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The Weisstronauts
Instrumental Twang Surf Psych Spy Rock for the 22nd Century
Upcoming shows
(including 'Nauts-adjacent shows)...
Sunday November 3, 2024
DJ Weisstronaut & DJ Streetnoise spin vinyl!
Remnant Satellite (formerly Atwoods)
3pm-6pm
Friday November 8, 2024 Myrtle
E. Providence RI w/ Le Prestige
Saturday November 9, 2024 [private party]
Thursday November 14, 2024
Valley Of Weights (Pete's postpunk - psych - garage project) Avalon Lounge Catskill NY w/ Minibeast
Saturday December 7, 2024
Plough & Stars
Cambridge MA
26th Annual Holiday JubileeŽ
Friday December 13, 2024
Evelyn Pope Band (Pete on bass, Jeff N. on drums)
Sally O'Briens Pub
Somerville MA
opening for Girl With A Hawk
Contact:
via gmail: peteweiss2000
News:
New album, Hamming It Down, was released on Bandcamp
on Friday March 3, 2023 !! Easily purchase a download or a physical
CD there (or CD's at our shows!)
Pete has reunited with his 80's-era musical brethren, Mike Griffin, Russ Alderson, & Dave Hower. As Valley of Weights,
they recently released an astonishing double LP of
post-punk/garage/psych originals on vinyl and Bandcamp only, which has
garnered high critical praise. Sporadic live shows have been and will continue to be happening. Here's an interview from Scottish music 'zine Pennyblackmusic.
Pete, Nate, Jeff & Kenny have been moonlighting with NYC-based Jack Grace Band,
and its spin-off Van Hayride (yes, a country-tinged Van Halen
tribute band!) The latter recently toured as opening act for Puss N Boots.
Keep an eye out for these 'Nauts members to pop up now and then with
Jack and VHR.
Back in the 1990's the 'Nauts
"forefathers" were known as Pete Weiss & the Rock Band.
They put out a couple of subversive, wildly diverse rock albums before
calling it quits (and morphing into what eventually became the
Weisstronauts.) Well, in October of 2012 they reunited in the studio
and created a new 10-song album. And it's quite good... possibly their
best work. Check out the amazingly detailed shot-for-shot remake video
of PW&RB's version of Tracey Ullman's "They Don't Know" HERE.
Recent Press/Quotes:
There
is a freedom and unfettered joy in The Weisstronauts’ music that
gets under the skin - that both soothes and sets the pulses racing
simultaneously. Maybe it's the outrageous mix of genres
(country, '60s go-go, surf, jazz, funk, soul, rockabilly and
blues, electronica and dance music, et al) revealed within each
original composition and shape-shifting continually within deeply
seamed grooves - so there's always something surprising and new; like
the view of unfamiliar terrain from a fast moving train. Or
maybe it's the way that the triple lead guitar lineup passes the energy
among the three guitar players like a ball of energy is passed
in Qigong; wordessly, organically, seamlessly - weaving a tapestry
of gorgeous sounds that delight and surprise at every turn; taking the
listener on a journey that encompasses every aspect of the American
sonic landscape. Whatever the ineffable thing is about this band,
if it's beauty and adventure you seek: put on The
Weisstronauts and take a ride! For there are wide plains in this
music, and angled mountains, abandoned old West towns, and deserted
arctic blue shorelines. There are also cities, and grit, and
nightclubs where drunken revelers kiss strangers and dance long into
the night. The Weisstronauts music has no borders. It belongs
to the whole wide world.
— Linda Viens, Girl With A Hawk
March 2024
The
Weisstronauts are unafraid to dive into any style that fits their
current mood. You're apt to hear country stylings, '60s go-go, surf,
jazz, soul, rockabilly and blues -- sometimes in the same song. The
triple lead guitar lineup gives this band the capacity to, as Keith
Richards once described it, "weave" together whatever the muses bring
to each track. The guys are accomplished artists who never take
themselves too seriously, so you never know where they'll take you next
-- I enjoy listening for funny musical quotes embedded within
their original compositions. Hamming It Down continues
the Weisstronauts' decades-long string of some of most well
put-together instrumental albums I've ever heard. You can hear shades
of everyone from Buck Owens to Wes Montgomery up in there.
—Mojo Flucke (Fluckwittery, Popdose.com), 2023
Rave review of the new Flat Bottom Cold Greaser album here at the legendary BabySue zine! And another one in Bill Copeland Music News.
Some nice coverage of our
July 2015 show at Luthier's Co-op HERE.
The good folks at Foam Totem understand
what we're all about!
"Please do not disregard my
mind-blowing experience caused by
your
music...The fact that the Weisstronauts didn't exist 25 years ago
should be considered an embarrassment to all musicians."
- Brendan
Curtis, co-owner/chef, Plough & Stars
"Then
there’s the Weisstronauts, who toss major surf rock influences into a
blender with everything else they’ve ever even sort of liked and pull
out songs built on combinations that look insane on paper but
absolutely kill once you hear them."
- Richard Bouchard, Boston Band Crush 9/15/2010
"Wish I could play with you
guys
more often than once in a lifetime. Definitely the most fun I've ever
had in a band."
- Doug
Yule (ex-Velvet Underground) following the 2006 tour
"You guys were the best thing EVER!"
- Mitch
Easter,
artist (Let’s Active, Sneakers) & producer (REM, Velvet Crush, Game
Theory, Pavement) following a 2008 show at the Rock ‘n’ Bowl in New
Orleans
"You guys are better than Maiden"
- Paul
Logus,
producer/engineer (P. Diddy, Pantera, Mary J. Blige, Notorious BIG, the
Barnies) stopping by the Rodeo Bar in NYC after an Iron Maiden concert
"You guys were totally way better than Maiden"
- Paul’s friend Sean (no, not Combs) in agreement
"If there’s such a thing as a forward-thinking surf band, Boston’s The
Weisstronauts are it. Avoiding the purism that makes so many
instrumental retro-fetishists seem redundant, The Weisstronauts combine
vintage surf and Nashville chicken-pickin’ with cartoon zaniness and
spaghetti Western intrigue. They often recall NRBQ’s offbeat musical
humor as much as Link Wray’s reverb-drenched Tarantino fodder."
- Jack Silverman, Nashville Scene
The
wonderfully-monikered Mojo Flucke interviewed Pete for
Popdose. They chatted about the creative process, garage
rock, monkeys with fezes, etc. Check it out HERE.
There's a sweet review of Instrotainment!
on Epinions HERE.
New England Music Scrapbook News interviewed Pete Weiss about the
Weisstronauts and Verdant Studio. Interview is HERE,
about a third down the page.
Pete Weiss was interviewed by C.C. DiGuardia in Northeast Performer
magazine and by John Clarkson in the U.K. webzine Pennyblackmusic.
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