About Me
Dateline: 1999 - The Rubber City, Summit County, Northeast Ohio.Get off of Route 8 at Buchtel Ave. Make two lefts and a right, and you're there.It was the crest of 3rd wave ska and bands like Reel Big Fish and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were on MTV...a lot too, not just once a month at 3:45 am or segues into commercials. This introduction to the wide world of Ska music influenced a talented group of high school bandmates to form a band. Fifty-four hours of labor and a firm slap later, the set.ups were born into the world. It quickly became apparent to them that writing and playing songs in front of arbitrary numbers of real, live people (who may or may not have been relatives or friends) was a pantload of fun.The high school days soon ended all current members were able to stave off the allure offered by a life of sex, drugs and rock and roll in order to complete bachelor's degrees at various institutions of higher learning around the state of Ohio. These happened to be formative years for the band as well. In between and occasionally in lieu of college studies, countless hours of rehearsal were held not 100 yards from the aforementioned state highway in a ninety + year old house that has since been purchased and promptly razed by the university down the street. R.I.P 504 Nash, thanks for the memories. After a period of rehearsal homelessness, they packed up shop and moved across town to a once quiet neighborhood in Highland Square.Though hardly road dogs, the set.ups have been cultivating the ability to win over crowds, be it on the bill of a nu-metal show at a roadhouse bar in the middle of some cornfields or an opening spot at the Cleveland Agora. Riding their mid-90's cream/primer/rust one-hundred bucks and it's your problem Ford Econoline like the mighty steed that it was, they announced their arrival at the venue with a rich, throaty voice. A noble sound, only possible because of a multi-exit exhaust system. Alas, they were forced to part company with their mount with which much of their musical lives were shared. Tears were not shed however, for vans like this don't die, they just move on.Over the years (don your helmets, name dropping ahead) the set.ups have enjoyed the privilege and the pleasure of sharing the stage at some of Ohio's finest music venues with such acts as The Slackers, Streetlight Manifesto, The Toasters, Catch22, King Django, I Voted for Kodos, MU330, The Suburban Legends, The Suicide Machines, The Know How, Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Whole Wheat Bread.Their discography to date consists of the "Don't Judge Us By The Way This Demo Sounds" EP, released in 2001. It was recorded using audio production techniques and methods of sound capture that are, for whatever reason, rarely attempted by the recording industry as a whole. Released during the summer of 2007, their debut full-length album "Breakdown" has a mix of songs both old and new, capturing a musical snapshot of the set.ups as of today, with a glimpse of musical road yet to be traveled.Dateline: Now.In this corner, weighing in at a combined weight of more than 1000lbs, proud products of quality public school music education programs, we have the set.ups.In the other corner, their mighty opponent: The opinion that bands with horn sections lack mass appeal, that Ska is dead.They will attempt to conquer their adversary by continuing to develop their own brand of modern Ska music, with a healthy nod to the roots from which the idiom evolved.Will they be emerge victorious? Will they crash and burn in the flames of failure? Will the cog-in-the corporate-machine by day, musician by night balancing act become far too perilous to continue?Only time will tell, but it's going to be fun to find out.
This will be a no-holds-barred match.
Low blows and dirty fighting encouraged.
Come out fighting...DING!
