Posts

Showing posts from April, 2015

The 35 Minutes That Sum It Up Best: Motivational Karaoke, "Spring Training Eve"

-
Today while driving around South Austin, my iPod bringed me a blast from me past.  A 35-minute segment of Motivational Karoke, the WESN radio show that Chris Golwitzer and I painstakingly crafted from 2002-2005.  It wunt crafted.  It wunt no pain. Part 5 of "SPRING TRAINING EVE (2/22/04) just seemed to sum up what we were about. It starts with an interview with Ted Leo after he blew out his voice in Champaign and I finished the singing for him.  That ends with a clip of Babe Ruth with a fake swear word beeped in. We played Ted Leo quite a bit. A new song that's old now. A lengthy, lie-riddled microphone break, back-selling a lot of things that we used to play.  A tongue lashing of the DJs on before us. An explanation of what Google is and how to spell it, followed by the futile spelling of our very long impossible find website. We were doing Dream Warriorisms then because we were on from 12-2am at that time.  We went retro and pulled out a Motivational Karo
19 comments
Read more

Volatile Brainstem? It Was Something, But It Wasn't Bonanza Jellybean.

-
Josh Barnhart:  "I want to start a cover band that does reggae versions of ZZ Top." Me:  "I Don't think that's a good idea." I was wrong.  This was pretty fun.  I think this was early early on, if not the first time out.  Wasn't very reggae, but ZZ Top is a trump. 1998 sounds about right.  "Secret Weapon" was on his 22nd birthday, I probably was 22, as well.  I can hear myself all over this recording and I can't distance myself enough from that young annoying clusterfuck of energy. This was recorded in the basement of a house on Vernon Ave. in Normal on the ISU campus.  Don't remember who lived there, I just remember it was brutally hot and humid and that there was a giant window to the outside, and that it wasn't enough.  A lot of familiar voices for me in there.  An audio Micheleo's reunion. Joshua Barnhard:  Bass/Vocals.  Eric Davis:  Guitar/vocals.  Secret Weapon:  Drums. On side two, ArsoNick Scum makes an appea
Post a Comment
Read more

Relevant Bootlegs at This Moment.

-
Eventually I'll organize and explain this, for now, these are from a compilation I compiled.  There are more, but this is most of the live stuff. The Resinators (live at The Gallery - board recording - with intro from Dudestalk '04 or '05. Super88 (live at The Gallery - mic recording - not sure what year, but Jeff was playing guitar, too) Guilty Pleasures (live at The Gallery - board recording) Demolition Derby (dudestalk) Moonlight Stranglers (Gallery - mic recording) The Mullens (encore - board recording at The Gallery) Guitar Wolf (encore - board recording at The Gallery) Scouts Honor (Dudestalk) Party At Russell's House! - One night, after a show in Peoria, or maybe the night, everyone showed up and there was no show after all, everyone headed back to the home of Russell Moe, who was out of town with his wife.  His son, Dave Moe, was in charge.  Bands were playing, or jamming or something and I was recording it, but then the party evolved into Da
Post a Comment
Read more

"Black Widows, Feared Across the Land!"

-
Image
If I find the actual tape with the Nov. 1, 1997 spectacle that was The Suburban Sluts live at Tiamat Records, that should be the title, but in case I never find it, I'll use it here. These are the same demo tracks from the earlier post , but I've linked the songs individually so you can listen to them with the ease of a click. I've added two more Sluts disasters.  One is an mp3 of "I Have No Legs" from that show at Tiamat.  Reid and Marky D showed up hammered.  Just hammered.  Reid had been drinking for 48 hours straight and was struggling to stand up, but he was dressed as one of the Black Widows from "Every Which Way But Loose." I was 100% sober.  That's how I remember 1997. The other new link is to one of our early rehearsals before our first show.  Liz & Suzie let us practice in their basement on Hovey Ave. in Normal.  They took a noise ticket for us. 1.  Crabs 2.  El Duh Du Da Dey To El Duce 3.  Crybaby Pisspants 4.
Post a Comment
Read more

ArsoNick Scum & The Subsonics.

-
Image
The cassette on the left is a master tape from sometime in 1999 that I made.  The first three songs went on to my album, "I Like Your Panties."  An album cover that was, with the exception of the text and color, was exactly the same as Coldcock Jones & The Shithawks' "69 Greatest Hits EP."   I was experimenting a lot with tape speed and mixing in other ideas I picked up from Mothers of Invention, Flaming Lips and Butthole Surfers at the time.  I was living back on the farm at that time and getting song inspiration from around the grounds.  I was delivering pizzas at the time.  That's where the rest of my inspiration came from.  Marshall was the old guy that fixed all the pizza cars. The tracks I pulled of this patience test were... 1.  HOGTIED 2.  PUNCH HER IN THE SKIRT 3.  RICHARD GRIFFITH JONES STADIUM 4.  MARSHALL MEETS THE GIRLBOY 5.  UNKNOWN PSYCHEDELIC MESS The cassette on the right is, as you can see, The Subsoni
Post a Comment
Read more

Beward the Bubba.

