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The Special Purpose

This machine kills fascists.

About Me


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Since 2004, The Special Purpose has gained a reputation as one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier grassroots musical acts. Their blend of old-school Funk and new-school Jazz combined with open ended improvisations creates a unique instrumental musical experience that is thoughtful and exhilarating. The Special Purpose was founded when an improvisational recording project brought the four members together in their respective home of Seattle Washington. John Fawcett, Stephen Fogg, Chris Stefanile and Tim Symons quickly found that their different and diverse musical backgrounds seemed to meld together with a sustained ease and effortlessness, subsequently creating a truly unique fusion of their influences and ideas. Each band member plays an equal role in the sound of The Special Purpose. There is no ’front man’, and therefore the band is free to create music that has no restrictions or limitations of any kind. The Special Purpose’s music is an inspiring testament to the power of cooperation and artistic integrity. Over time the band has honed their writing and improvisational skills though constant live performances. Due to the nature of the group, no two shows are the same. The Special Purpose can go from dark and intense one moment, to beautiful and inspiring the next. Through clever songwriting and high energy performances, this genre-jumping unpredictability is tight and coherent, inspiring a diverse audience of music lovers looking for that perfect sound you can wrap your brain around and shake your money maker to. Over the years, TSP has shared the stage and played the festival circuit with some of the nations premier musical acts including The Consul, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, High Ceiling, Garaj Mahal, Steve Perkins, The Suffering Fuckheads, John Molo, The New Riders Of The Purple Sage, Melvin Seals, Vince Herman, Delta Nove, In’ Lakech and Willie Waldmanand.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/11/2005
Band Website: kindweb.com/thespecialpurpose
Band Members: John Fawcett (Drums), Stephen Franklin Fogg (8-String Guitar), Chris Stefanile (Guitar), Tim Symons (Wurlitzer and keys).
Influences: (influences In random order): Bernie Worrell, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Garaj Mahal, Benevento/Russo Duo, Grateful Dead, Medeski Martin & Wood, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Vida Blue, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, Olympic Sound Collective, The Consul, Galactic, Aretha Franklin, String Cheese Incident, Django Rhinehart, Tenacious D, The Living Daylights, Brad Keith, John Mclaughlin, They Might Be Giants, George Harrison, Stephen Sondheim, Thelonious Monk, Keller Williams, Shadow Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, Particle, Melvin Seals & Jerry Garcia Band, Rebirth Brass Band, Banyan, New Riders of the Purple Sage, John Scofield, Phish, Jeff McGrath, Blues Traveler, Les Claypool, Dave Grusin, George Gershwin, Ray Brown, Skerik, Charlie Hunter, Bill Frisell, NOFX, Art Pepper, Trey Anastasio, Dig The Particulars, Critters Buggin, Jazz Mandolin Project, George Clinton, Bob Marley, Old And In The Way, Phil Lesh, Blind Melon, Ben Folds, Dirty Beggar, William Parker, Rashid Ali, Michael Muir, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Tim Haggens, Photek, Bill Monroe, Stevie Wonder, Tarka, Gas Huffer, Queen, Jeff Watts, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Alice Coltrane, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Metallica, Bach, Crack Sabbath, Big DT, Joe Zawinul, The Del McCoury Band, Holst, Sun Ra, High Ceiling, Chet Baker, Billy Preston, Bjork, The Auspicious Little Vixen, Leo Kotke, Miles Davis, Das Vibenbass, Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention, Jaco Pastorius, Muleskinner, The Enumclaw Equestrian Bandits Bona Fide Funk Reviue, Ravi Shankar, Pink Floyd, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Bad Plus, Brian May, Fela Kuti, Talking Heads, Duke Ellington, Dr. Theopolious, Chopin, Vinyl, Christian McBride, So's Your Face, Zilla, Lake Trout, The Everyone Orchestra, Reverend Horton Heat, Steel Pulse, Zony Mash, Beck, David Bowie, JGB, The Suffering Fuckheads, Ronnie and Robbie McCoury, The Beatles, Herbie Hancock/Head Hunters, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Aretha Franklin, ...And Many, Many More!br

Sounds Like: A Gilbert Gottfried-esque, bird-like creature.
Record Label: Suck on our giant balls you major label pigfuckers
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Political Climate Update: Chris vs. TSP Top Friend 37 Woody (April 2008)

The following transcript is a MySpace message dialogue between Special Purpose band member Chris Stefanile and Special Purpose Top Friend 37 Woody on April 25th, 2008.Please note that views and/or pol...
Posted by The Special Purpose on Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:30:00 PST

Some shows posted, more to come.

Hey kids,Posted a few new dates this evening. Much more to come. Stay tuned friends.-TSP
Posted by The Special Purpose on Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:39:00 PST

Letter to former rehearsal space landlord

(Super Bowl Sunday, Americas Best Value Inn: Buttfuck CA. {someplace near Sacramento}- on the road home; winter tour '08 (part a), 10:30pm) -----The Special Purpose was recently denied a return of sec...
Posted by The Special Purpose on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:51:00 PST

Chris Political Endorsments (God Help Us Edition 07)

   We are almost finished with the longest political nightmare this country has ever witnessed. Eight goddamn years of butt raping America for all it's worth by a bunch of Naz...
Posted by The Special Purpose on Fri, 21 Dec 2007 07:55:00 PST

STS9 after-show party Jan. 18th!

Friday Jan 18th Opti-Grab Productions presents, late-night with  'The Special Purpose' @ The (old) Little Red Studio (after show party immediately following STS9's performance at The Showbox) $...
Posted by The Special Purpose on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:52:00 PST

Special passes away:(

   Many people beleive that we are named after the imfamous scene in 'The Jerk', and while we love that reference, it is simply untrue. We actually are named after our dear K9 friend 'S...
Posted by The Special Purpose on Fri, 09 Nov 2007 05:01:00 PST

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS HALLOWEEN WEEKEND!

Everything you need to know about the Halloween Weekend: Directions to the Skokomish Valley Grange Hall: -Take I5 to ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Olym...
Posted by The Special Purpose on Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:58:00 PST

HALLOWEEN PARTY TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Tickets are on sale now for Opti-Grab & DiscoDog's Halloween Extravaganza at Jambasetickets.com for half the price of the day of show cost. Here's the link folks... http://www.jambasetickets....
Posted by The Special Purpose on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:13:00 PST

Halloween Party @ The Grange!!!!

Hey Kiddies, We are very excited to announce that this years Halloween Extravaganza will be on Saturday Oct. 27th at the Skokomish Valley Grange Hall in Shelton, WA. While we had some initial co...
Posted by The Special Purpose on Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:39:00 PST

Schlueter update

Many of you know our good friend Jon Schlueter who had a diving accident in July of '06 that left him with a C/5 incomplete neck fracture. Rehabilitation began with total paralysis below his shoulders...
Posted by The Special Purpose on Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:32:00 PST