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SUPER GEEK LEAGUE - The VELVET UNDERGROUND
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SUPER GEEK LEAGUE – THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
Best described as a “Sci-Fi Soul-Metal Circus”, Seattle-...SUPER GEEK LEAGUE – THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
Best described as a “Sci-Fi Soul-Metal Circus”, Seattle-based Super Geek League actually defies categorization. First the music. The band is fronted by a soul-belting vocalist against grunge-inflected metal with horns and hip-hop/funk elements mediating between the bands raucous energy and frenzied rock collective feel. Then there’s the presentation. With 11 performers onstage, the set was turned into ramshackle spectacle that incorporated bizarre sci-fi costumes, burlesque dancers, with each member wearing tiny lights that changed colour synched to the music. A sensory overload of sexed-up punk/metal theatrics. Yes, the music was secondary to the spectacle, but that’s not the point. It was more about entertaining the crowd with an electrifying stage show. And they’re pretty good at it too.
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SUPER GEEK LEAGUE - BALCONYTV Toronto Ca
Super Geek League performs and unplugged version of Captain Tomorrow on the balcony for BalconyTV
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Super Geek League Speaking Soul Metal into existence
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Jesus, Where does one begin with this one? How’s an 8ft. Love demon grab you? Not enough you say, to...Jesus, Where does one begin with this one? How’s an 8ft. Love demon grab you? Not enough you say, toss in a 90 year old perverted priest Berry McCockner blessing the crowd with gutted lake trout. Still not enough? Hair that appears to be on fire? Yep. Gyrating Sex machines in next to nothing? Enough confetti to leave a venue inches deep when the music has ended and the janitors breathe a heavy sigh. Toss in some ridiculously crazy 6 string bass action, a horn section, and guitars from hell and what begins to emerge is a new genre altogether. “Soul Metal.” Mastermind Floyd McFeely has orchestrated yet again another bastard child incarnation of musical genius and visual candy in a live performance that will leave you so completely asking yourself what just happened again and again. A Truck load of confetti? Check. A wall of sound so blatantly in your face the only choice is to submit to its power and control and dance around like a foolish little kid with Your hands in the air like you just don’t care. Like Nobody is watching. But we are all watching to see what SGL will have next. With its third and most compelling album set to drop later this month and a tour lining out that will span both coasts Starting at Toronto’s NXNE Music Festival. http://www.nxne.com/ We will be watching for the cops. This is where the party stops.
Soaring smooth gut wrenching vocals beseeching the listener to “donate your body to science” in such a compelling way I went home and immediately tried it. Guess what? It was awesome!
Sitting down with Super Geek League is insanity. Introducing some of the members of the band. Here are some exerpts.
Muffpumper, what strengths do you bring to the band? “I’m an all-a-holic. I do it all. I do some drinkin, I do some falling down. I flop my weiner around on stage.” So you were in the bathing suit with the saggy bottoms? “Yep that was me” My wife was horrified looking at the pictures when I was done editing and her words were, “What the Fuck?” Berry McCockner enters the room. Tell us about your childhood. ” I dont remember a lot of it, I think I was an adolescent for a long time and uhh. uuuh. I think i remember something about puberty, It was about 1874 and it involved a bucket full of whale oil and that’s when i really got attracted to the scent of the sea. And uhh, and uhh, I used to play with the seagulls that you find on the beaches. I would taunt them with the bones of an Albatross. Well at least that’s what i thought they were. They were clearly bird bones cuz that’s where I found them, Inside a bird. It was after that I started selling Doctor Feelgood balm remedy for a long period of time. But I drank it all and when I came to it was the 70’s. And pretty soon they ran me out of town.
PWord on the Bass. What does PWord Stand for? Pusstifer, Piss Shit, Pillow PoppinSvaggins, Bird Shit. Whatever you want it to mean really. Barbie Grinder, Gale Force, Dog Starver, Love Demon, Vy Agra, Lil D, Knuckles Schmidt and on and on it goes.
Super Geek League was started in 2001 as a studio project by founder and brainchild Floyd Mc Feely. Super Gee League or aka (SGL) was a culmination of 3 cosmic triggers that coincided to launch this project. The first was Mc Feely’s first online music
venture, The Tapeworm Collective, which was an online music collaboration site where musicians, DJs, experimentalists and noise engineers exchanged samples and music files to create new and interesting bodies of music. Out of these collaborations, Mc Feely spawned the idea of a studio project that allowed friends and colleagues to create their own superheroes, which McFeely in turn, wrote and composed songs based on these bizarre characters. The project produced 8 songs and characters that would lay the foundations of SGL ’s original material and live theatrical productions. This project was appropriately called Super Geek League.
The second cosmic trigger was another venture founded and spearheaded by
McFeely which consisted of a band of guerilla prankster clowns known as The
Kookclub. Kookclub took the concept of clowning to entirely new level with planned
guerilla cultural jamming missions and public displays of total disarray and insanity
that eventually landed the troupe being featured on NBC’s Evening Magazine.
Kookclub was basically urban improv theater gone wild in the spirit of chaotic
engineering. Clowns gone wild.
The third and final trigger was the IDEAL Festival in France 2003. Mc Feely was
performing as the dancing Gorilla “Cecilcudpucker” in the DJ Mashup Multi-media
group The BranFLakes which landed a spot on the 2003 IDEAL festival in Nante
France where McFeely traveled with the group to perform in front of thousands of really
drunk French people. Smoking Hash and hanging with half naked Moroccan and
French beauties in a tricked out green room with the likes of Lydia Lunch and Sigue
Sigue Sputnik, Mc Feely caught the bug…
Upon returning from France, The BranFlakes asked McFeely if he would be interested
in providing main support for a local Seattle show This would be the candle that lit the
wick. Having being a long time musician, performer and artist, Mc Feely knew that all
he needed to do is create an entertaining spectacle and like flying bugs people would
flock. In a city where people just stood on stage and played the same old boring ass
music, Mc Feely strived to create something truly extraordinary and entertaining that
would completely trump and dominate all other “live” bands.
With 15 years of classical training, 12 years of writing, composing and recording music
with multiple projects in multiple genres, the urban theater and chaotic engineering
experience with the KookClub and the trip to France with the Bran Flakes put the
wheels of SGL into motion…
The very first live show of SGL consisted of McFeely singing karaoke off an iPod with
the support of an “air guitar” animal band and a stripping nun in a very small and
intimate audience. Due to its incredibly weird and unorthodox nature, the show
attracted the attention of local promoters who offered to bring the insanely weird show
to a real music venue. Knowing that he had a bigger venue, Mc Feely went to
overdrive putting together a real band to transpose and perform the original material to
coincide with installation of a 17' full sized trampoline, a gaggle of strippers and a
bunch of hi flying clowns amongst many other things.
