Continuous Peasant used to have a fairly straight rock band format. Our lineup from 2002 until 2005 featured
Pete Nochisaki, Guitar (ex Bill Holdens, ex Good For You),
Chris Stroffolino, Keyboards, Vocals (ex-Silver Jews, ex-Rising Shotgun, Hudson Bell)
Mia Lipman, Vocals
Brandon Watson, Drums
Bob Gumbrecht, Bass
Our first album EXILE IN BABYVILLE featured Greg Hain on bass, Vanessa Beggs on vocals
as well as Joel Pickard on pedal Steel Guitar.
The reformed lineup as of May 2006 is still in flux,
but in addition to Stroffolino, Watson and Lipman (and, no, we're not a law firm--
more like an outlaw firm), we've been joined on stage by
James Fenwick Holmes (guitar, French Horn),
Patrick Blizinski (keyboard, accordion, etc)
Matt Peasant (guitar)
Caitlin Oliver-Gans (bass).
We're also recorded with such guests as Miriam Jacobson, Jolie Holland, Gene Baker, Willy The Mailman, Jon Moldover, Eli Crews, and others
Influences
Bob Dylan, Richard Hell, The Clash, Buzzcocks, Jonathan Richman, Kinks, Velevet Underground, John Lennon, The Jam, Leonard Cohen, Kris Kristofferson, Nick Cave, Robyn Hitchcock, Merle Haggard, Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, Camper Van Beethoven, John Prine, Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Zombies, Roxy Music, The Guess Who, The Replacements, Graham Parker, Honor Roll, The Sonics---and a lot of bands and poets and stand up comics. We'll get around to writing it all down someday...
Sounds Like
TEEN URINE! Depends if you want our slower quieter keyboard based numbers or our more rocking guitar-based numbers. One critic said we're a cross between Wilco and The Velvet Underground. Another said Evan Dando or David Lowry (Cracker Van Beethoven). Sone say Tom Petty; others say the Decemberists. Proudly low-fi, "one of the most infectious collections of balls-out rock and morning after melancholy to come out this year" (The Georgia Strait--Vancouver). Warm, expressiveness over technical virtuoisity, poetic indie rock, but also some Punk, and singer-songwriter, and classic rock all rolled into one big CONTINUOUS PEASANT REBELLION. Listen for yourself, and tell us!
Hey, don't you hate the way most bands act with their band bios, especially bands you probably haven't heard of that much yet. Some act so important, "BE A PART OF OUR PLAN FOR WORLD DOMINATION" or "HEY, JOIN OUR STREET TEAM," (god, I hate that phrase, it's like BATTLE OF THE BANDS to me)-- you know trying to act bigger than they really are, because they read in CD BABY or some book like GORILLA MARKETING that's what ya gotta do. Then there's the other kind of band, that's all self-deprecating, "oh, we're a mess, no one likes us" and that could be charming too.....but yeah but what I want to know is what do you want to know? I want to know about you. I want to get up on stage at my next show, and just ask the audience all kind of questions, like WHY ARE YOU HERE? What do you LIKE about us? What do you HATE about us? I love the fact that there's a band called TEENAGE FANCLUB because, well, I love my audience, or as Jerry McGuire say, "you complete me!"
Well, I'm sick of all this marketing stuff; all this self-consciousness, in which people say, "oh, if only you marketed your band differently, or put a different picture on your album cover, or stayed half-an-hour longer at that party (when the big record company guy, or the oh so hip journalist or college DJ finallymade an appearance), you'd be a big star by now!" Oh, there's all these decisions, like which songs should we put up on our myspace page? Like we could put all our slow songs up, or we could put all our fast songs up? Or some of both? But we only get four, and what if somebody who loves the slow, quiet songs checks out our myspace profile, but one of the faster songs comes on, and well that person just never gives us another chance? It's like dating, you know, like I get my hair cut because it's summer and it's sweaty and unmanageable, and then I'm at this party and I meet a girl I really am into, and then she says "well, I only like guys with long hair"---
so this whole thing is really silly, and I bet I'm one of 10 Million people who identified with songs like The Kinks singing "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"---and yeah here I am REALLY REAL, more real than all those phonies (and it's the ghost of Holden Caulfield emerging), but you get to a point where you don't want to call other people phonies, or envy them their connections and luck, even though I know in my heart that we're not just another rock band, I also know that WE ALL have to be humble, and have a lot to learn, and that doesn't mean we can't have FUN, or can't help each other GET THROUGH A NIGHT that might otherwise be LONELY, and maybe even help each other SURVIVE and fulfill each other's NEEDS and DESIRES, and that's one thing I really want to do; I don't want to be just another distant slick band on the stage.....But if that's what you REALLY want, I'll give you a standard bio too.
Here's the SHORT VERSION
I guess you could say Continuous Peasant was formed in 2002 in Oakland California by long-time busker, and poet Chris Stroffolino, but it's both older than that and newer than that. He had a lot of success in the poetry world (people like John Ashbery, Brenda Hillman, James Tate, Carla Harryman) dug his work, but for some reason even these 'famous' poets don't have many readers who aren't themselves poets. After awhile that gets very boring, very sad, very frustrating. But Poetry's CHEAPER to make than music, and it does fulfill a need (which may be selfish, or may be shyness). Still, it wasn't visceral enough, by itself, and eventually, Stroffolino had to go public with his first love: music (since music was also his first poetry as a kid). By 1998, Stroffolino got notoriety in the music scene for playing with such bands as SILVER JEWS, Rising Shotgun, Hudson Bell, and Volumen--mostly on the east coast (New York City; Philadelphia).
Continuous Peasant doesn't exactly combine music and poetry (hell, if you want the poetry that stands up on the page you can check out Stroffolino's books), but we have been called 'literate garage rock' by the East Bay Express, which isn't bad for a three word description,
at least of some our songs. Our first single, "THE WAY I FIND YOU/COMBINATION WEDDING," was released in early 2003, sold out quickly, and is now luckily out of print. This was followed by our first full length album, EXILE IN BABYVILLE (2003), which charted on dozens of stations in the US and CANADA and received favorable reviews which would be too tedious to quote right now. Just before the release of our second album, INTENTIONAL GROUNDING (2005), tragedy struck, as Stroffolino was left crippled (for life) after a car ran a stop sign while he was riding his bike on Haight Street in San Francisco (do you REALLY want to know this???), which forced the band to cancel shows, and during this time, the band broke up, as bassist Bob Gumbrecht moved back to Colorado (for a job) and guitarist Peter Nochisaki moved to Portland (to live with the bassist for The Jolenes in the house that had been recently vacated by the THE EXPLODING HEARTS). While slowly recovering, Stroffolino self-released the NEW ORLEANS BENEFIT EP in late 2005 under the name Continuous Peasant with Marco Villalobos and Willy The Mailman of the Graves Brothers Deluxe (and ex-Noel Redding). Currently in the studio recording new songs, Stroffolino hopes to be back to doing live shows with a new lineup of Continuous Peasant by fall of 2006 (though he ain't gonna be jumpin' around like he used to). In the meantime, you can always check out the albums, which of course will be eventually hailed as classics once OUR STREET TEAM wins THE BATTLE OF THE BANDS and taketh us to the topper most of the poppermost and then you can hate us as an overrated phony and this phony Peasantmania bites the dust and love ain't just for breakfast anymore....
RADIO SUICIDE the new B-Movie Rats full length album is out on Rank Outsider Records and available through CD Baby! A record release show/party is being scheduled for Los Angeles Spring 2008 and an attack on South By South West 2008! .
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