ubik.

2018-09-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Yes, we meant that...

2015-07-29T09:58:00.001-07:00

No, "hiatus" was not code for "we're breaking up but we're too scared to tell anyone." Hiatus meant we took a break and then came back.

Yes-- we're back.

ubik.s songs are kind of tricky to play, so practicing is definitely something that has been occupying a lot of our time... but mostly because we don't want to look foolish in front of Nasalrod.

(You guys know how we feel about Nasalrod, right?)

Fri 8/14@The Highline Bar!!

ubik. (the long awaited return!!) Come revisit your ol' pals ubik as they bring their pummeling, dual bass epic madness back to the stage after the hiatus!! Get ready for goosebumps!!

Nasalrod (PDX, Spit Stix of FEAR. mem of mARMITs) Turn up the adrenaline knob in time to dodge the flying kicks!! High octane, genre bending spazz punk designed to make you lose all control!!

Secret Cat (Santa Rosa) Better brace yourself to have a damn blast w/ these guys. A perfect combo of wackiness, passion, and proggy chops!! First time in Seattle!! Come witness your new favorite band!!

Kurly Somthing will be releasing a brand spankin' new cassette this evening and killing it as always with their mind twisting, synth-tinged sonic assault!! Get some!!

9:30pm, $8

Auf Wiedersehen

2014-02-28T18:25:00.002-08:00

You know... we've been doing this non-stop for about eight years. We need a little break.

Friday, March 7th

ubik. signs off at The Kraken
with Marmits
and Burning of I

Saturday, March 8th

Booberamapalloozafest
at The World Famous Kenton Club
with Nasalrod
and RABBITS
and Monogamy Party

Nobody get too choked up, or too emotional-- ubik.s not going away, not really, but we're a band with a bit of a work ethic, and even if you aren't seeing us out in the Seattle music listings, we're probably writing, or recording, or at least practicing (regularly, twice a week). Which is to say: we've been working on ubik non-stop for all that time.

We just need to take a breath.

It's not something we'd do without saying goodbye, or at least "see ya later," so we're playing a massive set at the Kraken on Friday... and by massive, I mean ubik.s opening (that's a solid half hour set) and closing (that's another hour+) the show. In between, Burning of I and Marmits are playing with us-- both bands we dearly love (we obviously pulled in friend-bands for a show like this)-- keeping it from being some awkward "an evening with ubik." kind of thing.

By the end, our arms will all be ready to fall off. Except for Michelle... whose throat may burst into flames.

So, to add to the pressure, we're taping the whole thing. We'll be in time-out mode for a year, so this is essentially our last chance for a while to put all of our new material to tape... so here's hoping we're not a total wreck by the end of that second set.

And that's it until 2015... unless you live in Portland.

We weren't going to go into exile without saying goodbye to our Portland friends, bands and fans alike-- can you imagine us signing off without playing at least one more Nasalrod show?

Me neither.

Anyway, don't bury us yet. We're not dead, just sleeping. We'll re-emerge in the spring of 2015.

Only a few left...

2014-01-07T18:55:00.003-08:00

This is a killer lineup-- we always love to play with Barefoot Barnacle (we've been kickin' around shows together for a good long while now), but the whole show is great.

Friday, January 10th

ubik. at The Highline
with Barefoot Barnacle,
& Spacewaster,
& Dogs of War,
& Blood of Kings

We're up with Spacewaster's epic progressive out-and-out wildness, Dogs of War's uptempo driving charge, and Blood of King's power trio thrash, and of course, the mathy lunatic grind of Barefoot Barnacle...

We're closing out the night, but we can handle a late friday.

and... not to freak anyone out... but ubik.s coming up on some time off. We've been go-go-going for about eight years now: non-stop practices, shows, recording, and touring, and we need a breather. ubik.s not breaking up or anything like that, but we are looking about a year of downtime for the band members to stretch out and breath a little, creatively.

This isn't the last one-- that's probably happening in march-- but it's coming up, so you chances to catch a ubik.show within the next year have been severely narrowed down.

Big party on friday! (with a ball pit!)

2013-12-17T19:36:00.001-08:00

There's always a fun show for Michelle's birthday. We don't always play, but she's guaranteed to set up something wild.

