A Magic Castle Land by Super Geek League, 2009

Band Members: FLOYD aka COMMANDER TOMORROW,
GIL CHOWDER,
KNUCKLES aka BONER,
PWORD,
ERONICA aka VY AGRA,
EVAD aka SPACE COUGAR,
TRUMPETS aka SHEESH and Sunshine Applebeard,
and the inexcusable BARRY McCOCKNER aka RAMPAGING CIALIS MENACE.
Also featuring THE G-GNOMES,
THE CONTEMPLATIVE DWARF,
THE STRIPPING NUNS!
KING OF THE KRAPPER,
EADER PHOTOGRAPHY aka GENERAL STEVE DAVE,
FACE “THE FACE” McMASTERS aka COMMANDER CHAOS,
FAT CANNIBAL,
JIMMIE SCRATCHEMICOCK,
SAMMY the DWARF aka the LEPRECHAUN,
JJ SKEWERS,
not the CHOLF,
CAPTAIN PLASTIC,
DR. CUMS-A-LOT,
STRANGE CREATURES,
SEMEN aka SQUIRTERS,
JESUS in CLOWN SHOES,
GODINPOTTY (IN THE FLESH),
A CAST OF THOUSANDS,
SOME RATHER UNPLEASANT AND SOMEWHAT DISTURBING CLOWNS,
PLUS OF COURSE LAST BUT NOT LEAST, YOURSELF.

Partial list of production requirements:
2 Cases of PBR,
Couple bottles of white whine(sic),
1 bottle of Maker’s Mark!

Bio: Super Geek League is an epic rock odyssey of mind-blowing proportions and ambitious dreams that invigorate fans and followers into an ecstatic frenzied state of excitement and passion that is unrivaled in enthusiasm and intensity.

Super Geek League consists of 9 multi-instrumentalist musicians with an eclectic background of musical training and experience that melds together to epitomize the sound of this domination rock
outfit. Super Geek League’s sound has been described as “Polyphonic Spree meets System
of a Down” or “Circus Primus meets Salvador Dali on Zappa” with thunderous stacks of guitars and bass that rival Korn and Slipknot. Super Geek League is designed to blow minds and ear drums; pure and simple.

Super Geek League started off as the brainchild of musical and visual mastermind, Floyd Mc Feely. In 2001 Mc Feely, aka “Commander Tomorrow”, set up the “Super Geek League” as a way for friends to create a character based on a create-your-own-superhero profiler which Mc Feely then turned into songs. This provided the initial foundations of the Super Geek League and created much of the material for SGL’s debut album, “Peppermint Rainbows”, which was released in 2007.

The “band” hit the stage for the first time in 2003 while Mc Feely (aka Cecil Cudpucker) was performing with Illegal Arts’ artists The Bran Flakes. Mc Feely had just returned home from a tour in France @ the Ideal Festival when he was offered an opening slot for The Bran Flakes and immediately jumped at the opportunity. Without a band or any instruments, Mc Feely had to come up with something fast. He decided to put together an air-guitar band that performed a karaoke set singing live over the actual recorded music from an iPod. With a stripping nun, an air guitar clown, a bass playing top-hat wearing Gorilla and a chicken drummer, Super Geek League was officially born.

The inaugural performance was deemed “genius” by the fans that saw it, and McFeely was offered a headlining gig at one of Seattle’s most prominent and established venues. He decided to create a band to perform half of the set live and the other half to be canned from the iPod. This show was augmented with a GIANT trampoline with high flying acts and an extended cast of strange and bizarre acts; to which was deemed by the Seattle press as “The Most Fucked up carnival hell ever imagined!”- Megan Selling – The Stranger.

After the show, Mc Feely’s strategy of creating an over-the-top spectacle to deliver his strange and eclectic musical compositions began to take shape. All the while Super Geek League was gathering more and more momentum in the sleepy and somewhat tranquil Seattle music scene.

After several years of destroying venues and causing a raucous everywhere they performed, SGL was offered the opportunity to perform select dates on the 2006 Vans Warped Tour throughout the Northwest. Still without a cohesive band in place, Mc Feely used the opportunity to recruit some additional talent to add to the core Super Geek League music machine. At the time the band consisted of multi-instrumentalist Knuckles, bassist Pword and drummer Gil Chowder. Mc Feely knew he needed a few more crucial ingredients to complete the recipe that he wanted. So the band enlisted an accordion, Theremin, lead/rhythm guitarist and new female and male lead singers to complete the lineup.

The new and improved Super Geek League hit the opening date of their tour like a neutron BOMB in Boise, Idaho. In 100 degree heat, the crowd bombarded the stage with many of SGL’s props; including but not limited to: 2-pound fish, Hostess Twinkies, bottles, cups, and water balloons. The band whipped them into a near riot that resulted in the Hot Topic Stage manager pulling the plug on Super Geek League’s performance 15 minutes into the set. Super Geek League had officially been kicked off the Vans Warped Tour. But, after hours of clean up, begging and pleading, SGL redeemed themselves for the rest of the dates, ending with a thunderous encore performance in Portland with critical acclaim.

The Vans Warped Tour made Super Geek League into a legitimate alternative/heavy rock act, resulting in the recording of their debut album “Peppermint Rainbows”, which was released in 2007.

In the summer of 2007, Mc Feely was working with PR legend Laura Kaufman to shop the Super Geek League show, called “Geeks”, to Broadway legend Steve Leber for an off-Broadway production. The event inspired Mc Feely to write an entire two hour script based on their current production. The bits and pieces of material would provide the foundations for the next record, “A Magic Castle Land”.

