Messages

856

Pop Punk / Re: Pop punk militia

« on: May 04, 2007, 09:35:39 AM »

I'm still pissed that I missed the Rip Offs in Green Bay. I was forced to attend a wedding that night for a friend of my ex wife. I remember being pissed off at the wedding and refused to do any of the stupid wedding shit. Just got super shitfaced and tried to make it be known that I was not happy about being there. Fuck!

I like the Rip Offs LP, but I still think the Infections LP was better. I'm not a Lowery nerd, but I'm a Jon Von nerd kinda. I love the early MTX stuff. They were so great at Kutska's Hall when they toured for the Big Black Bugs EP. That still doesn't make up for missing the Rip Offs.

857

Pop Punk / Re: Weird 90s Pop-Punk Resurgence?

« on: May 04, 2007, 09:32:09 AM »

Weird, I saw King Friday a couple times.... Didn't they turn into that band Ben Grimm later on?

I also remember getting that Wongs "Jerkin' To The Trashwoman" single and noticing the Appleton (I lived there at the time) address on the sleeve and wondering who Jason Rerun was!

I loved Fun Lovin', had lots of fun hangin' out there when I was 15.  Teenage Rejects played our first show there, which was all Teenage Head covers.

Yeah, King Friday turned into Ben Grimm later on. They were around as King Friday for a good year or so after I left. Then Pete the singer moved to bass...or guitar, I forget. Only saw them once.

I had a hard time getting anybody to buy that Wongs EP when it first came out. I think Norb and maybe one other person were the only people excited to get it...and I think both of them heard about it from a long distance mutual friend we had. I think the Exclusive Company still owes me for that consignment. ha ha

858

Music Shit / Re: Screamin' Mee-Mees

« on: May 04, 2007, 09:21:40 AM »

The thing that I was always so amazed about their recordings was...nothing is technically multi-tracked...or recorded on a multi-track recorder at least. Any overdubs are done by recording the main song on reel to reel, then dubbing it onto a cassette in one channel (L or R, not track, as in a two track reel to reel) as they played or sung along into the opposite channel. The truly amazing thing is the fidelity that was achieved with this. Bruce almost always is recording on a tape or reel that had been used several times before. Any new tape stock he has is old voice quality surplus shit from the 70's that he dug out of the garbage. The technique used for micing is...swing the Radio Shack dictation quality mic into the middle of the room and hit record. The only effect ever used (besides the manipulation Mike Rep and others did on the one LP) is a home stereo Panasonic reverb unit. Either way, by the time he "mixes" it back to open reel, it's had several dubs to add tape hiss, etc. I've tried shit like that before owning a four track and never got near the results they did.

I did have the pleasure of seeing his technique first hand while recording a few songs with Bruce. Ann and I had a band with him for about oh....two "practices" called Star 69. Only one song survived, as his tape deck died while we recorded...but we never noticed. It sounds OK, but nowhere near the magic of the Mee-Mees sound.

859

Music Shit / Re: Screamin' Mee-Mees

« on: May 04, 2007, 09:11:33 AM »

I have 7-8 of their records, even fucked up about 15 years ago and bought an expensive NZ comp because it had a band with the same name and I didn't know any better.

It's funny, 'cuz I borrwed a comp from Bruce with a Mee-Mees song. I think it was "Auckland Tonight" which is a pretty good punk/pop song. (NOT pop-punk) I picked that up from Chuck Warner's old record catalogs. The difference between punk/pop and pop/punk.

860

Pop Punk / Re: Weird 90s Pop-Punk Resurgence?

« on: May 03, 2007, 01:36:19 PM »

Tammy was the original drummer. She's on the demo and played the first handful of shows. Then I replaced her. We played Fun Luvin', Roach House a few times, Milwaukee a couple times (Oakland House and somewhere else) and maybe at the VFW in Manitowoc...or that fell through. I can't remember. Lyn was my long time friend from Junior high through today. I got her and her sister into punk...which led to us talking their parents into letting us do shows at their farm. I was also in the original line up of Hercules Fetal Jack with Lyn and Cameron. Last band I was in was Ivan and the Terribles. That was a year or so, leading up til' when I moved to St. Louis.

I hung out at the Roach House some, too. I video taped a few shows there...Pist, Brutally Familiar, Gojira, AFI and Swingin' Utters when their shows in Neenah fell through. That was a pretty cool basement.

861

Music Shit / Screamin' Mee-Mees

« on: May 03, 2007, 12:05:14 PM »

I'm sure most of you are familiar with St. Louis anti-heroes The Screamin' Mee-Mees....at least "Hot Sody" from Killed By Death, if not the collections on Gulcher. I put the first two of those together with Bruce Cole for Gulcher, and the latest thing we assembled is a "new" unreleased album called "Plastic Hong Kong Doorbell Finger". New as in, it's been recorded over the past several years, but just finsihed and "mastered" by me in the last year. There's no label to release it as of yet, and I don't have the money personally. If any label folks out there wanna even consider it for release, email off the board at jasonrerun'at'hotmail.com I can send some MP3s from it or a CDR of the whole thing. The first five tracks sound like they coulda been outtakes from '77-78 era Mee-Mees, and the balance of the album is more expiremental...more along the lines of their 2nd full length. The Bag o' Hammers one.

