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2005-01-07 DISASTER STRIKES, accident somewhere on the way to Phoenix

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Tour Journal:

Ok, here’s the story many of you probally have heard already about our accident….

We almost made it to Phoenix, but about 2 1/2 hours away (right outside of Flagstaff AZ) heading west on route 40 we got into a terrible accident. Apparently, with all the bad weather our country is currently getting, AZ is getting the worst of it…. we hit a 20 mile stretch of black ice that dozens other of accidents were on. We were one of them, eventually to wait forever on a virtual “emergency aid” list of police and tow trucks.

We started slipping on the highway somewhere in the mid evening (not going more than 45 or 50 mph), and were unable to control the car because the trailer was twisting unpredictably, and drifted offroad off a ditch and into the snowy dessert. Most of us were half asleep and braced for explosion or worse (particularly because we’re all sitting in every corner of the tourvan, having almost a dozen people in it, and cant see out of any window). Fortunately, our van careened safely in the dirt with no damage. Unfortunately, our trailer ripped off the hitch and flipped all over in the brush. The trailer was rendered completely useless… tires, axles, rims, siding, door…. pretty much everything. Some of our equipment had spilled out, but as fate would have it, our tetris-to-the-door ultra filled packing saved the day and 95% of our equipment. We actually ended up starting a bonfire with the busted pieces (bum style with the bass drum), on a police officer’s suggestion (he said make a fire to keep warm, not to burn the equipment that is). We used tumbleweeds and comic books for kindling.

So we were stranded in the pitch black freezing cold AZ wilderness, having originally waiting to reach this state with sunny and warm expectations. Almost immediately, the other accidents started happening. A couple of sedans just spun out on the side of the road and were ok, an 18 wheeler sailed across the opposite lane and into the far end of the ditch, and right before our eyes only a hundred or so feet away a truck totally flew through the desert wildly and was totaled as it smashed into a billboard sign. Thankfully, as far as we know, no one else was hurt. However, as some of us rushed to try to aid the truck, we ran into a hidden barb wire fence in the dark, and got caught (Mark from ECC looked like a scared calf). That was when the absurdity of the situation began to set it. We really couldn’t believe the carnage surrounding us (it seriously was carnage, as much as we’ve experienced at least).

Thanks in advance to everyone we called (there was a lot of you). Your potential help and support was appreciated, even if we were rushed and glib over the phone. We ended up staying with Phil from the band I Hate You When You’re Pregnant, in Flagstaff. We had to get a flatbed utility truck to haul our trailer (hastily rigged shut with our equipment back in it). That smashed trailer is now sitting in an abandoned parking lot near his house, its junkyard fate to be determined still (thats a whole different story).

Below are some pictures of the whole ordeal. Note that the damage looked a LOT worse in person, and if we are smiling, its probally because we are freezing cold/delerious.

OUR NEW PRESS PHOTO

TRYING TO KEEP DELERIOUSLY WARM (there are comic books as kindling in there)

TRAILER = DESTROYED

There are lots more pics of the accident on the following link:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v617/chromelodeon/tourvan%20accident/

Wish us luck and support if you can. We’ve shelled out a bunch of money, and also picked up a Uhaul, and having missed only the Phoenix show, our US tour with The Evolution Control Committee continues!

Photos:

2005-01-19 The Setlist, Warrensburg, MO

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Tour Journal:

All things considered, this was a fantastic final touch to the tour. Mig50 of the Shizz really came through in the end, when we were pretty broke and beaten down. Show had a good crowd, and we earned a good chunk to provide return-trip gas money (although our tank is still leaking). Buffet and bar-hopping as well. Thankfully Cameron lived only 2 blocks away…. and took a billion awesome pictures (trying to get them soon)…

Videos:

Youtube:

Photos:

2005-05-21 The Talking Head, Baltimore, MD

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Setlist:

  1. Polygon Sun [4:38]
  2. Aluminum [5:53]
  3. Triangular [10:01]
  4. One [5:12]
  5. Five [5:47]
  6. Six [3:46]
  7. The Parasprinter [3:03]

Audio:

Flyers:

Tour Journal:

Whoops… we barely made it out of Philadelphia…we had to get the van inspected (it passed!), and had to drive really far to pick up the trailer. After stocking up on supplies at Scam Ash we hit the road with the usual late start (thanks for the hookup Tom!).

