The name game: An official statement

[psychjosh]

Hi everyone,

There has been lots of talk about this over the past month or so and we feel obligated to you guys to share our thoughts and decisions with everyone.

Psychedelic Breakfast will begin re branding themselves as "the Breakfast" The decision to drop the word "Psychedelic" from the moniker was not an easy one.

When we started this journey, no one ever really thought we\'d be recognized on a national level so when it came to choosing our name, no one ever really considered the down side to being PB. There was no down side! Just 4 buddies sharing a passion for live impovisation and sonic exploration.

The goal of this band is to grow. We are eternally grateful for the support and devotion that all of you as fans have given to this band. Without you guys we never would have made it this far.

We do not look at this as a "name change" we are, have been and always will be "the Breakfast". In dropping the word Pyschedelic from the title we hope to open the eyes of many people who simply refused to ever hear the band based on our name. It\'s unfortunate but true. Additionally, we hope that this change will force promoters not to "overlook" the music based on a name that many "industry professionals" do not take seriously.

There are rumors circulating that PB is doing this in an attempt to commercialize themselves. I don\'t think I need to spend too much time on this. Anyone who has heard this band knows full well that they do what they do. They write songs about things they care about and it\'s really that simple. Would the band welcome some degree of commercial success? You bet your ass they would. They desrve it as much as any one else. The definition of tragedy would be if this band could not sustain itself because no one ever got a chance to hear them play.

Rest assured that the music will only change as much as the composers do in any given year. The music is different now from what it was in 1998 and God willing it will continue to grow and mature as the band does.

For now.. we are still Psychedelic Breakfast and we are introducing the country to the Breakfast one room at a time. Please continue to suport the cause and tell everyone know not to leave home w/o getting some Breakfast in their system!

Thanks again for being the best fans in the world!

The calendar is filling quickly! Check our page at http://www.jambase.com for additions!

[obsession600]

Thanks for the info. You have my full support (though I still prefer PB or Staven Cougar)

and as a side note: anyone want to buy some Psychedelic Breakfast memorabilia?

[freddiewaht]

whatcha got bro??

[skalnbyc]

Name change?  Wow, I guess I have been a little out-of-the-loop lately.  I really have been cut off from the old PB music scene I enjoyed for 4 years at UMass.  I listen to my PB tapes and cds frequently at my work desk and often remember the times when I would be arriving home with the rising sun after a night out over state lines to see PB.  Unfortunately, I am now waking up at that time of morning.  I just have to say that the Staven quartet will always occupy a special place in my heart.  I have been busy at work in Boston and somehow missed the conversion to PB fans.com (though I did register for PBfans) from the previous method of a daily flow of email updates.  I am planning on making it out to the Iron Horse for my first show in many, many months.  I hope that the band gets a larger marketing budget so we can employ the talents of gurus Wolfman and Peck -the two that always make me laugh when I read the posts.

Has the music really changed a bit since last spring?  I hear rumors of songs that sound nothing like the old PB.  **Reminder that the guys have had many musical influences across unlikely genres so they may have an appreciation for many different sounds**.

I am curious and excited to hear this new sound.  The PB I remember is intense and diverse in sound and volume.  Can someone give me a preview/comparison?  Is the guitar still wailing?  Is the little drummer boy still beating the hell out of the drums?      

How was the NYE show?  I had considered going but got out of work a bit late due to an unexpected "project".  

Has the fanbase grown regionally and nationally?  I noticed while making my first trip to jambase.com in nearly a year that PB was #19 in the list of most searched bands.  That seems like a good indication of popularity to me.  I have always believed that PB would make a deep impact across the country.  I remember Josh telling me years ago that the band would someday sell out stadiums.  I hope that dream is still alive.   I wish my specialty was marketing so I could get involved in the efforts.

What have been the best shows and venues of late?  

