New EP!!!!! Hilarious Rarities. You have to have this.

Huge news for all the Chop enthusiasts.  We've just released a Rarities EP for your purchasing/listening pleasure. It includes all our best joke songs (read: the stuff that makes us laugh) as well as our special christmas tune. Just in time for yon holidays. Buy it on itunes!



You should probably get it just for this awesome cover:

Without getting all misty eyed here....this EP really nails the essence of The Chop, which was joking around with great friends and making songs to crack each other up. To understand what our little band-experiement was about you really must hear this.

here's the tracklist including a short description of each tune and its context in Chop lore:

1. Born in Wilmington
The Chop's homage to their hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. To be sung drunk, preferably. Feel free to write your own verses and perform your own versions. The goal is to get this baby into every Wilmingtonian's consciousness and make it a traditional tune that everyone in Delaware knows. You can help with this...Do it!!!!!!!!!

2. Enter the Chop
Part of an early Chop-days songwriting challenge for every man to write a song that ended with the lyric "I killed you with the chop".   An early recording triumph, complete with weird time signatures / weird guitar harmonies / weird vocals from Jimmy.

3. The Chop, with Love (reprise)
Another song from the aforementioned challenge.  Originally written as a punk/metal tune that was somewhat unloved for it's noisy assault on the senses but beloved for it's lyrical content, we quickly decided that a jazz reprise was the way to go. This was on our Gold Stars "release" but it makes it's digital debut here!

4. Buffalo Balls Magrans

Originally conceived while drunkenly strolling down Fulton Street after a three man thanksgiving celebration, BBalls was then quickly penned and meticulously recorded amidst much laughter and merriment. A true chop classic that all five of us had a strong hand in creating, with Johnny as inspiration, James and Rob on lyrics and chords, and Phil and Tom with the spot on arrangement/production.  Dig those awesome backup vocals. I find it impossible not to smile while listening to this.

5. Karate for Christmas
The Chop's christmas song. Conceived "title first" then written and recorded all in the span of about 72 hours...instant classic for your holiday pleasure. Chock full of egg nog and mistletoe and nunchuks. Or something.

 

The End of The Chop

Dear Everyone,

I'd like to tell you the story of The Chop (through my eyes, anyway).

Once upon a time, long long ago, I desperately wanted to be in a band. I had moved to San Francisco and tried to hook up with other players over the course of two years but nothing ever came of it. It was more difficult than you might think to find people who were both willing to play/practice regularly and were in any way people you might want to spend your time with. Then I had a revelation: Starting a band with your best friends means nonstop fun, right? (even during revelations, I'm not 100% sure of myself)

A little history:
I met James when I was 10. We'd been hanging out consistently ever since. He met Johnny in highschool at about the same time I met Tom and Phil (who, separately, had been friends since they were 5). We became a group within the group, real tight. (We considered robbing banks as an elite unit to finance our endless summer, but instead got caught up playing NFL Blitz and lost interest). The five of us were brothers in every meaningful sense.

Johnny and I came to California together. Two years later, James announced he was leaving New York for San Francisco, and this was all the impetus I needed.
I approached Johnny who, at this moment in his life, knew near absolute zero about the playing of any instruments. I told him not to think about the answer before he gave it. "Do you want to play bass in a band?". One great thing about John is that he responds astoundingly well to this type of adventure talk and will approach near any dare with an unmatched zeal. He said yes, whereupon I solemnly nodded and began teaching him "the bass" on my electric guitar. It was slow going, but it was fun because we were friends.

James moved to town and I immediately went to work on him, talking up our then non-existent band. He agreed to start learning keys (again, basically from scratch). This arrangement (the three of us) went on for about 7 months with practice on Wednesdays and very few actual "songs" being played. It was slow-going and sometimes extremely frustrating...but we were such great friends and we were getting to hang out and work on something together, so it was good.