After the Neumos show, due to the chaotic and crazy nature of the show, which was
called “most fucked-up carnival from hell ever imagined.” – Megan Selling The Stranger. the entire band ended up quitting. So Mc Feely was forced to go out and rebuild starting with the host of performers in his troupe that had actual musical talent. As a result SGL found a bass player who in turn, brought along his alleged brother (who actually turned out were never related) Knuckles to try out as well. The only thing left was a drummer which McFeely found through a mutual friend.
Gil Chowder performed with the group for 1 practice at their horribly ghetto ass recording space in the SoDo and after 1 practice, Gil Chowder became the drummer of
SGL. With the new line up and members, SGL went into the studio to record its first demo ”The Beginning” @ Electro-kitty which they followed up with a seers of performances. Then in the Fall of 2005, the bass player was arrested and thrown in jail the night before a gig leaving the now 3 piece to perform the entire show without a bass player. After the show, the band once again turned to its vast network of performers and to discover that the Contemplative Dwarf (The stage prop that sat in a wheelchair in a straightjacket and strength pulsating brain helmet) stepped up and offered his services as the new bass player. Mc Feely gave the young aspiring bass player 1 week to learn the material which he did and has been doing ever since. Gone from stage prop to Bass player, PWord had become the fourth pillar to the SGL rock machine.
After many local shows moving gear in a giant shopping cart and playing without
amps, in May of 2006 SGL got its first BIG break by being selected to play the Kevin
Says Stage for the NW leg of the tour. This sent a shockwave of excitement through the
entire SGL family putting the band on track to ramp up its production and line up so as
to come off as the most dominating live act on the tour. SGL had 3 months to prepare
new material which required new members to fill out the new and dramatically
improved sound and stage show which grew the troupe to 30 members including VJ
and resident electrical engineer/ performer James Thrush, Theremin player and local
eccentric celebrity Ben Exworthy and Confetti Canon engineer Face McMasters.
SGL was under the impression that Vans Warped Tour was in fact “Warped” and
founded in the fundamentals of Punk Rock, so SGL prepared thoroughly to unleash its
Masterpiece of destruction and chaos . On the first date of the tour in Boise ID, amidst
flying water balloons, pillows, twinkles, cup cakes, and 2 pound dead fish and insanely
raucous and enthusiastic pit, the power was turned off and security quickly and
promptly took over the stage cutting SGL’s set short..
After the chaos and confusion, McFeely was told that SGL had officially been kicked off Warped Tour. Fortunately, after serious negotiations and thrashings by the powers to be @ Vans decided to give SGL another shot on the next day and continue the tour under the condition that they clean up the Kevin Says stage, help pack it and set it up the following day @ the Gorge. SGL was back on Warped Tour!
The next day the manager of the Kevin Says stage produced a lift of rules for SGL to
explicitly follow which included “No live or dead animals, no fluids of any kind, no
FOOD etc.. So SGL complied and instead turned to Beach balls and confetti to shower
the audience along with its raucous musical and theatrical stage show. The show went
on and DOMINATED as planned despite set backs and on the third day in Portland
OR. , amidst being at the far ass end of the Meadowlands, SGL managed to parade
and coral a very large audience in front of its stage in preparation of the only ENCORE
show that day and maybe ever. This resulted in the bands first critically acclaimed
press coverage which Jason Simms from The Willamette claimed “Super Geek
LEague Saves Warped in Or July 16h http://localcut.wweek.com/2006/07/19/supergeek-
league-saves-warped-in-or-on-july-16/ With the new formed band and a tumultuous yet successful major tour under its belt, SGL hit the studios to records its first full length album called “Peppermint Rainbows” which was released in the spring of 07. SGL then hooked up with another local promoter who started consistently booking SGL to headline major Seattle venues . At this time, SGL acquired 2 new members who happened to catch the group @ Warped Tour. These new members were essentially deemed “G-Nomes” the official doeverything-we-ask-workhorses of SGL. Dogstarver and Muffpumper were added to the
line up and eventually grew and evolved to handle the ever-growing demand of producing and managing an SGL production which included Stage Management, Production, Costumes, Prop building in addition to their musical and theatrical responsibilities. SGL now had roadies and stage crew.
In the summer of 2008, SGL went through another metamorphosis after losing a
several key members of the band. SGL was back on the hiring path and at a random
meeting over dinner, McFeely met Vy Agra and they immediately hit it off. Vy Agra
assumed the role of lead vocalist after 1 rehearsal with the band. Vy Agra’s talent and
skills took the bands raucous and eclectic sound to brand new heights. Shortly there
after at some weird costume ball in Seattle, the winner of the costume contest,
Sunshine Applebeard, sent an email seeing if the insanely raucous and dramatically
oversized outfit was in need of a Trumpet player. Of course McFeely couldn’t resist and
so offered the young aspiring lad a try out! After one try out Sunshine Applebeard
became the bands first trumpet player.
As a result of SGL adding a trumpet player to join Knuckles on the trombone, SGL had
now formed a formidable horn section. Hearing word of this and under the influence of
a significant amount of libations, word got back to McFeely that members knew of
another trumpet player who became known as Sheesh the Mad Mandible. SGL now
had its “walls of Jericho” horn section to complete its EPIC ground breaking sound.
With the current line up, SGL was preparing a 2 hour off-broadway show to be
produced and released in New York which provided the material and momentum for
the band to produce its second full length album “Magic Castle Land” in the fall of 08.
Magic Castle Land was released in the spring of 09 which coincided with the tour of
with the Jim Rose Circus.
Now the only thing missing in McFeely’s vision was the “Cirque” element of the live
shows so McFeely sought after talented dancers and performers to add to add to their
core troupe. Through a referral form SGL’s resident Photographer and Graphic Artist
General Steve Dave Eader, local burlesque dancer Little Delight joined the group
along with Fuchsia Foxxx and Gale Force.
In the fall of 09, SGL scored another major headline gig @ the 2009 Erotic Exotic Ball in San Francisco @ the Cow Palace which again brought critical acclaim from the San Francisco Examiner which exclaimed: “Super GEek League steals the show…” http:// www.examiner.com/media-in-san-francisco/the-exotic-erotic-30th-annual-ball-attractsa-huge-crowd. SGL took this momentum into the winter of 2010 headlining the Bellingham Frontier Festival along with headlining spot @ the new Hard Rock in Seattle. In May of 2010, longtime performer and dancer Gale Force became SGL’s aerialist along with her other performer duties which only gave the troupe more a true “cirque” feel to coincide with its raucous and frenetic performance.
SGL was now officially a Sci Fi Punk Circus and the group began to brand and
promote itself as such landing major headlining gigs and festivals along the west coast including; Vau De Vire’s Bohemian Carnival in San Francisco, Sand By the Ton
Burning Man festival in Oakland California and the Portland Erotic Ball @ the Crystal
Ballroom to coincide with SGL’ own Sci Fi Punk Circus Tour.