I hope the band is phasing in the new name because they are proud of it and feel comfortable with it.  They will always PB/Psyche B to me though.  I feel like originality is important, in any business.  I work in the investment field and feel like I am more successful because of my unique personality and tendency to go against the grain and corporate bureaucracy.  There is definitely no one like me in my office and I love it.  I sing PB tunes out loud at my desk and it helps me get through the day while I still complete work with accuracy.

I hope the Amherst/UMass fanbase is still thriving.  We always had successful shows on campus and in the area.  Those shows were so darn good and I will never forget them.  I was actually just looking at the old Wrestle Mania 420 pictures from 2000 (or was it 2001?) the other day and got some laughs.    

See you all soon and hope you have been well


Don\'t ever settle for second best!


Alexander "Skal" Zurflueh

[FrankZappa]

Alex! whats up man! (its paul, the guy who was fighting with Deblock at lot in those pics)
I was talking with todd at nye about \'whatever happened to\' and you came up first and foremost. good to hear your working. I\'m stuck in the same boat. I work 4a-noon, so its real hard to get out to the shows sometimes.

The newer songs still have a ton of groove in them, but the vocals will make you think its a whole new band. Lots of well written harmony parts, and rons voice has gone light years since how he used to sing at butterfield. Songs like Vera st. and Cosmic spaceway rhyme are really jazzy sounding vocal driven songs. Vera could be a 3 minute radio single or a 15 minute jam, depending on how the boys feel that night. The other two songs the premiered at nye just jam, pure and simple.

[skalnbyc]

Good to hear from you Paul.

How do I change my subname from pbfan newbie to something else.  I\'d like to think I\'m something other a newbie fan.

Is Deblock really a minister or priest?  I can\'t remember if that was just a big joke or not.  Did he get married?  

How old is Wah\'s daughter Olivia?  

Any other interesting news and happenings?

Where are you living Seth W.?

[freddiewaht]

al z.what up brotherman?i think the last time i saw you was pearl street,but i could be wrong.WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?come around some time and you wont have to be askin all these sillyass questions.....lol.olivia just turned 3 jan5.shes perfect.beautiful and smart.

[Wolfman]

Al Z!  (Hey!) And pork and beans!  Guess who\'s back...back again! (nananananana)

Word up bro!  Nice to hear from ya!  First the band:  They still have yet to write a bad song.  The vocals have come a long way, the jams are still there.  I mean, they\'re still only 24-25 years old, excpet Jordan, he\'s gonna be 66 next month.  See for yourself next week at Iron Horse, I\'ll be there.  The band marketing is going well, everything is run by Gray (tiedyetoga).  NYE was awesome, they played for about 5 hours total, including 3.5 in a row.  The music has changed a little in that some of the new songs were built to be acoustic and have deeper vocal arrangements, but overall it\'s the same gig.  Baker Quad 5/5/01 is still the best PB show ever, bar none, for both environment and the music itself.  One listen to the discs and you can hear and feel it all.

The UMass PB crew is pretty much defunct.  Almost nobody is at UMass anymore, I was the last to go this December.  Everyone\'s interests sort of changed, and nobody would go further than Northampton for shows after we left the dorms.  (You already know all this.)  Without all 100 of us living together and pushing each other to go every night, and with the band not being within 100 miles 5 nights a week, a lot loss less shows were seen.  (Man, those were the frikin DAYS.)  A lot of people were into it primarily because everyone else was always there and secondarily for the music, which is fine, but once everyone\'s not there then it kind of snowballs.  

I am in Boston, bored out of my skull, waiting to start work on February 6th.  I will be working in Manhattan as an account manager for Sam Adams.  (The beer, not the Bills\' defensive tackle.)  

I would love to see Al sitting behind his desk with a green visor, crunching financials, jamming out to PB and New Kids on the Block.  Too bad about your boy Michael Jackson.

Debloc did get married and I\'m pretty sure he did join the clergy, he was definitely in the process.  He\'s Yoda on here, he can fill you in on his life if he wants to.