We hooked up with a drummer. He answered my ad that said "own drums? that's a start" or something in that vein. He was inexperienced like the rest of us and seemed to fit in. Phil moved to the city and stayed with me while looking for a place. I don't think I allowed him through my front door before I was suggesting he play guitar with us.

OK, at this point the band consists of Me (first band, but I'd been playing guitar for about 7 years), John (learning "bass" from a guitar player (me) for about 7 months), James (learning keys on his own for about 6 months), an inexperienced drummer we met on CL, and now Phil (extremely talented and seasoned guitar player). The four of us were the best of friends, so it was pretty fun. We started working on original tunes, the first batch included Taste of Luxury and Carry the Wood. Phil recommended we try a Talking Heads song (Slippery People) and the first time we played it it sounded (somewhat surprisingly) like a song.

This was the first moment it felt like we were in an actual band.

Tom showed up in San Francisco a month or two later. He was a talented and experienced bass player (he had played in lots of bands with Phil, and I had seen him perform countless times). Here's what happened next, in very quick succession: Tom was bummed that we were all in a band without him (understandable). Mysterious drummer chap left town and left me his drums (quite a winfall, really). Tom said "I don't know how to play drums, like, at all." Tom taught himself drums in three weeks. The five of us played all together for the first time on my 26th birthday (May 8th, 2006).

Progress was slow sometimes. We didn't always sounds great. It's difficult when skill and experience levels throughout the band are so disparate...but it was always fun because we sincerely all loved hanging out with each other. Eventually we played a show, then some more shows. I think that at many of the shows we sounded awesome. Our technically "inexperienced" band sounded great. This was it. My revelation from way back was being completely validated. Being in a band with all your friends was the best possible option, regardless of how technically skilled any single person was at their own instrument. Sounding good and having a good time were really about being with cool people and wanting to work on it. The guys who were just starting on their respective instruments (three out of five, if you're counting) really stepped up, practiced hard, and made it work. It was awesome on every level.

So we did that for awhile. More than likely, if you're reading this, you saw The Chop during this time. We played a whole bunch of shows in a few different states over a couple of years and wore matching outfits sometimes and did covers that we thought were cool. We did a 60s prom and two great Halloween shows in costume and played lots of great rooms (including Bottom of the Hill, which was to my mind the coolest club in SF, one of the first places I went to see music in California, and an almost impossibly distant goal at the band's inception).

"Fun" was always the primary goal. (Fun for us, mainly, but always in hope that our fun translated into fun for the audience). We barreled over the rough edges with an endless supply of energy and enthuasiasm.

Everything eventually ends, however. Phil made the decision to move back to Philadelphia. Johnny's interest waned as his various responsibilities changed. We played our last show as the original five friends from Delaware more than a year ago at Cafe Du Nord, billed as a release for our record We Want It All.

Shortly after that we recruited Aaron (Levin) to play drums, Tom moved to bass (the instrument he was the most skilled at), and we were a four-piece with one guitar (me). We were a new band with about 700 copies of a CD from an old band. With this in mind, we played about twenty-five shows as The Chop in order to promote the disc and get rid of the inventory. This took about a year.

Last fall James (amicably) opted to stop playing with the band. We picked up Eric Murriguez as a second guitar player. Now we are a four-piece band again, with two guitars. I am the only person from the original lineup playing his original instrument (recall that Tom switched to bass). Hence, The Chop is most certainly no longer in existence. As the new band preps songs for a full length album to be recorded sometime this year, we were offered a great show opening for Japanese band Polysics at our favorite venue Bottom of the Hill. This seemed like a great time to both take the gig and announce the retirement of The Chop name even though, for reasons I've elaborated on above, The Chop (at least, as it was first conceived) could reasonably be argued to have ended some time ago. Thanks to everyone who helped make it fun.

The Chop ends (officially) and a new band begins slash continues. We're arguing about names now...

