Seriously Now!

What's not to love!?

Kenn's Debut @ Mickey's

Practice, practice, practice! That's what we've been doing the last couple of months. We wanted Kenn's debut with the band to be a good one.
Mickey's Tavern is always a comfortable place to play (Nice staff and a warm & cozy crowd).

We got off to a good start and it just kept getting better!




Kenn was perhaps a bit unnerved by this "photo op." The fella that sits behind the rest of the band doesn't normally get his photo taken.




...But, it didn't take long to fall into a groove.




Jeff, his tippy organ and splendid trousers!




Ed and Pam looking down at their hands.




Johnny Rumble played right after us. Great band out of Chicago!




Thanks to all that showed up last night!

Bippity-Bippity!

Hey rock fans! How's your summer going?

We here at Motor Primitives Headquarters (MPHQ) have been busy, busy, busy searching for a new drummer. The large number and high quality of musicians in Madison never ceases to amaze us. In April and May, we had some great candidates drop by to play with the band. Well, I think we've found us a pretty nifty fit.

We would like to welcome into the fold…Drum roll please!...(Uhmmm, will someone wake up the drummer?)...Mr. Kenn "Bippity-bippity" Busch!!!!

We recently sat down with Rat, I mean Kenn, to get to know him a little better. Here's a transcript of that conversation:

US: Where are ya from?
Kenn: A little edge town in Wisconsin called Farmington. Wait...I mean, a farm town called Edgerton. (Lysdexia is no maffing latter!)

US: How would you describe your drumming style?
Kenn: XTC's Terry Chambers pummeling Phil Collins' Phil Collins with a half-empty whisky bottle, tempered by a case of early-onset rigor mortis in my right wrist.

Us: Who or what inspires you to play?
Kenn: Fear of fame and the fact that I was born to dance...but never actually taught to dance.

US: Where would you go that you can't go but would if you could?
Kenn: Out with Brooke Shields when we were both 13.

US: Do you know where you're going to AND do you like the things that life is showing you?
Kenn: Let me quick pray to the Google. (Pause.) Yes, this is where I am, and I like it. Very much.

US: What's your favorite color?
Kenn: Transparent, with a slight azure haze.

Us: Any other info you'd like to share?
Kenn: I thought name, rank, and favorite cereal was all I needed to provide in this war. Did I miss a memo?

We've been working up a rip-roaring set for Kenn's first gig as an MP. We've got some new songs and alternate arrangements to some of the tunes you've heard us play before.

So come on out to Mickey's on SATURDAY, JULY 18th at 10pm and help us welcome our new drummer!

As always, the music is FREE at Mickey's!!

Dig the Obvious

Newsflash! The Guardian says that Moby doesn't like his own stuff.

He had a wildly popular album that you couldn't escape. It WAS everywhere!! Now he's wondering why it was so damn popular. I'll tell you why? Because, collectively, we've got crappy taste in music and we count on marketers to tell us what we should like.

The average wins!

What everyone wants is a brown paper package of mediocrity.


Have at it! We all deserve each other.



Blah, blah, blah....

Be the Engine - Music Video!!

A few months ago our friend Mary, an acquisitions editor at the Oregon State University Press, forwarded a book she recently worked on. The book is titled "Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities." The book's author, Jeff Mapes, is a political reporter for The Oregonian in Portland.

Pedaling Revolution is a "must read" for bicycle advocates. Mapes does a fine job of detailing the current state of bicycling in America and how bicycling, as transportation, continues to evolve.

Here's a book review from this weekend's NYT written by David Byrne.

Below is a light hearted video tribute to biking set to The Motor Primitives song Be the Engine, Part I. I'd like to dedicate the video to our friend Mary (an avid bicycle commuter) for pushing to publish such a great book!

The Frequency 050709

A blurry "art" shot.


Ed singing about his sparkly shirt.


Jeff & Robin rockin' out


The evening's headliner enjoys a "smoke" while he watches our show.


Then, he arches back, demonstrating great flexibility, just before plopping down on the floor, cross-legged, in the middle of the room.