Friday, December 20th

B-Day Pit Party at The 2Bit Saloon
with Krylon Smyle, Shitty Dudes,
Fucked From Birth, Coughin Nails, ubik.,
Oops I Stepped in Some Christ,
Left Askew, Expired Logic, & Negative Hole

Ball pit in front of the stage!
Hula hoops and vegan pizza at 6:00PM
Music starts at 7:00PM
21+ - $6.00

This year, we're playing the party... and what a party! We're starting early-- festivities kick off at 6:00, and we're going all night. There are 9 bands total over the course of the night, with a lot of variety in the sound from band to band, and there's going to be a ball pit at the front of the venue, so we're redefining what it means to "get in the pit" for this show.

ubik.s squarely in the middle of this line-up, but there's a lot to love throughout the night.

Come early, stay late!

https://www.facebook.com/events/267380110053523/
You may be asking yourself? Why is this called a pit party? Well, it's because there is going to be a ball pit of course! And metal! And punk! And beer! And drunks!

Thanks for Saturday!

2013-11-04T18:42:00.001-08:00

Nice! A cool photoset of Saturday's show from ABSeattle on Tumblr.

Princess's full-length

2013-10-29T18:51:00.001-07:00

Princess has a new record coming out!

Saturday, November 2nd

Princess LP Release Party
at The Sunset
with ubik.,
Deadkill,
and Yassou Benedict
9:00PM - 21+

This is pretty great for a number of reasons... first, Princess rocks. They're an energetic, charging band with a wild presence and an engaging live show.

Second: their lead singer, Andrew, was the frontman for The Keeper, which, if you check our gig history, played with us on our first three shows. You could argue they got us our first three shows: ubik. first climbed onto a Seattle stage at Andrew's (and The Keeper's) invitation. We've always been grateful for that.

And... can you believe we've never played The Sunset Tavern before? It's nice in there-- it's a cool room-- but ubik.s never actually been on that stage. We're pretty excited about it. This is set to be a wild, wild weekend all around.

And, if you're curious, we succeeded in our desert adventure. We built a venue, constructed a stage, and made rock shows happen out at Burning Man. There's a page for the camp here, and the concept of loud, heavy music to staunch the everflowing electronica is propagating itself.

Drawn long

2013-08-08T22:08:00.004-07:00

Big show on sunday... it was going to get put up earlier, but I was waiting for a poster, and... um... I still don't have one. So here's a picture of lungs, just to keep things from being too monochrome.

Sunday, August 11th

ubik. @ The Highline
with Lungs (MN)
Christdriver
& Coughin' Nails
8:30 PM - 21 and over

That's not as weird a non-sequitur as it seems: Lungs is on tour, up from Minneapolis, and we've got a pretty amazing bill set up around them. They're a massive, sludgy/atmospheric post metal band, so the mighty Christdriver are headlining-- no strangers to dirges themselves-- and the ultra-deathy Coughin' Nails are opening.

We're taking this as our cue to play all of our long songs... you can probably figure out which ones... and that means we're reviving a song we haven't played live in at least two years (maybe longer). But this is a full set where we're playing three songs.

Four, if you count 50 seconds of powerviolence we added to the end of one of the 10-minute pieces.

A show for Durty

2013-07-22T23:32:00.002-07:00

Michelle with machete
an original painting by Durty

We lost a good friend earlier this month. Derek Atkinson-- we all knew him as Durty-- won't be kicking around local punk shows anymore, and we're all going to miss him.

Friday, July 26th

Durty...In Memoriam @ The Highline
with Sok & the Faggots,
FuckedFromBirth
ubik.
Poop Attack!
Kids on Fire
& Wolfhammer3

6:00PM - Art show
(featuring Durty's artwork)
8:00PM - Music starts
21 and over - $8

If you missed his art show at the Josephine a while back, this one will be an art show as well-- we're putting up all his art... all we can find.

We've also assembled bands closest to him (I know we're the only non-punk band on the list, but he was with us a lot. He'd bring friends down to ubik.practice), and there's going to be a lot of Durty in the show, too. A lot of bands are firing up covers of some of his favorite bands-- there's a lot of GG Allin in the mix.