This band is:

Robert Kassees: vox/guitar

Tom Monaghan: bass / vox

Aaron Levin: drums / vox

Eric Murriguez: guitar / vox

sincere,
rob

Mythical Entreaties and Your Tuesday Night Homework

First, the news:

Disheartening News:

James Keyboardelstein Kafader ("Jimmy Keys") has opted to discontinue his tenure with our (admittedly corrupt) organization. It was a good run. The Chop is now half Delawarean, half Californian, because of the...

Uplifting / Life-Affirming News:

The Chop has officially returned to proper, double-guitar strength rock and roll with the addition of Eric Murriguez.

The new band has gone into full cocoon mode for a while, working diligently at becoming something even cooler and more manly in stature before emerging Wilford Brimley style in a misty pool of jelly smoke. Many secrets are buried in these mines, dudes.

We're working on a full length album now...all the songs are written (or close), and about 8 are (mostly) arranged and ready to record, so we're just trying to finish up the other 4 or 5 before heading into a proper studio to record this puppy sometime in the early spring.

In the meantime, go check out the separate band we now fully encompass (the Lesotho to our South Africa, if you please) Aaron and Eric's band Pegataur, playing Tuesday night (12/8/09) at Bottom of the Hill. We'll all be there.

Most Glorious Facebook Invite

Covers for Hire: Round 3!

Dear Cryptozoologists!

The hits keep coming in our continuing effort to defame ourselves by recording your specific requests! Proceeds from these go to our recording costs on album #2, which is in the works now. Request one of your own here. Do this now...no really, we insist.

This Saturday night we're playing at Hemlock Tavern on Polk Street in San Francisco.

It's a party for the 20th Anniversary of the 1989 Earthquake! There will be earthquake-appropriate rock songs and even an appropriately named opening band.

My First Earthquake and Goodbye Nautilus are both playing with us. We're even having a gnarly guest guitarist (Eric, of Pegataur) come up to rock some numbers with us. If you're in jail, break out. (!)

Afterward The Chop will be descending all 39 steps into the underground laboratory of your heart to record a proper follow up to We Want It All, so this will be our last live show for some lengthy amount of time.

This week's "Covers for Hire" entry is a Ned Ryerson-style doozy from 1988.

"Straight Up" (Paula Abdul cover):

Keep them coming, you glamorous bastards!

Disguised as a prole,

Winston

(post script: I know this is from a different video, but I always thought the relationship dynamic between her and MC Scat Cat was a lot steamier than with Arsenio)

Covers For Hire: Round 2

Listen up! As far as my (very limited) research tells me, we are the only rock band ever to attempt something like this!  We are taking requests via our merch page on www.TheChopRocks.com to learn and record ANY SONG EVER, at your noble behest.

Go there now and tell us what to do next, or pass the link to this blog post on!!!!

We've been a little tied up with gigs and the like, but here's a cover (by request!!) of the classic 1992 Sir Mix-a-Lot jam "Baby Got Back"

Also-if you are in Oakland SATURDAY (9/26/09)...come to The Stork Club!  We're well oiled and chomping at the bit.  Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Sue will be there, will you?

Covers for Hire!

Dear Surface Dwellers,

Here's what's up.  As part of our current effort to save up a little money to record a second album we are currently offering to cover any song, (to record it and send it to you) right HERE on our website.

We debuted this about 2 weeks ago and here's what we recorded so far (songs by request via the website).

"Womanizer" (Britany Spears cover)

"Somebody To Love" (Queen cover)

We're ready for more.  Lay them on us.  Do this now.

Barring that, pass on or repost this link below wherever you can, let other people know what we're trying to do, and help your old buddies in the chop out.

http://www.thechoprocks.com/wwia

We're back to the stage next Friday (September 4th) at Bottom of the Hill.  We've got like 4 new songs and a sweet new cover we're gonna play (not one of the ones above).

