it's on the main page

thanx to our fans


xo the spores

We played Den Helder, NL on Nov 8th this year at Musiekcafe de Engel.

We were put up in a nice hotel that night with soft, clean beds.

We turned on the news the next morning.

As it turned out, we just slept through what was potentially Katrina the sequel. Luckily for us, we happened to be sleeping safe and sound in the arms of Dutch engineering.

1/3 of Holland happens to be reclaimed land and is, for the most part, below sea level. There had been a freak storm in the North Sea that resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of residents from the southeast shore of England, and caused the water levels on the western shore (Northern Holland) to rise 8 meters above normal. (about 24 feet) overnight, and without warning.

I used to live in the lower 9th ward at Sister St. and Rampart in New Orleans.

Oddly enough, our landlord at the time had bought the house because of a proposed project on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers to widen the industrial canal. Upon hearing that they would buy the property from him for 20,000 if the project went through, he bought it for less than half of that in the early 80's hoping to triple his money. Unfortunately he lost the bet.

I slept soundly for 3 years in a bed that was less than 20 feet from the levy that broke over 2 years ago allowing water to flow into the neighborhood settling at about 16 feet. I had long since moved to Los Angeles when the event occurred.

Back to the future. Nov 8, 2007.

Because we were in Holland at the time when this particular event took place, a country that prides itself in its technology and protects its citizens, whether rich or poor, from potential imminent natural disaster, we checked out of our hotel like nothing had happened and went about our business.

It was a non-issue for Holland, although they did mention that it was the first true conditional test that the levies had undergone since they built them after a flood that occurred in 1953.

Of course, nothing happened, so there were no headlines about it here. America will never hear about it.

But I have to say one thing:

Good work, Holland!!! YOU WIN.

My first x-mas present this year was a box of Godiva chocolates.
Upon opening the box, I offered Stunbunny the first one.
He took a small, cautious bite and decided that particular one wasn't for him.
I got out the map, but in it, there were hundreds of varieties. Our box had only twelve very large, lovingly-crafted truffles.

Now I'm scared I'm gonna get the pink nougat... the ever-dreaded russian-roulette of the assorted chocolate world that is (for me) the bullet. Luckily, it's Godiva, so raspberry jiz is about as tacky as the Belgians get. The box of chocolates lasted for over a week. Every time I offered Greg a chocolate, he reached for his original rejected chocky which was in one of the far four corners of the box.

I'd say, "no baby... you already tried that one," and turn it upside down to reveal that he had bitten the bottom off of it a week before and put it back. At the end of the week, it was the only one left, and I threw the box and the one-third eaten chocolate in the garbage.

After a bottle of wine, I found myself pulling the elaborately decorated (and well-sealed) red foil box from the trash and taste-testing the rejected truffle for the first time. It was rum/eggnog flavored. My fav!!!!

So, Brad Pitt and a bunch of his high fallutin' architecture buddies have teamed up to save the 9th ward in New Orleans and beyond if possible. They're gonna have to figure out the crime, infrastructural corruption, and invent a sustainable income network, but it IS a step in the right direction. At least donations can be directed towards actual items, like water heaters, rather than an all-out grab bag that turns into $12M of unused ice. You can donate any amount. Only costs $150,000 per family to aquire a completed project. Old Braddy put up $5M of his own and has quit movies for a bit.

Not bad! Now call Clooney and Penn to chip in, give Ted Nugent his shirt back, and get to work!

Well, finally had a minute to say hi to y'all from Stuttgart, Germany. It was our first day off in god knows how long and we've caught up on some sleep and have a short drive to Switzerland today. The tour is going great, response has been better than ever. Eric Micheal Pearson, our new drummer, is the absolute bomb... he's playing great, keeping his head on his shoulders and has become a great true friend. It seems like the shows have been really blowing people away more than ever, and that is a true testament to the value he has brought to the Spores. We think a cheesy element that we might have had in the past has finally expired. We've also realized that EODMs fans didn't and don't really give a fuck about us, since we're not a "party" band per say. Our best shows have been when promoters site us as our own thing, not a coat-tail rider. C'est la vie, one day we will be billed like that at all our shows. But no complaints, being here in Euro-world is a non-stop amazing experience and we wouldn't trade it for the world. This next week promises more intrigue with shows in Italy, Switzerland, one last one in Germany and finally Paris on the last day. Stunbunny was able to get close to his ancestors original area when we were in Linz, Austria and was pretty moved by the experience. We're just really happy that we're active again after the six month break to finish DOOM POP and flesh out the new show. The DOOM POP material seems to really lend itself to a live environment, since it rocks out a little more than our first record. We've been playing 65 minute shows and they seem to go by in seconds. We've been asked back for an encore at every last show, something that didn't happen much before. We also met some amazing people along the way, including a band out of Vienna named Squishy Squid. Really cool band and super sweet people. They were blown away that the Spores were "so good, yet so nice as people". That meant a lot to us. Thanx again to Tos and Gijs for the amazing gear and van rental prices and tech support. Thanx to all the promoters like Matte, Bennie and Sarah, et al, to Denise DiVitto for all her work back in California to get the ball rolling, and to you our fans, because without y'all, we're sweet fuck all.

