UPINATEM

obligatory tour thanks post

2011-10-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

So this should have been done a couple months ago, but at least it's getting done now. Thanks a million to everyone who helped us out on our summer tour. Not just the people who came to the shows, but the incredible people who booked the shows for us, most of whom we didn't know. It means a lot to us when people take a chance on an unknown band. For a band like us, we really couldn't entertain very high expectations of how the trip would go. Most bands think they have a right to tour when they really have no business doing so, and they come through your town and you forget them within a month. Maybe we're no different, but I thought that if we got a chance we were capable of rocking people's faces off. Hopefully we left an impression.

Big thanks to the Canadian border patrol for letting us into Canada even after Sean thought he could get a taser across the border. Will we ever let Sean live that one down? Time will tell. But our time in British Columbia became a highlight of this band's existence. The Victoria show was right up there with the greatest shows we've ever played. The folks in Vancouver bought a lot of merch and were amazing. Squamish was great too, even though the kids there were more into crusty thrash/grind type stuff. Huge thanks to our new Canada pals for your kindness and support!

We also had cool shows stateside on our trip. Before crossing the border we stopped in Spokane and played a sweet house party. After we finished with B.C. we did three more shows in Washington. We had a killer basement show in Bellingham, an OK if slightly weird show in Seattle (guess we were playing for the wrong crowd; but huge props to Lonnie and the Morgue crew for running a first-class operation), and a fun show with some good friends in Tacoma to close out the tour.

Our ep that we recorded for tour is now available for free download at our bandcamp page. Check it out here!

These were our tour dates, for posterity's sake:
July 29 @ Hop2It, Twin Falls, ID. Go Go Jesus Genius, Skittish Itz, Upinatem.
July 30 @ Berlin House, Spokane, WA. Upinatem, two bands I can't remember.
July 31 @ Carpetland, Victoria, BC. Golden Axe, Jellyboyz, Being A Bear, Upinatem, Blink-182 cover band.
Aug 1 @ Chateau Noir, Vancouver, BC. The Receptionists, Sick Charade, Retards On Caffeine, Upinatem.
Aug 2 @ Squamish Youth Center, Squamish, BC. Prison Violence, Total War, Upinatem.
Aug 3 @ Joe's house, Bellingham, WA. Totalizer, Beat To Fucking Death, Malice, Upinatem.
Aug 4 @ The Morgue, Seattle, WA. Chronic Tomb, Carrion something-or-other, Upinatem, Totes Brute.
Aug 5 @ The Red Room, Tacoma, WA. Overboard, Sidetracked, Upinatem, South 11th, Moron Broz.
Aug 7 @ The Carhole, Boise, ID. Strings And Chemicals, Drone Throne, Upinatem.

Obligatory 9/11 Post

2011-09-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

Has it been 10 years already? Here's what we've learned:

Social media and free-flowing information can help people change their own regimes in months compared to what military force hasn't accomplished in a decade.

That's all the more I have to say about that. I realized we haven't posted since tour, which was probably a mistake since we made so many new friends. I'm sure Facebook picked up the slack, but if you're here and are a relatively new fan, we'd like to say thanks for checking us out, and that we really had a good time, especially in Canada. Our next out-of-country adventure should take us towards Alberta, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, we're still playing locally, writing new songs with Rusty Shackleford, and generally doing what we do. So check our upcoming shows over on Facebook and come out if you can. Later Skaters

Dear Recording Diary: Day 3, 7/21/11

2011-07-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

Our new demo ep is fully recorded! We got together on Thursday to put Russ' and my vocals on the tracks, which didn't take very long at all. Now our buddy Shaun is tweaking the mix to make sure everything gets in there (no small task considering how much more intricate these tunes are than our older ones). Then we'll turn it over to Andrew (Sean's cousin and our original drummer) for mastering, and then you should get ready for an ass-kicking!

Here is the track listing:
1. The Gospel According To Erinnyes
2. Rand Must Die
3. Don't Sweat The Big Stuff
4. Sleepless In Hagerman
5. J-Town's Just A Football Team

A humble plea to current and former Upinatem fans of the Tragic Valley

2011-07-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

so we're kicking off another tour in the good ol' town of Twin Falls. It's been almost 6 years since our last tour, which kicked off with a potato cellar show that was not too shabby.