862

Pop Punk / Re: Weird 90s Pop-Punk Resurgence?

« on: May 03, 2007, 11:52:36 AM »

I think most everyone hated King Friday. Yeah, played with the Queers....um, I don't know if that was the Kutska's show or one of the times at the VFW Hall in Sheboygan. Yeah, "Drew" was fuckin' terrible. Actually, I was in King Friday for about half the time they were around. I quit as the bass player and they replaced me with some kid with fresh dreadlocks and a Doughboys fixation. That line up opened for the Queers, too...I think. SO, there's a 50-50 chance you saw me. Either way, it sucked!

I played at Fun Luvin' Productions when I was in Gojira, as the drummer....twice maybe. I don't know if I played there in King Friday. That place was a total front for a million different illegal scams. When that band Siren from CA played there, the owner tried to pay them in "hot" Nike T-shirts. ha ha He was always trying to fence some goods or pawn 'em off. Last time I saw that guy, he had a junk store in Appleton. He had records, furniture, etc, but it was all over priced and obviously from shit he found in the trash. That was 5-6 years ago at least. Either way, that club/space was fucked. I tried to book a couple bands there and he would always pull some shit...like take 80% of the door money or something. It was much better when I did shows at Lyn's Farm outside of Kaukauna..that was a few years before Fun Luvin' was around, tho'.

863

Pop Punk / Re: Pop punk militia

« on: May 03, 2007, 11:42:18 AM »

I always thought Sacto and surrounding areas had some bottomless well of goofball, but great bands. I got turned onto those bands from Very Small/Too Many comps, etc. I even put out a crappy comp tape around '92 or so that was called Sunday Afternoon Weenie Roast. It was half Wisconsin bands and half California bands. Almost all the CA bands were from Sacto (I just remember all the bans I wrote to always called it Sacto and never by its full name). The WI side ended up sucking pretty badly, but the CA side was great. David Hayes even gave it a favorable review in MRR at the time. Of course, that was a given, considering he had released songs/records by most of the bands.

I always wanted to see those bands and never had a chance. Closest thing is a video of Nar playing to a crowd of 15-20 people at the Fireside in Chicago that I have.

The comps/demos that Scott whatshisname put out were great. Yahtzee Punks Fuck Off was one...um, I have others at home. I have a demo by The Nerds I think. Was he one of the Bananas?

864

Music Shit / Re: Crazy recent eBays

« on: May 03, 2007, 07:37:37 AM »

This EP has been a thorn in my side for years. In about 1987 or 1988, Tim Yo published a lsit of records he was looking for in MRR. The Dow Jones EP was listed, and I knew a sotre in the area had a copy...tho' didn't know what it was at the time. I bought it for a buck and never even played it. The next day I mailed it for free to Tim Yo. My pay off? I got a hand written postcard from him thanking me...and asking if I also had the split LP with the Gizmos. To me, the postcard was the coolest thing in the world at the time. Then years later I heard the record and almost shit myself.

A second thorn...I was in Las Vegas about six years ago and went to some dick head's record store. I forget the name, but nothing was priced and the owner warner right off that he's "really pricey". Just to escape the heat for a little while, I figured I'd still look. Only things I came up with were that old Dangerhouse band boot Me Want Breakfast, the Dow Jones EP, a and David Peel LP that was my decoy to get the others cheap. The guy said $40 each and I laughed in his face. The Dow Jones EP had two newspaper clippings with it....I don't remember what they were exactly...maybe newsprint press things...didn't look too close. Either way, from about a week after I got home til' this day, I'm kicking myself for not spitting up $40 for a nice copy of that. Grrrr....

865

Pop Punk / Re: Pop punk militia

« on: May 03, 2007, 07:29:41 AM »

Did the Pop-Punk Bored kick you guys off or something?

Yes, because I'm not into teenage girls, backwards baseball caps and baggy shorts. Tho' I envy those who are. I thought I'd just lurk here and read about people jerking off to Captain Beefheart reissues for awhile.

866

Pop Punk / Re: Pop punk militia

« on: May 03, 2007, 07:26:35 AM »

Yeah, they were a Christian band. And really bad. I think I mentioned this not too long ago, but I can still listen to some Riverdales (oddly, didn't dig 'em that much back in the day) and the first Hi Fives record, which barely counts. Not much else. Some of the Vindictives songs were good, but I listed to the singles collection not too long ago and didn't think it aged very well.

I wouldn't include the Hi-Fives as pop-punk really. They were pretty fun, but the bands a couple of those guys were in before that (I think they shared members) Dukes of Burl and Brent's TV were way better.

867

Pop Punk / Re: Weird 90s Pop-Punk Resurgence?