We thought about that... but ubik.s probably a bit more suited to one of Durty's other favorites. But yes, we did our homework and we are playing a cover song.

Anyway: this one's for Durty. We're raising money for the family and all of the funereal expenses that crop up, the last thing anyone wants to think about when they're grieving.

EP Release show

2013-06-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

No, not ours.

Bullet Club vanished from the Seattle landscape a few years ago... but they've recently re-emerged, and part of re-emerging means putting out records.

Thursday, June 27th

Bullet Club EP Release @ Re-Bar
ubik.
Local Dudes
and Bullet Club

8:00PM - 21 & over - $6.00

ubik.s been invited to play Bullet Club's first record release since their resurrection... which will be a great show. Our last time at the Re-Bar was awesome (Grudge Rock with Barefoot Barnacle, back in February), and we're thrilled to be on board for Bullet Club's record release show.

It's a thursday night, so... you know... gearing-up for the weekend... Plus, it's not expensive, and the show is right downtown, so I think we've got a corner on this Thursday. You should come out.

Reunitings

2013-06-04T02:24:00.002-07:00

You know what we haven't done in a while? A main-stage El Corazon show. Come to think of it, you know who we haven't played with in a while? Blicky.

Friday, June 7th

ubik. @ El Corazon
with Blicky
Scorpiknox
Led Askew
and Mixed Messages

8:00PM - 21 and over
$8 Advance/$10 at the door
Tickets at eTix

Oh, hey-- look at that. This all seems to have worked out pretty nicely.

...and while all the above statements are true (you get nothing but truth from ubik.posts. Case in point: we make cats happen. There'll be shirts proclaiming that soon)-- we haven't played with Blicky in quite some time... ditto the ElCo main stage... but this show is technically a reunion show for Skorpiknox, who've been out of the game for a bit.

No offense to the under-21 crowd, but: El Corazon main stage gigs are a lot more fun to attend when they're not All Ages/Bar with ID. Just sayin'

Black Lodgings

2013-05-07T17:49:00.001-07:00

Saturday, May 12th

ubik. @ The Black Lodge
with Apathy Cycle
and 7 Year Old Blind Girl

everyone welcome
(((always loud)))
show at 9pm

The Apathy Cycle is coming up from California, so the Rad Goat is putting on a show this Saturday.

They (like many, many bands in the world) are quite a bit punkier than we are, so 7 Year Old Blind Girl is going to be there, too, to balance the equation. All in all, this should be a pretty raucous night...

and it's going to be at the Black Lodge, so pretty much everyone can come to this show. They've got a new stage, new sound system, the Victory Lounge is right next door, and it's starting to look pretty summery out there.

Bring us the touring bands!

2013-04-20T17:56:00.001-07:00

Damnit! Okay... we admit it... we're worse than cats that resemble Hitler.

Sunday, Apr 21

ubik. @ The Kraken
with Czar
with Odyssey
and Burning of I
9:00PM - 21+ - $5.00

We should have posted the entry about the show tomorrow (yes, tomorrow) before now but-- in our defense-- we did list it on our shows page, on Last.fm, the ReverbNation listings, the Facebook event... all that kind of thing. We just didn't do the entry for the front page of the website.

Bad us.

That's even weirder because we're really excited for this show. Any time we can play with Burning of I, we do-- and this is our first show with them since Michelle recorded guest vocals for their new record (we've heard the track. It's awesome.) We had a great time the last time we played with Odyssey at the Kraken (the bass in that band is soooooo good), and are stoked to have them up here again on their tour with Czar. It's our first time with Czar, but this lineup is fantastic, so we're excited to see them as part of the bill.

If this page is your primary source of ubik.news, sorry for the short notice, but this is going to be a killer show all the same.

Friday Night

2013-03-26T20:11:00.002-07:00

ubik.s been trying to set up a show with Diminished Men for years-- literally years-- so we finally found a spot where everyone's calendars lined up and we get to play this show! Seriously: this has been a long time coming.

Friday, March 29

ubik. @ the Highline
w/ Diminished Men,
and Castle
and Spacebag

Show at 9:00 - 21+

And we have a great lineup beyond that: Castle is up from San Francisco to bring us the Heavy, and Spacebag is with us to join in the progressive psychedelia.

