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In 2004 I spent a fair amount of time going to rock shows with my friends Matt, Josh and Huck. One band we got really into it and saw on multiple occasions was The Jealous Sound.
I don’t remember how it all started but after catching them opening for another favorite band of ours, probably at Bottom Of The Hill, my friends started raving about them. That year we caught them in force – playing main support for Cursive at The Great American Music Hall, Piebald at Slims and then later headlining their own show at Bottom Of The Hill. I fell in love with their EP during this time and it became a huge influence on the songs I was writing at the time as well as the lead guitar parts I wanted to hear.
I remember being stood in line early to get into their show at The Great American Music Hall with Cursive and Pedro – their lead guitarist – came out to smoke a cigarette. He recognized Matt and Josh from an earlier show and came over and said hi and chatted with us for a while about music and guitars and other things we were really into. He really gave us his full attention and said thank you for coming. We were all very impressed – now, not only with the music but also how kind they were as people. That really stuck with me and in a way changed how I thought about approaching people who’re interested in my own music. I really began to identify with the bands that were down the earth and friendly and ‘like me’ and lean away from the bands who had the arrogant ‘rockstar’ image going on.
Last year when I saw they were active again on Facebook I posted about how excited I was to see them back at it. Pedro almost immediately hit me up with a thank you and then posted on our Facebook page saying that he had checked out ‘MOVE’ and loved the guitar on BAMF. The fact that he not only thank you but went out of his way to check out our music (without me prompting him!) it a testament to how friggin’ nice these guys are.
If you haven’t already you absolutely must check out their new album ‘A Gentle Reminder’ (You can stream it now on Spotify). To me it has all the markings of what made me fall in love with The Jealous Sound in the first place right alongside all the signs of a band that has truly grown and evolved.
I’m honored to get to open for them as they swing through San Francisco and what better place than at Bottom Of The Hill? I really hope we’ll see you there.
-Zen
I keep trying over and over again to be a good blogger. I have all these ideas and say to myself “This week! This week is the week I get retrospective and look back and talk about 2011 and what a year it was! Oh what a year indeed!”.
But then I write some songs. Book some shows. Work on a music video. Plan to book the next Rock Hop. Other things happen and my poor little blog falls to the wayside. I promise I’ll do better. I swear.
In the meantime, we’re playing some music at Hotel Utah in San Francisco on February 4th with some really great bands and we really hope you’ll be there.
I made the flyer. You can RSVP here. You can uStream the whole event on the day right here. You can buy tickets here.
Love,
Zen
Saturday night at The Rock Hop Holiday Hooplah in San Jose (577 S Market St, San Jose, CA / $10 / All Ages) we, along with Finish Ticket, Rin Tin Tiger and Picture Atlantic, will be releasing ‘Local Icicles’. Local Icicles is a collection of three holiday covers and one original and it just so happens that the original is ours!
Here’s the track listing:
1. Finish Ticket – All I Want For Christmas Is You
2. Please Do Not Fight – It Never Snows In San Francisco
3. Rin Tin Tiger – Let It Snow
4. Picture Atlantic – Place To Be / Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
This is the fastest a Please Do Not Fight has ever gone from creation to recording. I wrote it as soon as I heard that Rin Tin Tiger might be doing an original (Which they didn’t) and we recorded it a mere two weeks later. We really hope you enjoy it! I’ve always dreamt of doing a collaborative release with other local artists I admire and I think this is a really great start.
We’ll be releasing it officially at The Rock Hop and then making it available on BandCamp come Sunday.
Happy Holidays,
Zen
Ladies and gentlemen we are sad to announce that we will be hosting our last Open Mic Night on December 8th.
This will also be The Riekes Center’s last Open Mic Night effectively bringing it to a close. It’s been an amazing run but after almost two years and with Geoff and I moving to San Francisco and Please Do Not Fight’s schedule getting busier and busier we are going to have to bow out. It’s been so much fun sharing our songs with you and hearing your own talent month after month but I’m afraid it’s time to put our energies elsewhere.
It still remains to be seen if Open Mic Night will continue into the future with a new crew but we’re certainly interested in hearing any ideas and suggestions on the subject and we’ll announce anything of the sort over on the Grind Open Mic Night Facebook page. At very least we promise you we will return to the Grind with some acoustic madness at some point in the future.
We hope to see you on December 8th with your very best holiday smile for one more rolickin’ good time with the Open Mic Night crew.
Much love Redwood City.
-Zen
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When Nik Bartunek from Picture Atlantic and I get together to talk it’s usually about one of two things: Dungeons and Dragons or how we can give back and help improve the local music scene. We’ve bounced a bunch of ideas around – for awhile we had a monthly local-band-meet-up planned where we would get together with local musicians we respected and schmooze. And by schmooze I mean bar-be-que and play games. We had one of these band-meet-ups, a small affair with the guys from WORD and Curious Quail and then both our bands got really busy and the thought kind of fizzled out.
One thing Nik and I have always wanted to do though is start our own series of events. We would book really great bands and we would charge as little as we could. We wouldn’t put Metal bands next to Acoustic acts and we wouldn’t make out of town bands play first. The other bands would all be musicians we knew and respected and the venue would be somewhere cool and hip that allowed for all ages shows and was down to be of service to the local community. We’d cut out the middle man, there’d be no booker or promoter other than us – that way we could charge less at the door and ensure that the out of town bands got the gas money they need no matter their draw. We’d cook up lots of fun giveaways and do our best to make sure everyone attending felt like they really got their money worth – like it was something special, a night to remember.
