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2004-12-26 The Khyber, Philadelphia, PA

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Tour Journal:

Our tour sendoff show! With a lineup of other friends, and a massive crowd, we couldn’t have asked for a better tour launch. Although, things got a bit out of hand when numerous family members were introduced to Sparks, which eventually flowed like water. As usual. A heavy snowstorm started right after the show ended, lets hope its not a terrible omen….

Press Coverage:

Originally published on www.philadelphiaweekly.com on December 22, 2004. Written by Doug Wallen.

So you’ve picked up all the tattered wrapping paper and drained the last of the eggnog. It’s the day after Christmas, and now what? Allow me to make a rather offbeat suggestion: Chromelodeon. I know, I know–a Philadelphia-area instrumental octet isn’t exactly the stuff of holiday tradition, but these guys have a lot going for them. Like what? Well, they’re about to embark on a national tour with oddball extraordinaire the Evolution Control Committee. And they were totally ahead of the whole classic-video-game-music trend–the first song on their In the Year 20XX EP is called “Wily’s Castle,” a Mega Man reference. But that’s nothing compared to their loving renditions of tunes from Ninja Gaiden 2, captured on a new EP. This show coincides with the release of both the EP and the band’s first proper album, Heart of Sawdust, on West Philly’s own Bloodlink label. It’s a booming battering ram of disparate riffs, epic synth atmosphere and every-instrument insanity. In other words, you’ve never heard anyone rock an accordion this hard.

2004-12-27 The Roboto Project, Pittsburgh, PA

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Our second time at the venue. Fairly decent as before, although the area in general has a growing sense of apathy, we’re told. No snow yet!

Huge kudos to “Bruce aka Gypsy Scumbag”, Morgan (who did the artwork for our new album), DJ, and Punk Rock Pat… who drove all the way from Philly to Pitts to arrive in the middle of the night to meet us… because we had forgotten our projector (which is crucial, since Mark of Evolution Control Committee is relying on us having one).

2004-12-28 Little Brothers, Columbus, OH

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This was a great show. Not only the “tour sendoff” for The Evolution Control Committee, but also the “farewell show” for them. TradeMark and Christy Brand will be locating to San Fransisco after touring with us (we’re literally dropping them off at their new house).

Very nice crowd and venue. We’ve been having a decent amount of misc video and pics taken, but havent been able to get them/upload them for various reasons. So sorry!

2004-12-29 Detroit Art Space, Detroit, MI

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Tour Journal:

Here’s the exception to the good luck streak thus far. We surmized the poor attendance was due to the venue closing a day after our show, as well as the self-professed apathy of the staff and promoters.

In any case, we made the best of the situation, and post show did some video and audio recordings of the dual collaboration of Chromelodeon/Evolution Control Committee…. for both ECC’s “Lunch” and “Jesus Carp, Son of Cod”. We swear we’ll get all the goods up by mid-tour!

2004-12-30 Day Off

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One of our few days off. We’ve spent it trying to catch up on the misc errands (ECC is packing for their final move), as well as healing the very ill.

Thus far, the weather and roads have been amazingly receptive to our mega tourvan (seating 11 people), plus a trailer that is absolutely full… tetris style.

2004-12-31 Pearce’s, Louisville, KY

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Holy crap and happy new year. An ok event all around.

Some highlights:
1. An old christmas tree was launched off a 3rd story balcony, followed by bottles of champagne.
2. Several “Flaming Moe’s” were made. They were made wrong and tasted terrible. They were also thrown off the balcony.
3. We ran out of materials to make “Pissers”, our new drink for the tour we invented (1 can grapefruit soda + 2 shots of gold tequila)
4. Backflips onto tables (why are there footprints on the walls?)
5. Mark (from ECC) scaring people in the kitchen trying to get drunk off of Stohls beer.

We now are accompanied by one of Kentucky’s oddest gentlemen, Pearce himself. That makes 11 in the tourvan… complete maximum occupancy.