In the summer of 2010, SGL landed 2 more major gigs headlining Major festivals
which were now booking the group to perform 2 hour sets! Mc Feely now had to go
and acquire and hire new talent to produce a 2 hour Sci Fi Punk Circus. Having grown tired and the burlesque scene since SGL had been doing it for so long and so many “bands” were starting to do it as well using the same acts and talent that SGL had been using, Mc Feely decided to look towards actual choreographers and trained dancers and through trial and error acquired Barbie Grinder who immediately gelled and jammed well with resident dancers Gale Force and Lil D. Barbie Grinders. In addition, Mc Feely added punk marital artists Indiyana to spin LED nun chucks, as well as professional fire and spinning artists. The group also acquired the talents and skills of local performing legend Just Sage as a stilt act and professional clown. The Sci Fi Punk Circus was ready and in full formation for total DOMINATION!
As the band headed into their next major event headlining the Erotic Exotic Ball in San Francisco for the 2nd straight year (which was cancelled day before the actual event) in addition to landing the headlining spot for the 2010 Portland Erotic Ball, SGL added local DJ and technical wizard Origami Disc Jockey, Audio engineer Topher and A/V and lighting tech specialist Tom Stahl. With the core performance troupe of Gale Force, Lil D, Barbie Grinder, Indiyana RaeVon and the SGL A/V team of James Thrush, Tom Stahl, Origami and Topher, SGL 3.0 is fully baked and ready to invade the planet! Currently, SGL is finishing their 3rd full length record that they are calling “Soul Metal” to brand the bands unique and revolutionary sound and will be performing in the 2011 NXNE showcase in Toronto in June.
web links:
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10 Weirdest Band in the World and climbing
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"Well, this is kinda fun. Super Geek League calls their music “soul metal” and their stage show a “s..."Well, this is kinda fun. Super Geek League calls their music “soul metal” and their stage show a “sci fi punk circus” complete with dancing girls, crazy outfits, gnomes, strippers dressed up like Hindu goddesses, confetti cannons, pillow fight mosh pits (don’t ask me, I’m just quoting from their press kit), and occasionally things like Twinkies and dead fish getting tossed at the audience. In fact, they nearly got kicked off the Warped Tour because of the cleanup required after a typical SGL set. And if you’re extreme enough to piss off the Warped Tour people, you must be doing something right.
We haven’t been able to find out much else about these guys, except that they’re from Seattle, they have an album coming out later this month (called, as coincidence would have it, Soul Music) and their ringleader calls himself Floyd McFeely. There’s more about the band in this article, but frankly the writing was so bad it made my head hurt. We’ll give the writer the benefit of the doubt though–after trying to interview these guys, I might lose my ability to form sentences, too.
Wait, this is a first: As I was writing this, Floyd McFeely emailed me. Dude’s psychic. Either that or he just noticed that we started following him on Twitter. Either way, coincidink.
He writes: “We have already been named “Best Masked Bands” so mine [sic] as well be one of the WEIRDEST bands.” Amen, brother.
Floyd also forwarded us a copy of the band’s official press kit, which is a good thing because we were really have a hard time describing these guys. But here you go, chew on this, from the Erotic Exotic Ball: “If System of a Down, Primus and Insane Clown Posse gangbanged Macy Gray, Super Geek League would undoubtedly be their spunky demon offspring.” Yeah that about sums it up.
But hey, you haven’t even been paying attention since I mentioned something about strippers dressed up like Hindu goddesses, have you? Well, get ready to burn in whatever the Hindu equivalent of Hell is, because you’re about to see what I mean."
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SGL STANDOUT act @ NXNE
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Another rather unique mix of genres presented Seattle’s Super Geek League while playing Soul Metal. ...Another rather unique mix of genres presented Seattle’s Super Geek League while playing Soul Metal. This marriage of soul and heavy metal is brought together by the singer’s Mowtown voice, a horn section, and heavy metal instrumentation by the rest of this ten piece band. The stage at the Bovine Sex Club was very crowded and the energy that came from the stage was incredible. The band played impeccable music and offered something for the eyes as well while wearing elaborate costumes and interesting sun glasses. For an extravagant show in which you hear two genres mixed that usually do not get mixed very often, Super Geek League is a band to check out.
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Super Geek League TOP 10 Live shows
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Super Geek League – King Cat Theater 9/10/10
- One of the greatest local band live specticles EVER!...Super Geek League – King Cat Theater 9/10/10
- One of the greatest local band live specticles EVER! See this rock band circus live! http://www.supergeekleague.com"
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Best masked bands
Super Geek League selected as one of the top masked bands of all-time according to metromix
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SGL saves warped tour
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In my experience, there are two kinds of Warped Tour bands. There are those that play a classic styl...In my experience, there are two kinds of Warped Tour bands. There are those that play a classic style, like ska or punk, the way it has been played for years (ex: the Casualties). There are also those who fit the current trend in suburban rock culture (this year: The Academy Is…). Normally, original acts that challenge your tastes aren’t present. But then again, nothing is normal about Seattle’s dance circus freak-out, Super Geek League.
It was around 7PM on Sunday at the giant 100 band festival at Columbia Meadows, and my accomplice for the day, Asa, and I were about to check out. I had seen and interviewed the Burning Room and Brightwood, the local bands I was reviewing for Willamette Week. I chatted for minute with Colin Grigson, bassist for Clorox Girls, who had staked out a front row spot for NOFX as I went in front of the barricade to photograph a characteristically nonchalant and brilliant set the band played while wearing shorts. I tried to take photos of AFI, but Davey Havok’s make-up reflected so much light I couldn’t get a shot. Their group vocals were also off, but guitarist Jade Puget wowed me with the ease with which he plays parts that sound somewhat tricky when they come out of speaker. Fat Mike and Eric Sandin, bass player and drummer for NOFX, had a similar effect on me. They are one of the most amazing rhythm sections in rock (the bass playing on The Decline blows my mind), but they’re so comfortable on their instruments that it doesn’t look like they even have to try.
The say was winding down; we’d seen the Casualties’ leadman’s arm shake as he held it up, flexing with intensity, during “Under Attack,” the title song off a soon-to-be-released album that, judging from the new material at this show, will be their best to date. Heck, we’d even been asked to settle down by security while we stood at the back of the stage, pounding beer stolen from a pyramid of around 50 twelve-packs marked “Do not touch,” screaming along with Joan Jett to “I Love Rock and Roll.”
So, like I said, we were on our way out, when I spotted a few guys in silver jump suits putting their helmets on next to the Hot Topic/Kevin Says/Generator Powered stage. So I made a motion that we continue drinking stolen beer (which our backpacks were now filled with), check out this band, and see how long it takes us to get kicked out.