The show tonight went very well for our first out of town date on this tour. Our new set has come together nicely already, and we’ve found new friends with Karmella’s Game. Also, we ended up completely sparked thanks to the bartender Liz dishing out way too many free “Long Island Spark Teas”. Seriously sparked. Check the pictures at this link for proof:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v617/chromelodeon/3rd%20US%20tour/

Photos:

2005-05-22 The Jerk Store, Baltimore, MD

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Setlist:

  1. Polygon Sun [3:54]
  2. Aluminum [5:54]
  3. Triangular (aborted) [1:50]
  4. The Parasprinter [4:28]
  5. One [4:41]

Audio:

Tour Journal:

Our second show in the city with Temp Sound Solutions… the space was this strange half-warehouse run by old head punks. Had potential, but it was an off night and an overpacked bill of touring acts.

Had an optimistic last supper with Shawn Phase before leaving for TN that night, the real tour has fully begun…

Pictures!!!
http://photobucket.com/albums/v617/chromelodeon/3rd%20US%20tour/may%2022%20baltimore/

Photos:

2005-05-23 The Hideaway, Johnson City, TN

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Setlist:

  1. Polygon Sun [3:24]
  2. Aluminum [5:56]
  3. Triangular [8:20]
  4. One [5:01]
  5. Five [5:43]
  6. Six [3:43]

Audio:

Tour Journal:

Monday night in a small town= dead zone. Once again we get the shaft from being on a bill entirely filled with touring acts… its a shame that even though most promoters realize this is a mistake, it still happens regardless. We kept up good spirits with relaxing all day in the hotel with none other than LITTLE CEASAR and his royal pizza. Fine pizza that we conned out of him.

Pictures!!

Photos:

2005-06-02 Modified Arts, Phoenix, AZ

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Tour Journal:
For all the hype we’ve heard on this venue for a good while, it came up to par. Really nice space, with decent folk running it. Show once again could have been better, but we had a small number of friends and fans come out. Seeing the Minibosses in their own hometown was a bit of a personal accomplishment, since on our last tour we crash and never actually made it to our Phoenix show. We really impressed by the New Mexico Group The Coma Recovery.

We’ve been discouraged by the number of times on this tour we’ve found ourselves on a bill with all out-of-town supporting acts. Hopefully the west coast and our return trip through the midwest-to-new england will provide as they have before…. breaking even is becoming tough with these west coast gas prices.

Had a great time later in the night, staying with our friend Aaron of the Minibosses…. got to shower and cook real food for the first time since Texas (and for some of us, Arkansas). Copious amounts of video game and tv show theme songs were screamed until late at night. Also, most of the lizards in Aaron’s backyard no longer have tails.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v617/chromelodeon/3rd%20US%20tour/june%201%20phoenix%20AZ/

video of the pushup contest coming soon…

Photos:

2005-06-06 Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, UT

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Tour Journal:

Yikes… our 3rd time back at Kilby Court, and yet again it was scheduled for a monday night. And it did ok attendance wise. And a 3rd time in a row the venue couldn’t offer a buck for gas. When things like this happen, it seems obvious that others would take up some punk rock ethics and shell out at least $20 for the depraved touring act from far away (with all our EIGHT members needing food, and ridiculous gas hog tourvan with trailer). We ourselves have done so in the past when on the opposite side of the show. Its absolutely brutal on us. But we have higher expectations for the latter half of this tour…

We’ve sunk into major gas debt from having to drive to SLC, and then having to drive to Denver the next day. Thanks to Jacob at Boing House for still being around to house us.

Pictures:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v617/chromelodeon/3rd%20US%20tour/june%206%20salt%20lake%20city/

Here’s some pics from yesterday… we had a day off in Vegas… thanks to Joie for putting up with us yet again, we generally behaved.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v617/chromelodeon/3rd%20US%20tour/june%205%20las%20vegas/\

Photos:

  • June 5 2005 – Las Vegas
  • June 6 2005 – Salt Lake City

2005-07-03 First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA

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Setlist:

  1. The Parasprinter [3:39]
  2. Polygon Sun [3:48]
  3. Aluminum [5:55]
  4. Triangular [8:20]
  5. One [5:23]
  6. Five [5:52]
  7. Zelda Medley (with Minibosses) [6:50]

Audio:

Video:

Youtube:

Tour Journal:
Wow…. this was the best welcome home reception we could have ever hoped for. We headlined to over 350 sweaty insane persons… and did a secret dual encore with THE MINIBOSSES…. couldn’t have gone any better… just check out the pictures and video below to catch a glimpse of what went down!

http://good-evil.net/temporaryfiles/minibosses-7-3-05/

(the last video in particular is amazing…. listen for the overmodulated crowd noises when they recognize the tune we’re playing)

Concert Photos:

Candid Photos:

2005-11-12 The Khyber, Philadelphia, PA

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Photos:

Press Coverage:
Originally published on http://dragonballyee.blogs.com on 2006-11-16.
When was the last time I saw a guy rocking out on a piano-tar and a double deck of keyboards, another guy on accordion, a guy on another double deck of keyboards, two guitars and a full set of heavy metal drums? Oh yeah, Saturday night at The Khyber. I rocked out to the tunes of Chromelodeon, a group of rockers inspired by soundtracks to video games. I’m not talking about the new ones with songs from the Top 40 stations. I’m talking about the 8-bit systems with some serious MIDI sound.

