Live Music in Belltown

I was initially skeptical when I got an email telling me The Crocodile had closed... their website was still up, and the rumors of the venue closing have been around since... um... how long have I lived in this town? Anyway, you hear these things, but you never believe they'll happen.

But Belltown ain't dead yet-- there are still shows at The Rendezvous. This place sounds really good, it's about two blocks north of the Croc (R.I.P), and-- here's the best part-- ubik plays there. We're up on Saturday, January 5th, so... check out the show post:

Saturday, January 5th
ubik. @ The Rendezvous
w/ Leeni
and Desmond
$5 at the Door
10:00 PM

and we're bringing visuals to this one.

happy Non-Denominational Everyone Gets A Day Off day

Phew... closing out December. ubik finally has our van, so not only can we get to shows without doing any begging, but we can also record. Can you believe that-- our biggest obstacle to recording was us not being able to move all our gear to and from a studio? All a thing of the past, friends... we can get there from here.

Now, we just need to record.

Van Up

ubik is now solvent-- we need a van, and we have the cash to get it done. We're looking for something reliable and hefty, something that can haul us as well as the gear (i.e, we need a back seat), and it has to be able to survive some freeway driving if we're ever going to play... say... portland. We can drop $1000 (tops) on the van... wish we had more, but we've got what we've got, so if someone's got a line on a good van, let us know.

and don't forget: we're up at the Rendezvous on January 5th, rocking Belltown on a Saturday night with Desmond and Leeni.

ubik needs a van

we're in the market for a van-- we're poor, that's for certain, but we can probably spare maybe $1000 (maybe, we're still working it out) to get ourselves a van. If anyone has a line on a good work vehicle, get in touch with us. Having our own transportation will solve a number of our problems, not the least of which is our ability to record: ubik can't manage a recording until we can somehow transport our gear to a studio... it's already a struggle borrowing a vehicle for every show. Thanks go out to Heidi for her truck; Heidi's pickup has gotten ubik to our last two shows.

ubik wants to play on christmas

we really want to book a show for December 25th, so if anybody has something set up and wants us to play, let us know. It's no stretch to claim that christmas is really, really boring: even if you have family in town (and 3/4ths of ubik do not), by 7:00PM on christmas day, you're pretty much done, holiday-wise. By 10:00, you wish there was something, anything, to do... on a day when even the local Safeway is closed. Well, we want something to do, too: we want to play, and then we can offer you something to do on a day when nothing ever happens.

slushie

thanks to everyone who came out to the Monkey Pub on saturday-- the weekend was cold and snowfall quickly turned to slush in the roads; plenty of people stayed home this weekend, so ubik's extra-thankful for everyone who braved the elements. We played with our frequent co-conspirators, Red Rapture once again, and the show kicked plenty of ass... ubik. even broke out a new epic, Let's Hunt and Kill Gwen Stefani, which would be our bid for radio popularity (if it weren't for the song's unwieldly length).

Monkey Pub this Saturday

We are rocking the Obligatory Show Post (OSP)

this OSP has been generated for the following show:

ubik. @ the Monkey Pub
w/ Red Rapture
5305 Roosevelt
Seattle, WA 98105
9:00 PM / 21+
$5 at the Door

Now that the official business is done and the OSP has been filed, I intend to spend the rest of my night making silly beeping noises, none of which should prevent you from coming out to the Monkey on Saturday, which is going to be lots of fun: playing with Red Rapture is always a good time, and we love the Monkey Pub.

deep breath

ubik needs a nap... we aren't used to playing shows three weekends in a row. After a really late Sunday at the Funhouse and a rockin party at The Octagon, we just played The Blue Moon on friday, which was a pretty unique experience for us. The Blue Moon comes with its own built-in crowd, so that set was played to some unusual folks that had never seen us before.

Much thanks to everyone who made it out to see us over the last few weeks-- we're taking the next two weeks to work the kinks out of a new song, maybe get some more writing done, and show up well rested for the show at The Monkey Pub on Friday, December 1st. Any of you may have seen a random ubik member staggering blindly out of the Monkey some night around closing time: that is one of our favorite bars in the U.