As all 20 or so members of Super Geek League took the stage and began to play, the entire contemptible, commercial, predictable, Warped Tour atmosphere changed. Two drummers, and uncountable guitars, keyboards, tambourines and gadgets began to pump what reminded me of a cross between locals Show me the Pink’s knack for getting me to dance to group chanting vocals, and the clutter and chaos of March Fourth.
Audience plants added to the effect: A gorilla high fived me. I was booty danced by a young and beautiful woman in flapper-esque stockings. A leaf blower with a toilet paper roll rigged to the end launched streamers over the growing crowd of around 100. Silly string seemed to come from all directions. Amidst all this chaos, Asa and I decided we had better distribute our loot and began indiscriminately passing out beers to everyone around us.
A nun and a priest took the stage and slapped the crowd with yard sticks and fed them crackers while I bumped and grinded with the rest of the awe-struck crowd. Pillows were distributed and the audience became a melee. Then, before we knew it, it was over. The 25 minutes allotted for chaos had run out. We cheered, screamed for one more song, but it was too late—the next band, some horrible pop punk band with occasional screaming vocals, began playing at the sister stage, a few feet away.
Asa and I looked wide eyed at the ground, covered in toilet paper, stuffing, and cans and looked around for a member of the band to thank for a truly epic performance. We found a drummer, who introduced himself as Dr. Cumsalot, a scientist driven mad by drinking his own semen. He told us that SGL had been kicked off the Warped Tour after their first show in Boise, Idaho for their crowd interaction shenanigans. They had just recently talked their way back into their slot on the small stage. Apparently they normally play an hour-long set in which each character leads a song. I made them promise to come deliver this set to us, Portland, but in the mean time, I am so thankful that they brought the ruckus to our Warped Tour—I had almost become complacent by the end of the day. But from now on, whenever I see a new band, I’m going to ask myself, “Would this band get kicked off of Warped Tour?” and if the answer is no, fuck ‘em.
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Super Geek League to officially make Tomato Battle:Seattle the raddest event in the universe!
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SEATTLE, WA - August 16, 2011 - Seattle based Super Geek League (SGL)
and its mind-blowing awe-insp...SEATTLE, WA - August 16, 2011 - Seattle based Super Geek League (SGL)
and its mind-blowing awe-inspiring "Sci Fi Soul Metal Circus" has been
chosen to headline the first inaugural "TOMATO BATTLE: SEATTLE" on
Sept 24th 2011 @ the Pyramid Brewery! SGL has partnered with Tomato
Battle, LLC to produce the most insane and messiest event on the
planet with up to 300,000 lbs of overripe Tomatoes, 100 pillows,
200lbs of mylar confetti, gigantic beach balls, toilet paper cannons
and thousands of anticipated participants getting CRAZY and MESSY.
This is guaranteed by the "Inter-Galactic Federation of Space Clown
Robots" and the "Tomato Leaves are Poisonous Alliance' to the be the
FUNNEST and MOST INSANE event in the universe!
The all-day event will kick off at noon, with 7 Pacific Northwest
bands squaring off to determine which band is THE ULTIMATE HONEY
BADGER. The Tomato Battle...OF THE BANDS will feature sets from: Bat
Country (doom Americana from Seattle, WA), Blood of Kings (speed metal
from South Seattle), Panama Gold (post-punk from Seattle, WA), The
Bloodtypes (searing protopunk phenomenon from Portland, OR), The Hill
Dogs (Folk'n'Roll from Newberg, OR), The Ongoing (indie-alternative
rock from Puyallup, WA) and Titanium Sporkestra (Reigning champions of
Burning Man's battle of the bands from Seattle, WA).
Mid-way through the day, the large-scale food fight will commence when
the Queen Tomato declares war on a mound of 300,000 lbs of expired
tomatoes, and up to 5,000 rabid Tomato Heads will converge upon the
innocent, overripe fruit. The tomatoes will be weaponized until the
last Roma has been liquefied and the pavement is covered in ketchup.
Once the last tomato soldier has tired of making spaghetti
sauce-angels, everyone will be hosed off and ready to finish the day.
Who better to finish the day in an explosion of chaos, pillows, and
confetti than the official 10th weirdest band in the world? Once the
winning band has been announced, Super Geek League will emerge and cap
off the perfect day with a mind-melting set, cementing their place as
the crown-jewel in the Tomato Tiara!
A portion of proceeds will go to charity beneficiaries including White
Center Food Bank and Tilted Thunder Rail Birds.
WARNING: this event is only suitable for those who like to have FUN
and get DIRTY so if you're BORING don't bother.
Need protective gear for the Tomato Battle ? Go to
*http://supergeekleague.com and order your SGL HAZMAT suit. The
official gear of SGL.
Follow the trials and tribulations of the Tomato Battle crew on
twitter at www.twitter.com/tomatobattle or facebook at
www.facebook.com/tomatobattle and check out our website
www.tomatobattle.com
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SGL Hands down hit of Erotic Exotic Ball
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The 30th Annual Exotic Erotic Ball delivered this year. Compared to last year’s event, which was hel...The 30th Annual Exotic Erotic Ball delivered this year. Compared to last year’s event, which was held at Treasure Island, this year’s Ball packed in partygoers. Early estimates put attendance for the Ball at about 9000 (source: “PR That Rocks.”)
According to the Exotic Erotic’s web site the Ball was billed as the “finest in flesh, fetish, & fantasy … uncensored and unchained (ok - sometimes chained), & all under the undulating umbrella of love, freedom and respect.” The sites definition of the Ball was “Spot on.”
Most guests wore elaborate costumes for example local Greg Aldler wore a replica of the Bumble Bee Transformer, from the movie "Transformers." Although the costume (see the photos here) did not win first place Alder definitely deserved recognition for the efforts. Other guest wore costumes that represented their sexual lifestyle, fetishes, or characters, and some wore barely nothing at all.
The Ball did offered a wide range of live Adult Fetish Entertainment on several stages. Musically, “Hands down” Super Geek League (SGL) stole the night and electrified the crowd with wild antics, costumes, and a performance second only to Parliament Funkadelic. Other performers that night was Bay Area native Blues Vocalist LZ Love and Portland Maine based CR Grove. LZ Love was in pure form and had the crowd energized throughout her performance. CR Gruve was a shocker or more like an odd couple rocking the stage. Their music flowed and offered a Hip Hop / Rock type of flair unlike most mainstream groups. The dual’s performance was crowd-pleasing and attention getting. In addition to the entertainment the Ball offered erotic food and a huge assortment of vendors with a wide range of adult products and services in the Expo section of the Ball.
Moving around the venue, especially in the Expo area, was a little difficult at times due the number attendees but that did not create any major problems. It appeared that most people were pretty respectful considering the nudity.
