Brother #2, Geoff, takes over for brother #1, TC, and recounts dull and pointless tales of Noisepie in their quest to sell a whole bunch of CDs and become enormously well-known.
(But, hey, when we're old, at least we'll have some evidence to back up the stories we tell.)

Caution: do not be confused. This document is in reverse chronological order

2004

It's been a while since we played. A long while. We however, enjoyed around 300,000 downloads on the now-defunct mp3.com, and sold songs to various TV shows and had other successes. But life goes on. Robbie has gone back to Michigan. Geoff has gone to Arizona with all those kids, Wes is in Idaho, T.C. and Chris are still slogging along in San Diego. The band may be no more, but the music lives. We hope to find some bandwidth to upload the material for your consumption in the near future. It really does stand the test of time. (tcj 3/13/04)

Summer/Fall 1999

The online action  heats up even more.  More and more people are downloading and listening to Noisepie songs online, especially at our MP3.com page.  Our songs are regularly in the top ten of their respective charts.  In November 3 songs shoot up the charts and end up in the overall top 40 for several weeks.  By the end of the month more than 30,000 songs have been downloaded or listened to in November alone.  CD sales are up and the Pie is getting more attention through the Web than we ever could have imagined.

April-May 1999

The weirdest thing happens.  People start downloading Noisepie MP3s like mad.   We get over 3000 songs downloaded from MP3.com and other sites in April alone.   The pattern slows, but continues through May.  Looks like we're becoming Online rock stars.

Also, we take a couple of gigs and are added to a couple of compilations through the new exposure. Could be a good thing...

March 1999

Two new CDs are available! MP3s arrive at Noisepie.com! I've finally come around to to joys of the MP3 revolution. By the time I'm done I want to have all of the current Noisepie recordings available for free public consumption, including the new live CD and the various tracks I'm calling "Miscellaneous Goodies". This stuff is just too good to keep to ourselves! I've started with the MP3.com folks and will look to see who else wants the stuff after I get done there.

The band is enjoying a sabbatical from live shows--we've gone Cyber for now. Maybe the live itch will hit again soon, but the break has been nice. All those LA gigs really wore us out, I guess.

February 1999

A new editor/webmaster takes over for Noisepie.com. Hi it’s me . . .Geoff! I’m taking over for TC here at the site and will try to first give you a quick recap of the last six months for Noisepie.

First, it looks like the Noisepie Live album should be ready for public consumption soon. Look for a Miscellaneous Goodies album to follow shortly too.

December 1998

A Saturday gig at the Office went off with flying colors. The crowd was bigger and louder than usual. The next night the Pie was in Westwood playing a party for a pile of TV and movie execs. Rumor had it that even Aaron Spelling was in the audience. They loved us, the love was a’flowin’, tears were in the eyes, and so on. Of course we didn’t get home until nearly 4 am—not the best when you have to work the next day. I was starting my first day at WebSideStory, in fact. Oh well, it was fun. A good way to end the year on a high note.

Summer/Fall 1998

This was make or break time for the band when it came to Major labels. We put together a nice promo pack with our new 4 song demo and put a lot of effort into promoting it to the A&R community. Results were promising; we had A&R people from 8 different big labels contact us to request our stuff. Let’s see if I remember who—Arista, Virgin, American, Columbia (twice), TVT, A&M, and Sony. The only problem was that we got nibblers and no bites. Oh well, it was cool to get that much attention.

In the meantime we played 4-6 gigs in LA, usually to small crowds. That was a lot of work and got old pretty fast. You gotta love San Diego.

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June 1998 (TC's last entry)

Wow ... what a bunch of money we made in one week. We got to play on the closing weekend of Tuba Man's in North Park, the Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cookoff, and the Del Mar Fair. And we got paid for all of them. For a while, at least, the web server won't shut us down.

The rest of early 1998

We spent some time in the studio working up a four song demo CD which is currently being distributed to folks in the music industry. Fans will recognize the songs. Others ... well, you just gotta wait. They sound good, though. Otherwise, we've continued playing those all-nighters to help pay for all this stuff.