Attend this show.  Get tickets HERE

Also, if you'd like a personal copy of either of these covers, just write and let us know.

New Everything and a couple of Friday shows!

All summer, we've been writing songs and trying to figure ways to raise a little money to record a new album (hopefully) in January.  To that end, we've totally revamped our merch options and James designed a sweet new T-shirt (see halloween-y design above)!  Check out this plus all the new merch and website stuff HERE.

For 20 bucks, you get this new T-shirt, a physical copy of our (we want it all), a digital copy of the album, a (brand) new Mix CD from one of us,  a unique and very personal letter written in Spanish, an autographed portrait from one of our unforgettable photoshoots (suitable for framing), buttons, stickers, and a special surprise from us!  What value!  If that option doesn't appeal to you...we have lots of other options, big and small, including one where we'll learn and record any song...just for you.

Please take a look and consider helping us out by buying some of our really awesome stuff, particularly this T-shirt, which will make you awesome.

AND...as a special treat for even looking at that merch page...here's a song demo from said forthcoming album for you to listen to.

"Any Other Lover"

SHOWS:

THIS FRIDAY: (8/14) James and I are doing (separate) solo sets at Brainwash Cafe.  This is James' solo on stage debut! Powerhouse of the upstroke Igor (of Coup de Ska and The Titan-Ups) will also be performing...and it's FREE.  Starts at 8PM.  Brainwash Cafe is at 1199 Folsom Street (@7th) in San Francisco.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH! The Chop returns from summer break with a slew of new songs and an awesome venue/night/show.

Buy tickets to this show!

Afterward we will be in full force crumble cake celebration mode proper!  come do it with us.

lovingly, 

robot from the ancient past who's come to help us with our problems so we can be free. (please note: he is not a hero, nor a saviour...simply a man/robot whose circumstances went beyond his control.  specifically, he's kilroy.)

Stallone Movie Marathon

Yo dudes.

As you may recall--we are on summer break...but The Chop doesn't stop working.  Ever.

James and I are playing an acoustic show at Brainwash in SF on August 14th.  Our good compadre Igor is also playing.  It is free...and you'll be able to hear some of the new songs we've been working on with the full band, plus Hot Chip and They Might Be Giants covers and maybe some Styx if you're lucky.  It'll be James' solo stage debut...so you have to come see what's what and have some beers with us besides.  Do it!

Then we're playing a huge show on Friday September 4th, opening for Triple Cobra and PunchFace at Bottom of the Hill.  That will really be awesome...should have something like 5 new original songs for that, and we're involved in some intense cerebral discussion as to in which manner we should rock. The general thought is "hard".

Oh yeah--that picture is us at Grant and Green singing "Born in Wilmington" with fellow Delawareans Nikki and Louie.  Listen to the song here:

Things overheard at practice this week:

"Those ba-ba-ba's are killing me. You gotta cut that [guitar] solo shorter"

"My amp's in the perfect spot...way too loud for me and just regular loud for everyone else"

 - "Now you're thinking like a guitar player"

"maybe this part should just be all [guitar] feedback" (sarcastic)

as tango loves cash, so do we love you.

rob-a-lon 5 out!

New record plans and our summer break

Dear Fun-Lovers,

Many things happening. First, we made some demos for our upcoming album, and had lots of fun doing so.  We posted one we're quite excited about here, it's called "Radio Doctor (part I)":

http://tinyurl.com/laku27

Listen to that and please pass along the link or repost it if you can.

We did this recording ourselves with minimal time and equipment, but are really happy at how it turned out and excited to make it bigger and better when we record it again for the album.

We're on summer break right now writing and arranging the second half of a new album, and are trying to make/save money for that inevitably expensive process.  If you feel like supporting us (via paypal donation), go here to do so.  Even one dollar is significant to us and our rock and roll related cause.  Your collective generosity consistently astounds us.  Thank you.