Steve and Janice Metz from Redding CA, who has attended seven Exotic Erotic Ball’s, mentioned that the Cow Palace was the perfect venue for the Ball, and that they were very pleased with this year organization of the event and the choice to move it back to the Cow Palace.
In a previous article titled “The History of the Exotic Erotic Ball in San Francisco” the article stated that; Mauskopf seemed to really understand the culture, the purpose of the Ball, logistics, and he seemed to project a great vibe about the event.” The article continued to state, “If the partygoers are sharing the same vibe and energy as Mauskopf then this years Ball is going to be a bash!” It was!
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Super Geek League show review
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Face paint, elaborate costumes, acrobatics, fire mimes, genre-jumping numbers from a gaggle of music...Face paint, elaborate costumes, acrobatics, fire mimes, genre-jumping numbers from a gaggle of musicians: describing Super Geek League's spectacle of a performance is next to impossible, but don't say we didn't try.
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Super Geek League: In a league of their own
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Super Geek League: In a league of their own
Posted by Jaimie Fife on 2/16/10 • Categorized as Febru...Super Geek League: In a league of their own
Posted by Jaimie Fife on 2/16/10 • Categorized as February 2010
On Feb. 27, Seattle-based group Super Geek League (SGL) will bombard the Majestic with elements of Mardi Gras, Halloween and traveling carnivals as they headline Boogie Universal’s event “Frontiers” featuring more than 100 performers.
“We believe that people pay money to be entertained and we go above and beyond the boundaries of art and science to create the most overwhelming show possible,” head-geek Commander Tomorrow said.
SGL prides themselves on over-the-top stage performances involving novel components that typical bands might never utilize, let alone at once. The band loves to whip-out out nutty items such as hazardous material suits, hot alien sex dancers, gnomes and other random, interactive props.
The last time SGL performed in Bellingham during the summer of 2009, the group’s performance received little to no publicity, according to Commander Tomorrow. The band went on stage at the Wild Buffalo with only a handful of concert-goers in the audience. However by the end of their set, more than 100 people were joining in the strange spectacle after folks at the show started phoning their friends.
One band member almost got into a brawl with someone in the crowd, but SGL ended up joining some amped-up locals for late-night breakfast instead. Some Bellinghamsters told SGL they changed their lives that night, said Commander Tomorrow and drummer Gil Chowder.
“Unless you’re lobotomized, it’s impossible to not enjoy yourselves [at our shows],” Gil Chowder said.
SGL’s music has been described as alternative thrash by Seattle Weekly, but the band maintains their sound varies a lot from song to song. Gil Chowder said the band explores genres on each end of the spectrum, including hip-hop, country, heavy rock and lullabies. No matter how you label Super Geek League’s music, screaming, heavy guitar riffs and dark elements are key aspects of their style.
The band is comprised of 16 members who draw inspiration from schizophrenia, Soundgarden, robotics, ACDC, cybernetics, spiritual raptures and contemplative dwarves.
Backing up Commander Tomorrow in Super Geek League, the following members with zany names seem to share the same odd, musical philosophy–frontman Vy Agra, P-word, Evad the Space Cougar, Knuckle, Sunshine Applebeard, Sheesh, Barry McCockner, Dog-Starver, Muff Pumper, Gale Force, Fuscia Foxx, Commander Photon, Megatron and General Steve-Dave.
Gil Chowder said he joined the band after spotting Commander Tomorrow’s ad requesting some truly unique individuals to join Super Geek League–a drummer, a stripping bum, a pillow-fighting roller skater, and a breakdancer–just to name a few.
The un-signed group released their latest album A Magic Castle Land in the fall of 2009 and, as Commander Tomorrow puts it, they are currently looking for a label to exploit them. SGL feels that the album represents the pinnacle of their recording career.
Lead guitarist Evad the Space Cougar said it can be difficult to recreate the album on stage with so much chaos happening.
Still, Super Geek League’s fan base continues to grow as more people encounter what the band hopes will be the craziest live show anyone has ever seen.
“SGL is about creating the most awe-inspiring live musical experience for human beings. We are the masters of chaotic engineering,” Commander Tomorrow said. “We make concerts fun again by doing whatever the f#!k comes to our collective hive minds.”
Although SGL clearly believes comedy has a role in the business of making music, the band is quite serious about entertainment. Super Geek League said they promise to blow your mind at the Frontiers show come Feb. 27. All they ask is that you bring your pillows for a pillow fight and purchase a hazmat suit at their merchandise booth.
For more information about SGL, visit supergeekleague.com.
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March Fourth Maching Band, Super Geek League - Feb 27 - The Majestic
[+ Show ]
Posted by Melanie Merz on 3/21/10 • Categorized as March 2010
EXTRAVAGANZA! Wildly colorful, ridi...Posted by Melanie Merz on 3/21/10 • Categorized as March 2010
EXTRAVAGANZA! Wildly colorful, ridiculously happy, eye-popping sexy, dance, dance, dance! Boogie Universal did an incredible job with this show. Two huge bands upstairs, a packed dance hall downstairs, and huge grins and costumed dancing bodies everywhere.
Marching Fourth Band (Portland) got things started. The band wasn’t as lively as I’ve seen them in the past, but the crowd was all in. Favorite Marching Fourth moments: the massive 8 foot cowbell for their new song “More Cowbell,” and their cover of “Hard Out Here for a Pimp” (that’s right, from the movie Hustle & Flow).
Seattle’s Super Geek League is an experience. Not the kind where you are so into the music the venue just melts away. Actually for me it was more opposite. As loudly thrashing and insanely overwhelming as it was, the music was basically the raucous accompaniment for the SGL spectacle. No question, the show was amazingly awesome. I can honestly say that I have neither seen, nor experienced anything like it, and absolutely recommend it.
But you have to know what you’re getting into. It’s a full-fledged production. The musicians are all men except for the lead vocalist. She is wickedly sexy, with a crazy set of lungs that blasted her killer voice into every corner of the dance floor.
Also in the band’s ranks are a couple prop guys and three hot dancers that come up in different costumes (which were occasionally reduced to pasties). There was an alien on stilts with a green alien penis that squirted water into the crowd. The confetti machine spewed giant glitter flakes on the crowd all night long. There was a priest who pulled audience members up to give them communion with ritz crackers. The energy, and the entertainment, was nonstop.
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Bless this Dead Fish
[+ Show ]
"Who likes human flesh?!" bellows Super Geek League frontman Floyd McFeely from the stage at Neumo's..."Who likes human flesh?!" bellows Super Geek League frontman Floyd McFeely from the stage at Neumo's on a recent night. Looking like a devilish troll doll with his orange hair standing a foot into the air, and sporting a suit covered in flames, McFeely introduces his friend "Fat Cannibal" to the adequate (and plastered) crowd huddled around the stage. As onlookers shriek and applaud with a mixture of horror and delight, a gaggle of clowns pluck victims from the audience and drag them onstage to face being "eaten alive."