--eric

Free on Friday

We're playing the Blue Moon with Red Rapture on Friday, which can't help but to be awesome: we played a dry run with them a The Octagon house party on Saturday night, and that party was great! The music was fantastic, and the incredible (technical, trippy, and heavy as hell) Barefoot Barnacle was on the bill, the room was packed, and the crowd was phenomenal. Pack a bunch of us in a small room and the energy level goes up! (My apologies to the woman I was always almost stepping on and/or smacking in the face with my headstock)

Also, you only get to hear flirtations like "You hella don't wear your contacts anymore" at house parties. That's a lot of contact-not-wearing. It blew my mind and completely reconfigured my concept of math, as I thought it was a binary system: either one wore contacts, or one didn't wear contacts... but now we all know there are hella permutations to the system (only in the U-District, where the IQs are high and the education runs deep).

We're up on 45th this Friday, so we're rocking the convenient. The Blue Moon is on myriad bus routes, is right off of I-5, it's a Friday night show, and it's totally free. Stack all of that stuff together: it's not a school night, it's easy to get to, and it doesn't cost you anything... and that's a winner. That'd be a winner even if you didn't like ubik, as you could sit around and laugh at us for free, and we've got variety on tap: singer-sonwriter Paul Jameson is our first ever hyphenate billmate, and Red Rapture rocked the Nectar Lounge with us a few months back (not to mention the rad house party).

Standard showlist format:

Ubik @ The Blue Moon
712 NE 45th St
Seattle WA 98105
w/ Paul Jameson
& Red Rapture
& Mutilated Goat Sewage
9:00, $0 at the Door

We're still soliciting contributions to our genre-naming in the post below, so feel free to contribute. No-- don't feel free; feel obligated. This has even become a feature on Artomaton, so it is obviously something you need to do.

--eric

Mailing List

Oh boy... appy polly logies to anyone who put pen to paper on our mailing list, but still doesn't hear from us. Truth is, the mailing list gets filled out after we play, and... well... sometimes the handwriting looks a little creative. We do our best to include everyone that signs up, but there may have been drinking involved when the mailing list got filled out, and some of the entries are tough to translate.

If anyone is accidentally omitted, you can put in for the mailing list here.

Genre Naming Contest starts now!

So... what do you guys sound like?

Aargh! The most hated question: what do you sound like. ubik has never had an answer... we aren't slavish to any genre, though we do use a few traditional genre flourishes here and there. But we're not the sort of group that can answer The Big Question with a simple "We're a punk band." (we are so very much not a punk band. or rock band, or a metal band, or...) well, you understand our problem.

So what do you call us? A few ground rules: First, we're digging for a quick descriptor, so the "genre" name is limited to five words. Second, no band references: "Rammstein combined with Soul Coughing" isn't really valid... for so many reasons. Comments are enabled on this blog, so you can reply right within this post-- the contest begins now.

Early Monday Mornings

The Funhouse had a completely rocking lineup last night-- it is very hard to climb onto a stage right after Wah Wah Exit Wound just played (those guys rule!), but the ubik mailing list grew significantly, so it looks like we impressed a lot of people... even played our first encore. It's not easy playing first thing Monday morining (we went on around 12:30AM), so thanks to everyone who stuck around until last call on a school night. This was a late one, and you guys have the big bouncin' yar blockos.

That was a tough day: we want to thank Jon from Barefoot Barnacle for coming through at the last minute and loaning us a van... that was supremely awesome and really saved our collective asses. Intra-band, we have to give the love to Michelle for going down to Auburn to get the van: ubik is a collection of bike riders and bus takers, and she really put herself out bussing down there.

So... keep up with our shows page: we've got a free show at the Blue Moon coming up on the 16th, which is a Friday, so... do the math with me here... Free + Friday = Good.