I realize everyone's gotten 6 years older, and as far as active, participating Upinatem fans from our hometowns go they are now few and far between. But if this plea reaches you somehow, be it through Facebook, email forward, or you actually just read our blog, I urge you to do us a favor and give us some momentum by coming out the 29th at Hop2It. I don't doubt we're going to have some great shows on tour, but having a good kickoff show will get us through any that aren't and put the fire under us to soldier on all those miles. I know you ain't got shit to do anyway that night, so come out! If you are an old alumni I'll give you a free copy of our demo/tour ep we're just wrapping up, and I promise you won't be disappointed with some of the face melting riffs and blazing drums you've come to expect from us. Thanks for sticking with us all these years.

Dear Recording Diary: Day 2, 7/16/11

2011-07-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it took more than three weeks, but we finally got together this past Saturday to work some more on the new EP. And we almost got done. Over the course of about 6 hours, Sean finished his bass and vocal tracks, and Brady finished his guitar tracks. All we have left to do now is get Russ' and my vocals on there, put a little mix magic on it, and it'll be ready to rip gut!

After the session we rolled out to Muff Mansion for an awesome basement show with the crazy kids of Cat Massacre. We actually impressed a few people and sold a little merch, which is weird! We have been playing a lot lately in preparation for tour, and getting really really good. Positive responses like the one we got on Saturday make us even more determined to get better and blow people away on the road. And now that Russ and I finally have passports, we'll be able to rock some mofackos north of the border too! See you soon.

4 Tards, 9 Beans

2011-07-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

Upinatem July 2011. Thanks Russ, now we'll never be able to play NYC.

"Don't Worry, It's Biodiesel" 2011 Northwest tour dates! (edit 7/25)

2011-07-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

This is our vehicle. Don't worry, it's biodiesel.

Here are our tour dates! We'll update this as more info comes in.

Fri July 29 - Hop2It, 2042 4th Ave. E, Twin Falls, ID. W/ Go Go Jesus Genius, Skittish Itz. 7pm $4.
Sat July 30 - Berlin's house, Spokane, WA.
Sun July 31 - Carpetland, Victoria, BC. W/ Being A Bear, Golden Axe, Jellyboyz. 5pm $5.
Mon Aug 1 - Chateau Noir, Vancouver, BC. W/ The Receptionists, ROC, Sick Charade. 7pm $5.
Tue Aug 2 - Squamish Youth Center 1135 Carson Pl., Squamish, BC. W/ Bracky Gen, Prison Violence, Total War. 6pm.
Wed Aug 3 - house show, Bellingham, WA. W/ Beat To Fucking Death, Malice, Totalizer. 7pm.
Thu Aug 4 - The Morgue, 5901 Airport Way S, Seattle, WA. W/ Chronic Tomb, Totes Brute.
Fri Aug 5 - The Red Room, 2313 Tacoma Ave. S, Tacoma, WA. W/ Moron Broz, Overboard, Sidetracked, South 11th. 6:30pm $5.
Sat Aug 6 - Portland, OR. More details tba.
Sun Aug 7 - The Carhole, Boise, ID. W/ Drone Throne, Rainbow Person, Strings And Chemicals. 6pm $5.

As you might notice, half of these dates are gonna be house shows. For various reasons it's generally not a good idea for us to post the addresses of said house shows. If you are actually in one of these areas and don't know where the show is going down, please email hummerofdoom@hotmail.com and we'll be happy to tell you!

Dear Recording Diary: day 1, 6/23/11

2011-06-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

This evening we started recording for a brand new demo/tour EP. Our good friend Shaun Shireman, who plays guitar for Boise pop-punkers Strings And Chemicals, is doing the recording for us using a condenser mic system and his computer. This is a good way to get a decent-sounding demo made quickly and cheaply, which is our goal with the tour coming up in about 5 weeks. We are recording 5 songs for this demo. One song doesn't have an official title yet, but here are the names of the rest of them:

"J-Town's Just A Football Team"
"Rand Must Die"
"Sleepless In Hagerman"
"The Gospel According To Erinnyes"

Tonight we did about 3 hours of work and managed to finish all the drum tracks and Russ' guitar tracks. We didn't play everything perfectly, but we still got great performances, me and Russ sound tight, plus fuck it, it's a demo. I think it's gonna be awesome when we get the rest of the tracks laid down, plus it's gonna show everyone how Upinatem rolls with our new lineup. Can't wait to get back to work on it! Bye for now.

The tremors before the quake!

2011-06-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

Mike's just about got all the dates stitched up for tour so everything's on track.