It's like witnessing a PG-13 version of a GWAR show.
Ten minutes into the SGL's set--wait, no, ten seconds into the set--it becomes exceedingly apparent that this is a "band" I would never have volunteered to experience live, let alone write a review of, unless someone shelled out some serious cash. I'd heard rumors of SGL's stripping nuns, dead fish, trampoline, and saran wrap, and with those terrifying possibilities growing increasingly frightening in my imagination, this was definitely one rock show I'd most happily have opted to stay far, far away from given the choice.
But money talks, and on January 13, the coldest night in the history of the world, I find shelter in a warm, dark corner of Neumo's balcony, overlooking the most fucked-up carnival from hell ever imagined. And it's all thanks to one Mr. Benjamin Exworthy, the wealthy lad who bought half of this here paper in our for-charity Strangercrombie auction last month--an investment that included a music review written about the band of his choice. He chose the Super Geek League.
There are certain things that I've always believed should never happen at a rock show. The crowd shouldn't be corralled together into pods of five and six using saran wrap; audience members shouldn't be assaulted with a moist, dead fish; and nuns shouldn't strip down to thongs, fishnets, and pasties. But the Super Geek League did it all, and much to the crowd's delight, they didn't stop there.
SGL passed out free kazoos, filling the room with a constant (and increasingly obnoxious) buzzing; they entertained with a fire dancer (who was really quite amazing and hypnotizing to watch); and they fed the crowd cake (a man made of cake, actually, straight from that weird Tom Petty video). After an hour and a half, it was all over and everyone in the room was covered in silly string, toilet paper, and wide-eyed smiles.
"The purpose of the Super Geek League, basically, is to have a really good time," explains McFeely after the show. "It's fun helping people get in touch with their inner idiot!"
The League, 30-40 members strong, is populated by McFeely's friends and friends of friends. Some have performance experience, but most don't. Expertise isn't the point.
"I have a lot of people who are involved in this that don't do performance, but this gives them the opportunity to act like a fool for a night," says McFeely. "It's amazing what people will do when you give them a venue to go all out. People are hungry for this shit, I know they are. They're so tired of being mundane and serious all the time."
The Neumo's show was certainly anything but mundane and serious. It was messy, chaotic, and a little awkward (okay, very awkward), but definitely far from ordinary. And that's a trait the Super Geek League will probably only improve upon as they continue to refine their performances. They've only played four shows thus far--this is really only the beginning.
As McFeely points out, "It's like herding retarded cats" to work out all the Leaguers' schedules, so SGL's performance calendar will probably be limited to one event every other month or so. But McFeely is certainly aware that with each show, the next spectacle must top the last, so those down months will be filled with practice and planning.
"I got this great idea for the next one," he says. "I wanna put midgets in sperm suits and have them launch off a trampoline on a big battleship. It's for a new song I wrote, 'Kamikaze Seamen.'"
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CD Review Pepppermint Rainbows
[+ Show ]
It isn’t everyday that you open a package of discs and out comes one with a flaming pink/rainbow bac...It isn’t everyday that you open a package of discs and out comes one with a flaming pink/rainbow background with two guys in costume riding a unicorn. I wish I could say I was lying but if you don’t believe me, I implore you to hit their web site. Seriously, it’s totally worth a few minutes of your life. This nine piece band is pop punk based and hail from Seattle, WA. This stack of members plays a variety of instruments like keyboards, theremin, trombone and your basic guitars. Vocal layering from all corners of the octave scale is provided by multiple vocalists. They received their infamy from playing a few select dates on the 2006 Vans Warped Tour. At those live shows people were exposed to the Antique Sci-Fi Circus theatrical stage show, which accompanied the band as they swirled through such genres of music like classical, rap, new wave and punk. I would presume the music coupled with the rowdy and eccentric theatrics made for an interesting experience. My tastes tend to stay away from the theatrical rock because it screams gimmick but this band, although puckish with song titles like “Jimmy Scratchemicock” and “The Contemplative Dwarf”, tended to maintain their solidarity as a productive band with some impressive creativity. They were edgy, imaginative and energetic with a laundry list of attention-grabbing songs with the muscle to force their way into your brain. Unfortunately, you really have to check out their music for yourself in order to fully appreciate what they are trying to accomplish. They really did defy any form of categorizing or compartmentalization.
www.supergeekleague.com
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Ecstasy-Rapture-Bliss: SGL's crowd participation
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Super Geek League @ El Corazon
Monday, August 15 2005
by David M. Smith
AFTER Nirvana,...Super Geek League @ El Corazon
Monday, August 15 2005
by David M. Smith
AFTER Nirvana, a lot of people came to Seattle with the expectation of finding an atmosphere akin to something they saw in the documentary film Hype. They were sorely disappointed. Lucky for us there are still bands out there who have a dream and a vision and the ability to pull off a truly amazing show that captures the essence of the mania those fans were seeking.
No introduction is needed to the stone-faced, Seattle shoe-gaze crowd. You know the scene: a lot of bored, lonely, socially-challenged pasty-faces in one place at the same time. And yet this atmosphere never provides the salve those same mystic, music-starved and attention-depraved aficionados want, need, and deserve. ENTER SGL... cast of modern tragic-comic Shakespearean fuckups in an absolute mockery, but also odd celebration of the loser society the self-same crowd wandered in from. Freudian images mix it up with pop-cultural icons in a kind of twisted-circus Indian cosmology of "stupid heroes": a masturbating scientist's dream of dirty old Popes, stripping nuns, dead fish, para-palegics and midget clowns. These are some of the characters you will find in costume mixing it up with the crowd... and that is only scratching the surface of this mutant brainchild of one Floyd McFeely and his alter-ego, Captain Tomorrow, inter-galactic space traveler, poet, prophet, mystic, anus, party-crasher and purveyor of freak futures.
Two weeks ago at the McFeely household, I watched my host in hysterics over a viewing of the video for Captain Plastic. I was right there with him, howling on the floor as the Miro-esque thugs got rolled by the anti-hero, Bruce Lee style. For McFeely, I noticed, watching this was like some bizzare hallucination that he was witnessing for the first time, as if it weren't his own invention.
But that is only the sideshow, the freaks, the geeks, the gimics and props. Which of course works to draw you into the music. Musically, SGL does not carry, but shoves up its ass and wiggle-runs the torch of an illustrious line of genre-benders such as Zappa, Gene and Dean Ween, and Jack Black of the "D". Lilting lyrical hoedowns and Eastern Bloc leitmotifs betray McFeely's Irish-Gypsy background. All of it birthed out of an 80's punk sensibility ("Here come the cops" was even dropped in a song in a recent set) and delivered with hard-hitting, in-your-face, paint-your-face, Motown, back-pedal showmanship. (Iggy, P-Funk, even a little Seger thrown in there for those warm summer nights.)