We've booked an amazing comeback show on Friday, September 4th at Bottom of the Hill opening for two awesome bands, Triple Cobra and Punchface.  This show will really be epic.

Observe the checklist:

1. venue = bottom of the hill, our favorite spot in SF, no question

2. night = Friday, undisputed king of all nights

3. setlist = a bunch of brand new songs that we are very stoked to play

4. approach = fully theatrical and energetic after a nice break from being onstage

5. other acts = high energy, crowd-enflaming, full glam spectaculars (seriously)

6. age limitations = none.  all are welcome and encouraged to have fun.

7. FRIDAY night at BOTTOM OF THE HILL with TRIPLE COBRA.  We are very happy.

Buy yourself some tickets because this one is likely to SELLOUT.

We have lots of other plans and ideas for this summer and beyond...more details as they are confirmed, but suffice to say we are discussing how to release more songs of more varieties all leading up to and as promotion for our second album being recorded/released sometime next year.  Stay tuned.

Here's  a little poster I threw together....bigger and better promotional tools to come as the date draws nigh.

it was cold and it rained, thus I felt like an actor,

rob

If you enjoy hearing about the chop's day to day (and occasionally minute to minute) activities via the prism of this writer's brain, follow us on twitter at twitter.com/thechoprocks

Video Representations! and a FREE show tonight!

Despair not!

Recall that I taped our show at The Hemlock Tavern last month on my birthday (Mayth)...it was, as previously noted, a raucous good time filled with cake, jagermeister, and olivia newton john.

We are playing tonight for FREE at Grant and Green and then taking the summer off.

Some things some or all of us are gonna do on our summer vacation:

1. Go to Europe

2. Practice kung fu

3. Begin a culinary (education) program

4. Write comedy songs

5. Write rap songs

6. Write regular songs

7. Jump rope

8. Wonder where the water ice is

9. Fly across the country to see Steely Dan

10. Procure aforementioned water ice in quantity

check out some videos of the Mayth show (more on our youtube page!)

It seems as though the cat has been caught by the very person who was trying to catch him!

rob

Four Lecherous Men and a Little Lady Tour: Recap Dénouement

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Four Lecherous Men and a Little Lady Tour: Recap, Part Deux!

We got to Eugene on Friday afternoon looking to rest up and relax before our campaign of nailing balls to walls commenced for the evening.  After being sorely disappointed by finding a severe exception to the "culture rating of the town is inversely correlated to the coolness of the local goodwill" in some town who's name I purposely forgot, we quickly agreed that that the old adage "the exception proves the rule" was a retarded bit of word phrasing trickery most likely first perpetrated by some sly bastard who found a way to confuse his convo-pponent just long enough to hop away unscathed in a cloud of complete nonsense.  

Our old (college) roommate Steve was an excellent host, providing burgers as well as outdoor sleeping arrangements.  Our stink factor at this point was perhaps a 5, no more. A couple of showers were taken and we retired to the porch to go over a couple of tunes.

We heard our pal Marty was coming down from Portland and decided to knock the rust off of our Steely Dan cover ("Kings"), since Martin Walsh being at the show constitutes our most Dan-receptive audience ever.  It went steely, by the way.

Inside the house, Jimmy got very excited about getting behind the wheels of his eighth favorite instrument (right behind "broken organ beat box machine").  He cranked through a quick version of "Tom Sawyer" and then headed to the club.

Check our moves!

James' star-tambo-face-obscure meets "the lean"

Tom finds that clapping helps him enjoy himself more and recalls him of youthful trysts!

Rob's patented stutter-step.  This is right before I knock James' amp setup right the fuck over mid-song.  Grace be the watch word, aspiring stage prancers!

After the show, we rolled on back to Steve's pad where I must admit I passed out almost immediately on a couch in a room where a drum kit was being played until very late.  Pointedly un-rock and roll, but a lingering sickness and sinister college device did me in post-haste.  The rest of the boys (and Ariana) partied down for several more hours and reported it grand.