Robin drives home the last few beats of the evening.

Beat Man Beats Feet

Here's a reprint from our fans list announcement earlier this week:


Hello music lovers!
Since 2003 A.D. we've been bringing you tunage meant to keep you dancing, frolicking and otherwise bopping. We like to think of ourselves as your personal sound track. And, make no mistake, we intend to keep weaseling our way into your rock'n'roll heart. But, che-che-che-changes are inevitable and this one's a biggy. The MP who has lovingly produced every beat since our 2003 show at the King Club is relinquishing his drum throne after our May 7th gig.

Robin "Ready, Steady, Go" Davies has played an instrumental part (pun intended) in the drive, energy and heart of the band. But, he's not one to let moss grow 'tween the little piggies and he's eager to seek out new and tantelizing beats in a different context. So, don't be surprised if, a few months down the road, the town is buzzing over some unique new local project that's knockin' the socks off the critics.

So, Thursday, May 7th will be Robin's last show with us. We'll be openning for Richard Lloyd at the Frequency at 121 W. Main St (http://madisonfrequency.com/home/about). The show starts at 9:00pm and the tickets are $10 adv and $13 day of show. If you'll recall, Richard Lloyd was part of the early punk sound to come out of New York in the '70s. He was in Television with Tom Verlaine...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_(band)...Great double guitar attack!

Stay tuned for more news of our new line-up!! Once we get more dirt on our new drummer we'll be more than happy to tell all.

Rocks Harder Than A Muppet!

If you like bikes...

Let it play through minute 1:10.

Give the drummer some!

The Harmony Show

Half an hour before the start of the show I was shoveling my walk. Four inches of snow at the end of March put a bit of a damper on the evening. But it was plenty warm inside and we had a heapin' helpin' of elbow dancers ripping up the floor! Here are some pictures from our two set show at the Harmony Bar (courtesy of Barb).


And now that we're down here, how do we get back up?


Taking a little break after taking a spin on the dance floor.


What you lookin' at?

More Views from Austin

It may have taken 24 hours to drive down to Austin but it took only 21 hours to drive back. Here's the view of I-35 from our windshield


Of course, our central purpose was to play. Here's a picture of Jeff preparing to rock the Blind Pig Pub.


Walking around we saw this "bike rosary" poster.


We did a little exploring around the east side and found the pedicab garage. Austin seems to have boatloads of pedicabs!


I got the biggest kick out of "discovering" unofficial sites were bands were playing their hearts out. Here's a band playing on the deck of Clementine's Coffee Shop.


This Band was playing in a hair salon.


In the Parking lot of Trophy's Bar & Grill.


In the back lot of Ms. Bea's bar.


A band and their dogs roaming up an alley.


One of my favorite bands was this metal band from Okinawa, Japan. They played in the parking lot of Fran's burger joint.


I think the singer's cute. Arigato baby!

Well there you have it!

Thirty-eight minutes and a cloud of dust. Our Austin show is now history.

We were sandwiched between two Madison bands at the Broadjam showcase from 4pm to 7pm. The entire event was runing about 10 minutes late so we got cut short in order to make way for the "headliner." At minute 38, I looked up at the sound guy who was giving us the "you're done" sign. Luckily, we had a couple folks from the audience that yelled for one more and we were able to end on a high note, The Flame.

I'll get some pictures posted once I get them downloaded from the camera.

Thanks to Sybil, Jim and Walt for showing up. Also, it was a nice suprise to look out into the crowd and see Madison's own Sunspot out there supporting the home team. Thanks!!!

Pictures from the road

I posted some photos here, if'n y'all want to see 'em.

From Texas with Love

Just a quick shout out from Austin. HOWDY!

The place is quite a zoo! Walking down 6th Street is complete audio assault. Bands on playing on roofs, pianos are set up in the street and every store front is a stage. The music goes from Noon to 2 pm everyday. At least that's the official time for events. If you wander around after 2am, you can hear band going all night long.