We're FUCKING BACK, better than ever...


Molly, Greg & Eric
THE SPORES

KCET, the PBS affiliate in Los Angeles, has just posted an on-line in-depth look into the world of the Spores in co-ordination with Mark Sovel and Indie 103.1.

You can check it out here:

http://www.kcet.org/explore-ca/web-stories/



Thanx to Mark Sovel and Juan Devis for a job well done!

posted @:
http://www.metalrage.com/articles/672

For those not familiar with The Spores, could you introduce yourself to our readers?

Molly McGuire: vocals, bass
Greg "Stunbunny" Biribauer: guitar, loops, backing vox
Eric Micheal Pearson: drums, backing vox (new member)

It's obvious the entourage on stage is very important to your live experience. If you had a couple of hundred thousand dollars to spend on the tour, what would your live show look like?

'We would try to provide a more intense, spectacular experience for the audience members. Utilizing a wide range of visual and audio, we could expand dramatically on the performance art aspect of the band.
First off, we would provide the best concert sound available, eventually providing special bass-heavy booths complete with tele-prompted lyrics in real time, for the hearing-impaired.

The puppets would be developed into a broader range, (incorporating additional puppeteers). We'd have stilt-walkers come out in giant Eyeped costumes. Something akin to Iron Maiden's "Eddie", only there would be a bunch of them, and they would be more graceful. Molly and Greg would also perform on stilts at some point.
We would install a number of small security cameras in various secret spots on stage, broadcasting them with new ingenious video displays (video light tubes, moving video cyber-lights, etc.)

We would provide recordable video and audio in-house broadcast streams for sanctioned bootlegging, or for audio-philes with their own headphones. These streams would include multiple channels, with different camera angles and video-switching, and then, say, separate vocal, instrument, drum and fx audio stems, so people could mix their own audio and video bootlegs with maximum results and quality.

We would have our friends at Hanson Robotics (Dallas), build us a giant "Mandible" or "Eyeped", (i.e. Spores logo), with a beam of light and smoke coming out of the TV-eye, eventually upgrading it with lasers, strobe-lights, a robotic arm or teeth, etc.

There would also be more musicians on stage to create all the "electronic" sounds that Stunbunny created, instead of just loops. Then we would turn off all the bombastic shit, and play a couple of songs acoustically.

The Spores' albums are filled with bizarre effects, samples and computer stuff. What's your favourite song in terms of experimenting?

'That's a hard one to answer. Just like someone's kids, all of our songs have special and unique qualities that show up every time we create or play them.'

Lyrically Molly can be quite poetic and un-rock 'n roll. Does she get inspiration from literature or poetry?

'Molly's inspiration comes mainly from life experiences and dreams. The lyrics are steeped with subliminal messages. Strangely enough, they're written mostly through stream of conscience and some of the messages reveal themselves long after the songs have been written.'

Can you share some of the effects used in recording your music?

'We use the standard echo, delay, chorus, reverb etc. everybody else uses, but Stunbunny likes to bend and manipulate the audio as if it were made with clay or putty. He'll use pitch shift, reverse, vari-speed, time manipulation and anything he can get his hands on to give the sounds their own special place in the Spores universe.'

Where did the whole puppetry thing come in to play in the live shows?

'Originally, The Spores were supposed to be a puppet band exclusively. Then people wanted to join and pushed the puppets aside until they figured out how to play the music. Once that was established, the puppets seemed to find their way into the live act.'

Last time we attempted an interview with you guys, you shared some hilarious anecdotes with us. Care to share the Nicole Richie story with our readers as well?