Awake again we headed off to Seattle! More pictures an all-time Chop highlight (courtesy of Aaron) yet to come.

continued tomorrow....

Four Lecherous Men and a Little Lady Tour: Recap, Part 1!

Like any proper tour, this one began with the mindless, random destruction of our equipment.

Our big blue van ("One of Many") has an interesting tendency to take on more and more household items, dirty clothing, and completely useless knick knacks (all collectively known as "junk") the longer it's in a certain band member's possession.  It is a phenomenal ability, really, and it leads to fun like the kind you see above...a stringless, hopeless, utterly value-less guitar is smashed (partly out of spite) by one Heart-thRob.  Spring cleaning, as they say...is an important aspect of van ownership.

The below picture displays perhaps the most exciting sector of rock band membership, the loading dock.  Such a professional operation as ours has lots of expensive, fully-functioning gear and it all needs to be carefully loaded into (and subsequently unloaded from) "One of Many" before we can properly rock any socks.  Notice Tom's excitement...which will not be mirrored upon our return to the space late Sunday evening.

Old Ironsides in Sacramento is a fun place.  We've played there before.  We laid some sweet pink stencils in Sac-town, sipped New Castles, and sold a T-shirt to the bartender.  The bill was a good one, we played in the middle of Ahoy and Starring Morgan Freeman, and like any great artists, took our money and hit the road.

We popped out several hours later in Eugene, Oregon, fully prepared to "pretend learn" a few songs on the porch, to "steal" toilet paper from the bar, and to "Lady and the Tramp" a few Slim Jims in the parking lot...

To be continued....

Mayth Show and The Murky Origins of The Chop

We really had a tremendous time last Friday for my (Rob's) birthday at the Hemlock Tavern.

Everything about the evening was terrific.  Rob wore his birthday shirt and it was (as you might expect) quite appropriate.  This May 8th also marked the official 3rd anniversary of The Chop. Who can believe it's been 3 long years.......

(flashback sequence)

In truth, we toiled away for some 8 months leading up to that, primarily dealing with such relatively minor factors as 'no drummer', and 'no experience playing instruments' right up until April 2006 or so.  Around that time Phil moved to SF, we had our brief stint with drummer Gil (ahhh, Gil...) and once he left town we promptly asked Tom (another brand new California resident) to learn the drums from scratch.  Right at this point James quit the band for about 5 days and we had one practice without him which was also Tom's official first attempt at drumming.  As a four piece we played "Slippery People" "Demolition" and most likely "Taste of Luxury" and "Carry the Wood" and were feeling pretty good, I must say.

Then while out at the bar that weekend, James came back into fold and we came up with "The Chop" and all got behind it super fast, with James designing the logo hungover as all hell approximately 12 hours after the word 'chop' was first mentioned.  That monday (May 8th, 2006) we practiced for the for the first time as The Chop and the rest is (see below).

(end flashback sequence)

Here's some pictures before we head off northward tonight to play some more.  The last one's from last weekend at The Stork, but I really liked it and wanted an excuse to repost it.  I also videotaped the show (on Mayth) so perhaps you'll be seeing some of that soon.

I'll be taking as many pictures as humanly possible this weekend and will report back with numerous embarrassing stories about individual band members next week.

The Cake

The Band

The Attitude

News and Updates and Videos of Us

We got ourselves a video courtesy of RedLabelFilms.com.  It's edited together from our live performance at the Coho in Stanford a few weeks ago, but laid over the album cut of Scientist.  Abteen and Jay did a swell job...check it!

We made The Bay Bridged podcast April mixtape (that's episode #160) with our song "We Want It All".  The Bay Bridged is a well-established Bay Area music podcast with oodles of listeners and mad cred, as it were.  If you're hip to podcasts, download that now off of iTunes. It is FREE.

