Big Ass Music Post

As you may know, most PianoFight shows tend to include some type of musical act. They've ranged from folk-rock duo The 45 to the aptly named and relatively self explanatory Oakland Soft Rock Chior. And over the past few months, the bands coming on and off the stage of Studio 250 at Off-Market have been, to say the least, impressive.

Here's some info on some of the most recent killer musical guests at PianoFight:

All Ages (House Band, ShortLived 3.0): Night in and night out at ShortLived, these guys have earned more write-in comments on Voting Cards than any piece in the show because, simply put, they're awesome. In fact, Derek, Josh and Tom are so awesome that they get away with shit like: one night in ShortLived last year, Tom decided to close the show by stripping but-ass-naked and playing the curtain call in nothing but his guitar and socks. Here they are at Red Devil Lounge in April (don't worry, Tom keeps his pants on in this video):



They also do shit like this. You can catch All Ages in San Francisco playing every Fri and Sat night of ShortLived 3.0 through May 1st. And for those of you not in SF, All Ages is going on a fatty North American tour, playing 220 odd shows in about 130 cities (yeah, I know, that shit's bananas).

Laura Weinbach (Musical Guest, Monday Night ForePlays): With a deceptively diminutive first impression, Laura proceeds to walk on stage with charm and quirkiness and floor audiences with her ability. She and Sivan Sadeh make up the duo Foxtails Brigade, who recently released this video (Laura's the one with the guitar):

Foxtails Brigade @ Chasing The Moon 8.06.09 from Scott McDowell on Vimeo.

You can catch Foxtails Brigade April 30th in SF at A.T.A. at a film screening being hosted by another Off-Market vet, comedian Mary Van Note.

Arlen Hart (PianoFight's Music Director): If you've seen a PF show, you know Arlen Hart. He's the guy sitting behind the piano rocking your face off (listen to he and Bochan's cover "Stand By Me"). Arlen has played The S.H.I.T. Show, Monday Night ForePlays, The SoCha Project, ShortLived 1, 2 and 3 he is also responsible for writing and performing the original scores for FORKING and FORKING! Christmas and recording PianoFight's full length album, A FORKING! Album. He's also half of Toby Dick:



Toby D's (Arlen and Lee West) will be moving to NYC sometime this summer and will begin playing gigs along the treacherous East Coast in the fall. Also, pretty dank new label to watch in NY is Soundvise - Arlen's on it, so it's gotta be good.

Zoe Boekbinder (Musical Guest, Monday Night ForePlays): Played PianoFight for the first time as part of ForePlays and rolled out some funky funny stuff. You can see Zeo alongside Shenandoah Davis and Kaylee Cole April 25th at Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland. Here's the animated video for "The Adventures of Turtle and Seahorse":



ZIVA (Musical Guest, Monday Night ForePlays) I caught ZIVA's first performance at Off-Market as part of a Hyper Raje Records show and, well, wow. She'll be playing ForePlays on April 26th and I am seriously looking forward to it. Here's the band at the First Annual Scorpious last year:



Tempo No Tempo (PF Homies): We go to their shows and they come to ours though I don't think they've ever actually played PianoFight as Tempo No Tempo - one night after SHIT Show, Tyler McCauley played with Chris Cadena as "Our Kelly" - yes, you guessed correctly, an R Kelly Cover band). So they haven't technically played PianoFight but whatever, you definitely need to know about 'em before they explode into stardom:

Tempo No Tempo - "Pole Position" from French Press Films on Vimeo.

Tempo No Tempo is playing Hemlock Tavern in SF on April 27th at 9:00pm.

Spawn Atomic (Hyper Raje Show, March 2010): Off-Market's tech director Clint Winder is the guitarist for this horror-punk band who are heading to Phoenix ComiCon on May 26th. Frequent PF film collaborator Rand Courtney directed the video below:

Spawn Atomic - Hollywood Hijinx from rand courtney on Vimeo.

Plus, there's a shit ton more more bomb acts coming through Off-Market every week. Thanks to the musicians listed above and all the artists who play at OM - do yourself a favor, Dear Reader, and see these performers. They're frickin amazing.