Polaroid of Colin Photo by Sarah Hadley

Name: Colin Carlson Sheaff

Height: 6’

Eye color: Slate blue flecked with yellow

Birthday / Sign: June 30 / Cancer

Band nickname: Waffle Cut Fries

Instruments: Drums and vocals

1st concert you attended: Ozzy, Vixen and White Lion at Tinley Park. Went because of White Lion. Left with an Ozzy shirt.

1st tape or CD purchase: LP - Phil Collins' No Jacket Required, Tape - Poison's Open Up and Say Ahhhhh, CD - Columbia House 10 CDs for a penny deal. Among the first ten - Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced?, Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin and Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood.

Best concert you ever attended: Tie: Kraftwerk at Chicago‘s Riviera Theater and Crash Worship at Kalamazoo’s The Warehouse were both transcendental shows. Third place goes to Pearl Jam at the Metro.

Some favorite bands: Aphex Twin, Modest Mouse, Magnetic Fields, Palace Music, Charles Mingus, Björk, Faith No More, DJ Shadow, Tortoise, Oval.

What have you been listening to lately?


Colin's playlist courtesy of Last.fm.

What’s the best part about being in a band? All the free stuff and the endorsements! I mean, we don‘t really get that stuff yet… But I can only imagine! Gosh!

Hardest part? Waiting for all the free stuff and endorsements! It’s feels like it’s always Christmas Eve and never Christmas Day!

Favorite Canasta moment? Headlining Metro was damn sweet. But I think the weekend song-writing retreat to Michigan was my favorite. The rubber Colin Powell mask still haunts me.

Favorite color: Blue. Specifically that range of blue that occurs between robins egg and sky blue turquoise ranging from black to grey to blue.

Favorite food: Avocado

Favorite book: Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller…, Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest are currently playing strip poker in my head to determine the true number one.

Favorite movie: Forbidden Zone by Richard Elfman (Danny Elfman‘s brother) is cracked genius.

Pet? (Current or childhood): Maggie is the cutest half-pug, half-poodle that ever looked like a pig.

Favorite childhood vacation: Road trip to American Southwest the summer I was six. At the Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde I clambered down into a kiva, like the boy in “Arrow to the Sun.” I can still smell the dirt floor, and see the beam of sunlight streaming in from above.

Favorite weather: 76° Fahrenheit, overcast with a 30% chance of precipitation.

If you could live somewhere other than Chicago, where would it be?
Pacific Northwest.
Scotland.
Angkor Wat.
You know, there-ish.

Favorite piece of clothing you own: My “Stop Plate Tectonics” shirt is pretty rad. I also have a collection of offensive t-shirts that keep me in good stead.

Favorite game: Grab Scrabble

In Canasta, each member brings their unique strengths to the music. What do you bring to the band? Equanimity. Equipoise. The poloraizing forces of the band must be brought into balance by calm and placidity. This is my gift. That and I make a mean omelette. Oh wait - musically? Hmmmm. Probably my strong and innate sense of tempo. You know. ‘Cause I’m like, the drummer and stuff?

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