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Collisionville

About Me

I Spied a Spider is available now from CD Baby and the iTunes Music Store.
"Northern California's Collisionville fuses a loud, post-punk sound with down-home Americana to create sardonically sincere songs that are well put together and streaked with the humor that eludes more self-serious bands." -Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired Magazine
"Frontman Stephen Pride hasn't forgotten indie rock icons like Pavement, the Replacements, and Hüsker Dü. But as Dinosaur Jr. and Built to Spill taught us, an unhinged guitar is nothing without a sturdy song. Pride's range extends to country and blues, and a line like 'I'm not looking for a paradise, just a cleaner jail' proves he means it." -Nate Seltenrich, East Bay Express
"Stephen Pride's song craft is dynamic, full of unexpected turns..." -Dan Vermont, The Owl Mag
"I think Frank Zappa would have liked some of Collisionville's music .It's funny and insinuating; it creeps up on you. It's got fucked time signatures and whacked guitar parts played because that's how the composition was going and they took themselves seriously in the right way..." - Brian Keizer (Spin Magazine & the SF Bay Guardian)
There's a big snake in your back yard. Your house is fragile and the wind is harsh. Times are changing too fast and you might not know where you are tomorrow. In fact, you may already be living in a very different world than the one you remember waking up in yesterday.
Oakland, California’s Collisionville—guitarist/vocalist Stephen Pride, drummer Ben Adrian, and bassist Conor Thompson—are dealing with these insane times by cranking out tunes reminiscent of ‘80s & ‘90s staples like The Pixies, The Replacements, or the whole SST camp—only in a post-grunge world, broken up by eerie, fatalistic strains of old blues.
The band’s second full-length, I Spied a Spider (the title comes from a lyric in the song "Dark Road Blues" by the Willie Lofton Trio, recorded in 1935), is out now on Berkeley, CA's Booplet Records. While 2005’s Hotter Heads Prevail indulged frontman Pride’s post-punk leanings, Spider draws heavily on other influences, infusing Collisionville’s already-rollicking sideshow with Americana twang, and giving Pride a chance to display his ample banjo chops.
The album’s packed with confessionals that wryly lay out good times and bad—hell, mostly bad. The people in these songs have no power to affect things politically, personally, internally. Still, Pride’s dour lyrics are so riddled with humor they can’t quite mask the secret optimist. “You still got nine good fingers / There's a guy outside who'd kill for your job / His family's eatin' shit for dinner” spits Pride on the plodding rocker “Keep The Sweatshops Blazin’.” “Please Spare the Life of Your Cocaine Dealer” marries flip lyrics fitting of its title with a hillbilly-via-Brit-Invasion shuffle. And what of that twang? “Another Cold Shoulder” is a Gram Parsons-style barnburner, and “Sleeping in a Tree” rattles off plenty of mutant Neil Young swagger.
And so the story takes another turn. Collisionville have been measuring their frustrations in decibels, and I Spied a Spider is the byproduct. They're not going down this dark road by themselves.
Available online is a veritable bouillabaisse of Collisionville merch -- click here for our previous album: a full length Food Stamp Records CD, Hotter Heads Prevail. Pick up our 7" single and a t-shirt while you're at it.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 22/02/2005
Band Website: www.collisionville.net
Band Members: Stephen Pride: guitar, banjo, harmonica & vocals; Ben Adrian (also of Guitar vs Gravity ): drums & occasional guitar; Conor Thompson (also of Vitamin Party ): bass, guitar, & vocals
Sounds Like: neil young, pavement, replacements, pixies, nirvana, hank williams, muddy waters, son house
Record Label: Booplet Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

"Old Ladies Reading the Bible" -- last performance this Sat. 5/1 at Kimo's

We're at Kimo's this Saturday night, May 1st, with Charmless and Warren Teagarden. It'll be our last time peforming our 2005 single "Old Ladies Reading the Bible." Here's the video: ...
Posted by on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:04:00 GMT

Stork Club on Sunday afternoon; new recording in the works

We're on the bill for Conor's birthday show this Sunday afternoon at the Stork Club in Oakland. Our good pals in Vitamin Party open at about 4PM or so. We're on either 2nd or 3rd. Once you've paid the...
Posted by on Fri, 29 May 2009 10:43:00 GMT

Owl Mag review, etc

I keep forgetting to tell you, we got a (mostly) nice review in The Owl Mag recently. Here are the nice parts:"...the overwhelming thing that strikes the listener with I Spied a Spider is not any poli...
Posted by on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:56:00 GMT

CDs are available now -- plus we've added a video

You can now purchase a copy of I Spied a Spider right here at CD Baby.We've also added a video to our profile and you can watch it here. It's a plectrum banjo meltdown from our show at the Temescal Ar...
Posted by on Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:21:00 GMT

We're "Your Daily Lick" in the East Bay Express, 1/21/09

Look here!"Frontman Stephen Pride hasn't forgotten indie rock icons like Pavement, the Replacements, and Hüsker Dü. But as Dinosaur Jr. and Built to Spill taught us, an unhinged guitar is nothing wi...
Posted by on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:22:00 GMT

CD release show draws nearer; also: YouTube channel

Our CD release show for our new album, I Spied a Spider, is a week from Saturday. It'll be at The Stork Club at 2330 Telegraph Ave in Oakland. The Paper Sons are headlining, and also on the bill are V...
Posted by on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:03:00 GMT

Album release is getting closer -- plus, GvsG show on Thursday

Greetings everyone, this is Stephen with a progress report.CDs for I Spied a Spider are being pressed, and will be in hand for the January 17th show at the Stork. Public thanks to Ben for his stellar ...
Posted by on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:39:00 GMT

Halloween show, with Vitamin Party & Ex-Boyfriends

This will be our first show with our new bass player, Conor Thompson, who is also in Vitamin Party, who are releasing their new album "Back on Task" that night. And what's more, http://www.myspace.com...
Posted by on Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:38:00 GMT

New music

Greetings one and all, this is Stephen writing with another update. We've got a new song uploaded to our profile page, a plectrum banjo number called "Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee" as arranged by Jim...
Posted by on Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:47:00 GMT

Recording progress

Greetings all, this is Stephen with another update. Thanks to everybody who came to our show at the Mama Buzz Cafe back in June. It may appear to you that we've not been busy since then, but I must as...
Posted by on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:31:00 GMT