We also have had some exciting shows in the last few weeks, and some more coming up...here's some brief descriptions:

Our Talking Heads Spectacular on 4/17 went amazingly well.  Goodbye Nautilus played Take Me to the River and Girlfriend is Better in their set, Touch Committee played Wild Wild Life and Road to Nowhere, and The Chop rocked through Swamp and Pulled Up...at the end 7 of us crowded on stage for a sweet rendition of Life During Wartime. 

Also, this girl was there:

Last Friday we went to Davis and had a wild (wild) evening...showed up to find we were the only band playing (although they did line up an acoustic opener) and that we were expected to play for something like 2 hours (as opposed to the 45 minutes we're used to).  So we extended all the tunes, ramped up the solos, did some songs we didn't quite know...it was all pretty fun.

At the end of the night one of the bouncers/bartenders was going through and pouring the miniscule remnants of each "empty" liquor bottle into one consolidated bottle.  It was a disgusting brown, the product of every liquor under the sun being mixed.  He dubbed it "Dumpster Juice" and was really excited about it.  Naturally, James took a shot of it.  In the bathroom.

After that we went home.

The next night we played the Stork Club in Oakland and I posted a 109xxx Ms Pacman score. Take that, Namco!

Tonight, we ride!

next year is the best year,

rob

The Chop plays the Doug Fir in Portland

We played an awesome show at Doug Fir Lounge in Portland last week!  The venue is a log cabin with amazing sound and killer decor.  Phil (ex-Chopsmen and dear friend) was on a business trip in San Francisco (he lives in Philadelphia these days), came along for the ride to Portland, and then jumped up and played some of the old songs with us.  The whole night went smashingly.  Thanks to everyone who helped make that happen.  

Here's some pictures of us onstage, courtesy of Marty.

Hop-along Tommy!

Cavernous ceilings make my voice sound way better!

"Horsing around" in the green room, which (consequently) was as big as many of the clubs' (main rooms) we've played in the not so distant past and was also stocked with RedBull (Tom was in heaven) and other goodies.

what's that?  I can't hear you.

Recording Procedures, Technical Post

While the rest of San Francisco was enjoying the near ridiculously beautiful weather last weekend, The Chop was holed up deep in Oakland's industrial sprawl recording (you guessed it) timeless tracks.

We went in on Friday, got all the microphones setup (this takes something in the neighborhood of a few hours) and then came in all day Saturday and Sunday to track six new songs we've been working on.  We're going to do some more work on these and then make them digitally available in the next little while.

A few highlights:

James struggles through a particularly grueling "clap" track.

Tom cocks his head to better hear that minor 6th harmony he laid down.

Rob grits his teeth and wishes he was playing Arkanoid

Aaron's tenacious dome oversees all!

More Adventures in Vinyl Shopping

I stopped by the Clement Street goodwill the other day with plans to kill a few minutes and just browse but then, like an addict, walked out with something like seven records, each for only a 1.29! I thought I'd briefly describe how cool I think I am based on the choices I made, so here it be:

Abbey Road

A mostly forgotten record from a otherwise consistent rock outfit called The Beatles. The record looks in good shape, though the jacket's a bit faded. To my mind, there is simply nothing better than Side 2 of Abbey Road. I have many fond memories and associations with this album, but here's something that happened to me quite recently: I was heading out at about 8:30 on a Friday a couple weeks ago and was standing at the bus stop on Fulton at Park Presidio when a woman in a car pulls up to the stoplight. She's singing along and bopping around to unknown music in her car, and I think that's cool, so we make eye contact and I smile at her. Then she offers me a ride. I hopped in and she took me 20 blocks down the road. She was cool and her name was Cordelia and she actually asked me directions to her destination in Cole Valley (maybe that's why she offered the ride?) It felt like an exciting, San Francisco-y experience, but the best part was that once I got in the car, I realized she had been rocking out to that section in between "Carry That Weight" and "The End" where Ringo is soloing and things are sort of peaking. Nice.