All told, we're up for a hell of a Friday night, so Capitol Hill awaits!

In other news: we're still dead serious about bringing live bands to Burning Man. ubik.s going for certain, and we've got a venue to set up out in the desert (fully enclosed, with a stage and everything), but we're establishing a live music camp and we need other bands to join us.

Interested parties should contact us.

bring your band to Burning Man with us

2013-03-11T11:03:00.003-07:00

We've been going on about this on Facebook, but we've got to put it up on the site: ubik. is going to Burning Man.

Check that-- ubik.s not just going to Burning Man, we're starting a live music camp. We're assembling bands, building a venue with a bar and a stage... essentially building a music festival out there.

Why? Well, Joel's been a burner for many years and there is such a lack of rock and metal and punk, et al, that he can draw a crowd by playing Gojira CDs. The sound of something, anything, other than dubstep, is in massive demand out there.

Wednesday, March 16

Bands at Burning Man Meeting
ubik. @ The Highline
Grab a beer and work out the plan
6:00PM

We mean to give it to them...

The first meeting on bringing bands to Burning Man is happening this Wednesday, at the Highline. We've got a Facebook event built for it, if you want to have a look, but you could drop by just to talk about the hows and the whys of the whole thing.

We also have a group you can join, where the whole affair will be kept current... but we'll need to add you to it, so get in touch with us if you're interested in rocking the desert.

And, just for the record, here's our official announcement:

)'( )'( )'( BANDS -- WE NEED YOU -- IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT )'( )'( )'(

ubik.s going to Burning Man, that is happening!.. we're committed.

We're building a bar-- an enclosed venue with a generator and a PA-- so now we just need musicians. Burning Man is saturated with dubstep; Joel has drawn a crowd from three blocks away just by playing metal CDs on a sound system- PEOPLE WANT THIS.

Burning Man needs bands, live music, and we want to represent the live sound of the Pacfic North West at Burning Man like these people will have never seen before!! What would it be like to own your own bar and have shows with all the bands you love anytime you want in a huge city of people who want nothing more than to see something amazing and experience something new!?! Let's do this shit! ubik. is doing this shit! We need you!

The PLan:
ubik. has a 30x30x15 Quonset hut bar/venue with a stage, a bar (that we stock), box truck(s) to keep our gear safe and get it to Burning Man, wood to burn in our firepit, an early entry to get an amazing location where people won't be able to *not* see us, a PA, bass/guitar cabs and everything necessary to make this shit go - EXCEPT you! Bring your instruments or borrow someone's who is already there, bring your camping gear, BUY A TICKET (worries about cost or how? Talk to us, our dad has a killer set a' tools, we can fix it), we are going to get our water delivered (we will work on that as well), food to be discussed as we get ready to fucking rock the Black Rock Desert!

The Idea:
To reduce the "music part" overhead for our friends and family of the Pacific NorthWest bands to help us show off what it is we do every night in our own region! Any one is welcome! We want our team at this event representing how amazing we are. So the idea simply put is: bring your survival gear, bring your instrument, bring anything else you think you'll need to best represent yourself, then;

get in the fucking truck!

We will make fire, we will make drink! we will make drug! we will roll out in style in force and blow their minds! ANd most important, we will make our fucking music out there, and in the face of 60000 people who are looking for something new and different to blow their minds! But with out you, its just the 4 of us, by ourselves, doing our best to expose this throbbing city to the awesome that is the local PNW music scene...

SO WHO THE FUCK IS IN!?! We WILL do this without you, but without you it will pale in comparison. Contact us. Burn with us.

Independence

2013-03-01T12:30:00.000-08:00

ubik.s an independent band... always have been... so it's pretty cool that we've got a photo of us with Lloyd Kaufman (and Toxie, for good measure).

Kaufman, if you don't already know, is an independent film director and head of Troma Films. You could say that Troma is kind of like Dischord records: they make their own movies, far outside of the mainstream Hollywood system. There is no one to tell Troma that their movies are too weird, too gross, or too off-color... they make the movies they make because they want to make them. They play outside the safe, cordoned-off area of mainstream films but usually feel a bit like a party-- while you're watching one of their pictures, it always feels like a lot of fun was had on the set of a Troma movie.