I was there for the Chaos Conventions, Sixties porn on the walls, sixteen millimeter montage, Hotknives on the burners, Brownies in the oven, rigormortis mice in the drawers. Sensory Depravation. Orgone Accumulator. Intergalactic ghettoball. Datura and the like. Amps to eleven ten-hour hotbox marathon sessions. It's plain to say, I was there in the beginning.
And on Monday night, as if I'd ever doubted what it all amounted to, I smiled knowingly at an old friend and his latest prank when Captain Plastic jumped from the stage, ripped a sheath of celophane and started wrapping up the crowd in concentric circles so that I was bound to rub up against a beautiful buxom young lady across the room who at once looked at me and I looked back, knowing that we were not getting out of this, and we would not have otherwise gotten into this fix and we were glad for it.
For more information, check out:
http://supergeekleague.com
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So Wrong, and Thanks for All the Fish
[+ Show ]
Super Geek League certainly aren't the first band to be kicked off the Warped Tour, but they might b...Super Geek League certainly aren't the first band to be kicked off the Warped Tour, but they might be the only one ever booted due to the misuse of a two-pound mackerel. (Led Zeppelin, recall, were way before Warped Tour's time.)
"We actually got thrown off the first date we were there, due to all of our antics," says bandleader Floyd McFeely. "It kind of got out of hand a little bit. You know, the kids just started throwing projectiles, some things went awry, and they ended up unplugging us 15 minutes into our set and closing us down.
"What happened was, for one of our acts, this dirty old priest goes into the audience and gives an offering of fish and crackers. Well, somehow the fish got out there into the audience's hands, and the next thing you know, we're being bombarded by these two-pound mackerels flying through the air that had been cooking in the sun all day.
"That was in Boise, and we were supposed to have two more dates," McFeely continues. "Fortunately, we kissed enough ass that they said they'd see about letting us play the next day at the Gorge if we cleaned up all our shit and helped them break down and move all the gear, which we did. We really didn't know if we were playing the next day until we unloaded and helped them set up stages, and they were like, 'Okay, here's a list of things you cannot do: no water, no live animals, no dead animals, no food of any kind.' So we had to change our show on the fly, and we actually did pretty well. By the third day, in Portland, we drew a good crowd and got an encore. So it was a travesty, and we kind of turned it around and made it a positive experience."
This was in 2006, just a couple years after McFeely, along with multi-instrumentalist Knuckles and drummer Gil Chowder, first formed the band. "It started as an air-guitar band, really as performance art," says McFeely. "We had four or five people performing while an iPod played original material that I recorded at home."
The band gradually became bigger and bigger, musicians came and went, and the stage productions grew more and more elaborate. Currently, the League consist of nine musicians—P-Word on bass, Evad on guitar, Vy Agra on vocals, Sheesh and Sunshine Applebeard on horns, and on theremin Barry McCockner (aka SGL cofinancier and former Strangercrombie high bidder/cover boy, millionaire Ben Exworthy)—and usually around a total of 20 stage performers.
"We've developed a kind of love/hate relationship with a lot of venues," says McFeely. "But we've been doing it now consistently, at the Showboxes and Neumos, and we know what works and what doesn't. We work with the production people, we clean up after ourselves, and we keep it a positive vibe. But that's definitely come through trial and error. We've done a lot of stupid shit, too. You learn, like, 'Okay, no human cake [a baked good that involves a man in a cake in a shopping cart, with just the man's head sticking out], because people will pick it up and throw it, and it'll get into the monitors.' Nothing that can really damage the club—that's the key."
The Warped Tour, says McFeely, encouraged the band to "kind of [get] our shit together, so to speak," to really perfect the stage show and get the music "up to the point of rehearsing and releasing albums."
The band's first album was a highly conceptual affair. "I wrote this long story, 'The History of the World According to SGL,'" says McFeely. "It was a narrative about this world, the City of Deformity, and the Legion of Mutations versus the Super Geek League, and the Legion of the Underworld, and all these characters. They all had their little subplots, and the characters would all do battle amongst each other in this imaginary world, which was hallucinated by the Contemplative Dwarf, who was hooked up to the Hallucination Engine. So, I had this whole mythology, and the first album was based on all that."
But as the band grew and matured, that mythology played itself out, according to McFeely. "[The new album] is a lot more sincere from a songwriting standpoint. I'm singing about things that are more dear and true on a personal level. But we always try to maintain the frenetic live experience."
About the live experience: At a recent Friday night at Neumos (a "scaled-down" show for the League, at a "smaller venue"), it begins with a man in a red ringmaster's suit roaming the crowd, yelling, "Time for the show," and, presumably in response to some heckle, "I can dress how I want—it's Capitol Hill!"
A dozen or so people take the stage, most wearing shiny silver jumpsuits (which later light up with Tron-style neon lines). Some, such as the horn section, have evil clown makeup; others, like the guitarists, have big, foamy anime-style hair. The horn section, who wear sombreros over their death's head face paint, giving them the appearance of a Day of the Dead mariachi band, plays a cavalry "charge," and the band launch into their first song. Within 30 seconds, a blast of confetti, shot out of cannons powered by pressurized oxygen tanks on one side of the stage, fills the room. Confetti chokes the air throughout the night, first multicolored ticker tape, then shiny Mylar, then white, falling like snow, covering every inch of the floor, landing in drinks, and going down the back of my shirt. ("We spend $750 per show on confetti," says Exworthy. "Just confetti.")
The first song must be seven or eight minutes long, or else it's a suite of songs that flows together so smoothly, shifting into a half-time breakdown midway through, as to seem like just one. The music itself is a mix of cartoonishly extreme metal, hardcore grind, alt-rock balladry, and ska. (McFeely cites as influences: "Everything from Korn to Slipknot to Marilyn Manson to Chicago to Zappa to, obviously, Devo," as well as Stevie Wonder and Funkadelic—"the younger guys in the band are into Dillinger Escape Plan.") The vocals are alternately screamed, either Cookie-Monster low or shrieking helium high, and kind of rapped by one of the many guys in the band, or else delivered diva-style, operatic over all the instrumental chaos, by the band's lone female musician, singer Vy Agra, whose silver spacesuit is just slightly more snugly fit than her male counterparts' (imagine Tina Turner abducted by retro-campy aliens).
She is not the only woman onstage, though, as she's frequently flanked by a pair of burlesque-style dancers who move in sultry slow motion through a variety of scenes and costumes. One dancer comes out wearing a contorted mask, a cotton-candy wig, and a tutu, spraying whipped topping out of a can onto a paper plate and then scooping it up with her fingers and feeding it to eager audience members. Later, she's wearing a kind of wedding dress (the kind that the father of the bride would probably frown upon). Still later, she's dressed in all black and cat glasses, spanking the other dancer with a spindly black paddle.
