I started playing in bands when I was 12. That was way too late, but it was hard to find people to play with. I was mostly a drummer back then, you could say. When Time Well Spent played at the William Annin Middle School talent show in 2000 it was time to stop dragging my feet. Time Well Spent was a ska band led by Will Lulofs (aka Will Stratton) who at that time included Laura Allen (drums), Alex Jen (bass), maybe Rob Fehn (sax), Josh Felter (trombone) and I think, Greg Schefler (trumpet). Later on they included Jeff Nazareno on guitar and Shannon Mackey on vocals.
So I hooked up with Matt Brady who just started playing guitar. We would eventually call our band Panaphobia, but for the rest of 2000 I switched to bass and we had a revolving cast of members such as Doug Chee, Bo Liu, Alec Signorino, Tommy Holden, and probably everyone else I was friends with in 8th grade. No recordings survive to my knowledge, but Doug Chee made some on his old TalkBoy, but in addition to Metallica and AC/DC covers "The Tower Air Saga" and "Smokey Bear Plays With Matches" were in their early formation. The former was the first song we wrote with lyrics by Tommy written after a Time Well Spent performance. Those lyrics returned in a one-off performance from Love Athena much later. Other names considered/used were The Electric Shoes, (Red) Convulsion, and Safety Hazard. How embarrassing!
That band dissolved by the end of 8th grade and things settled down on Xyster which featured myself, my brother Aidan, Tommy Holden, and Adrian Rodrigues Ricelli. That band was a lot more focused on humorous noise rock and a demo recorded with a computer microphone was made on a MiniDisc in the Autumn of 2001. That has probably vanished, sadly, but it had some cool stuff. Any fan of The Power of Rawk would have loved what we made. That day (possibly others too) we recorded songs like "The Tower Air Saga," "Radio Boy," "Creep Street," "Smokey Bear Plays With Matches," and "Randy." The last was written by guest vocalist Albert Martini who compliments the lyrics about a bratty kid with a Louis Armstrong voice assuring us, "I got the Jell-o!" It was one of the only songs to utilize the band's dual bass capability. Tommy was out of the band somehow and replaced with Sam Deutsch before Xyster played Charter Day in Basking Ridge, May 2002 though it was not very successful. We played "Creep Street," "Virulent," "Love Will Tear Us Apart," and I think "Blitzkreig Bop." It was intense, I think "Virulent" sounded best even as a broke sticks and played drums with my hands. At the time I thought we were re-inventing noise-rock. It mat have been true.
In the summers of 2001-2003 I attended Summer Music Programs in Bryn Mawr, PA and recorded 6 EPs with 5 different groups, all of whom played a show at the end of the week. In 2001 was was in the Mejettes which was a pretty sad group of misfits that covered "Brown-Eyed Girl" and began my tradition of singing the Ramones with "Blitzkreig Bop," albeit with incorrect lyrics. I can't recall what else and I would prefer not to... oh God, one of then was "What I Got"... The next week I joined Shooting Stars on second bass/multi-instruments. Shooting Stars had proven themselves the most interesting band the week before, and the coolest kids int eh program with the most diverse and open taste in music and best attitude. Before me they had written some cool dubby originals and covered A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It?" We did an original called "Music," another jammy one which's title I cannot recall, "Now I Wanna Snip Some Glue," and something else. The Ramones cover was altered to keep it parent-approved, though it still got me in trouble as my own mother found a tube of Liquid Nails I was using to fix an old guitar buried in my room. It was embarrassing, though the music was still cool.
The next year Aidan joined me and the first week we met Jeff Ziga who was our drummer and goth chick who played guitar. We called ourselves the Popes and recorded the EP Shabazz!. We played "Creep Street" and "Virulent" which had evolved to have a few more changes. Even the super-hip Ziga was unsure of our minimalistic krautrock and Spacemen 3- derived sound, but we did it. Additionally we covered more Joy Division with "Transmission" and something by the Ramones, I think "Beat on the Brat." The next week the brothers McEneaney were thrown into another misfit band. Satisfied with our work the week before we took it easier, but it was pretty difficult. The band's de facto leader was a blue-haired Hot Topic victim from Chicago named Josh. He dubbed us "Chronic Insurgence" which he thought was really clever and put this symbol on the album cover that was a total rip-off of the Quake logo, though he denied it to no end. He played guitar and vocals. Even worse was a rich redneck from North Carolina named Chuck. I hit my breaking point with him and threatened him. The administration had to speak with me, but they sympathized. Everyone did. I hope he was murdered. Both of them actually. The bassist (I played guitar all week) was the best non- McEneaney int eh band, but still your typical bass nerd. He loved to slap and was really excited about the release of By The Way, wanting to cover the title track. Obviously, he had a chin beard. He was credited on the EP as "Qev." The band performed a so-bad-it's-good original by Josh - the title escapes me, "Just Like Honey" (which I sang, of course), a jam and a cover of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" which had a noise breakdown that actually was the band's greatest achievement. "Just Like Honey" was fun too and is my mom's favorite recording, but the BC Rich just doesn't jive with it. When we played it Aidan, of course, cranked his distortion all the way up, once to be corrected by Josh who felt the need to remind him it was "a soft song, no distortion." What an asshole.