In the meantime, we've been writing and playing like crazy lately. If you've missed us at the Red Room (can't blame you, we had like 7 hours notice) or at punk mondays we just squeezed another in on June 27th, and we're playing with Russ' kickass cake-punk band Skittish Itz on July 12th in Twin Falls at The Bella Terra, along with My Iron Lung, Darsuum and Bloom.

We've been having a shit-load of fun lately, and if any of you old fat Boise punkers are reading this, I just wanted to say how badass it is you guys still hit the shows so hard. Face to Face/Strung Out the other night was a riot, and the Red Room last night was even crazier (especially when Trigger Effect raped the stage.) Thanks for all the good times over the years, guys. Here's to many, many more.

Let's try this again!

2011-06-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely, shows are coming together for our tour! Unfortunately, this has meant rerouting our tour to where we had to abandon our dreams of playing in Alberta. We DID make contact with a few cool people there who can help us out in the future, just not this time around! Anyway, here is the latest draft. When you see a date in your neck of the woods with a big fat 'HELP' next to it, that is your cue to write us and say 'I can totally do a show for you!' :) (EDIT 6/15: We got each date taken care of but one: August 6!)

July 29 - Twin Falls @ Hop2It
July 30 - Spokane
July 31 - Victoria
August 1 - Vancouver
August 2 - Squamish
August 3 - Bellingham
August 4 - Seattle @ The Morgue
August 5 - Tacoma @ The Red Room
August 6 - Olympia? Portland? anywhere within 7-8 hours west of Boise? HELP
August 7 - Boise @ The Carhole

Dear Diary: May 25, 2011

2011-05-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hello. I have been searching for days to find anyone who is interested in booking us on our tour. Booking a tour can be hard when a) no one has heard of your band and b) you are trying to tour places where you don't really know a lot of people. I believe it will all work out, though! It's an adventure, and even if we end up with shitty shows, at least we'll be on vacation. :) Two nights ago, we played a pretty decent Punk Monday set at Liquid. And over the weekend we had a full band practice where we busted out yet another brand new song. That's 5 for anyone keeping score. This is a nice change from the usual glacial pace at which we write songs. So at least we're doing our part to prepare for the tour on the musical end.

Last week I made an appointment to apply for my passport. In Boise there is exactly one place where you can do that (the main post office), and they were fully booked 3 weeks out. Yikes. The lady on the phone said I should get my passport in plenty of time for the trip. Now Russ just needs to get on the stick. :)

Here is a updated tour schedule, if you can help us in any way with some of these dates please let us know:

July 29 - Twin Falls @ Hop2It (whatever that is)
July 30 - Missoula (working on it)
July 31 - Calgary? Lethbridge? HELP
August 1 - Edmonton (working on it)
August 2 - Kamloops? Kelowna? Anywhere between Ed and Van? HELP
August 3 - Vancouver HELP
August 4 - Victoria (working on it)
August 5 - Tacoma @ Red Room
August 6 - Portland? Olympia? Spokane? HELP
August 7 - Boise @ The Carhole

Thanks folks. Listen to Not On Tour. -Mike

"Don't Worry, It's Biodiesel" Northwest tour August 2011 - rough draft!

2011-05-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a very rough schedule for our upcoming tour. We have reached out to promoters in many of these places, but nothing is booked yet, so if you have any contacts to suggest, please get a hold of us! Our emails are in the sidebar to your right.

Fri July 29 Twin Falls
Sat July 30 Bozeman?? (somewhere between Twin and Canada)
Sun July 31 Calgary
Mon August 1 Edmonton
Tue August 2 Kamloops/Kelowna?
Wed August 3 Vancouver
Thurs August 4 Victoria
Fri August 5 Seattle/Tacoma
Sat August 6 Portland
Sun August 7 Boise

As Sean said in the previous post, we could also use contacts for Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, really any town in Western Canada where people enjoy punk rock. Thanks!

Old Ass Ramblings

2011-05-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hey kids!

Ok, I don't think any real kids listen to us anymore. Hey young adults! If you stumbled upon this you must exhibit at least a modicum of interest in what we've been up to lately. In contrast to what we've accomplished in the previous 3 years, a lot!

First off, as Mikey said, Russ of SKiTTiSH iTZ fame is now a permanent Upinatem member. For the next while he's still Twin Falls native, so we've been able to get together often and we're approaching enough songs for a 5 song EP. This will most likely be burned off in DIY fashion and given out for free at shows as a reward for even bothering to come. Also, it's nice to have stuff to give out on tour, which, as Mike also mentioned, we are currently planning.