-
Image
I did this one awhile ago, but let's go ahead and throw it out there again for ol' Steve Knoth. Back then, when someone asked me if I wanted to come by and play with their band they were starting, I seem to remember saying yes a lot.  These days, I have trouble finishing those conversations.  Big difference between then and now. I don't remember if it was Steve or David Hall that invited me to come by.  I arrived and discovered that not only did David not know how to play guitar, or that Steve didn't know how to play bass, but Mel, on drums, was still figuring it out, too.  So it took.  That evening spawned a lot of evenings on Steve's porch on Market St?  Or Monroe? More recordings of the Brains will show up eventually, but in this one, recorded at The Gallery (Normal, IL) 9/23/99 will happen now.  Pretty sure it was a board recording, as the acoustic guitar was really loud and the electric was real quiet.  So one night, for something to do, I put the tape ba
Post a Comment
Read more

Ham & The Psychodelics.

-
I shouldn't post 4 of these in one night.  My fingers are slurring.  Your comments should fill out the story. When I ran into the Psychodelics, it was with Suburban Sluts at Tiamat Records.  They were still in high school.  It was fun listening to this after over 15 years.  My memories were crashed into my experience.  They were really into it and a lot of fun.  Unrealized at the time, I now realize that what I liked about them is that I related to them.  A most unrefined but dead on witty charisma that made them fun to watch.  Where Ritalin went to die. Someone needs to have photos and post them here.  I want to see them. I'll supply the audio... DOWNLOAD THE PSYCHODELICS at Tiamat. The other side of this cassette, from the same show, is HAM. Ham eventually became "The Kill-o-Watts", then shortly after that, "The Amazing Kill-o-Watts."  This story is long, and eventually, as I find more tapes, these folks will return. Apparently, this show w
Post a Comment
Read more

Blue Bonnet Plague Had Nothing to Do With Texas.

-
I think that lately.  "Blue Bonnet" is a common name around Austin.  In the 309, it was just about the butter. This was one of the two bands I was in right after Suburban Sluts.  This one was most related.  I took Ben with me. Ben and I discussed making a band.  Neither of us had any great desire to put a lot of work into it, including the songwriting process.  Just spit 'em out.  I was kind of doing my "later Black Flag" thing.  We looked for awhile for a drummer and eventually found, and though we were both aware she had NO drumming experience, decided that Stephanie was perfect for the job.  A natural.  It worked out well.  Pretty funny that was her first band, though.  We had almost no structure.  It was fun. We didn't do too many shows.  Didn't last too long.  Hard to say how long, as short times expand in the future. This show was towards the end (which was towards the beginning, as well) at The Gallery.  We kept it pretty loose, using vari
Post a Comment
Read more

Audio Reclamation #1. The Suburban Sluts Demo.

-
Download the SUBURBAN SLUTS DEMO .ZIP File. This was my 2nd band.  I had met Reid one night at 3am one night in my first apartment at the ripe age of 19 or 20.  Matt Crummett, orchestrator of my first band, "DRUNK," brought him over.  I was in bed, but far too hospitable.  I didn't drink, but somehow I became an after-hours destination that night.  Reid picked up my acoustic guitar, asked if he could play it, and clunked out "I Don't Care About You" by Fear.  That's how we met. Awhile later, he came to me and said that George, at Skank Skates in Springfield (IL), asked him if he wanted to open for GG Allin's former band, The Murder Junkies.  Long story short, the band was being put together. I suggested a bass player, but he already had one, Ben.  I had met Ben once outside of Micheleos Pizza, where I was working, and by request, re-re playing my latest home recording, "I Have No Legs," in someone's car.  He was the bass player.
1 comment
Read more

This Is Beautiful to Us.

-
Through many moves and many repacks, the cassette tapes that I filled for, at the time, unknown reasons, have scattered all over my life.  Certain ones have coagulated in certain spots... certain boxes... smaller than others.  I opened one of those recently. In the last few years, I've acquired and sorta learned new software and, for the record, new "knowledge" as to what the fuck is going on.  A lot of that knowledge is moot on these recordings because most of them, the audio damage is done... however, I can make them loud and available to you, who may be no one. I'm trying to become re-interested in the whole thing.  This is what I've come up with as a start.  I might just start completely over from the beginning.
Post a Comment
Read more