Around about 2006, being told by musicians savvier than ourselves that that we would do well to adopt a dress code, The Hot Seats (in our previous incarnation) set out to purchase some used suits. Being a fairly ragged outfit, we found some fairly ragged suits. Stained, in fact, covered in a gooey red slurry. Being how often we found ourselves covered in slurry, it didn't seem like a bad purchase.
We donned them before our next show. Two songs into the set, we fell into a reverie of desire. A desire for brains. The brains of our audience: your brains. A small price to pay for aesthetic unity.
Being that this was around the season of our most favorite holiday, we kept on wearing these suits, adding to the gore and muck that encased them with every show. As we are what you might refer to as method-y, we also began to write about our newfound interests and addictions.
What was born was a set of 4 songs about brains, eating brains, and thinking about brains, as well as two one-act plays: The Birth of The Zombie Stringband, and The Trials Of The Zombie Stringband. We enlisted some talented and hilarious friends - Dick Butt Kiss and the Tightends, The Falsies, All The Saints Theater Company, Phill Pollard, Hannah Lewis, and others - to help us stage these things on the now Richmond-legendary Gallery 5 stage.
When going in to record Retreat To Camp Candy Temptation Island, we went ahead and laid down these songs, not ever knowing exactly what we would do with them, but knowing that they are too precious to lose to the dusty landscape of memory. We hope you will enjoy these, or at least endure them. And do be careful if you see us wearing suits.
PLEASE NOTE: We included the two excellent show posters, hand drawn by our very own Ben Belcher, to this download. Keep in mind that these feature the original band name, which we changed in 2008. We know, we know. It wasn't acceptable then, isn't acceptable now, isn't especially funny or original, and is especially NOT nice. We, however, ARE nice AND funny. So please forgive passed transgressions, put it in the context of time and place, or don't download the posters.
credits
released October 31, 2022
The Hot Seats circa 2007:
Josh Bearman: mandolin, banjos, bass, vox
Ben Belcher: 3 finger banjo, bass, vox
Edward Brogan: Guitar, vox
Aaron Lewis: Fiddle, vox
Jake Sellers: percussion & battery, bass
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