News | The Coffis Brothers

- Feb 21, 2018
- 2 min read

Slim’s San Francisco February 24th

The first show we ever played in San Francisco was in August of 2011 at a bar, then called, The Rockit Room. I think we responded to a Craigslist post and through that we got the headlining slot on a Saturday night in San Francisco. We were stoked. We set up on a postage stamp of a stage and played to a room that was as crammed together as we were. A big group of our friends from Santa Cruz came out, we stayed up all night after the show, and we crashed on the floor of our friend’s Kyle and Mikalah’s place before getting up early the next morning so I could play in my college alumni soccer game. (It seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t know.) Since then we’ve played countless times in the City, and whether it’s a Tuesday night in front of an empty dance floor at the Boom Boom Room or across the street on a Saturday night for a sold out show at the Fillmore, we’re pretty damn excited every time we play in San Francisco. Alright, maybe we’re a little bit more excited for that Fillmore show (no offense to the Boom Boom though.) Here’s a video from our show at the Rockit Room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAnU_031ckg

Green room at Slim’s, March 15th, 2015.

This Saturday, February 24th we will be back in the City to play Slim’s. Joining us will be local bands, Sweet Plot, and Evan & the Live Oaks. This will be our third time playing Slim’s but our first time since January of 2016. We can’t wait to play, and not just because Slim’s stage is a little bit bigger than the Rockit Room’s, and because we finally got the foresight to book a hotel room for after the show instead of crashing on whatever friend’s floors are offered, and because we don’t have to wake up early to play in an alumni soccer game the next day; but because we’re excited to be bringing our new album, Roll With It to San Francisco for the first time, we get to play for our San Francisco friends as well our friend’s from Santa Cruz who will drive up in the City, and because we’re playing at a great venue, in a great city on a Saturday night. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. Grab your tickets for Saturday and we’ll see ya at Slim’s.

The Coffis Brothers & The Mountain Men @ Slim’s w/ Sweet Plot, Evan & the Live Oaks

- Feb 6, 2018
- 3 min read

San Lorenzo Valley Soccer Fundraiser

Happy New Year! It only took me ’til February to say that, but nevertheless we’re back with our first post of 2018. The truth is that the winter is often a slower time of the year for us so I couldn’t think of anything to write about, and since we live in Santa Cruz, by winter I’m really only talking about the last few weeks in December and most of January. It’s so nice out here! It’s going to be 72 degrees today! In the past we’ve used January to record, or play hometown shows, so even if we aren’t driving around California playing, we’ve found something to keep us busy. Regardless of what the band’s been up to, I’ve spent just about all of my January’s for the last decade on the San Lorenzo Valley High School soccer fields in Felton for a couple hours every day coaching soccer. While it’s generally freezing (at least by my standards), rainy, muddy, etc I’ve never had more fun coaching soccer than I’ve had here at SLV, so it’s really special to get to play a concert to raise money for the SLV soccer program, which is exactly what we will be doing on February 8th at San Lorenzo Valley High School’s Performing Arts Center in Felton.

I started coaching at SLV in 2009 with the Junior Varsity Boy’s team. I coached them for three more seasons before moving to the Varsity Girl’s team who I’ve coached for three years and currently have Jamie as an assistant. Even beyond Jamie and I, soccer has played a weirdly important role in the band. Kyle and I met on the soccer field and played on the same teams from about ages 6-17, including four years at SLV. Jamie and I were somewhat familiar with each other before soccer was a thing but we’ve probably spent as much time kicking a ball around as we have singing. Kyle and I met Sam when he joined our club team when we were 14 years old, and soccer is the sport Aidan can tolerate watching with us more than any other. So that’s really saying something.

As another January spent on the SLV soccer field has come to an end, and our “slow” winter’s with the band seem to keep getting faster and busier; I’m becoming more and more aware that I won’t be able to coach at SLV for that much longer. Having a platform like this to give back to a school and sport that has given me so much is a really cool opportunity to have. (I know I can speak for Jamie and Kyle who would share that sentiment, as well.)

Our hope is to put on a great show at a really cool venue that you may have never been to before and to raise some money for high school athletes, so please help us by coming out to SLV’s Performing Arts Center on February 8th for our second annual SLV Soccer Fundraiser Concert. This year we’ll be bringing our friend McCoy Tyler with us to open the show. McCoy’s a graduate of Soquel High, and is more of a baseball and basketball guy than a soccer guy, but ya know…whatever. We just like him. See ya on the 8th.

