Billy on guitar and singing
Brooke on keys and singing too
Larry on bass and singing sometimes
Stormi on drums and singing sometimes when she feels like it
Influences
The Pixies, Elvis Costello, Of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Arcade Fire, The Jam, Dresden Dolls, The Smiths, The Mekons, Mission Of Burma, Jon Hodgman, Kurt Vonnegut, Dadaist wildlife documentaries, trees of all shapes and sizes and the letter Q.
Sounds Like
A shifting gelatinous 12-dimensional menace from beyond the stars crying out from the icey slumber of its ancient undersea tomb. Produced by Phil Spector!
Springing forth from the playful spirit, adventurous songwriting and vicious lyrical aptitude of its members, Seattle’s Shorthand For Epic crashes brazenly through the plate glass window of modern pop music, embarrassing the children and befouling the fashion plates before finally passing out in a drunken heap atop the squirming, weeping, hyperventilating hordes of ponderous, hook-free, indie-as-a-genre bands, crushing all beneath. Trying to explain the music more with clumsy words would be silly, seeing inasmuch as there are mp3s of it right here on this page. Listen to them and weep for the future.
Shorthand For Epic (or, SFE as they are affectionately known to those afflicted with carpal tunnel syndrome), was born when Billy and Brooke started writing songs together in February of 2005. They did this for quite a long time. In August, they met Stormi, who hit things very hard. Then in December, they met Larry, who had a pirate treasure map and a scepter carved from the bones of a manticore that would tell riddles and whisper horrible secrets in the night. All of us felt that these things were necessary to a band which played popular music in this day and age. We have all been in other bands that played lots of shows and put out albums before this. Maybe you've heard of them? We highly doubt it!
In any case, somebody has been paying attention, because SFE has already received sparkling local critical acclaim for their self-released, self-titled 3-song debut EP in the pages of the Stranger and Seattle Sound Magazine and on the Three Imaginary Girls website, while on the airwaves they have appeared live on 107.7 THE END and 90.3 KEXP, where they reached medium rotation and were also included in 3 of that station's Music That Matters online podcasts, bringing the band far beyond Seattle to the larger world, where their reign of terror and confusion can continue unabated.
We have had 0 workplace accidents since May 2006. At the request of the management, we have stopped wantonly spilling the blood of the innocent.
What do reasonably literate people have to say about us?:
"There's enough meaningful content in these three songs for an ouvre of lesser bands ... Think the same sort of cool musical joy that bands like The Specials and The Jam and The B-52s specialized in, colorful mod music with very serious and extremely intelligent lyrics" - CHRIS ESTEY, THREE IMAGINARY GIRLS
"Shorthand for Epic is the now. The music feels like Billy Joel clashing with the Arcade Fire, and the vocal melodies encompass the same endearing catchiness as the Mates of State ... SFE just might shape up to be one of the more exciting rock acts this city's seen in a while." - MEGAN SELING, the STRANGER
"Through poetic lyrics that have the rare ability to not come off as wimpy or trite ... Shorthand For Epic takes societal laments, which could just as easily work in dirges, and makes them danceable and fun. And, for me, that's a necessity because, when everything is failing around me, dancing, if only for a moment, makes it at least bearable." - MEGAN PANTS, RAZORCAKE
OMG! I don't believe it. You guys are playing Mr. T's Bowl tonight???!! That's a half mile from my house in LA and I just happen to be at the Jersey shore w/ my fam right now. Dang it!! i heart Bill B. and would love to have caught your show. Be forewarned: Mr. T's Bowl is like stepping into a David Lynch movie:):)
Just wanted to see how you guys across this mass of surface area were doing. lol I hope your shows are all great (Which I know they are) and that all of you are doing lovely!
Y'all are brilliant. We LOVE practicing 'round the corner from ya. Keep up the good work. I'm sure you'll see us peaking our head in sometime soon. -xoxoxo Connor and The Damage Done
