Ribbon Fix
Ribbon Fix played it's debut show on August 10th, 1996 at the Epicenter Zone record store in San Francisco, opening for Full Boney and Uranium 9-Volt with it's original four piece line-up consisting of Andi Camp (former Stella and Underside) on vocals/bass, Mark Rodgers (former Driftwood, Shroomunion and Perilisium Cantos) on vocals/guitar, Brian Gathy (former Savalas, Junkdrawer and Amber Inn) on guitar/bass and Mike Roberts (former Pawn) on drums. At the time, and with three contributing songwriters, the band didn't have all too much material to draw from but, following its first show, Ribbon Fix started writing at a seemingly furious rate. Before long, the band was lashing out regionally, up and down the West Coast, sharing bills with Cult of Eugene, the Icarus Line, Still Life and Jimmy Eat World. In early November of 1996, Ribbon Fix entered Enharmonik Studio in Sacramento with Eric Stenman to record 6 songs that would be released as "The Gathy Years". Almost immediately after recording the songs, Brian Gathy left the band to persue a paying gig with local indie rockers, Crumb, thus reducing Ribbon Fix to a three piece. Undetered by the loss, the band began fleshing out new material that would eventually start to define the band and its sound. The band debuted the downsized line-up in January of 1997 at the Gilman Street Project in Berkeley to favorable results. They then entered Enharmonik again, and again with Eric Stenman, in late February and recorded half of what would be released as "Some Saturday This Has Been". The band would spend the months of March, April and June in the studio and on the road and then released "Some Saturday..." in late July of 1997. Along with the 10 songs released as the band's first full length release, they had also cut a number of unreleased tracks (Jaded, Filament, Crush ..626 and the pay-off daring Tickle Me, Elmo). Immediately upon release, the band lit out on a more expansive regional tour with mafioso-compatriots, Uranium 9-Volt, a tour that would cement the bonds of the two bands to the point where neither band would play a show if the other band wasn't on the bill. Around this time, Ribbon Fix had become staples at the Capp Street Warehouse venue, as well as the Cocodrie and various other holes in and around San Francisco, sharing bills with the likes of Braid, Jejune, Rainer Maria, Knapsack, Mineral, etc... In December of 1997, Ribbon Fix, once again went to Enharmonik, Eric in tow and recorded the epic "Camp Fire Dares the Sun" in a miraculous 21 hours. The album would house the band at its shiniest and best, ten sonically charged originals as well as Easter Egging a cover of the Psychedelic Furs' "Ghost In You". Two other tracks were recorded in the process: the still unreleased "Hummingbird" and "Road Map" (released on the No Karma compilation "Atmosphere Only Gets You So Far"). "Camp Fire..." saw release on Valentine's Day, 1998 and the band hit the road again in March with Uranium 9-Volt, expanding their regions again, this time taking the two bands out as far as Michigan to play the annual Michigan Fest, along with BlueTip and Los Crudos. The Spring of 1998 had the band nailing down even more new songs, playing locally and relentlessly and in July of 1998, the band entered the studio for the last time to record a 5 song CDEP (originally concieved as a double 7") called "Straight, No Chaser". This particular chapter captured the band on it's lighter side and indicating a sharper leaning towards an Alternative Country edge. After booking a national tour with Uranium 9-Volt again, tensions in the band lead to a short notice cancellation and a rescheduling that would become the band's very last tour. In December of 1998, Ribbon Fix called it quits, leaving a prolific legacy of songs, 57 in total, gone to the wayside. A few months later, however, and moreso as a favor, the band temporarily reformed and introduced a small batch of new songs like "Tootsie Pop" and the near-neverending "Basement". Overall, the life of Ribbon Fix was short but fullfilling, having shared the stage with an enormous amount of extremely talented bands like Antarctica and the Blue Ontario (both former Christie Front Drive), Uphollow, Karate, At the Drive-In, Kill Holiday, etc... After the band split for good, Andi relocated to Portland, Oregon where she still plays music, often as a solo artist and currently with The Brightest Comet, Mike went down South to San Diego where he actually got his throat slit (non-fatal) and recently began playing drums after an extensive hiatus with San Diego's Behind the Wagon and Mark still resides in San Francisco and plays Punked Up Country of sorts in his band, The Devil's Own and the occasional solo show under the moniker of Piss Pissedoffherson. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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