Well, that event is happening – we’ve given it a 50′s theme because we like dressing up nice and we’ve dubbed it The Rock Hop. It’s the first in what we hope will be a very long series and we’re pulling out all the stops to kick it off right. We’ll be opening the event, Picture Atlantic will be closing it and sandwhiched in the middle will be our very very good friends Ghost and the City and incredibly talented out-of-towners Fierce Creatures from Fresno. Our amazingly talented friend and photographer Aaron Blumenshine will be showing off some of his work and also providing a Photobooth (complete with goofy props) for people to snap their photo in. Psycho Donuts has graciously offered to donate a couple dozen donuts which we will be giving away to the first people through the door and SLG Publishing will be giving away free comics as well.
Speaking of SLG Publishing, we couldn’t be doing this without the support of them and their Art Boutiki. Nik and I have seen several shows at Art Boutiki and it’s a great venue – small, intimate and all ages. It’s tucked away behind a comic book shop and has just enough of that kitchy cool vibe to be hip.
Our hope is for future Rock Hops to also include plenty of fun sponsors, artists, friends and of course more amazing local and out of town acts. Maybe one day you’ll even see a Rock Hop San Francisco or a Rock Hop Los Angeles, who knows!
Anyways, we really hope you will join us in San Jose on this amazing night. We truly feel like we’re at the beginning of something great with a formula that we feel should be obvious. An event series that caters to what really matters: the music and the people who love it.
Magic missile,
-Zen
I spoke at lengths about how much I enjoy local music over on our Tumblr. You can read that blog post here:
http://pleasedonotfight.tumblr.com/post/4335217493/local-shows
But aside from just enjoying it, local music is important. Moreso, local art is important. Moreso, all ages local art events are important. Why? It’s a way for our communities to really connect. I mean really. Not over some big Hollywood blockbuster made in New Zealand or London but over something that is coming from the community – something real and tangible and right here and right now.
Why all ages? Because we need it. Because without all ages events there is nowhere for adults and teens and kids to co-mingle as equals. Kids and teenagers are limited to school yards and family homes and over-patrolled movie theaters where adults are forced into authority figure roles. Without a space to exist together – even if just for a brief moment – the younger generation loses respect for the older generation and the older generation can’t even begin to fathom how to interact with the younger like normal human beings. We have a lot to learn from each other and as things are we have no way to do that. Public spaces created by the community, for the community, away from giant corporations and heartless mainstream vendors slinging the latest cool energy drink are imperative to our ability to have a free-thinking educated united populace. There, I said it. It’s preachy but it’s true!
So our own little effort to create a slice of that has been in the form of Open Mic Night at The Grind in Redwood City, CA. It’s a space for anyone to come and perform their art, music, comedy, poetry, dance routine … you name it. Real people giving you a real slice of themselves at an incredible local business. It’s been running for almost a year and a half now and I love it. This month we have Rin Tin Tiger as the featured act and we would love to see you there as well, whether you’re performing or simply sharing in the experience.
I should also mentioned that this Friday’s benefit for Raphael House of San Francisco at the Dolores Park Cafe in San Francisco is our last official show with Girl Named T as she will be focusing on her own project from here on out. I know, I know, we said that about Erin and yes it’s true, you will probably see T again. For us at least she will be around, filming some videos and also recording songs for our new album so it doesn’t really feel like the right time to say goodbye. That being said, it’s worth mentioning that this is her last show as an official full time member of the band so that we can really pay honor to all the work she’s done with us. T, it’s been such a pleasure, you’re such an incredible talent and I look forward to working with you a ton more in the future.
Much respect,
- Zen
Back in March Mimi was critically injured by a drunk driver. In response her friends and family created ‘Rise and Shine Mimi’ to have a on-line presence and place for her supporters to gather and share their thoughts and feelings. Quickly – as all really important things do – it grew bigger and bigger and Rise and Shine Mimi partnered with Friends Against Drunk Driving and now here we are ready to play this fantastic benefit concert. I almost can’t count all the great friends who will be performing with us from Girl Named T (The main project of our own T. Sawi!) to Curious Quail to Rin Tin Tiger.
We’ll be going on right at 5pm and kicking things off so be sure to show up early and stay for the whole thing. It’s for a good cause and it’s going to be a good time!
-Zen
Welcome to the new Please Do Not Fight website! This is going to become the hub for all our on-line activities (sorry poor neglected Tumblr account) and currently heavily features many photos by the wonderful and talented Anna Larina, with many more to come. Please kick the tires for us and let us know if anything seems broken!
So last week I sat down to eat breakfast and coffee at my apartment here in the San Francisco Mission and got inspired to film an acoustic cover. Aside from beginning to really get into editing film I’d been playing around with learning Ships and Rocks by Picture Atlantic. I first heard Nik, Picture Atlantics lead singer and songwriter, play this song at San Jose Skate way back in 2008. He had the whole audience sit down with him and the lights were dimmed while he played – it could easily have been a cheesy move but the song was so haunting and he performed it so well that the moment really stuck with me and the crowd loved it. The solo acoustic ditty’s Picture Atlantic occasionally unleashes are always some of my favorite so, as a result I was stoked when they released the song as a bonus track on their last EP ‘When Everything Is Number’ (Which, you can download here).
There’s no way I could ever do the song the kind of justice it deserves but I hope you enjoy the video none-the-less! I plan to do a couple more acoustic covers in the coming month so if you have any suggestions please leave a comment.
Backatcha.
-Zen