Funhouse on Sunday

Playing season is really ramping up-- we've got a lot of playing to do over the next several weeks. First things first: We're at The Funhouse this Sunday (November 4th), once again with Wah-Wah Exit Wound. It should be pretty telling that we like these guys; this is our second show in a row with them. Also on board are The Wayward, who are touring and up here from Virginia, and Fortress of Victory. Here's the listing:

November 4th
Ubik @ the Funhouse
w/ Fortress of Victory
& Wah Wah Exit Wound
& The Wayward
21 and over
$5 at the Door

This will be your chance to have some nice, calming beer after the massive sugar shock of Halloween. (that many vodka & red bulls... what were you thinking? You may never sleep again)

Pedal Power

Okay, what I want to know is: who's got the largest pedalboard in Seattle? I'm pretty pedal obsessed, and I want to find the other pedal aficionados in town and see how other extravagant pedals are used.

Here's the rules: I'm measuring the pedalboard by its number of pedals. Rack gear doesn't count (because rack guys are different from pedal guys; controlling myriad rack effects with a midi pedalboard isn't the same thing as having a chain of pedals), and multi-effects only count as one effect (one unit, one effect).

My rig is 21 pieces, spanning three boards: 16 active effects, 2 looper/bypasses, 2 control units, and a tuner... we can debate which of these count (or don't) when we start tallying.

So... who's got a wild pedalboard? I wanna see.

--eric

toldyaso

I think it was on the MySpace event invite we said that the Rendezvous show was going to be twice as good and half the price of the El Corazon show, and... Ha! This one was a knockout, so muchos thankyous to all of the attendees. Kickass show (though someone boosted Rad Touch's bass, a Fender J-Bass, from the back room of the venue. If you have any info about bass thieves, let Rad Touch know).

Keep up with our shows page-- we're at the Funhouse on Sunday, November 4th, where I'm sure we'll all drink our weight in PBR.

See You Tuesday

ubik. has a show coming up this Tuesday, October 16th, down in Belltown: we're at the Jewelbox Theater in the Rendezevous (pronounced: REN-sa-fuss), with Rad Touch and Wah Wah Exit Wound, which is going to be a hell of a show. Change Versus Comfort (we had a great time with them at the Chop Suey) shares a member with Rad Touch, and we've been wanting to play with Wah Wah Exit Wound since we first saw them play... so this is looking like one hell of a show.

Rendezvous - Jewel Box Theater
2322 2nd Ave
Seattle, Washington 98121
Ubik, Wah Wah Exit Wound, Rad Touch
$5 at the door / Doors @ 10:00

with any luck, we will be breaking out a new song at this show, too; we're really excited about the new one, so here's hoping lots of you show up for it.

Thanks, Ben

Many of you may know that we had to rent a U-Haul for our first show, back at the Jules Maes. We haven't had to do that since: glass blower extrordinaire Ben Ostrom has lent us his van for every single show we've played. I doubt we can fully convey in text how phenomenally awesome this is-- Ben has helped this band more than anyone else. We really couldn't do this stuff without his contribution... and he's never asked for anything in return (though we do our best to put $20 of gas in the tank after every show. It's would be extremely rude to use his van and burn all his gas)

Thanks, Kyna

Recently back in town from LA, attending Occidental College for photography, Kyna Shilling has been the main contributor to the ubik photos page over the last few months. We've got full galleries from our El Corazon and Chop Suey shows up, thanks to her.

Thanks, Dowell

How cool is this? Ubik has merch. Swag. You know... stickers.

We got this done after many sessions with our graphic designer, Dowell Eugenio, meeting over beers at the College Inn and Shorty's. The man is obviously a superhero, and the stickers look fantastic.

We've got to give the assist to StickerRobot.com... ubik was obviously going to order from the robot-based sticker company, but these guys delivered a really nice sticker.

All Ages (more or less)

Thanks to everyone for coming out to see us at El Corazon-- the conditions may have been rougher than normal:

• We hated pre-selling those tickets. None of us was actually comfortable asking you for money, and we're grateful you guys bought some
• Packing seven bands onto a flier was no easy feat, and...
• Yeesh, a bill with seven bands is pretty unwieldy, isn't it? Why would anyone book an evening show with that many bands?
• What, no drink tickets? We didn't even get water for on-stage.

...but we really enjoyed the show and hope you all had a great time. We're hoping to have some merch on offer sometime soon, and we really, really need to get ourselves recorded, so if anyone has a line on some affordable studio time, drop us a line.