During this period, Mc Feely had a chance run-in with current lead vocalist Eronica Heard aka “Vy Agra” at a bar in downtown Seattle. Mc Feely and Heard started to chat about music that resulted in her auditioning with Mc Feely that very night at the SGL studio in Ballard, Washington. As soon as Heard took the microphone, Mc Feely knew he had found his long sought powerful female vocalist. With this new found weapon fronting the SGL machine, Mc Feely called upon his long time friend, singer/songwriter Evad Deleon Smith, to try out as the lead guitarist for the now vacant position (It would appear that the lead guitarist role in Super Geek League is the equivalent of Spinal Tap’s drummer position with the only difference being that SGL guitarists do not explode on stage). With Eronica Heard and Evad added to the mix, Super Geek League continued its storied run, producing
and performing shows as a featured headlining attraction.

After a headlining performance at the 2008 Masquerade Mayhem Ball, Super Geek League was approached by then-fan Noah Radford who casually inquired about playing trumpet or accordion. Radford’s inquiry rang a bell in Mc Feely’s brain as now he could begin to build on the foundations of the existing horn section. Prior to Radford it consisted of only multi-instrumentalist Knuckles, who plays the trombone. Mc Feely immediately jumped at the opportunity and gave Radford (aka Sunshine Applebeard) an assignment to learn the horn riff on an unreleased song, “Burning”, in one week’s time. Radford worked perfectly and fit like a glove into SGL, joining Ian Clark (aka Sheesh the Mad Mandible) and officially giving birth to the “Walls of Jericho” horn section of Super Geek League.

Finally, after 8 years and many lifetimes of trials and tribulations, tinkering and tweaking, the new and improved Super Geek League returned to the studio to record the much anticipated “A Magic Castle Land”

With the record complete, their message is clear, inspire fans and innocent bystanders to dream BIG and live even BIGGER!

Super Geek League is touring with the Jim Rose Circus this summer in selected cities and
theaters, and will embark on a nationwide tour sometime in 2009.

My Review: “Circus runs amok when stoned clowns enter ring!” would probably be used by some to describe Super Geek League. However, after taking a second look and doing much research on the subject of evil clowns, the fear of clowns and numerous other related subjects I have uncovered a few interesting facts.

First, the image of the evil clown(fool, trickster, jester) has made its appearance throughout history for thousands of years. The native American Zuni Pueblo society has its evil clowns that appear at religious festivals and commit such blasphemies as public masturbation and sodomy as well as blaspheming the Zuni gods and defiling the sacrifices made to them. Cultural critic, Mark Dery, using Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the carnival-esque, Jungian and historical writings on the images of the fool(clown) in myth and history, and ruminations on the mingling of ecstasy and dread in the Information Age, Dery asserts the Evil Clown is an icon for our times. SGL also uses a lot of black and white face paint. Black and white always symbolize good and evil, note that they use more white paint than black which symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Remember, we’re talking about Super Geek League here, which was originally formed as a group of Super Heroes defending us against the plagues of modern man. So, now that I have laid a rudimentary foundation, or perhaps and “excuse” for SGL’s costuming and actions, lets have a look at the music.

I read one comment to a review of Super Geek League which asserts that rap rock is nothing new, that they are an imitation of Insane Clown Posse, and they play stale 1990 riffs. While it is true their costuming is similar to ICP’s, SGL’s music shows a much broader range styles than Insane Clown Posse, yes, I did actually visit Insane Clown Posse’s website and listen to some of their music! I have listened to a lot of music since starting Gulf Coast Music Review and I’ve found a lot of “borrowed” music or parts of music from the past, not to mention that since 1990 a new generation of music listeners has arrived, so I think they would hardly recognize something from the 90s. While we’re on the subject of originality, Super Geek League does do their version of Hip-Hop artist T.I.’s 2006 hit, What You Know(about that). However, if you research that, you find out that What You Know is T.I.’s interpolation of Gone Away, originally done by Curtis Mayfield when he was with the Impressions and was recorded in 1970 by Roberta Flack!

The next complaint I’ve heard is that female vocalist Eronica, of course the review I read either didn’t know her name or at the least, didn’t mention it, either can’t sing or is singing out of her range. I’ve listened to all the tracks of A Magic Castle Land and especially to her parts. I feel her voice lends a haunting, from another world quality to SGL’s music and fits into this style of music perfectly!

As to the music itself, this is avant garde rock and as with other avant garde style music, weather it be classical, jazz, blues or whatever mainstream genre it originates from, isn’t going to appeal to everyone. SGL’s music most closely fits into the Dada/Progressive/Post RIO sub genres of rock. It can abruptly, but smoothly switch from Heavy Metal, to slow rock, to a chant and back to Heavy Metal, all within one song! What you expect at the beginning of a song may not be what you get by the end of that song! Expect the unexpected is all I can say! Its outrages, its irreverent, but it captures your attention! One thing I and other reviewers have noted is that the album does get more melodic as the tracks progress, so the Heavy Metal/Heavy Rock purist may lose interest near the end.

All in all, for avant garde rock, Super Geek League has done a pretty good job. Whether it appeals to you the reader, only you know the answer to that. As with all avant garde music you have to approach this with an open mind and forget about anything you may know about conventional music theory.

If I had to sum up “A Magic castle Land”, I’d say it “Presents you with an hard hitting, ever changing, mind blowing extravaganza of sound, leaving you with your head shaking and wondering exactly what is was you had just heard”! Of course, that’s exactly what avant garde music is supposed to do, get you to think and question “the norm”! I give Super Geek League 9 out of 10 and a “thumbs up”!

A Magic Castle Land and Peppermint Rainbows available for immediate download from