Any band operating on their own has to feel a little love for Lloyd and the citizens of Tromaville: they've been standing on their own for decades, and they've always made it work.

Sure, their movies aren't for everyone... but neither are we.

Seriously: how many ubik.reviews include the disclaimer that "ubik.s not for everyone?"

Downtime

2013-01-22T04:34:00.002-08:00

it's been a bit quiet on the ubik.front, and for good reason: we've taken January to retreat to the practice space and hammer out some new material. With playing shows as regularly as we do (and... c'mon... we do play around town quite a bit), it means that a lot of our practices are spent preparing for the next show. Time off lets us slack off the old songs for a while and spend a few weeks working out all of our weird riffs and ridiculous, complicated changes... and jam on comfy, catchy progressions until they evolve from jams into songs.

That's us: we play both sides of that field. But it still takes time and work.

Don't worry, though, because we're back in February-- we've been invited to compete in Grudge Rock, the Family Feudish show that takes place the first Thursday of every month at the Re-Bar. That sounded like a lot of fun to us... but we'd only sign on if we were playing against a band we loved, and so: ubik. and Barefoot Barnacle!

And, honestly: we played our first show with Barnacle in 2007... we couldn't have a better face off than this.

Plus-- we'll have new material! Hooray, writing hiatus!

Hail Santa!

2012-12-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

There wasn't a post for our Radgoat Frida y (with Rotties and Sioux City Pete and The Beggars)... which is our bad. No post, no poster. Sorry about that: we're horrible, horrible slackers.

Hail Santa III

at The Josephine 8:00PM

Friday, December 14 -
Blood Etchings
Tasty Gore
Shaded Enmity
Skinwalker
Chemical Castration
Divinorum

Saturday, December 15
Skelator
Phalgeron
ubik.
Sarcalogos
The Godbeast
Inebriator
V.D.

Suggested donation: $6-$10

To make up for it, here's what everyone that's even the slightest bit awesome in Seattle is doing this weekend: Hail Santa! This is a full-on, two-day affair that is ubik. and twelve metal bands. There are even custom shirts for this event (and the guy making them thinks it's hilarious that he gets to draw our name metaltastically, with blood dripping off the letters).

Everything's starting 8ish, and-- in traditional Josephine fashion-- donations are welcome at the door.

a hell of a run

2012-10-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

Nasalrod at The Hop

That was a big block-- thanks to everyone who came out and saw us on the road.We had an awesome time touring with Nasalrod, covered a lot of ground, finally made it to Spokane, and finally played a show in Boise. We have also been informed that we've been mispronouncing both cities for a long time.

Well, maybe not Spokane. No matter which way you say that (spo-CAIN or spo-CAN), there's someone there to tell you it's pronounced the other way.

Anyway-- Right after we got back, we played with (waning), up from Sacramento. It was good to see them again, though the line-up lost one of the bands due to injury, so it was just us/them.

Then Odyssey came in from Spokane-- they got us our gig at The Hop; we brought them in and played with them at The Kraken... and Burning of I was there! Yay! (ubik. loves Burning of I)

...and now that we've done all that, there's a little breathing room. Michelle's now the Friday-night booker at The Mars Bar, and we're playing there at the end of next month. We're also playing Hail Santa! this year, right around Christmas (obviously), and that's going to be fantastic as well. As usual, upcoming shows are always on our show page.

Past that, we're going to take some time and do more writing, and we may be clocking some studio time soon as well. More on that as it develops, but for now, check out this awesome write-up of our tour kickoff at the Funhouse.

ubik. & Nasalrod - mini-tour

2012-09-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

We're hitting the road again-- just a quick jaunt this time-- but we're looping through Spokane and Boise to make up for the shows that got missed on our April tour. We're bringing the awesome, awesome Nasalrod with us to, so we're kicking off in ubik.s home (Seattle) and closing up in Nasalrod's (Portland).

And... officially:

Wednesday, September 19th

ubik./Nasalrod mini-tour kickoff @ The Funhouse
with Nasalrod, Slave Traitor, & The Vatican
9:00PM - 21+

Aside from being our tour kickoff, this is almost definitely the last time ubik. will play The Funhouse before it closes down for good in October.

