so monday, so metal

no one can really guarantee a good turnout on a Monday, so we have to send tons of thanks to everyone who came out to see us at The Central-- that was a big, supportive crowd, and we love you guys for it. We had a good lineup with Mokshya headlining and Year of the Serpent filling that TBA slot (on super-short notice, too), both of whom are much more Monday Metal Madness than ubik...

we had a good show, which marks the first time ubik. actually raised the dead-- we've never had a zombie at a show before, so this was kind of a first for us.

In other news: we are just about done taping, and the mixing starts soon... probably tomorrow. There will be an EP. And soon.

Monday Night

ubik.s up at The Central next week, playing with a touring band from Arizona... it's us and Mokshya, along with good ole' TBA (we've played with TBA before-- they're not always great, but their unpredictability is part of their charm). The show post looks like this--

Monday, April 28
ubik. @ The Central
w/ Mokshya & TBA
207 1st Ave S
Seattle WA 98104
$5:00 / 9:30 PM

Narwhal vs. Unicorn

I know it's short notice, but ubik. is playing the Narwhal vs. Unicorn party in South Seattle this Friday. The party shall rage, and the animals (or, people in animal costumes) will fight. Or wrestle. The details are still a little sketchy, but still... Narwhals vs. Unicorns. At the very least, it's going to be better than Alien vs. Predator. We're playing some time after 9:00.

(as a brief aside, I have no idea who Carisa Swenson is, but it couldn't believe I actually found a picture for this post)

click tracks suck

ubik is now about a week and a half, 20 tracks, and one "buy it and then return it to Guitar Center" microphone into recording our EP. It's been hard going under some incredibly DIY conditions... but we're working quickly and getting good results. I know, I know: we were supposed to be done by now, but our studio recordings ended up in the garbage and here we are again, starting over on our own. So that's that: we're half done with the recording, and we'll have a CD out pretty soon. We'll keep you posted...

Risen after 3 days and now eating brains

That was a hell of a weekend, eh? Much love to all for coming out to see us this weekend... it was a bit of an endurance run, sandwiching in a Zombie Walk to The Octagon between two shows. We know Monday shows are rough (and this one was especially rough), but it was great to see you all at the Re-Bar on monday night when you could just as easily have been in bed.

Okay-- back to working on the EP. We've got a line on a few places to play in April (we'll keep you posted on the shows page, of course), and we're looking forward to the next gig. See you guys soon.

Mailing list blues...

just sent out an email to the ubik.mailing.list, which we do before every show, and... well... I have to drop the disclaimer: if you've ever signed up for our mailing list, and you don't get email from ubik., we're really sorry. Most shows, people don't sign up for the mailing list until many drinks have been consumed-- sometimes, the email addresses aren't really legible (once, someone even spilled beer on the sheet, smearing a lot of the sign-ups), so every time we send out email, a number of addresses come back as Not Recognized. Anyway... if you're one of the people who signed up but never hears from ubik., we're really sorry about that. Tell us you want to be on the list, and we'll take care of it.

And... of course... show post:

Saturday, March 22
ubik. at Goofy's
w/ Only Human
& Holotype
8519 15th Ave. NW
Show at 9:00 / $Free!

...and...

Monday, March 24
ubik. at Re-bar
w/ Imperial Legions of Rome
& Greenriver Thrillers
1114 Howell St, Seattle
Show at 9:00 / $5

Oops on the Hunab Ku

So... late breaking news on the upcoming show on the 22nd-- we just saw Hunab Ku's final show with their current guitarist at El Corazon last night (which was a really cool show: Barefoot Barnacle played after them). Because Hunab Ku requires such an odd variety of sounds from their new guitarist (and such specific and uncommon gear to get those sounds) the band isn't going to be able to make the show at Goofy's next saturday. The new poster up at Only Human's page lists the lineup as them, us, and Holotype... and we hope to have a little more info on Holotype pretty soon.

ubik.bot

Check out our ubik.bot-- you can print and construct your own robot from the template provided here:

ubik.bot.template

... it prints bigger if you print it in Landscape (as opposed to Portrait), and you should be able to print it directly from your browser.

You should definitely bring one of these guys to one of our shows next week (remember the shows... you want to come to the shows...)

Recordings...

Well, our studio time was a partial bust, but: we have turned out a couple decent recordings and put them up on the site. ubik. has uploaded recordings of Seven Feet Under and External Retraction... so this ought to hold everyone over until we get a proper CD recorded. So-- hooray for having new material up

and don't forget, we have shows coming up on Saturday the 22nd and Monday the 24th.

the pros and cons of using Party as a verb

ubik's up at a Ballard house party this friday (March 7th), so this is another good one for anyone who can't make it to our shows in the bars and clubs we usually play. We've got a good lineup, and ubik. loves playing house parties-- the crowds are always excellent at the parties we've played, so we're excited about this one.

