the next SMS album.
:FRIDAYYY AUGUST 3RD 2007 EIGHT PM------------->
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:FILTH FLARN FILTH (providence, ri)
:STRIPMALL SEIZURES (oakland, ca)
:WISDOM TEETH (olympia, wa)
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:22nd and S, Sacramento-------------------ALL OUT OF TOWN BANDS, BRING $3-200 MONEY, ICED BREW, CAESAR SALAD.
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:BIOsssss:::::
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:FILTH FLARN FILTH are some guys from providence that robert buys weed from. turns out, it's a couple of guys from the notorious new england reggae crews JAH HAT, IRIE MEN, and WHITE DRED and john dwyer's high school ska band CHECKERED PAST...from what robert's been telling me this is pretty high comedy in the form of "funny, just not on purpose". think h.r. from bad brains after they started to suck, except white and from new england and playing harsh noise. i'm not sure what to add except that here's some links to the websites they made:
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:Filth Flarn Filth Myspace
: Flarn Filth Official Website
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:STRIPMALL SEIZURES = oakland gypsum siber punk from the pit of the raider nation, oakland, california. that nero's day at disneyland dude is in this band, and i think if you saw how rad that was a few weeks ago at fools you'll want to open your wallet for this show as well on those grounds alone.
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:Stripmall Seizures Myspace
:Stripmall Seizures Official Website
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:WISDOM TEETH = my buddy mark from teamsters/necktie party/headphone/swarm robbery/etc.'s band. i love this guy which is why he's got a show here. this is his new band, which reminds me a bit of lync, hot snakes, and i dunno something else from vh1's i love the 90's that i'm forgetting about but thrown onto a tape you listen to in the car to remember about good times you were having before you had to work every day. it's just like that i think. should be pretty fun, and we WILL be engaging in at least one round of "forty hands" if anyone's interested. in case you don't know, that's a pretty superb drinking game that involves you holding a forty in each hand and not being able to put them down until you finish them. yeah, i know this sounds like a really bad idea but it's so going to be worth it.
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:Wisdom Teeth Myspace
:Wisdom Teeth Official Website
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:PLEASE bring a few bucks to shuck at the bands, they're all from out of town and stuff.
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