Remember, we have a show set up at the Rendezvous on October 16th, so mark you calendars. We'll give you the details when we have all the details

Sale Ending Soon

We will be wrapping up the sale of tickets over at Silver Platters at the end of business Monday, September 24th. You can still buy tickets from the band members right up until we start loading our gear into El Corazon, but we're going to collect our tickets from the Silver Platters store on the 24th, so you still have a couple days to do the official-seeming, over-the-counter purchase of Ubik Tickets.

On Sale Now (pt 2)

If you were having trouble acquiring tickets for our September 26th show, we've just set it up so that you can buy them at Silver Platters, at these locations:

Queen Anne
In Lower Queen Anne (at the old Tower location)
701 5th Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 283-3472
Store hours: Tue. - Sat. 9am to 11pm, Sun. 10am to 10pm, Mon. 9am to 12midnight

Northgate
9560 1st Ave NE,
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 524-3472

Store hours: Mon. - Sat. 9am to 10pm, Sun.10am to 7pm

So Ubik tickets are now available at the counter... just head over to Silver Platters.

Tickets On Sale Now!

Ubik is playing an All Ages/Bar With ID show on Wednesday, September 26th at El Corazon. This is the first show where we've been asked to pre-sell tickets, so it's all a little new for us. If you'd like to buy a ticket, they sell for $8. Get in touch with us here, the Ubik email account, and we'll set up a location.

I'm a behind-the-counter sort of guy, so you can purchase tickets at Reckless Video, between 4:00PM and 10:00PM every day except Sunday and Wednesday. It's at 90th and Roosevelt:

Reckless Video
9020 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle WA 98115

--eric
(do not be alarmed by my lack of lab coat)

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the Chop Suey for our first headlining show... Change Versus Comfort and The People Now kicked tons of ass, and the show was a riot. Joel actually played the entire show with a broken elbow! You already knew ubik kicked more ass than everyone else, and now you have proof.

On Sale Now!

Ubik is currently selling tickets for our first All Ages (Bar With ID) show. We're playing El Corazon on September 26th. We've never pre-sold tickets before, so get in touch with us here, or email us, or otherwise bump into us-- we'll let you know how in a few days about bumping into us. We are also working out a PayPal/ticket mailing system... so stay tuned. It's pretty exciting to get into an all-ages show, and it's something we've wanted to do for a long time.

Join our mailing list for the most current updates, or contact us at ubik@gmail.com for booking, info, or just to delve into the joy and wonderment of Band Love.

Aug 28th @ the Chop Suey

Yay! Ubik is playing the Chop Suey, which is a fantastic venue... it sounds great in there, and we see a lot of great bands play that place. So... hooray!

We've doctored the flier so you can click on the names... clicking our name leads you back here, but it could just as well have led to our MySpace, which has current poor-quality recordings of us.... we hope to replace them with new, poor-quality recordings soon

A Tuesday in Late August

This site was getting pretty out of date, eh?

We've got a bit on our plate: Ubik is doing a bit of writing as well as trying to bang out a demo on the cheap.

The big news is that we're playing the Chop Suey on Tuesday, August 28... details are forthcoming (you'll know when we know)

Coming Soon

Thanks to everyone for coming out to see us at the Mars Bar on Friday. We all had a good time it it was great to see everyone there... and if you missed it, have I got a deal for you:

Ubik is up at the Nectar Lounge next Wednesday, July 18-- so you have a week to clear your schedule, call your friends, get our band name tattooed somewhere special, and make any other preparations you may need. We're playing the Nectar's RnR Wednesday with Red Rapture and the Mars Accelerator, so this one ought to be a pretty exciting show.

And... come on, admit it: you've got nothing better to do on a Wednesday.


Nectar Lounge
$5 at the door
Doors at 8:00
412 N 36th St. Fremont
Seattle WA 98103

Friday Night

We know you're all coming to the Mars Bar (on Eastlake, by REI) this Friday (July 6th), because even though Biography of Ferns has listed that they will be playing with The Keeper and Otik, we intend to crash that party. The members of Otik are actually bound and gagged in the back of our van-- to everyone's surprise (except yours, faithful readers)

UBIK WILL PLAY

It's a 9:00 show, $6 at the door (which means, qualitatively, this show will be 20% better than our last show. How awesome is that?)