You gotta make five posts to change your nickname.  

OK I think that covers all the questions.  Look forward to seeing you at the Iron Horse!  Can\'t wait to see TB!

[Wolfman]

They really did it.  No more PB.  We now have
[SIZE=16] TB [/SIZE]

[freddiewaht]

wolfy,do u have aim??

[skalnbyc]

I\'ve got to change my nickname.  Drunk monk Skal?  I will try to get into the message business from work more often.  

I wish there was some way to rejuvenate the UMass scene.  The potential is always there but there is a totally new crop in place that may not know PB/TB.  There isn\'t anyone to organize an on-campus rager and many of the campus bureaucrats have tried their best to contain shows and events in dorms.  We never needed any supervision for the Butterfield shows and they were a success because the band could play late into the night and the fans could get wasted and wrestle stuffed fish between sets.  

The reason I got into PB was totally spontaneous.  I wondered why people were yelling in Butterfield late at night and went to see what was going on.  Someone let me into the show without paying and I was into a new scene almost instantly, like magic.  I never listened to that kind of stuff before that night.  I was into skateboarding/punk in the early/ mid 90\'s.  

I saw flyers for the Psychedelic Breakfast before that fall weekend in 1999 and thought that it was literally a crazy breakfast at 9am.  I thought there were going to be drug-laden omelettes.  It seemed like a normal event for a place like Butterfield.

[skalnbyc]

Congratulations on your new position.  Did you get to mention your experiences as PB road manager in your interview(S).  Are you going to be living and working in NYC?  Any other old UMass people down there or living somewhere interesting?  


I realized one thing while in NYC over Columbus day weekend: most NYC pizza shops do not have a great selection of slices.  We literally walked all over Manhattan in search of a buffalo chicken slice (available at all pizza shops in the valley).  We must have gone to 50 places just for the challenge of finding it.  

Lesson:  Regardless of the quality of the pizza at Antonio\'s in Amherst, one must fully appreciate the extraordinary selection of slices available.  I never appreciated that place while I was at school in Amherst.  I still need to try the legendary Sally\'s.  Much debate has already been generated about this place so I won\'t even ask if it is for real.

[skalnbyc]

Come to think of it, I no longer remember how you got into PB Mr. Ferrara.  Where you an old friend of the Staven boys or were you just at the right place at the right time?

Wolfman was there on that night in 1999 with me so I\'ll never forget his "first time".  I remember that we kept looking at each other with smiles because the music was so good yet such a surprise.  

What ever happened to that Congo player that used to play with the band at some of the early shows in Butterfield?  I think his name may have been Jim Mcdonald or at least Jim.  I thought he was part of the band for the first few shows.

[skalnbyc]

I think the marketing efforts (mailing list) hel[ed cultivate my interest in the band after my first show because I began to think about them and think about the venues they were playing at.  I may have never seen them again if I wasn\'t a UMass student (where others like Wolfman and Butterfield kids were talking about the band after the show) and if I wasn\'t on the mailing list.  

Did an episode 3 ever debut?  I remember speculating the intensity of the new song with Bonanno and other UMass kids like 3 years ago.  Where is Bonanno now.  He was/is a major fan.

He drove me to so many shows that were hours away.

[tiedyetoga]

Originally posted by alexanderzurflu
I wish there was some way to rejuvenate the UMass scene.  The potential is always there but there is a totally new crop in place that may not know PB/TB.  There isn\'t anyone to organize an on-campus rager and many of the campus bureaucrats have tried their best to contain shows and events in dorms.  We never needed any supervision for the Butterfield shows and they were a success because the band could play late into the night and the fans could get wasted and wrestle stuffed fish between sets.

We have been working real hard in the past 2 weeks to get the Umass/Amherst/Northhampton scence back up to steam and stronger then it was. The Iron Horse show is going to be an awesome time. We have done alot of promotion for this show and the turn out will be awesome.