2005-01-01 The DAAC, Grand Rapids, MI

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Tour Journal:

This turned out to be a surprisingly ok show. Although we were on time, we had to wait quite a while for the venue to open, in the freezing streets of Michigan. Everyone was ready for the worst, but for New Years Day, a fair amount of people came out.

The LSDudes shared the bill with us, and we must say… were totally rad. Very well done video collages of odd and rare movie clips as well as old video games, all scored by 3 adept …dudes… on a variety of instruments (mostly doing electro dancey stuff). The whole trippy-gimmicky thing turned out to be tounge in cheek and was hilarious as well as visually entrancing. We definitely plan on returning to this venue, and doing more shows with that band as well.

Kudos to the Ohio and Detroit people who came out to this show, as well as a few from The Shizz! We hope to meet most of you from coast to coast this month.

Photos:






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2005-01-02 Day Off

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Today we stopped in chicago, had to drop Christy Brand (of the ECC) off at the airport… Mark of ECC will be performing solo on the tour with us from here on out. We’ve flyered the streets a bit for our show in this city on Jan 4th @ Buddyspace.

Happy birthday Dino!!!!!!

2005-01-03 88.3 WZRD, Chicago, IL

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WARNING! Our show in Milwaukee @ Bucketworks has been cancelled… to be honest however, it wasn’t cancelled so much as flubbed by the people at the venue/artspace, as much as we love the place. They never set the date down for a show even though we were in touch since early novemeber, and didnt promote it whatsoever, so in lieu of not wasting 3 hours of gas money (our van is a friggin tank), we’ve decided to stay here in Chicago.

We’re spending the day further promoting our show in Chicago which takes place tomorrow (tuesday)….

UPDATE!

Both groups will be performing and promoting our tour live on 88.3 WZRD Chicago tonight! Roughly from 930pm-midnight.

2005-01-04 Buddy Space, Chicago, IL

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Tour Journal:

Definitely the best show on the tour so far! Our last minute legwork and radio appearance (which went well) must have helped. Was good to see and get some last minute help from Edmar (of Lumpen). Thanks to all our new friends we stayed with…

Hopefully soon we’ll upload the ridiculous photos of us post-show…. doing “MadDog” shots (thank you tradeMark G of ECC, who brought the formula back from Poland), and another christmas tree incident with Pearce!

The next couple of days promise possibly the best shows, and definitely the worst drives. Wish us luck…

Photos:





2005-01-05 The Ranch, Columbia, SC

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We awoke to a snowstorm covering the entire midwest… we spent 9 hours driving in complete and constant downpour of snow and rain to get to the show… the crowd was hindered by the bad weather stretching all these hundreds of miles. Apparently The Faint and Bright Eyes and other acts have come through this same spot (there is even a sauna).

We finally have both our new albums. Its been a mess, and its not over, but at least we’re finally selling what we are touring in support of…

We have to leave soon (around 4am) to make it to Denver in time. With no sleep, but fresh laundry. Gas money is getting a bit tight in lieu of the next 2 days of driving we’ve got to tackle.

2005-01-06 Pictures Post!

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we finally have some pictures up! these are from our insane time at Buddy (Chicago)

check out the link for the pics, plus some vague descriptions:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v617/chromelodeon/

Here’s our favorites so far….

Mark, Pearce, and some of Chromelodeon sharing Mark’s Poland-imported shot “The Maddog” to celebrate Dino’s birthday

Denny got flyered post show. Sparks did him in.

Pearce shows the sparks christmas tree a good time.

2005-01-06 Monkey Mania, Denver, CO

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Audio:

Video:

Youtube:

Tour Journal:

Denver pulls through again! This is the new best show of the tour thus far… we are always pretty impressed (surprized!) by the community in this city. Josh and his girlfriend are some of the nicest people we’ve encountered on the road (sweeeeeet!). Amazing turnout, and we enjoyed the bill (which was pretty filled). By now between Dino’s cellphone and Mark (ECC)’s PDA we have random clips of bands we liked as well as bizzare loses of sanity in the tourvan, and other strange ambience. We’ll try to load those somehow by the end of the tour. Ah, and we met the semi-famous “cuss kid”.