February 7, 1998

OK. Chris' brilliant (sarcastically stated) idea was to rent a bus and take a bunch of fans up to L.A. with us for this show at Molly Malone's in west L.A. I thought it was a lame idea, and that we would eat it (money-wise), but, well ... I was wrong. We got this big bus which was ... well ... big. Standard school bus. And, at $20 a head, about 26 people showed up and brought beers and drinks and hopped on the bus. This was, you may recall, the super-rainy winter and at the time it was super-rainy and the driver of this big ol' bus didn't seem to care a wink. I had a wager going with the folks in the back of the bus about how far it would slide when we tipped over on the side and crashed. Luckily, no one had to pay (it was only a dollar ... I was wagering for more than 100 yards ... I think). Anyway ... certain unnamed folks got extreeeeeemly drunk, and got 86'd from the club upon arrival. Cool. There were several interesting events involving drinking, urgency, and public urination which you will just have to imagine (26 people with cases of beer on a bus with no restroom). The best thing is - we didn't lose any money.

December - January 1998

Well kids, thing is we gotta make some money, so's we been takin' gigs in North Park at local bars like Buster Daly's and Scolari's Office and playing all night. Problem is, the shows aren't advertised, so you gotta get 'em off this site or you gotta be on our e-mail list. Otherwise, what a better way to hone the songs than to play for 4 full hours, eh?

November 27, 1997 (Thanksgiving)

Back again playing live on 92.5 The Flash. DJ Fitz now has a real handle on the concept of recording live bands in the studio, which means that I was playing my drums as loud as possible in the hallway. But it sounded really cool. We played "Mr. Big Head" (not currently recorded) and our psuedo-ska cover of Steve Miller's "Jungle Love." And, of course, there was lots of inane Thanksgiving-related on-air banter which seemed pretty funny at the time. If you heard it, let me know - otherwise, it was GREAT!

Mr. Lame Head (me) somehow forgot to bring my cymbal bag. Oddly, one of the guys who works at The Flash was a student of my brother Geoff (lead singer and sax man if you're just tuning in) when he was teaching Statistics at SDSU - and he (Geoff's former student, that is) happened to have crash, ride, and hi-hat cymbals there at the studio! Wow! That sorta defines "fortuitous." However, I fear that I will have to karmically pay for such luck in the future. Pray for me.

October 10, 1997

Cannibal Bar at the Catamaran Resort Hotel in Mission Beach. This was the second time we played there following Buddy Blue and his Greasy Jazz Combo (also in September). We've felt terribly out-of-place both times -- and yet, look at those folks dance! By gum, they seem to like us! They really like us! Go figure. As my mother would say, there's no accounting for some people's taste.

September 30, 1997

Adams Avenue Steet Fair came around again. We love this gig. We thought we sucked. Everyone we've talked to said it was a great show. Therefore, it was a great show and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. People who would never otherwise see us stopped and watched and laughed. (Is that a good thing? Were they laughing at us or with us?)

August 8(?), 1997

This was the terribly good show at the Belly Up Tavern. I mean, we ROCKED!!! Anyway, you can judge for yourself because we recorded the show and will be releasing several of the songs on upcoming compilation discs (to be announced). You can see photos from that show at Ska/Punk Source, where our album is on consignment. Aaron Wolfe, who runs that site, came down and took a bunch of pics (which I haven't had time to steal yet).

July 4, 1997

We played at the Del Mar Fair at the Fun Zone Stage in the middle of the day for an hour and a half straight. It was terribly hot and we drank lots of water. There were hundreds of people there who went "Woooo!" after every song. Plus we sold a handful of CDs and t-shirts. All in all a good deal. Later that night we played the Casbah, and actually played better than at the fair, but it's the Casbah, so fewer people said "Wooo!"

June 30, 1997

We went into Doubletime Studio and did a bunch (22 actually) of radio plugs and theme songs for 92.5 The Flash. That was loads of fun ... not too much pressure, and all the bits were 15 to 30 seconds long. Plus, I had my new drum kit, and it sounds GREAT! Listen for our plugs on The Flash. Some are being played ... even as we speak.

June 20, 1997

We played this high school graduation party for Josh Sorenson at his house in Poway. (See below ... he's the guy who lost his job to see us play.) We were paid, and got cartons of candy and a pizza. That's rock n' roll. We thought it would be cool to shoot our first video at his house - the courtyard with the stucco walls and tile floors. We haven't asked his dad yet, but his dad paid us, and likes us, so it's probably OK.