So, if ANY of my old Canadian amigos happen upon this post, please spread the word that we're doing a Western Canada tour first part of August! We're dead serious. I know, we're old as hell, half of us are married, and the other half might as well be. But that be damned, we're going on the road again. Please get ahold of me at upinatem@gmail.com if you'd like to come to a show or can give us a place to sleep. For now, talk is of Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Calgary, Ed, and out into BC somewhere since Mike's played out there with ~~Hummingbird~~ Manville. I'd really like to make this work, so any help will be much appreciated. That's all for now.

Dear Diary: May 1, 2011

2011-05-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

Last night we got together and had a killer band practice at Sean's house. Over the years, practices have been at times sporadic, due to the distance between the members of the band. I live in Boise, Brady lives in Hagerman, and Russ and Sean live in Twin Falls. So when we get together, whether it's at my place or Sean's, someone is driving 100+ miles to make it happen. Fortunately, since Russ, Brady and Sean all live in the same area, they've been getting together to practice even when I can't get there. This allows us to work out new material without wasting a lot of the practice time we have when all 4 of us are together.

Speaking of new material, we have no fewer than 3 complete new songs, plus one more that is near completion. "J-Town's Just A Football Team" is the one song that we worked on for the longest time after we made the "Democracide" album. Since Russ joined the band, we have also written "Sleepless In Hagerman" (which has been added to our live set) and "Rand Must Die." These are two major-league scorchers that reflect the songwriting ability that Russ has brought to the table, and I think we're all pretty stoked to play them for people. And last night we just started rehearsing the aforementioned unfinished song. I'm not sure if there are lyrics for it. I think I was supposed to write some. :)

We are so excited about the direction of the band that we are going to once again try our hand at touring! Our one and only 'tour' took place in September 2005. It was literally the first tour any of us had been on, and let's just say it was not very well planned. Well, let's also say that two of our greatest shows happened on that tour (Walla Walla and Las Vegas). We had fun, but ever since then it hasn't felt right for us to try again. Until now. This summer we look north of the border. From what I have been hearing, it seems like people still like fast punk rock in Canada, so we thought we would try our luck up there. So expect news and dates very soon! Until then, listen to Cigar.

welcome, history and discography

2011-04-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

So. Why blogspot? Well, our website, www.upinatem.com, is fairly fucked up (an opinion you too will share if you take the time to visit it). So this blog has been created as a home for extensive news updates on what we're up to, and possibly a political rant or three. ;) For right now, here is an abridged history of our little skate-punk band from Idaho.

Upinatem began in the punk rock stronghold that is Jerome, Idaho, in May 1995. Sean Capps, who played guitar and sang, started the band with his two cousins while still in high school. Not long after they released the "Cool People Suck" cassette, Sean moved to Alberta, and the band petered out in his absence. In 1998, Sean returned to Idaho, teamed up with fellow guitarist Brady Borrowman, and resurrected Upinatem. In 2003, Mike Doherty became the drummer. In 2005, Sean got tired of playing guitar, opting to concentrate solely on vocals, but after going through umpteen bass players over the years, he took it upon himself to learn bass, and has been playing it ever since. In October 2010, Russ Worstell joined up on 2nd guitar, finally completing what we feel is the right lineup for the band. Since then our enthusiasm has been at an all-time high. After 16 years of putzing around Boise and the Twin Falls area, we are determined to make something of this band...whatever that is. :)

Along the way, we have recorded 5 studio albums and one ridiculous(ly great) live album. We have also appeared on a handful of compilations, most recently the "Shut The Fuck Up And Listen Volume 4" 7-inch (our very first appearance on vinyl!). We have played scattered live shows throughout the western United States. Here is a list of the records we have released:

"Cool People Suck" (1995) lineup: Andrew, John, Sean
"Designer Fascist Show" (2000) lineup: Brady, John, Matt, Sean
self-titled aka "White CD" (2001) lineup: Brady, Matt, Sean, Shannon
The Untimely Demise Of A Once Well-Read Nation (2004) lineup: Brady, Jeremy, Mike, Sean
Democracide (2008) lineup: Brady, Mike, Sean
Same Songs Only Shittier (recorded live 2008, released 2010) lineup: Brady, Kevin, Mike, Sean