NEWS ARCHIVE
HAPPY 4/20!
To paraphrase the late, great, Mitch Hedberg, some of the guys in the band used to smoke a lot of weed. We still do, we're just saying that we also used to.
Pulled from the archives is this little parody of a famous 90's song with lyrics written by a college friend of ours who now writes for the Washington Post. Really.
This was recorded by Aaron and Chris in late '96/early '97 on a 4 track in their apartment; most everything they did with that machine was a gag song, and this is no exception. And hey, while you're at it, why not download it? It's free!
We hope you enjoy our ode to cannabis, and while we would never encourage anyone to engage in any illicit activity, it's 4/20. Go and get toasted. Niiiicely toasted.
Oh, yeah, right, subscribe to the mailing list, or, whatever, it's cool......what was I just talking about?
HALF A LIFETIME
Single number two from Full Charisma Bypass is officially out.
Oh, did we forget to mention that the new album is called Full Charisma Bypass? Because it is.
This single features two B-sides, one of which is a cover of The Cars' "Hello Again", and the other of which is a reworking of one of our old songs, namely, a sequel/reboot of "Mindless" called "Midlife Crisis".
This single is, per usual, available on all of the popular streaming platforms, but if that ain't yer steez, hit the YouTube link embedded above.
As always, subscribe to our mailing list to get updates as they happen!
FEELIN' CHRISTMAS
This might require some explaining.
Aaron's younger brother, Ryan, is a rather talented chap. He's the one who rendered us as cartoons in the style of his web comic, The Other Ass. He's also a very adept musician, having composed the original version of this song, as well as mastering our past few releases, making this video, AND inventing the Hot Mayonnaise Challenge.
As a fun little gift to our fans, and because it's just so damn silly, we took a crack at it ourselves.
Merry Christmas, from The Amoebas to You.
INFERIOR
To celebrate our 30th anniversary, we have released our first new song in twenty-six years.
It's been a long time coming, but we're rather proud of it.
This is, of course, a precursor to our new album... there's nine more songs coming in the future.
However, this one will be available on the popular streaming services on Monday, September 18, which is exactly three decades since we played our first note.
But, here's the fun part....if you sign up for our mailing list, we'll send you a super secret link so you can listen to it early!
As always, thanks for your support, and ROCK ON!!!
NEW ALBUM IN THE WORKS!!!
Yup, it's really happening.
We have written ten songs, and are in the process of making them luscious. As we did on Deluxe Tree Stand, we are pushing our boundaries and going for a maximalist sound, full of huge guitars, thunderous drums, and bong rattling bass, along with lots and lots of vocals and other fun stuff to put in your ear holes.
When will it be done? We're not sure. It's pretty time consuming work creating a masterpiece, but the initial tracks are very promising.
With any luck, there will at least be a single in the next few months. Subscribe to our mailing list and get updates as they happen! As always, thanks for your support, and rock on!
Deluxe Tree Stand Coming Soon!
After months of work, we are proud to announce that our 2022 Christmas EP, Deluxe Tree Stand, is complete. Currently, it's being processed by streaming companies for release in the immediate future, just in time for your holiday!
Unfortunately, we were not able to make scheduling work and include Paul as was originally planned, but we are overjoyed with the results. We will also have a small amount of physical copies available, which will be posted in our store very soon.
As always, subscribe to our mailing list to get updates when this becomes available!
NEW MUSIC IN THE WORKS!
Despite it being summer, tracking has begun for a Christmas EP for the 2022 holiday season. Aaron and Chris have recorded drums and a few guitars, with Leon's bass to follow; after which they will ruin all of it by singing.
As with the "Bells!" EP, Paul is scheduled to make an appearance on this one, too.
Unlike everything else they have done since reforming, this will not be re-workings of previously recorded material, but is entirely new stuff (albeit songs that other people wrote, but the arrangements are distinctly Amoebas flavored).
This also sets the stage for some new original material, and the writing has begun for that as well. Tentatively, the guys plan to release something in 2023, which will be their first release of new stuff in twenty-six years.
Subscribe below to be informed on when these are released, and as always, thanks for your support!
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!
The Amoebas wish all of our friends in the LGBTQ community a Happy Pride Month!