'Here's the story in a nutshell:

Molly has this other puppet entity/show called ARUGULA...

http://www.myspace.com/0ARUGULA0

They're basically a death-glam puppet band from Germany looking for a drummer, so they hold live human drummer auditions in front of an audience. They feed their songs (sans drums) through audio monitors on stage to the drummer "hopeful", making "comments" on his playing. It's more or less a live improv send-up. Anything can happen.

The first "auditioner" is usually a guinea pig, then everybody gets the joke and has a total hoot. Some of the world's most famous and accomplished drummers have auditioned along the way.
The Spores and Arugula teamed up for a month-long residency at the Viper Room in Hollywood.

We were in our 3rd week, and the improv centered around the fact Arugula couldn't find a drummer in L.A. and that Los Angeles was lame with all its celebrity smoke and mirrors. Molly and Greg had no idea Nicole was there. Molly didn't even know who Nicole Richie was at the time.

As it happens, one of the part-time puppeteers mischeivously insulted Nicole about the tabloid headlines circulating at the time. His joke insult was, "Are you as drunk as me? I'm so fucking drunk I almost fucked Nicole Richie! Proof that you can have all that money and still can't buy food!"

Greg responded with a stock line he used whenever there was a lull, changing, "I'm so bored I'm going to go backstage and sniff some blow off a groupie's ass and wrap my dick around her waist", into, "You weren't fucking Nicole Richie because I was wrapping my dick around her waist back in Johnny (Depp)'s room!"

Remember, Greg had no idea she was there, he just thought they were generic celebrity bashing. These are the exact quotes pulled from a video-tape of the show.

Understandably, Nicole didn't take kindly to the "joke" insults. She stormed out of the Viper threatening to sue the club.

We issued statements the next day saying that Arugula was responsible for its own actions, and that no serious harm was intended... but anything can happen in a live improv situation. The Viper Room stood behind us and let us perform the rest of the residency.

By the end of the week, 60 million people had read the story on those celebrity blog sites you hear about, causing thespores.com to crash from all the traffic.

SAMPLE:

http://dlisted.blogspot.com/2006/08/spores-is-my-favorite-new-band.html

"The Spores is My Favorite New Band!"

"I really want this to be the truth, but apparently Nicole Richie went to see a band called The Spores at The Viper Room in West Hollywood. Once she sat down and the band noticed her, comedy ensued."

Popbitch reports:

"After an altercation with a photographer, Nicole went to drown her sorrows in the Viper Room, where LA art-pop band The Spores were playing. Sadly for Nicole, the band spotted her diving into a booth and used their trademark on-stage puppets to take the piss out of her inability to afford food, culminating in one of the puppets saying, "I screwed Nicole Ritchie... and wrapped my whole dick around her waist." Nicole stormed out telling doormen that she was going to sue."

"Oh and what ever band member has the dick that can go around her waist, call me!"
__________

It was absolutely surreal getting caught up in that kind of celebrity culture. It was something we weren't prepared for, especially in connection with The Spores. As you can see, Arugula isn't even mentioned here, which was The Spores-spawned side car show that evening.'

Your new album Doom Pop is about to be released, what can you tell us about it?

'DOOM POP represents The Spores for 2007 and beyond. We worked hard on capturing the sonic bombast we were creating at our concerts. We started incorporating live drums, heavier guitars and more live elements into the pure pop songwriting and twisted electronica we were known for with our first record, Imagine The Future.'

In movies, who do you prefer, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone?

'We prefer the vision of Stanley Kubrick.'

What will the future bring for The Spores?

'We can only imagine.

Do you have anything to add to this interview?

'We'd like to express our gratitude to the ears, eyes, minds and hearts of Europe that search out and support musical truth, uninhibited by genre, cultural differences or commercial propaganda.'

Keep an eye out for their upcoming European tour if you think you like music.

Hosted By: the Spores
When: Friday Sep 21, 2007
at 9:00 PM
Where: see flyer
see flyer
Las Vegas, NV 89101
United States
Description:
the Spores

Click Here To View Event

The first Spores gigs since our "incident" in Barcelona, Spain, 5 months ago, are now official.

We're doing a little "warm-up" stint in Vegas, 9.21, 9.22 & 9.23, with our dear friend Rev. Rob Ruckus at the helm. Check our myspace page for deets.

Then it's on to Spaceland Monday Sept. 24 with the amazing GRAM RABBIT. Who knows, might turn out to be the only Spores show of the year in Los Angeles...


later


stunz