June 1997 in General

We've played so many shows this month (a band record) that I can't even remember what to say about them. I'll spare you. When we opened for BANG (with Dave Wakeling from English Beat) on June 7, Geoff had laryngitis so bad we had to stop after 30 minutes. He sounded like Harvey Fierstien.

June 1, 1997

More schmoozing and mugging and plugging on 92.5 The Flash. We didn't play ... but we talked a lot.

May 29, 1997

We played at BLOCKBUSTER MUSIC up in Carmel Mountain Ranch at 6 pm. The place was packed with fans from our all-ages crowd, and a lot of family and other North County type folks. It turned out way cooler and funner than we expected - this is the first time we've rocked out at a record store.

Our little brother Spence had worked up this thing where we bring him up on stage and he acts like he doesn't know what's going on. Then his friends pulled out this big 30 foot banner that asked his girlfriend to go to the Prom with him. (She said yes.) Talk about cheers (and a few teary cheeks ... so romantic etc.) Also, our littlest brother Ian sat in on trumpet with us during "Ayayay," as he usually does at all-ages shows. Always a great crowd pleaser.

A fan named Josh informed me that he had lost his job at McDonalds to see our show. That's dedication! I promised to mention him.

Then we jetted on down to 92.5 The Flash to play again on Fitz's Live Nude Bands show. Did some plugging and played Inchworm and dedicated it to Josh, who needs a job now.

May 17, 1997

We played at TIO LEO'S on Morena Blvd. Undercover S.K.A was there from San Francisco - they didn't see our show. They were very good, however. A bunch of old friends from the Megalopolis / faux pas days showed up to see us for the first time as well as my ex Dani and her band Roget's Playground. I had to run Geoff to the airport right after the show, which was cool because I was in the convertible and we were pretty stinky by the end of the set.

My graduation from Law School took place today.

May 7, 8, 15, 1997

A bunch of shows at Winstons West and Winstons East. The most notable thing is that we started using our new onstage laugh track tape - which sounds really funny to us. No telling what the audience thinks. However, it's really great to think you're funny when you say "Thank you."

Also, we unveiled our new cheap t-shirt - our fourth design - which has a cow on it (first time), and says "OUTSTANDING IN OUR FIELD." It's super cool.

Wednesday, April 23, 1997

Geoff's wife, Kristen, heard a song from our CD in the background of a radio ad for Moose McGillycuddy's on 92.5 The Flash. It was "Cadillac (Please Pass The)" and the ad was played for a couple of days. It's only going to mean anything to radio listeners who know the song. However, we thought it was pretty cool because it was music chosen for an ad for "funk" night by the DJs at The Flash, without our knowledge. So, they must think we're funky ... Pretty funky (good funky that is).

Monday, April 21, 1997

Mark Newland, who filmed our Poway show for his show "Rocks TV" asked us to come up to this mansion in Rancho Santa Fe (right across the street from the now infamous "Heaven's Gate" house) to film an interview to cut in with the live footage. Mark is security for the mansion (he's a Kung Fu kinda guy) which is owned by one of the owners of the Lakers. That's cool enough. We did some shots with his limo (including a walking-backward scene that could theoretically be reversed to make us look like we're walking forward very strangely) and conducted the interview in this giant living room area.

Robert wasn't able to make it, so I printed out a large color picture of his face from my computer and stuck it to a coat hanger with a Noisepie T-shirt. Then we interviewed the faux Robert. At one point I had my hands through the sleeves of the t-shirt and was gesticulating like a Muppet while we filmed ... I guess you had to be there. Think Swedish Chef, you Muppet fans, and you'll get the idea.

Also, on Monday night on 91X's Loudspeaker show they played "Mandy," which was probably the first time it was heard on broadcast radio. During the sax solo section of the song, weird noises started bleeding through, and we thought it was another radio station fading in. Turns out one of the DJs had mixed the fake orgasm scene from "When Harry Met Sally" into the song. Why? Don't know. Freaky.

Friday, April 18, 1997

Poway Elks Lodge All-Ages CD Release Party with Turkey Mallet and Unsteady. What a fun show this was! We were interviewed and filmed for a TV show called "Rocks TV" and had a pretty good size, extremely enthusiastic young crowd who danced the entire night and yelled and screamed etc. We gave out over 150 CDs and a few t-shirts and it was all a bunch of good clean fun.