Lady goes to grad school with the piano-tarist and suggested we head out to see them and I’m glad we did. I have a flickr set of fourteen photos from their performance. I just noticed that Flickr has now enabled commenting on a set of photos and not just the individual ones, cool.

I wasn’t able to identify the songs nor the obscure games they came from except for one which I’m confident was the theme to the original Zelda for NES. I must say that the most rocking-est performer was the Kevin Smith lookalike accordionist. He showed up late, they announced from his own wedding, and just jumped on stage with his overcoat and flopping hair. He gestured to someone to hand him a case and out popped the accordion. The crowd went wild. Especially wild all throughout the forty minute set, blue glasses superfan #1. He was rocking so hard, his glasses fell off his face, but not before he caught them with his own hair. The piano-tarist reminded me a lot of Arty Ziff from The Simpsons – the same hair. The double keyboardist very much reminded us of the guy from Wayne’s World who was about to spew in the Mirthmobile.

I would be remiss in posting on a video game music inspired band without mentioning Minibosses introduced to me by that 1L Heller, AK.

2006-01-14 MAGFest 4, Charlottesville, VA

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Setlist:

  1. Zillion [6:03]
  2. Sonic & Knuckles [2:25]
  3. Balloon Kid [3:33]
  4. Ashtar [2:02]
  5. Finale [3:04]
  6. U.N. Squadron [4:52]
  7. Ecco The Dolphin 2 [2:02]
  8. Wanderers From Ys [4:20]
  9. Doom [5:57]
  10. Voder [5:29]

Audio:

Video:

Youtube:

Concert Photos:

Candid Photos:

2006-02-xx Practice Session

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Setlist:

  1. Tuneup [2:42]
  2. Triangular [8:01]
  3. [unknown song] Take 1 [4:43]
  4. [unknown song] parts runthrough [7:23]
  5. [unknown song] Take 2 [4:43]
  6. [unknown song] Take 3 [3:18]
  7. [unknown song] Take 4 [o:40]
  8. [unknown song] Take 5 [2:08]
  9. [unknown song] Take 6 [1:21]
  10. [unknown song] Take 7 [1:17]
  11. [unknown song] Take 8 [2:19]

Audio:

Photos:

2006-04-01 Video Armageddon, State College, PA

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Setlist:

  1. Zillion (soundcheck) [0:28]
  2. Voder [5:56]
  3. Polygon Sun [3:48]
  4. Aluminum [5:53]
  5. Triangular [7:28]
  6. One [4:35]
  7. Five [5:45]
  8. Six [3:45]
  9. Sonic & Knuckles [2:04]
  10. Balloon Kid [2:39]
  11. Doom [5:18]
  12. U.N. Squadron [4:56]

Video:

Youtube:

Flyers:

Photos:

2006-06-02 The Fire, Philadelphia, PA

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Videos:

Tour Journal:

PHILLY TOUR LAUNCH SHOW!

Thanks to everyone who came out and our friend bands that played… the turnout was really good despite the heavy rain. Apologies that the visuals weren’t up and running yet, but hope the new material was well enjoyed… we will be taking it on the road the whole month and on!

Our tour-temp drummer Pat (aka Bucky) has officially been initiated by fire! Pun intended.

Photos:

Press Coverage:
Originally published on www.philadelphiaweekly.com on May 31 2006. Written by Doug Wallen.
Chromelodeon kick off their fourth cross-country tour during a period of transition. Graduated from local Bloodlink Records and looking for a bigger label, the octopus-armed instrumentalists want to shake the habit of playing old video game music, creating the side project Sprite Slow-down to specialize in that stuff. That means a return to the full-throttle lights-out epics that first got the band’s name out there. Still, they’re not above catering to the geek contingent-the crux of their tour is a performance at the huge anime convention A-KON 17. And when the band is cornered, don’t be surprised if some Ninja Gaiden slips out.

Originally published in Philadelphia City Paper on June 1 2006. Written by A.D. Amorosi.
Philly’s rulers of GameBoy-driven grime, icy cinematic spacejunk and Theremin-stroked chaos won’t be around for awhile. Not because two of its crew just had babies. Rather, Chromelodeon—whose recent Heart of Sawdust is an A.D. household fave—will be touring. Along the way they’ll hit places like A-KON 17, America’s largest anime convention (they’ll play to 15,000+ and lecture regarding fringe media). Chrome-dome Ryan Soloby says, “We’re so well-known in these convention circles. I’m in talks with several others spanning into 2007.”