We stocked up at a local all-night taco joint (15 people in the drive thru on foot), in the freezing cold. We’ve got an extremely long drive to Phoenix, and we’ve got to leave in the middle of the night without sleep… or clean laundry… or showers… or sparks…

Flyers:

2005-01-07 DISASTER STRIKES, accident somewhere on the way to Phoenix

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Ok, here’s the story many of you probally have heard already about our accident….

We almost made it to Phoenix, but about 2 1/2 hours away (right outside of Flagstaff AZ) heading west on route 40 we got into a terrible accident. Apparently, with all the bad weather our country is currently getting, AZ is getting the worst of it…. we hit a 20 mile stretch of black ice that dozens other of accidents were on. We were one of them, eventually to wait forever on a virtual “emergency aid” list of police and tow trucks.

We started slipping on the highway somewhere in the mid evening (not going more than 45 or 50 mph), and were unable to control the car because the trailer was twisting unpredictably, and drifted offroad off a ditch and into the snowy dessert. Most of us were half asleep and braced for explosion or worse (particularly because we’re all sitting in every corner of the tourvan, having almost a dozen people in it, and cant see out of any window). Fortunately, our van careened safely in the dirt with no damage. Unfortunately, our trailer ripped off the hitch and flipped all over in the brush. The trailer was rendered completely useless… tires, axles, rims, siding, door…. pretty much everything. Some of our equipment had spilled out, but as fate would have it, our tetris-to-the-door ultra filled packing saved the day and 95% of our equipment. We actually ended up starting a bonfire with the busted pieces (bum style with the bass drum), on a police officer’s suggestion (he said make a fire to keep warm, not to burn the equipment that is). We used tumbleweeds and comic books for kindling.

So we were stranded in the pitch black freezing cold AZ wilderness, having originally waiting to reach this state with sunny and warm expectations. Almost immediately, the other accidents started happening. A couple of sedans just spun out on the side of the road and were ok, an 18 wheeler sailed across the opposite lane and into the far end of the ditch, and right before our eyes only a hundred or so feet away a truck totally flew through the desert wildly and was totaled as it smashed into a billboard sign. Thankfully, as far as we know, no one else was hurt. However, as some of us rushed to try to aid the truck, we ran into a hidden barb wire fence in the dark, and got caught (Mark from ECC looked like a scared calf). That was when the absurdity of the situation began to set it. We really couldn’t believe the carnage surrounding us (it seriously was carnage, as much as we’ve experienced at least).

Thanks in advance to everyone we called (there was a lot of you). Your potential help and support was appreciated, even if we were rushed and glib over the phone. We ended up staying with Phil from the band I Hate You When You’re Pregnant, in Flagstaff. We had to get a flatbed utility truck to haul our trailer (hastily rigged shut with our equipment back in it). That smashed trailer is now sitting in an abandoned parking lot near his house, its junkyard fate to be determined still (thats a whole different story).

Below are some pictures of the whole ordeal. Note that the damage looked a LOT worse in person, and if we are smiling, its probally because we are freezing cold/delerious.

OUR NEW PRESS PHOTO

TRYING TO KEEP DELERIOUSLY WARM (there are comic books as kindling in there)

TRAILER = DESTROYED

There are lots more pics of the accident on the following link:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v617/chromelodeon/tourvan%20accident/

Wish us luck and support if you can. We’ve shelled out a bunch of money, and also picked up a Uhaul, and having missed only the Phoenix show, our US tour with The Evolution Control Committee continues!

Photos:




2005-01-08 The Smell, Los Angeles, CA

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This show was something of a victory for us… the last show we played on our 1st national tour was at this venue, and we couldn’t wait to return. After the accident in Arizona, there was doubt about making it to the Smell, or even making it to the rest of the tour. The turnout was pretty good (except for that handful of over-excited acid heads during Mark’s set). Jim at the Smell has always been a decent fellow in all aspects, so we feel pretty confident in continuing our tour from this point on!

