Remembering the Battle of The Bands

Two years ago in February, SUNY Geneseo held a “Battle of The Bands.” The Pink Cammies made their debut performance, as did The Tennies and The Get Awesome Ninjas, while Castawaves made their final performance. It was held in this big ballroom on campus. It was a fantastic, strange, and sad event. Four of the bands were organized around members of the campus indie radio station, WGSU, while three of the bands were of unknown origin and could have been borne out in the DK house or out in York, New York for all I know. With four incredibly original and inspired bands, versus three “I love you babe” forgettable fare*, including one band that covered “Sympathy for the Devil” in a jam band style, which three do you think would “win”?

Yes, the three jam bands won. The Pink Cammies fucking blew everyone’s minds, specifically at the exact second Brad stomped the pedal to activate the drum machine. Their two songs “Robot Love” and “Cramp Yr. Style” were downright incredible. While “Robot Love” is a meditation of the disassociation of being in and out of love, “Cramp Yr. Style” is more of a punk song, commenting on the social life of a party school. Both were and remain brilliant.

The Get Awesome Ninjas were the “fuck you” to the school and everyone, but not even a “fuck you.” They were a punk band that kids would turn off to because they “didn’t get” them, but the irony was that the joke was on everyone else. There was nothing to get! The GAN didn’t promise anything to anyone and were only there for enjoyment: union suit, viking hat, CCCP shirt, and all. They were a brilliant group, and still might be in existence. (They are rumored to be working on a farewell album titled “Purposefully Posthumous.”)

The Tennies were an odd group who only played two shows. They began as a secret recording project with the intent to write songs only about one of their Geneseo friends. They didn’t survive much beyond the two shows and the one, 8 song album. Both unfortunately and fortunately, they have been resurrected by Kalpana’s drummer (who performed with them at their final show), who is reworking their songs on his website. One of their songs (which totally stole the chords from Radiohead’s “Banana Co.”) has been reworked into “Tock/Remembrance” by Glass Animal. Another was reworked into “College Girls!” Both are available, along with the originals, from www.glassanimalindex.com.

Also at www.glassanimalindex.com will you find The Pink Cammies’ incredible Stephin Merritt-namechecking rocker “Blood: The Song.” I cannot stress how awesome this song is. It is perfect. You must do what I did after I downloaded it: turn its volume up by 20 to 25 percent. Also, when listening to it you must hold your fist up in the air strong during the first bit of the song. Listening to this song makes me more consistently happy than a the vast lot of the other music in my collection.

The Castawaves, well, I won’t write about them right now. I will write that after the show we had a great party at our old Orchard Street apartment that I got a huge kick out of calling a “meet and greet.”

Here is what an astute Geneseo listener had to say about the show:

What Battle of the Bands Were You At?
"Lamron Staff Writer Doesn't Know What She's Talking About."
by Pat Puccini

After reading Karyn Patridge's Battle of the Bands write-up in this week's "The Lamron," and I really have to wonder what qualifies her to be reviewing music. She first compared the Castawaves to the White Stripes based solely on the fact that there was one guitarist and one drummer. First of all, the Castawaves clearly have more akin to the Pixies' brand of indie-surf noise than the White Stripes' bluesy garage rock revival. If we're going to compare bands based solely on the make-up of their members, then why not say Jet Lag is like Sonic Youth because there's a woman in the band? She claims that the lyrics weren't always clear in the Castawaves' songs. Oh, I forgot, music is only good if you can understand every lyric. She had similar complaints about the Tennies which also didn't have foundation in reality. She claimed the Get Awesome Ninjas were "unbearable to listen to," and I have to wonder if she was even there. She loved the 'jam band' outfits because of their "chemistry" together and the "sultry saxophone" from the Padraic Band. She goes on to describe the "well-balanced levels between [their] instruments and [their] vocals." Once again, I do not believe music is only great when the levels are balanced, and if that was true then some of the best recordings in history are no longer "good."

But none of the above compared to her greatest offense, yes that's right: hating on the Pink Cammies. First of all, I don't know that I would describe them as "mid-80s funk," since that brings to my mind Rick James. She then goes on to describe Brad's "silly antics" and "humorous lyrics," and calls the band "wacky." I'm sorry, but the Pink Cammies aren't a comedy act. They aren't joking. They are making brilliant music, and there's nothing funny about that. Not even Brad's "quirky dance moves." Oh and the melody lines were "simplistic"? Sorry hun, I don't agree. She later writes that when the Pink Cammies didn't win, the crowd's reaction was "disappointing." From where I was standing the crowd was disappointed, and I don't see how someone could be disappointed with the crowd. That seems a little pretentious to me, considering most Battle of the Bands let the crowd decide who wins. Woah Karyn, sorry the 'disappointing' crowd didn't agree that Lame Jam Band should have won.

Note: Pat’s original “Pink Cammies Fan Club” site was awesome and is still online: http://pinkcammiesrock.blogspot.com/

Also, The Pink Cammies’ own blog is still up, and is still very funny: http://pinkcammies.blogspot.com/

* - Did The Bessemer Process play at this? If so, those guys were cool and their show with Castawaves opening at The Statesmen was one of my favorite Castawaves shows ever.