Actually, I've found that the stuff I've enjoyed the most has been at unofficial venues completely unaffiliated with any festival. We were wondering down 5th Street and got flyered about a show at a hair salon. FANTASTIC! The Union Lines from California was playing an impromptu gig to make a little money to get home.

I'll write more later but here's a few bits 'O info so far:

1. 24 hours to get from Madison to Austin.
2. Des Moines had a big St. Patrick's day parade on Tuesday (don't those people work?)
3. Road runners are cool lookin' birds
4. First Butterfly of the season spotted in southern Oklahoma.
5. 70 degrees at Noon!

By the way...We play tonight!!!!

Happy Hour at the Pig

The latest breaking news is that we're on at 5pm on March 20th instead of 6pm as originally announced. Gee, I hope this doesn't screw up anyone's travel plans.

Rockin' the Harmony

For the few fans of ours that won't be making the road trip down to Austin for our March 20th showcase, may we remind you that we will be playing the Harmony Bar on March 28th?

Vid Libert will be the opening act starting at 9:45pm (and you will adore him). We'll be starting around 10:30 and play late into the night.

Ding Dang Y'all!!

Heading down to Texas next Tuesday and I'm looking forward to it! It'll be a long road trip for a brief 45 minutes but it's well worth it to me. I'm excited to play a new town and venue. I'm excited that the temperature is projected to be in the 70's. I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of bands I've never heard of at the Red Gorilla Music Festival (I'm not paying $700 gain access to SXSW). I'm looking forward to attending showcases/parties and listening to other peoples music experiences.
The place we're playing, The Blind Pig Pub, caught on fire on February 6th.

Fortunately, they've gotten all the necessary repairs done and they're ready to host the Broadjam.com Showcase on March 20th. I've just heard that we'll be playing on the roof top. How cool is that!?

Headin' to Texas!

The SXSW Music Conference is going on in the third week of March. We're heading down there to play the RedGorilla Music Fest at the Blind Pig Pub! We'll be part of a 3 band showcase sponsored by Madison's own Broadjam.com on Friday, March 20th.

That's right! we'll be here:


For this:


And that makes us this:

It's a Zoo!

Why all these crazy images?
What do pigs and gorillas have in common?
Hmmmm.....

New Video from the HNS

Thanks to Johnny Vision we've got a new video from our December 30th show at the HNS with Shazy Hade.

Feature article out today!

Pick up the newest edition of the Eastside News for a riveting feature article on you favorite band. That's right, Jeff, Ed and Pam sat down with Corissa Kasmira of the Goodman Community Center and we spilled the beans on ourselves. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Here's your quote of the day:
This east side band is a band that will not bore you with cover tunes but enlighten you to good “proto pop punk.”

Our theme for the month of March:
Month of the Monkey.

(For reasons that will become apparent very soon)

Our Stickers Do Not Explode

Our little sticker has nothing on the one put out by This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, a Florida based folk-punk band. If a band can't make it with this kind of press, I don't know what it would take.

Extreme Website Makeover!

I finally got something done that should have been done two years ago. Our web page has been updated with a new look!

Features include a new steel blue look and less clutter. Best of all, we've placed a jukebox on the main page so that you can hear the five songs that comprise our EP Classified.

Long Live Lux &The Cramps

Monkeys Gone Wild

This is the new hairstyle I'm promoting for the band.


Big metal hair's been done:


Swoopy hair's been done:


Plastic hair...Check!


Yup! Monkey hair's the next big thing!

Fuzzy pixs from a night at Mickey's

Last Saturday we rocked the evenning away at Mickey's Tavern. Thanks to the fine folks at Mickey's who always welcome us and make us feel at home!






Pixels in the shape of us courtesy of M. Barrett

Double the Fun

It's two! Two! Two sets in one!!!

Come on down to Mickey's. The fun starts at 10pm and ends when we run out of songs to play.

Double Dose

Come on out to our next show at Mickey's on January 31st! We start at 10pm with a set of "classic" MP tunes that we've retooled to fit our harder, louder sound.





Then, we'll play a second set of our newer stuff! Yippie!!








Someone needs to get a cape!