« on: May 03, 2007, 07:21:33 AM »

I played in a pretty awful pop-punk band myself called King Friday and even released a split 7" of that band and G-Whiz from Arizona....who were one of the worst of the worst pop "punk"/whining about girls lyrics bands.

This just made my day. I never got to see them, but these guys were the butt of many jokes made by my older phx friends. apparently, one of the guys in the band, 'special ed', moved down to florida and opened a record store.

That Ed guy was so lame that...on their side of the split 7" cover, he put a picture of some teenage girl he had a crush on. He was apparantly stalking her basically, 'cuz their side of the record had an answering machine message form the girl telling him to leave her alone, etc. I think he truly thought that putting her on their record cover would change her mind!

The singer of King Friday also told me a story Ed told him about when G-Whiz recorded their LP for Tim/Kerr Records. Our singer mentioned "some famous guy" produced their album (he had no idea who Greg Sage was or the awesomeness of Greg Sage/Wipers) and that this guy kept dropping hints about their songs having way too many lyrics about chasing girls, etc. They said they found out Greg Sage was gay and then thought he was saying the "too many girl lyrics" line becuase of it. Like he had some agenda to change those fuckin' weenies into homosexuals or something. In reality, I'm sure he was politely telling them to tone down the lameness of their lyrics.

868

Pop Punk / Re: Weird 90s Pop-Punk Resurgence?

« on: May 03, 2007, 07:02:19 AM »

Hi Todd!

Actually, I think you'd have to pay someone to take that King Friday record off your hands. Bleck! I'm embarassed not only by my fuckin' awful haircut on that cover, but the fact that I'm wearing a Queers shirt. I'm a firm believer that a band photo should never show members wearing T-shirts of bands they are obviously trying to sound like. When Joey Vindictive and his wife had the Dummy Room in Chicago, I put copies of that and the 1st Boris 7" on consignment. They gladly took five of the King Friday 7"s (had heard of G-Whiz), but they didn't know who Boris was and didn't really want any. I think they took three copies after some pleading. I never collected on those. Reckless took five King Fridays and I bought 2 or 3 copies back for 25 or 50 cents each in a clearance bin about 4 years later.

Tom always did do a good job of mixing the shows for the most part. Even when the whole bill sucked, you knew he was raising cash to bring in a better show in a few weeks....so there was something to look forward to. Even a bad show was an excuse to drive to the Green Bay Exclusive Company and Imports Plus (showing my age) and drink beer in the parking lot outside the show. At least Tom never booked any of the horrible emo bands. That shit was huge in Madison, but luckily never infiltrated North-Eastern WI.

869

Pop Punk / Re: Pop punk militia

« on: May 03, 2007, 06:47:18 AM »

Was it the Huntingtons that were actually a Christian band as well? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else, but there was an awful Ramones(Being polite)/late Queers clone band that had a few records out and were Christian...tho' didn't have overtly religious lyrics.

870

Pop Punk / Re: Weird 90s Pop-Punk Resurgence?

« on: May 03, 2007, 06:43:24 AM »

Replying to an old thread, 'cuz it popped up again...

Pop-punk is huge in St. Louis....but it's like someone mentioned before....more akin to the HC kid scene. Stinky, drunken, rowdy kids....rather than what I remember of the early 90's. That was all clean cut, mostly rich kids in skateboard brand hoodies, baggie shorts and baseball caps. They'd drive to shows in their mom's Honda Accord blasting Squirtgun or some other awful shit recorded at Sonic Iguana Studios. Now days, the pop-punk bands even play some of the HC shows. That stuff was always really seperated before. I've also noticed that the local bands I've seen steal more from Dillinger 4 than early Lookout bands or whatever. It's much more Les Paul n' Marshall stack rather than cheap strat copy and Peavey Bandit.

I grew up in the Appleton/Green Bay, WI area. I was into some pop-punk at the time...then again, I always thought Crimpshrine and all those early Lookout EPs...even Isocracy....as pop-punk. I hated 99% of the sappy, polished sound of Squirtgun/Mutant Pop Records,etc crowd. To me, it always appeared to be a bunch doofuses that couldn't get girls so they'd whine about it....and somehow thinking they'd get girls that way.

I played in a pretty awful pop-punk band myself called King Friday and even released a split 7" of that band and G-Whiz from Arizona....who were one of the worst of the worst pop "punk"/whining about girls lyrics bands. I also released the 1st Boris The Sprinkler 7"...tho' if I hadn't somebody else would have, so don't blame bad memories on me. I saw Boris dozens of times, and they weren't almost always pretty fun too watch. I still like the first couple Vindictives 7"s, even if they didn't age all that well. So, I'm in no way innocent to this shit either.

I am glad that I hung onto a lot of the crap I bought back then. Some of that stuff goes for big bucks on Eblah. Two copies of Green Day's Sweet Children EP for $150+ each makes the memories of seeing Scooby Don't in Sheboygan, WI much less painful.