Headhunters - Herbie Hancock

Take note, burgeoning musicians. Perhaps you'd like to learn to improvise? Perhaps you've tried recording lengthy sections of yourself playing through a chord progression so that you can subsequently learn to improvise over it, but find it painstaking, and never lasting long enough? Track 1 of Headhunters is for you. "Chameleon" is a 17 minute stone groove: perfect for soloing/spacing out over. I learned a lot from this track.
Headhunters and John Scofield's A-Go-Go were on almost constant repeat when I was living with Tom and Phil in college.

Cosmo's Factory - CCR

I was pretty stoked about this one, and listened to it right away. I'm a longtime CCR fan, but hadn't actually heard this record in full. It's got tons of awesome tunes on it (Traveling Band, Who'll Stop the Rain, Run Through the Jungle, and Looking Out My Back Door) It occurs to me this moment that, based on this track list, one can assume that Cosmo's is The Dude's "creedence tape". Boss. I also really like this cover photo, as it gives you a glimpse into the sometimes sorry and typically un-glamorous (although occasionally tons of fun) life of the rehearsal space. Having thought/wrote that, I looked it up on Wikipedia and here's a telling paragraph:
The name of the album comes from the warehouse in Berkeley where the band rehearsed. Bandleader John Fogerty was so insistent on practicing (nearly every day) that drummer Doug "Cosmo" Clifford began referring to the place as "the factory"

Damn, that sounds soul-crushingly familiar slash really awesome. I didn't even know they were from the bay.

I also got an old Kris Kristofferson, a compilation of George Gershwin stuff, and Traffic's "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys." I need some special shelves for all these discs.  I listened to Rhapsody in Blue, and I felt like I knew it primarily from it's use on Simpsons episodes. Modern youth, eh? This strikes me as akin to watching Casablanca and recognizing much of the script as a series of Bugs Bunny lines.  But hey, culture is culture.  At least I recognized it.

why not take all of me?
rob

Poster for to End/Save All Posters

Available for free at the show.

James Kafader hath conceived again. It will be epic.

love always,
The Chop

The Chop performs!

The Chop is soon to be donning holocaust cloaks, hopping in wheelbarrows, and storming castles all across this Western Coast a la the Dread Pirate Roberts.  Get your gate keys ready.

Dates this spring:

February 28th (Saturday): Coho Cafe in Stanford, CA *

March 14th (Saturday): Chop's 509 Club (All Ages!) in Santa Rosa, CA * 

March 19th (Thursday): Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, CA **

this is the big one, friends.  You have to come to this.  buy a ticket, with love.  Mr Kafader's most stunning poster to be posted very soon.

April 10th (Friday): Brainwash Cafe in San Francisco, CA - Blue and Gold (solo) 

April 15th (Wednesday) at Coho Cafe in Stanford, CA

April 17th (Friday): Kimo's in San Francisco,  CA *

April 24th (Friday): Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, OR

May 1st (Saturday): The G Street Pub in Davis, CA

May 2nd (Saturday): Stork Club in Oakland, CA *

May 14th (Thursday): The Old Ironsides in Sacramento, CA

May 15th (Friday) : Luckey's in Eugene, OR

May 16th (Saturday): Mars Bar in Seattle, WA ^*

* with Goodbye Nautilus

** with The Dont's and Low Red Land

^* with Quadrillion and Kill Cupid

Dates and details and all updates are also available here:

www.thechoprocks.com

In other news:

We're on Rhapsody (an online music service)...Rhapsody pays artists (all of them) royalties for every listen to a song (about 1 cent per play...but still).  Support this company!  Support The Chop by playing our album on Rhapsody.  We love pennies!

Also, please exhibit your unyielding devotion to our cause via Facebook an up and coming online social network which has gained some popularity among the youth.

would anybody care for a peanut?

rob