Moving Uptown

There's a bit on tap from our venture at the Jules Maes: we taped the show (ah... the memories) and, honestly, most of what we got is just from the pair of microphones at the back of the club, but the room sounds pretty good. They are up at our MySpace page, and if you really, really miss us... we've also MySpaced a video. There was footage of the first 3/4ths of Disrepair, so thanks to Brandon for taping and syncing the video to our audio masters... though the "big finish" of the song is sliced off of the video, it is one of the songs we uploaded as an audio file, so you can still hear the whole thing...

So, we're playing a show or two much, much closer than Georgetown: Ubik is up again with The Keeper on Friday, July 6th, at The Mars Bar, on Eastlake, by REI, which promises to be a good show.

Then, on Wednesday, July 18th, we are in Fremont at The Nectar for "RnR Wednesday" with Red Rapture, AUTOSTRIKE LITE, and, my personal favorite, TBA (I've been a TBA fan for years: they're so versatile, you never know what their set will be like or even who the band members will be from show to show). It'll be a different bill for us, and I know it's a school night, but we need everyone in the world to show up-- it is good to impress the guy who books these gigs, and hopefully, it will bring us many happy returns...

So that's July. August is wide open, and if anyone's got a slot on a bill, Ubik needs to keep playing a show a month or our contract with Satan expires. Nobody wants that.

Keep in touch: ubikband@gmail.com

--eric

Jules Maes rocked-- mission accomplished

Thanks to everybody for coming out-- Ubik played to a packed house down at the Jules Maes last night, and by all reports, everyone had a great time. The Keeper kicked plenty of ass (as always), and we got to see The Nemesis Theory, who were very cool (lots of dynamics and timing changes... very unpredictable music... you should probably check them out).

We played faster and harder than we ever had before, and got a great response-- thanks to everyone for coming down and having a good time... we'll be doing that again soon (different venues, different bands), and we'll keep you posted. If you need us, we're at ubik@gmail.com.

phew... what a night.

MAY 19th SHOW FLIER of DOOOoOOOOOOOoOMMMM!!!1111 eleventy-one

(hover and click the name of a band or the venue for more information!!)



All artistic cred should be aptly applied directly to Michelle's face as she is the reason for the Bad-Ass flier! Now, Come to The Show! :D

May 19th Show

Well, we're about a month out from our show at the Jules Maes Saloon, playing with The Keeper and Nemesis Theory. It's $5 at the door, the show's at 9:00, and we're the first band, so get there early. Early enough to have a few drinks... scientific research has proven: we sound better when you are hammered.

Ubik is back in a practice space, down at Seattle Rehearsal, sharing a room with The If/Then Statement (thanks guys) down in the SoDo area, and now practicing full time with Michelle as a member of the band, making her part of the "we" that goes into these updates. (Just to clear that up)

The songs we had uploaded, both here and to our MySpace account, were mostly put up as part of our fishing for singers. Now that the search is completely out of the way, rough sounding, instrumental cuts of our music don't seem to serve much purpose, and they've been taken out back and shot. We're hoping to get a good taping of the upcoming show, so we can have more current versions of our songs on offer.

On the Horizon

Ubik has an upcoming show in May... there's a little distance there, but we're keeping you all informed. Saturday, May 19th, we will be playing at the Jules Maes Saloon in Georgetown. We'll be playing again with The Keeper, who have done us the awesome courtesy of booking us into their gig.

You have plenty of advance warning, so all the out-of-towners can book Seattle-bound flights.

Also worth mentioning: we still have not landed a practice space. I have faith that we will turn up at our next gig well-rehearsed, but we are searching hard now to find a place so that we... um... we'll turn up at that gig well rehearsed. If you know of any places, let us know.

Switching Station

and then the band goes off the rails...

After a very successful outing with The Keeper at The Roanoke, Ubik has bounced out of our practice space and can't continue until we can all be in the same room as our amps, drums, and effects. We've written our fair share of songs that must be practiced regularly, or, at our next show, we will fall apart like Ikea furniture.

So... the hunt is on. Does anyone know of an affordable practice space?

As always, we are ubik@gmail.com