Sunday, April 13, 1997

Geoff, Wes, and Robert went down to 92.5 The Flash to push the Poway Elks Lodge show. They were only on for a bit, but got some good plugs in. I was supine on the couch (quick educational interlude: "prone" is lying face down, "supine" is lying face up) in a great deal of physical pain from a weekend of Hobie Catting and skating and running from defective fireworks, so I didn't go to the radio station. Actually I'm glad. It's pretty cool to hear the boys yapping away across the airwaves.

Thursday, April 10, 1997

Noisepie LIVE on 92.5 The Flash. This was super cool. Geoff called the station the night before just to say "Hi" etc, and Fitz, a DJ there, asked us to show up for his "Live Nude Bands" the next night. Chris and I had to wait a day to meet the family in Ensenada for a short vacation so we could make the show.

We set up the band in the studio in the space smaller than a apartment kitchenette. We played at almost speaking volume. It was unspeakably weird. Geoff sang directly into the studio mike and we had a few mikes on the amps. But this was real radio in a pretty good slot (about 9:15 PM) and we got to do some good ol' radio schmoozing and plugging. We played "Funky Wanda" and about 2/3 of "Ayayay."

MEANWHILE, IN MEXICO: The parents of us "three brothers" (Geoff, Wes and me) and three other brothers were all in Mexico, as well as brother Russ' wife Karen and us Pie boys' infant nephew William. Chris' mom and her husband Gordy were there as well. That makes 9 folks who all climbed into Gordy's van and traveled around until they found a spot in Ensenada on this hill under some high-tension wires, where they could get better reception. So ... anyway, some Ensenada Cops show up and start hassling our parents! They want to know why a van full of Americans is sitting up on this hill. That's right, three generations of family: 2 sets of middle-age parents down to an infant - and the cops are hassling them like they are criminals!

In the end, the family had to move to another spot and missed most of the rest of the broadcast -- what with dealing with Mexican Police, then not finding anywhere else where there was decent reception. Actually, I guess its pretty cool to have a family that's willing to risk Mexican Jail just to hear their family members on the radio.

Three cheers for The Flash ... this radio station is a sole-proprietorship, non-corporate, local station that pays attention to the folks who are making music in San Diego.

Friday, April 4, 1997

This was the first big CD Release Party blowout at Tuba Man's in North Park (deep in the heart of Boogerville, a community of San Diego). There were tons of people there and we played wayyyy toooo loud! Notable point of the evening: everyone kept telling us "It's really great what's happening to you guys." We still aren't sure what that means. It seems to imply that we woke up one day and had a CD and were getting radio play and big crowds and lotsa press etc. Huh? We've been killing ourselves for months promoting and distributing and getting everything ready for the CD launch. It's not like things are happening to us ... that's so passive. It's more like we're kicking ass at takin' names and it's paying off. Anywho - fun show.

Tuesday, March 25, 1997

Chris and I went on the air on KCR, the station that broadcasts out of San Diego State University. OK, actually at the time it didn't really broadcast ... it was cable only, but it's on the Internet and we got lots of on-air time - we were on for an hour and played all but three songs on the album. We were really really funny just after the tape we were recording on ran out. Oh well. We haven't heard the tape yet anyway. Until then, I can think we were funny before the tape ran out too.

Early March 1997

Our first CD "Three Brothers, Their Cousin, and a Guy From Michigan" finally came out. We had spent weeks feverishly trying to put together all the last minute stuff. There were serious problems trying to get the CD-Rom and the Music on the same disk, but it all worked out ... in the end (I know there's a joke about "cow pie" in there somewhere ... but I can't find it right now). The sucker started selling pretty quick, and thanks to the efforts of most of the guys, we had distribution, PR, and sales almost immediately. We were able to get on radio during the local music shows, and it's pretty cool how the stations have chosen different songs. So far they've played 5 different cuts ... not bad ... I guess ...

.... I know .... Dull, dull, dull ... But, well, this is the first entry and I'm trying to get a TONE ... so just relax and read on ...

Hey, actually, since this thing is going to be in reverse-chronological order, then this is probably the last thing you'll read here ... HA! ... well then .... thanks for reading the first entry of the new chronicle: Adventures with the Pie!

Remember to eat lots of fruit and read regularly. Bye ...

T.C. of Noisepie (aka Skeeky Webo of Noisepie / i.e., the oldest brother ... etc.tcj / e.g. Greg Brady, only not quite as goofy).

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