Thursday, September 20th

ubik./Nasalrod @ The Hop (Spokane)
with Nasalrod, Mercy Brown, & Dysfunktynal Kaos
7:00PM - All ages - $5 Tickets / $7 at the Door

Friday, September 21st

ubik./Nasalrod @ Ash-Hole Studios (Boise)
with Nasalrod, Gernika, 1d, & Raid
7:00PM - All ages - $5 Tickets / $7 at the Door

Saturday, September 22nd

ubik./Nasalrod ...
and things keep getting cancelled
We're figuring it out.

Sunday, September 23rd

ubik./Nasalrod @ The Foggy Notion (Portland)
with Nasalrod & Ix
9:00PM - 21+ - $4.00

Canadian Imports

2012-08-10T02:43:00.002-07:00

Friday, July 21

ubik. @ The 2 Bit Saloon
with Marching Mind,
Barefoot Barnacle,
and Slut Penguin
21+ - $6.00 - 9:00 PM

Canadian progressive outfit Marching Mind is rolling south from Vancouver, and we seem a pretty good fit for their Seattle tour stop, yes? We're meeting up at the 2 Bit Saloon (the first time we've played there for reasons other than Monday Metal Madness) next Friday and-- bonus!-- we're playing with Barefoot Barnacle.

We haven't played with those guys in about a year and a half.

Rounding out the bill is Slut Penguin, who are pretty new, so we haven't heard them yet... but you're pretty much guaranteed to see something you haven't seen before at this one-- Marching Mind are from out of the country and Slut Penguin has only played a few shows so far.

coming soon...

2012-07-29T00:05:00.003-07:00

September is going to send ubik. east again-- we're not too keen on having cancelled a show. Up until a tire blowout stopped April's tour from reaching Spokane, ubik. never failed to climb onto a stage come showtime...

So we're going back.

ubik.s kicking off a mini-tour: We're teaming up with Nasalrod (out of Portland) and kicking off on September 17th from The Funhouse, and then hitting Spokane, Boise, and Eugene before coming home. It's basically a big weekend, but it brings us across the mountains and lets us fill the Spokane and Boise shows we didn't get to play earlier this year... and, hey, it lets us play The Funhouse one more time before the venue goes away from good in October.

Before that, we've got another show in August, but that'll get its own write up.

Big, Big Weekend

2012-07-17T03:34:00.000-07:00

We're into the middle of July, so that can only mean one thing: Beer Metal Summer Camp! ubik.s getting out into the woods early this year, because we're all pretty stoked to be there. This is also Michelle's first year running the Beer Metal Olympics-- anyone who knows Michelle knows the Olympics are in good hands, and will obviously be better than the games in London later this month.

Saturday, July 21

ubik. @ the Rat & Raven
with Aranya, IX, and Cerebral Cortez
$5.00 - Show at 9:00 - 21+

ubik.s coming back from the woods on Saturday, though-- we've got a show at The Rat & Raven. We had a good show with Aranya down in Portland when we were on tour, and we promised to bring them up to Seattle to return the favor... and here it is. This is a good show for anyone who wants to get on the other side of the Block Party.

And hey, anyone who wants to see ubik. but aren't at Beer Metal this year, we're splitting the bet. Cool, no?

Free show on June 15th

2012-06-06T04:37:00.000-07:00

ubik.s never played in Queen Anne before, so we're breaking in the neighborhood. Plus, hey-- Free show!

Friday, June 15

ubik. at Floyd's Place
w/ Disruption
9:00PM - 21+

Come one, come all: We're setting up at Floyd's place, on 1st Ave, and playing with heavy groove rockers Disruption on the 15th.

And it won't cost a dime...

Hellgrammite Tape Release

2012-04-30T19:20:00.001-07:00

Friday, May 4
Hellgrammite Tape Release
at The Josephine
w/ Don Peyote
& Beseech the Queen
Donations Accepted

We're back-- miss us?

ubik.s first post-tour show is this Friday in support of Hellgrammite's first release in three years. We're setting up at The Josephine again-- one of our at-home, low-key places to play. So this is our homecoming, Hellgrammite's tape release show, and Don Peyote is here after an absolutely glowing response to their showing at day two of Coicefest (day one of Choicefest was our tour kickoff... see? all the threads intertwine)