Ninetynine

In 1994 I got super into Excuse 17. Saw them play quite a few times and somehow started corresponding with their guitar player. I had informed her that if they ever needed a place to crash while touring to let me know. In the summer of 1995 I received a postcard asking if her new band could crash at my place en route to L.A. from Olympia. They did indeed stay over and gave me a copy of their first cd for my trouble. However, it was their drummer who I really hit it off with. I went to all of their Northern California shows (something like 5 shows) and spent most of my time talking to the drummer! When she moved back to Australia we stayed in touch.

The following year she came back to tour with Bonfire Madigan. She had released a cd under the name Ninetynine. I had them come on to my radio show and play live. Went to a bunch of shows they played - at that time Ninetynine was a two piece! I could not believe what the band had evolved into by the next cd and tour! A total powerhouse both on recording and live. To this day, some of the best shows I have seen have been Ninetynine shows. Laura and I managed to stay in touch - it helped that they toured the states about once every year or two.

In 2000 or 2001 they came to tour. At that point Laura was pregnant so it seemed that perhaps the Ninetynine touring days would be slowing down. I was very surprised to see them listed on the bill for the Athens Popfest this past year! Me and Laura had fallen out of touch over the past 6 years so I was very excited to see her and the band! Well, even after being up for nearly 24 hours they still were better than any band I saw during the Popfest! Every single time I have seen them play over the years I would always notice that the audiences reaction was of amazement - puzzled that they had never heard of this band that had just absolutely floored them. Cameron Potts (also of Baseball) is probably my favorite drummer in music today. He is an animal. His fills on the bass drum blow my mind. The 2007 line-up was smaller than a lot of the previous line-ups with just Cameron and Laura joined by the talented and awesome Meg Butler. I can't understand how Ninetynine are not worshiped by the indie mass. They are weird in all the right places.

In hopes of inspiring mass adoration I present 2 songs -the first from the latest album Worlds Of Space, Worlds Of Population, Worlds Of Robots and the second being my favorite Ninetynine song from one of my all time favorite albums 180 Degrees. You might have to search their albums out but I assure you that it is worth the effort!

Receiving The Sounds Of Science Fiction.mp3

Replica.mp3

Ninetynine on myspace