A skinny, shirtless man wearing suspenders and a gnome mask (one of the G-Nomes, according to McFeely) is helping a midget dressed as a leprechaun to hoist a rod twice the midget's height. On the end of the rod is a spool of toilet paper. At first the toilet paper falls off, and the leprechaun and the gnome fumble to reattach it, but once it's properly secured, a fan attached to the contraption (a leaf blower?) propels the toilet paper roll, sending streamers of the stuff out over the audience. This thing is a high-school vice principal's worst nightmare.
There's a guy in an Elvis costume. There's a guy with a big mustache and flight goggles. There's McCockner, in the back, playing theremin, wearing an old-man mask and the black robes of a priest.
The band break into a ballad whose guitars sound a bit like the dulcet alternative tones of late-era Red Hot Chili Peppers. The singer is howling, "Oh, oh, I go..." ("home"?—hard to tell), and it's some serious "Under the Bridge" climax/catharsis.
The man in the red suit is suddenly back in the crowd, followed by two guys wearing big, shapelessly floppy, plush white costumes, like snowballs or molars with holes cut out for faces and limbs. One of these guys in white has a suitcase, emblazoned "SGL," from which he produces bags of white, floury powder, which the man in red scoops onto his face by the handful, eyes bulging excitedly, huffing and puffing and blowing clouds of the stuff into people's faces. Onstage, a guy is wearing a big foamy devil mask, and the devil is wearing giant 3-D shades and wielding a plastic pitchfork. McCockner runs into the crowd, offering the banned-by-Warped-Tour fish-and-cracker communion to audience members, and then slapping each recipient on the face with a fish. Now there are two devils onstage, and one of them is perched on the shoulders of the gnome (who looks a little like an evil Santa) and wielding a squirt gun.
An eight-bit synthesizer sounds out a familiar three-note progression, and—oh my fucking god!—the band are covering "What You Know" by T.I., three of the scary clowns rapping while Agra sings backup vocals and the two dancers writhe rhythmically at the front of the stage. It is, to say the very least, a singular performance.
Someone, in a British accent, commands the crowd to "bring [their] hands forth," so that the band may "set sail upon the sea of disease." When the fans raise their hands, the elderly priest dives off the stage to crowd-surf. The band are playing and chanting, "Jump, motherfucker, jump," as various members of the troupe repeatedly dive into the sea, at one point with an inflatable crocodile as a surfboard. Next, pillows are tossed to the crowd for a ritual pillow fight, which audience members take to with an amount of wicked enthusiasm that makes even pillows seem dangerous. There is a birthday dedication, so the band plays a slap-bass-aided version of the chorus of 50 Cent's "In Da Club" ("go, shorty/it's your birthday...").
Someone flings a pillow at one of the dancers, and like a pro, she doesn't break her showy smile for a second and just gamely tosses the pillow back. Now, the band are singing a chorus about "follow[ing] the leaders." Lights strobe and swing from the octopus- arm branches of some "trees" on either side of the stage (these trees are the kind of lamp fixtures IKEA would make if Tim Burton were in charge). Agra sings, "Power leads to money, and money buys time... someday I'll rule the world!" A guy in the audience is throwing metal horns up while wearing a pair of Mickey Mouse gloves. And then it's over.
Everything about this show—the music, the props, the antics—is engineered for maximum excess, and it really is a kind of spectacle not matched (or indeed even attempted) by any other band in Seattle. "It's really designed to be entertainment," says McFeely. "It's designed to be fun and to provide just a really great, energetic live experience. Go big, go over the top—that's always kind of been our philosophy.
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Super Geek League Album Review: A Magic Castle Land
[+ Show ]
Super Geek League
A Magic Castle Land
(self-released)
Seattle troupe—band is too quotidian a wo...Super Geek League
A Magic Castle Land
(self-released)
Seattle troupe—band is too quotidian a word to apply to these folks—Super Geek League use dexterous instrumental technique to dramatically wacky ends. A Magic Castle Land (which comes out in March) amply demonstrates Super Geek League's flamboyant flair for sweeping arena rock that screams "ambition" in vivid neon hues.
Although the review copy of A Magic Castle Land that SGL provided is a rough mix on a CD-R, it's clear that head Geek Floyd McFeely has poured an incredible amount of time and energy into this album's 11 tracks. "Space Husband Robot Boy" starts the disc with some languid, florid art rock of no little passion. It dramatically builds from sparseness to raucousness, with vocalist Vy Agra belting like a siren possessed, equal parts Grace Slick and Pat Benatar. The cover of T.I.'s rap hit "What U Know" boasts an exaggeratedly macho delivery with down-tuned guitars and Agra's backing "whoa's" that paraphrase the riff from Jimi Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower." "Sub Genius" is turbulent, synth-laden prog rock that recalls some of Trans Am's fruitier moments, bolstered again by Agra's earnest alpha-female vocals. This is one of A Magic Castle Land's definite highlights. Another peak occurs on "JJ Skewers," whose urgent space rock surges through the asteroid belt somewhere between midperiod Tangerine Dream and late-period Hawkwind.
By contrast, "Robot Rape" begins as speedy hardcore punk and then billows into prog-rock grandiosity; I doubt anyone could see that coming. Then the track ends with another blast of punk fury—quite a purgative experience. "Captain Tomorrow" brings more heroic, rolling, heavy rock with surprisingly buoyant, Herb Alpert–like brass charts from trumpeters Sunshine Applebeard and Sheesh the Mad Mandible and trombonist Knuckles. (SGL's monikers are as outlandish as their music.) The aptly titled 10-minute "Epic" goes through many transformations and mood swings, most of them heavy and baroque, like a Pacific Northwest Fantômas. "Rust Within" recapitulates SGL's lineage in such skillful, eccentric acts as Gwar, Ween, Oingo Boing, and Mr. Bungle. Super Geek League may be wacky, but their chops are no laughing matter
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Judyth Piazza chats with Floyd Mc Feely from Super Geek League
[+ Show ]
http://thesop.org/music/2009/08/14/judyth-piazza-chats-with-floyd-mc-feely-from-super-geek-league
...http://thesop.org/music/2009/08/14/judyth-piazza-chats-with-floyd-mc-feely-from-super-geek-league
Super Geek League is an epic rock odyssey of mind-blowing proportions and ambitious dreams that invigorate fans and followers into an ecstatic frenzied state of excitement and passion that is unrivaled in enthusiasm and intensity. Super Geek League consists of 9 multi-instrumentalist musicians with an eclectic background of musical training and experience that melds together to epitomize the sound of this domination rock outfit.
supersonic