Aaron is an openly gay man, and while Chris and Leon are hetero, they proudly stand as allies. The Amoebas firmly believe that love is love, or, to paraphrase Michael Stipe, “the only person who should care about what you do with your dick is the one sitting in your lap.”
Many years ago, Chris wrote a song that seems apropos. Like many creative types in the 90s, he was routinely picked on by toxic males whose favorite insult was to call him “queer” or “fag” or “gay”. His general response was “so what if I am?” Not only did he consider sexuality unimportant, but he knew that this reply would rankle his tormentors as they desperately tried to formulate an answer. And, with the deft sensitivity that only an eighteen year-old could muster, he codified that experience into a song called, fittingly, “Gay Thang”.
While never properly recorded, it does exist as a demo, and can be found on the No Celebrity Box Set…..or right here!
For the month of June, we have added a free music player, and you can give “Gay Thang” a spin. Thank you again for your support, and be sure to celebrate Pride Month!
AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE?!?
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You may have noticed that there are recordings on some of the streaming pages that don't appear in our discography.
You may also notice that they don't sound like us.
That's because they are not.
As much as we wish that we were the only batch of primates who were ever clever enough to combine the words "the" and "amoebas" and make it a band name, we are not. In fact, there are a lot of bands out there that use similar nomenclature, yet only one other ensemble we find that actually goes by The Amoebas.
They seem like nice chaps, and are in a similar situation-- used to be a band, recently reformed, et cetera et cetera, ad astrum, ad infinitum. They had the name a good decade before we did, but it's not about who did it first, its about who did it BEST.
And, it is of no fault of theirs that we get lumped together on most streaming platforms. We can say that our music has been available in that context longer, but again, that whole first/best thing. We have contacted them regarding the confusion, yet have heard no reply. Therefore, we are working directly with the various streaming providers in an attempt to sort it all out. Apple Music has ben exemplary in their compliance with this, and that marks the only time ever that "Apple", "exemplary" and "compliance" have been used in the same sentence. Pat yourselves on the back, kids, you just witnessed history.
In the meantime, we simply ask that you don't confuse the two bands. Our streaming content consists of No Celebrity, "The Taste EP", and Bells!, and everything else is those guys. We hope they will still be able to access their fans, ideally they get a separate page setup rather than just wiped from the various platforms. And hey, they beat us to theamoebas.com, so if you wanna see what they do, hit that link.
Thanks again, and don't forget to subscribe for more updates!
NO, WE DON'T HAVE THAT, WE'RE FRESH OUT.
There are a few things we are not going to make available here at amoebasband.com, namely our 2020 Christmas recording, our Box Set and our collection of Demos and Outtakes.
Why?
Mainly because they include covers and could lead to some copyright issues. And by "covers", we mean versions of us doing songs that other people legally own, not the images that adorn the fronts of physical media or make your phone screens look neafty while you play music.
And yes, some of the albums we did make available on this site have an occasional cover here or there, but those particular releases, especially the Box Set, have a lot.
But fear not, since you can stream most of those recordings! Just go to our "Listen" section and it'll guide you from there.
You see, we pay a service to get our stuff on the streaming platforms, and they charge us accordingly for copyrighted material. In the case of the Box Set, you can actually buy that from the major providers, so if you are bound and determined to give us money, that's a sure fire way to make that happen.
As for the Christmas single, that's available on those platforms, too.
The demos and outtakes, though... We're gonna keep that in the archives. Why? Because it's demos and outtakes; they were never intended for the public (though several are included on the Box Set). Besides, we might occasionally put one up for funsies, you never know.
But if you'll definitely know if you sign up on our mailing list! Subscribe below!
UPLOADING THE DOWNLOADS
You may notice that our entire discography is not in our online shop....yet.
Sadly, Not Quite Human has never been digitized, and the remastered version of Narcissism shows flaws in the source tapes (and the person who remastered it accidentally reversed the stereo field, so left is right and right is wrong) and we would prefer to release a corrected version to the public.
Oh, come on, don't act surprised; we're constantly tweaking our back catalog. Why do you think we recorded five different versions of "14 People"?
But fear not, as both of these projects are on the drawing board. Getting Not Quite Human turned into ones and zeroes is gonna take some special equipment and time, neither of which we have right now, but both of which we can eventually acquire. Stay posted here, or subscribe to our mailing list to hear when these projects come to fruition!