2006-06-04 Alans (The 1619 House), Williamstown, NJ

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Tour Journal:
It was great to go back to Alan’s (aka the 1619 House)… we haven’t played there in something like 2 years. Felt like old stomping grounds. Thanks to everyone who has supported our shows and departure this weekend (especially those who brought food… so rad, so rad). Too bad the rain followed us. Lets hope we can escape by heading south (where a mouth’s a mouth). too much. Next time, we promise.

Photos:


2006-06-06 The Junkyard, Richmond, VA

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Tour Journal:
As everyone should be aware, today was 6-6-6 day… and not coincidentally enough, our van’s mileage literally rolled over to 66666 at a rest stop (we’ll have pictures up sometime, its been tricky to get online). This show turned out to be packed and roaringly drunk… which was a great equation. We ended up meeting none other than Chris Berdoz, creator of our new image and tour poster (the anime group shot). Good times, and the van is getting good mileage (thanks to an expensive pretour tuneup). Happy 666!

Check out some show pics that fan Mr Magfest took below!

Photos:

2006-06-21 Garfield Artworks, Pittsburg, PA

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Tour Journal:
Our final stop before heading home. Was able to see a handful of friends and get some all-you-can-eat-crummy-pizza and finally watch POINT BREAK, the brunt of inside jokes for almost 3 weeks now. The show went ok, definitely fell into the small disappointing catagory of the tour, but to give the people and the venue credit, we definitely were supported both live and gas wise.

Now we can finally go home…. once again, the miserable all night drive from Pittsburg to Philly lays ahead of us. We will see the sun rise in our own city.

Photos:

2006-08-27 First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA

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Photos:

Press Coverage:

Originally published on www.philadelphiaweekly.com on August 23 2006. Written by Jennifer Kelly.
It’s arcade night at the Church. Philly’s Chromelodeon will take the joystick early on, going for a new high score with their multi-instrumental, Game-Boy-enhanced brand of overstuffed spazz punk. But the smart money’s on Spencer Seim of Hella’s new(ish) project the Advantage, which play classic video game themes like Super Mario Brothers 2 and Mega Man 2 on the standard rock lineup of two guitars, bass and drums. French Toast, as far as we know, have no video game songs, and as such are the odd band out.

Originally published on phillyist.com on August 25 2006. Written by Jim Genzano.
Music in Video Games, and Video Games in Music

metroidmetal08-25-06.jpg

If you read Phillyist regularly (and if not, why not?), you’re probably already aware that we’re partial to both music and video games, so when the two come packaged together, we get rather excited. And that’s just what’s happening at a couple of upcoming shows at First Unitarian.

First up on Sunday night is the Advantage/French Toast/Chromelodeon show. French Toast has nothing to do with video games as far as we know, but they do have Jerry Busher of Fugazi, which is pretty cool. The Advantage, on the other hand, are a straight-up Nintendo cover band who play great versions of the themes from Megaman 2, Contra, Metroid, Super Mario Bros. 2, Blaster Master, and…well, we could go on, but it would take a while; according to the R5 site, the band’s ambition is to record every Nintendo game song ever. For those of you scoffing at the idea of playing Nintendo music, listen to some of the samples on The Advantage and R5 sites. Some of that music is actually really fantastic, and sounds even better when you play it super-loud on guitars and drums.

But after you’ve covered the classics, what then? Chromelodeon takes it to the next level with original music inspired by video games. They have eight people in their band, one of them on accordion, and their live show is apparently quite a spectacle, including visual accompaniment via a hacked Game Boy. Awesome! The music, if it matters, is epic instrumental fantasy metal with a great atmosphere to it.

And the video game fun doesn’t end Sunday night. The following Tuesday, Final Fantasy is coming to the church! Yes, the name was inspired by the famous series of role-playing video games, but the music not so much; it’s actually got a quirky, orchestral, Sufjan Stevens-type of sound to it. Still, the lyrics are quite geeky enough, with some serious fantasy and sci-fi flavoring – “The Chronicles of Sarnia” talks of water gods and nymphs, while “Arctic Circle” repeatedly warns us, “shields up, shields up.” Did we mention that one of the main purposes of Final Fantasy’s latest album, He Poos Clouds, was to “attempt to modernize each of the eight D&D schools of magic?”

Final Fantasy’s sound is just as dramatic and epic as Chromelodeon’s – perhaps even more so – but with more of a pop vibe. Oh, and if you’re still not excited about Final Fantasy, you should know that it’s composed pretty much entirely of Owen Pallett, the guy who plays violin for awesome indie band Arcade Fire. The first show sold out, so R5 added another one later that night. Rock!