Collisionville

Bio:

.. I Spied a Spider is available now from CD Baby and the iTunes Music Store.



"Northern California's Collisionville fuses a loud, post-punk sound with down-home Americana to create sardonically sincere songs that are well put together and streaked with the humor that eludes more self-serious bands." -Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired Magazine

"Frontman Stephen Pride hasn't forgotten indie rock icons like Pavement, the Replacements, and Hüsker Dü. But as Dinosaur Jr. and Built to Spill taught us, an unhinged guitar is nothing without a sturdy song. Pride's range extends to country and blues, and a line like 'I'm not looking for a paradise, just a cleaner jail' proves he means it." -Nate Seltenrich, East Bay Express

"Stephen Pride's song craft is dynamic, full of unexpected turns..." -Dan Vermont, The Owl Mag

"I think Frank Zappa would have liked some of Collisionville's music .It's funny and insinuating; it creeps up on you. It's got fucked time signatures and whacked guitar parts played because that's how the composition was going and they took themselves seriously in the right way..." -Brian Keizer (Spin Magazine & the SF Bay Guardian)

There's a big snake in your back yard. Your house is fragile and the wind is harsh. Times are changing too fast and you might not know where you are tomorrow. In fact, you may already be living in a very different world than the one you remember waking up in yesterday.

Oakland, California’s Collisionville—guitarist/vocalist Stephen Pride, drummer Ben Adrian, and bassist Conor Thompson—are dealing with these insane times by cranking out tunes reminiscent of ‘80s & ‘90s staples like The Pixies, The Replacements, or the whole SST camp—only in a post-grunge world, broken up by eerie, fatalistic strains of old blues.

The band’s second full-length, I Spied a Spider (the title comes from a lyric in the song "Dark Road Blues" by the Willie Lofton Trio, recorded in 1935), is out now on Berkeley, CA's Booplet Records. While 2005’s Hotter Heads Prevail indulged frontman Pride’s post-punk leanings, Spider draws heavily on other influences, infusing Collisionville’s already-rollicking sideshow with Americana twang, and giving Pride a chance to display his ample banjo chops.

The album’s packed with confessionals that wryly lay out good times and bad—hell, mostly bad. The people in these songs have no power to affect things politically, personally, internally. Still, Pride’s dour lyrics are so riddled with humor they can’t quite mask the secret optimist. “You still got nine good fingers / There's a guy outside who'd kill for your job / His family's eatin' shit for dinner” spits Pride on the plodding rocker “Keep The Sweatshops Blazin’.” “Please Spare the Life of Your Cocaine Dealer” marries flip lyrics fitting of its title with a hillbilly-via-Brit-Invasion shuffle. And what of that twang? “Another Cold Shoulder” is a Gram Parsons-style barnburner, and “Sleeping in a Tree” rattles off plenty of mutant Neil Young swagger.

And so the story takes another turn. Collisionville have been measuring their frustrations in decibels, and I Spied a Spider is the byproduct. They're not going down this dark road by themselves.

Available online is a veritable bouillabaisse of Collisionville merch -- click here for our previous album: a full length Food Stamp Records CD, Hotter Heads Prevail. Pick up our 7" single and a t-shirt while you're at it.

Member Since:

February 22, 2005

Members:

Stephen Pride: guitar, banjo, harmonica & vocals; Ben Adrian (also of Guitar vs Gravity): drums & occasional guitar; Conor Thompson (also of Vitamin Party): bass, guitar, & vocals

Sounds Like:

neil young, pavement, replacements, pixies, nirvana, hank williams, muddy waters, son house

Record Label:

Booplet Records

Label Type:

Indie