San Lorenzo Valley Performing Arts Center

February 8th

Doors 7:00pm

Show 7:30pm

$20

https://www.facebook.com/events/146504399366367/

- Dec 28, 2017
- 4 min read

99 For 2017

At the beginning of this year I told you that one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to write more posts on our website. I forgot what all of my other resolutions were, but 17 posts later and here we are in December with the most posts we’ve ever done in a year, which is fitting for a year in which we played more shows than we’ve ever played before. So much happened in 2017 that it’s hard to know where to start, but perhaps we should start with what we spent most of our time doing this year. That’s right, sitting in our van in traffic. I mean playing shows. Playing music in front of people is what we spent a lot of our time doing in 2017.

At midnight on December 31st we will have played our 99th show of the year. 99? For real? Can we just round up and call it 100? Let’s call it 100. Wow, we played 100 shows this year! That’s quite a milestone. We returned to some of our favorite venues and festivals like the Great American Music Hall, Sweetwater Music Hall, Crystal Bay Casino, Hopmonk Tavern, the Independent, the Torch Club, the Frog & Peach, Fernwood, and Oyster Ridge Music Festival. We played some great venues for the first time like the Folktale Winery, Healdsburg Plaza, Twin Oaks Roadhouse, Freight & Salvage, The Saint, OP Rockwell, Newpark Town Center, the Downtown Artery, the Siren, and the Whale Rock Music Festival. We had some of our most memorable hometown shows back at familiar venues like Don Quixote’s, Moe’s Alley, the Catalyst, KPIG Swine Soiree, and the Redwood Mountain Faire. We even played in some places in Santa Cruz that we had never played before like Shanty Shack, Michael’s On Main, and Humble Sea Brewing Co. who opened their doors in March of this year. (Congratulations, dudes!)

Somewhere in the middle of all the traveling and playing there was a lot else that happened this year. We played against some pre-teens in paintball (and lost), a Coffis brother became a DJ at KPIG radio (Jamie, to be exact), we played sets on the Brew Cruz and the KPIG trailer, we went to a Colorado Rockies game in Denver, Aidan ate his first Krispy Kreme Donut and his first turkey leg (the donut was better), we were named Nexties Band of the Year, we celebrated our parent’s 70th birthdays, we said goodbye to Henry and hello to Sam, and we released our third album, Roll With It; and through all of that our trusty van, Gretschen (The White Falcon) ran like a champ. (Although there was a strange whistle sound coming from the engine today. You think that’s bad? Should probably get that checked out.) That’s a lot of things in just one year. We don’t mean to gloss over some of those rather big happenings though, like Aidan eating a whole turkey leg, so we want to stop and acknowledge a few people and moments in particular.

Henry Chadwick, our drummer of seven years, played his final shows with us in 2017. Henry is one of our closest friends and was our first drummer, and we had as much fun playing those last shows with Henry as we ever had playing. (If you miss seeing Henry go see his band, Henry Chadwick & Battlesnake on January 5th at the Crepe Place.) http://www.coffisbrothers.com/heck-just-read-this-one-henry-chadwick/

No two people have been more important in the band’s existence than the Coffis parents, Jim and Vicki Coffis, and in March of this year we celebrated their 70th birthdays with a rock and roll birthday party. They even got their favorite band to play at the party. Can you guess who it was? Next time you’re at a show of ours and you see them go say hi.

Sam Kellerman is another person who has had a rather big role in the Coffis Brother’s 2017. As Henry was departing, Sam arrived and his introduction to the band was seamless. Whether it was his sports fanaticism, his ability to sleep anywhere on anything, or his fondness for a cocktail at anytime, Sam has fit into the group without a hitch. Also, he’s a damn good drummer. http://www.coffisbrothers.com/one-on-one-with-sam-kellerman/

Lastly, we’d like to acknowledge our hero, Tom Petty. We all went and saw Tom and the Heartbreakers in August so we certainly didn’t expect that in 2017 we would say goodbye to Tom. Three weeks after Tom’s passing we released Roll With It and there isn’t a song on that album that doesn’t have at least a little bit of Tom’s mark on it. We don’t have any plans to do a tribute show to Tom in 2018 but everything we do musically will be some sort of tribute to Tom Petty and we hope that in some small way we can help carry his torch. http://www.coffisbrothers.com/tom-petty/

Usually in December we’re saying we can’t believe the year is already over, but 2017 doesn’t feel that way. 2017 felt like a full year and then some. We traveled more miles than we ever have, we played more shows than we ever have, and we slept a lot less than we ever have. For those of you who were with us before 2017 and for those who joined us in 2017, we hope you have a great end of the year and we can’t wait to make some music for you in 2018. Here’s a look at some memorable moments in 2017. See ya.