These four EPs still exist, unfortunately the first two are in LA. I'll get them back and post them. The second two I could get at my mom's place some time soon probably/hopefully. As for 2003, that was already documented in my article on The Shears.
In Fall 2002, Adrian left and Xyster folded, making way for Hurtu, which has also been documented. What I failed to mention, possibly intentionally was the Guilty Parties. This was a punk band formed by André Cernasov prior to joining Pukey and the Vomets and bassist Sean Dlugos. I played drums, Sam was the singer. We had some original songs which sadly I can only remember one being a reggae jam with a lot of cursing. We also did "California Über Alles." The main original we did though was not bad and pretty funny, though. We had a good time. Recordings probably existed, but I know nothing of them.
After that there was The Shears, Mr. Disco, and Love Athena. In Spring 2004, Sam and I were in pop-metal supergroup Batwolf, a band whose legend is too lengthy and will one day get their own article - hopefully right before a reunion. I will say a little though, such as that the band included myself, Sam, Will Lulofs, Jeff Nazareno, and Albert Martini, all of whom have been mentioned in this article already. The five of us assumed the names of five demigod brothers raised by Ganfalf on planet Lovetron named Valhalla O'Shea, Ogrim Doomhammer, Sir Elven Hellspawn, River Styx Milton, and Sabertooth Siren. We had three songs - "Meat Factory Lovin'," "The Fall of The Wizard," the gorgeous "Love Commander," and an ELO-inspired instrumental. Instrumental recordings were made of the songs for Albert to practice vocals and have since disappeared. There were plans to record a record entitled Taste the Rock which would also include a title track, but after two performances that was the end of the band. The first was at Charter Day and saw the group chauffeured by Mike Raynes in his 1990 Chrysler LeBaron nicknamed "Ron" in full costume. We played all three fully-formed songs and welcomed Liam Carroll in character as Dr. Alphonzo Vengeance feeding microwaved (and mostly partially-frozen) taquitos to Sam. He threw a few into the audience, hitting Eric "Big Montana Schneider" on the head with one, prompting a humorous "are you serious!?" caught on a lost video taken by Tommy Holden. A small, mostly acoustic show was organized in Society Hill by Jeff's place later, but was cut short by power issues and awful neighbors. It was gorgeous as we set up our instruments and fans by the pond that late spring evening. Later, Liam made a documentary about the group further developing the band's mythology.
 |
| Batwolf illustrated: Will, C-Mac, Albert, Jeff, Sam, and Liam |
That Autumn, following the breakup of Love Athena I joined two other bands, I played bass in neither group. I served on guitar in Down/B with Jason Paskow (also of Jesus Cookie), Tom Baumgarten, and Taylor Green. We had some cool sounds and covered "Hey Ya," but I was too busy to keep up and I don't think much happened afterwards. The other was The Hispanics with Tim King (aka Raphael Agudelo), Alex Talbot, and Adrian Rodriguez Ricelli. I played drums and we had a cool dissonant, yet danceable post-punk sound in the mold of early Liars, The Ex, and of course, This Heat. I remember a song called "She Missed The Stop Sign" being one of our best. We played a party at Paul Niziolek's on December 10, 2004. Birthday boy Aidan guest starred with us on sax when we played "Sex Bomb" - Flipper, not Tom Jones. No recordings made to my knowledge.
As high school ended Will, Jeff, and I went ahead and finally formed the ultimate Basking Ridge supergroup The Tangles. We had three songs and I think recorded at least instrumental racks to all which have all been lost. A full song "Nightmare Town" was put on a Myspace which has somehow vanished. It's a shame, it's perfect indie rock, circa 2005. I tried to put a new version of the Tangles together the next summer with Sheldon Kartush on bass and myself on guitar. We played "Love Commander" and a few other songs, but nothing else came of it. That was about it until The Comfy Men, the Ways, Super River, and my new band featuring Jeff Nazareno and Andrea Kannes which has yet to be named.
Oh, also there was The Funkateers who was more of a performance art piece. Sam played guitar, Ian David Played bass, I think Ryan Clark played drums while I played a silent home-made keytar and Alex Dinsmore and Brian Von Glahn were backup singers/dancers. I think... Either way, that was the same day I lost my virginity and Ridge high had it's 2003 Battle of the Bands featuring excellent performances from Tommy Wanish and Jeff Nazareno. The latter, originally intended to include Will (who was sick), featured not only a cover of "Bizarre Love Triangle," but also a robot battle of Albert Martini as Killtron and Tim King as "Ghetto" Killtron.
Oh, and also I assisted Tim with some emo demos he was making with Lindsey Morelli in 2002.
That's just about everything. More about my friends and my future later.
No comments:
Post a Comment