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Farewell Letter

Hello everyone,

I’m here with some sad news – Please Do Not Fight will be playing two more shows and then breaking up. Moving on. Saying goodbye.

This is not a decision I make lightly. However, after five years of putting all of my energy into PDNF, this year finally felt like the right time to move on and start something new. Please Do Not Fight started as a project based around songs I had written in the years prior to it’s inception in 2007 – that makes some of the songs from our library almost 10 years old. So much has happened since Erin and I first began working on our first song, ‘These Are The Sounds Of Days That Are Passed’, and I’m a much different person than I was then. Bottom line: The artist within me is calling out to create something fresh and different from what Please Do Not Fight represents and this is the first step in that process.

I’m incredibly proud of everything this band has accomplished and I have been honored to work with some of the greatest musicians and friends I could possibly ask for. The best times of my life have been with this band. So much of my gratitude goes out to everyone who has made this what it was - Spike, Beau, Erin, Kubes, Matt, Scott, T, Geoff, Kyle, Chris - I love you and am eternally blessed to have had you be such a big part of this. Thank you for Anna and Loni for being our biggest fans and great friends. Thank you to Aaron Hellam for mixing and mastering almost everything we ever did. Thank you to Picture Atlantic and Rin Tin Tiger for believing in us and playing with us all the time and being incredible inspirations. Thank you to Craigslist for bringing Kubes, T and Kyle to us. Thank you to our families for lending us money when we needed it and buying way more merchandise than they could have possibly ever needed. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us, come to shows, taken photos, purchased CD’s, let us crash on their floor, bought T-Shirts, shared our videos, pledged your hard earned dollars and been a part of making this all worth it. We couldn’t have done it without you and we will truly miss it when it is over.

Until then, we still have two really great shows to play. The May 26th Rock Hop and our farewell show at Bottom Of The Hill on July 14th. More details for the farewell show will be released as the date draws closer but suffice to say, it’s going to be huge and we will basically be letting you pick the entire setlist. The line-up for both shows will be the most recent line-up of myself, Geoff, Erin, Kyle and Chris.

We also have recorded one last song that we will be releasing at some point soon. More details to follow on that also.

That’s about it. We are all feeling both sad and very excited as to what the future holds although I am sure come the day of the final show we will all be a mess of emotions. It’s going to be hard but I’ve always been a firm believer in pushing your boundaries and doing things that scare you and I’m truly looking forward for what is to come.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Much love,

Zen

 

P.S. If you’re interested in keeping in touch with future projects from the members of Please Do Not Fight I highly recommend you follow us on either Facebook or Twitter. We will post a couple of follow ups through there so that you can keep in touch with all of our new projects!

 

The Rock Hop comes to San Francisco

Buy tickets here. Share the event on Facebook here.

Reasons to not miss this:

1) The Mod Theme – Dressing up like a Mod means dressing up very nicely, like the Mod couple on our flier. How can you miss an event full of super attractive people dressed to the nines? It also means dancing to awesome Mod music DJ sets courtesy of Danny from The Frail!

2) The Blumenbooth – Our first Rock Hop in San Jose had an amazing photo booth provided by Aaron Blumenshine and it was a huge success (See photos from the last one here!). It only made sense to have him return for the San Francisco Rock Hop to capture everyones awesome Modwear.

3) The super solid line-up. Aside from yours truly this Rock Hop features performances from Finish Ticket, Picture Atlantic and Coast Jumper. It doesn’t really get any better than that.

Can’t wait to see you there! Over and out.

-Zen

The Rock Hop Presents : Mixtapes

First off, I don’t care what my spellchecker says. They’re ‘Mixtapes’. Not ‘Mix Tapes’.

Second off, these videos came about originally as a way to describe the different themes associated with The Rock Hop Concert Series we put on. Part of the challenge of having a rotating theme for each show is explaining to the audience what the theme actually means.  As a big fan of Mixtape Culture growing up I thought it only appropriate that I create a little presentation to explain the history a little bit and get everyone in the mood for the Rock Hop Record and Mix CD Swap this coming Saturday.

Third off, I have to give credit where credit is due. I’m a huge fan of Podcasts and my absolute favorite is ‘Stuff You Should Know‘. While they’re mostly an audio-only venture, occasionally they do neat little minute long videos that I always find painfully endearing and so I basically totally ripped off their format. If you aren’t a Podcast convert yet that’s a train you need to hop on asap.

Finally, big thanks to Spencer West for shooting this bad boy, Maggie Levin for helping me figure out how to write them and Anna Larina for doing our initial shoot. Yes, there will be more of these (expect to see one relating to the upcoming San Francisco Rock Hop), yes I will write a blog about how much I love Podcasts soon and yes, we would love if you were to share this video with your friends.

Hope to see you San Jose-ites this Saturday!

-Zen

The Rock Hop “Record” Swap

[ RSVP on Facebook | Buy Tickets ]

We are so stoked for the theme of this one, it’s going to be lots of fun!

MIX CD SWAP -
Bring a Mix CD to trade and discover some new music! Drop one off when you arrive and then pick one up when you leave. Your CD must have a minimum of 10 tracks. You can decorate the CD however you like but you MUST INCLUDE A TRACK LISTING. You can only take a CD if you bring one!

DJ SET’S BY BLACKLIGHT FINDINGS -
Want to help create the playlist for the night? You can! DJ Lia of Blacklight Findings will be spinning REAL VINYL throughout the night. Bring your own Vinyl marked with the appropriate track you wish to have played and we’ll queue it up! You can submit up to three songs.

See you there!

-Zen