Murphee K

Artist Information

Biography

Murphee K is a three piece pop punk band hailing from the mean streets of Gainesville, Fla.

Founding member/singer/guitarist George Perez started MPK many moons ago while attending the University of Florida (and living in the Murphree Hall dormitory). During this time, bassist Chris Hencher was also attending UF and playing in such bands as Normal Bias, No More and Forward to name a few.

But the two didn’t meet until years later when George returned to Florida after a short stint in Texas and needed another band to share a warehouse with while he re-assembled the band. Chris’s band at the time needed a warehouse, but when that band broke up (in true Fleetwood Mac fashion) it just made sense that Chris and George work together; they had the warehouse, all they needed was the drummer. Ronnie Pirtle came into the picture when Chris and George saw the ad he’d posted on craigslist: “Multi Talented Drummer Seeks Band!”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Instrumentation

George -- vocals/guitar
Chris -- bass/backup vocals
Ronnie -- drums/backup vocals

Discography

H.O.M.E.: A Gainesville Benefit For The Homeless Outreach Mobile Effort - Compilation feat. "Red Rose"

Audio

• Red Rose
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• The Trinidad and Tobago Song
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• Two Separate Worlds
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Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Murphee K Returns to Gainesville [+ Show ]
  

  Murphee K Returns to Gainesville This summer they're making a pop-punk resurgence! By Josh Fleet...Murphee K Returns to Gainesville
  
  This summer they're making a pop-punk resurgence!
  By Josh Fleet
  
  A few miles north, off Highway 441 and over some train tracks, where Gainesville businesses and houses start to become sparse, a trio blasts pop-punk in a 10-by-15 box to a silent audience of black-foamed walls. The band members come to the $80-a-month warehouse space a couple times a week when they're free. Free from taking criminology classes. Free from developing computer software. Free from teaching preschoolers. Free from not playing music.
  
  Murphee K has been in Gainesville since 2002, but it isn't just a musical antique being taken out for a polishing. The band, which consists of co-founding guitar-player George Ryan Perez, bassist Chris Hencher and new drummer Ronnie Pirtle, will play their next show June 21 at 1982 and is tuning up for a full-on pop-punk resurgence.
  
  "The scene, I think, is building back up," George said.
  
  At the warehouse, Murphee K shreds and bangs through the same songs it's been playing since the band was formed in 2002 by George and three others. But something has been added this summer. The band is, for the first time in a long time, working on new material. Their shows come complete with Green Day-and-Less-Than-Jake-inspired punk music, Dirt-Bike-Annie-inspired lighted mics, and a bubble machine with a mind of its own. Their shows can also be watched and rewound on their Web site, Murphee-K.com. And the old songs have taken on a new, if slight, edge.
  
  George, who brought Murphee K back from the grave when he returned to Gainesville from his "first grown-up job" in Texas in the fall of 2007, flails his hands through the old songs with renewed energy. This line up doesn't make Murphee K 2.0. After a handful of bassists and several drummers moved on, the current trio is more like Murphee K 4.6. And it's just now being released without any bugs or glitches.
  
  "I had to buckle down and learn as quickly as I could," said Ronnie, who started playing drums with the band in March after they found his multi-talented-drummer-needs-work post on Craig's List and has a background playing heavy metal, speed metal and jazz. "This music is happier."
  
  Before there was no real process and it was all a sort of game. Now, the band is trying not to waste its time during practice.
  
  "We need to sit in [the warehouse] one night for four hours and sip on Red Bulls," Ronnie said. "And get every song perfect."
  
  Still, the Murphee K end goal is the same, George said. That goal: "To always keep it fun."
  
  The lights and the bubbles on stage, the almost-totally-band-unrelated comics on their Web site and the frequent trips out to a hot cubicle in the nether regions of Gainesville are all designed to cultivate that fun.
  
  Once the band finishes writing and arranging the new songs, they plan to record an album in August or September. Until then, Murphee K wants to play show after show after show. At the end of June they'll be lighting up 1982 with fellow pop-punkers The Leftovers and The Mezingers, and the band also has a scheduled appearance at The Kickstand on June 29.

Setlist

Basic Requirements

Calendar