House Party!
w/ Year Of The Serpent,
& The Ever Changing Sky

The full listing is on our shows page.

So much for time off...

Well, taking February off did get a bit accomplished (the EP is well under way, and all sorts of happiness will come of this later. Not too much later, but not just now. Stay tuned), but ubik. is tackling March with a vengeance. We've got shows listed for the 22nd and 24th of the month, which is pretty keen, but here's some late-breaking news: we've just taken on a house party for Friday, March 7th. It's a little on the short notice side, so we're letting you know with quickness and urgency: house party in Ballard on the 7th.

Details will be forthcoming, for sure, but one of the important bits is this: playing parties is as close as ubik. comes to playing all-ages events at the moment (we'd like to do more all-ages, but they're hard to set up). So this is the first flare into the sky... contact us if you need location info, and...

as always...

... more to come

a little space

we've got a show booked a little further out, on March 22, which is a bigger break than ubik. usually takes... but we've got a pretty good reason. ubik. has recently emerged from the studio, and we're currently working out some mixing and overdubs-- we're not too far from scraping together some funds and shipping a disc off to the printers. It's not an easy job, but the work is getting done, and ubik will soon have a 6-song EP (which we hope to have in the Monkey Pub jukebox as soon as possible).

Late Sunday Night

We really have to send the love out to everyone who stayed for the show last night-- we went on pretty late, and last call actually went out while we were playing. Rough timing for the day when most people are recovering from their weekend and getting some sleep for Monday morning... so for the late partiers and late late supporters-- you guys rule!

Come hang with ubik. tomorrow

tons of fun to be had with this one tomorrow. The poster has all the relevant data, but here's the block of text again, just for kicks:


ubik. @ The Funhouse
206 5th Ave N
w/ Hunab Ku,
Spirit Of Radio,
& Thin the Herd
9:30PM / $5 at the door

video of Let's Hunt and Kill

Add to MySpace Profile

Yay-- Tyler uploaded some fun stuff on our MySpace. This video looks and sounds good enough to replace the little flash player on the songs page.

the voice is an instrument

most vocalists tend to play it pretty effects-free: the sound man might put a little reverb or chorus on the singer, but for the most part, it's pretty dry. As far as I know, there are two vocalists in town who really use effects and processing: one is ubik's own Michelle, the other is Mike from Hunab Ku. ubik's playing with Hunab Ku for the first time this sunday, making it the most vocally processed show you're likely to see any time soon.

Standard show-post format, anyone?

ubik. @ The Funhouse
206 5th Ave N
w/ Hunab Ku,
Spirit Of Radio,
& Thin the Herd
9:00PM / $5 at the door

We'll see you there... ubik knows you don't have plans for sunday night

helluva party

the octagon was rockin' last saturday... if you missed it, you missed one hell of a party. we played a wild set, in a line-up with KGB Suspect, Rad Touch, and Red Rapture-- the place was absolutely packed (any more people and you wouldn't be able to move in that house) and the stores were completely depleted when the doors closed and they started throwing everyone out.

A full on rager, all around, and the fantastic attendees did their part to Save The Octagon. The house is still alive, and will be around for many parties to come.

Save the Octagon

So, yes-- you are all invited to the Save the Octagon house show this saturday. ubik's playing with Rad Touch, Red Rapture, and KGB Suspect. The Octagon's got the booze-- all you need to do is bring the money. It's a benefit show, remember: all proceeds go to keeping The Octagon alive and functioning for future shows, and as a practice space for myriad local bands (including ourselves).

...at The Octagon-- let us know if you need to know where it is.

preserving the Rock

Wow-- thanks to everyone that came out to the Rendezvous on Saturday... tons and tons of people in that place. It's got to be the weirdest lineup we've ever played (three cheers for diversity), and Leeni took off before we could grab one of her CDs, but... dig this...

we taped the show!

ubik hasn't had any new recordings in ages, and we've finally got some more audio on tap, including a nice live version of Seven Feet Under, one of our most popular songs. New stuff is up at our songs page as well as uploaded on our MySpace, because... well... everyone looks on MySpace when they're looking for you...

but that's just the appetizer-- ubik's in the studio this week, hoping to lock down some recordings that aren't derived from mic's at the back of one of our shows. We're looking to record as much as we can in the time we've got, so we'll have more to upload soon. And then there will be CDs at shows. Pretty keen, eh?

Saturday Night! Make the "wooo" noise!

Okay, kids-- it's party time. Return of the Living Dead style. (not really the part with the zombies, but the other stuff. Naked dancing and stereos in the cemetery type thing). I know we've fed you this block of text before, but here it is:

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

That is obviously the best thing that ever happened, which is why you need to make the "wooo" noise and head out to the Rendezvous. We've got new sounds, new visuals, maybe an awesome For Dummies book, and we've washed our clothes (so you needn't stand in the back).

See you there...