*Also, this show marked the departure of our friend and roadie Pearce “I look like a 5 day coke binge” Combest, who traveled from Louisville with us. He is seeing friends in the area and flying back on his own…

2005-01-09 88.9 KXLU, Los Angeles, CA

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Setlist:

  1. Chaosium Sword [2:09]
  2. No End Darkness [3:57]
  3. The Parasprinter [2:33]
  4. Ashtar [2:03]
  5. Finale [2:26]
  6. One [4:37]
  7. Three [6:07]
  8. Four [3:31]
  9. Five [5:16]
  10. Six [3:12]
  11. Jesus Carp, Son of Cod (featuring the Evolution Control Committee) [4:15]

Audio:

Tour Journal:

We spent today recording a “semi live” set at KXLU Los Angeles… most all of the day in fact.

The set will be aired at 5pm tomorrow (monday). Tune in if you’re in the broadcast radius. We’ll get a copy and maybe get it streamed for our website.

CHROMELODEON PUSH UP CHALLENGE RESULTS

First Place: Mike Patek, 40+
Second Place: Chris Singer, 33 crunches
Honorable Mention: Denny Barron, 1 (one)

2005-01-10 Che Cafe, San Diego, CA

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Apparently the sunny San Diego gets only two days of rain per year, and following the trend with the tour so far, we hit one of those days of heavy rain! Thankfully, the show turned out pretty well, and Jess took care of us with tons of food from the kitchen of the co-op. Too bad we couldn’t stay longer. We’re spending the rest of the week in the Northern CA area….

2005-01-12 Driving to San Fransisco

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We spent today getting to the Bay area, and then donating several hundred dollars to the warehouse-sized store known as Amoeba Records. Staying with some relatives in Petaluma, eating some real food for once…

2005-01-13 21 Grand, Oakland, CA

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This was our last show for our tour with THE EVOLUTION CONTROL COMMITTEE… Mark now officially lives in the Bay area, and is staying behind as we play around CA more and head back east. For the last show, it definitely could have gone better, but it was nice to see WAVE THEORY coming around for the second time. We’ll definitely meet up with ECC on our next tour, its been weird getting to know him, and he admitted to enjoying himself in spite of the few downers we’ve had. Such is life on the road for DIY touring. He still reminds us of Doc Brown from Back To The Future, though.

2005-01-14 The Placebo, Arcata, CA

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This was a decent waypoint for traveling from the Bay Area to the upper west coast (to Seattle, perhaps). Kids came out thanks to some word of mouth from the positive kids running the place, although for a friday night it could have been better… however, there was problems with the bill up until 2 days before the show. We really liked the area (it was on a penninsula, and near a killer late night sandwich shop), and unfortunately couldnt stay longer to see the nearby strange geological formations and that drive-thru tree trunk deal.

2005-01-15 San Jose Area

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We ended up not playing the convention, it was never really solid to begin with… Dino attended it as originally planned, and the rest of us tried to rest and get better (a second wave of sickness has spread in the van). Fell asleep at the movies and the like.

2005-01-16 Driving to Utah

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Not much more to say than a long overnight driving trip from San Jose CA to Salt Lake City UT. We stopped in Sacramento to visit an old friend, and drove endless hours in the dark fog.

2005-01-17 Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, UT

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Despite the friendly vibes, this show coughed up zero funds for us… which is of special concern, since we have a steady gas leak in the van that we neither have time nor money to fix, and a 20 hour drive to Missouri tomorrow. We’re trying to get back to Philadelphia in time for a new hometown tour return show on friday. If you ever wanted to donate via paypal, now’s the time! NOTE= our paypal account is soloby(at)temple.edu, not chromelodeon(at)hotmail.com!

Our destroyed trailer is still sitting in Arizona somewhere rotting away.

Stayed with our friends at the BOING house… awesome collective to check out if you’re ever going through this oddly calming city.
http://boing.vegcrew.net