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San Francisco…Confess.

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This is the second part of my never ending blog I decided to write in memory of the amazing trip my wife Annie and I took with our good friend Morgan.  If you missed the first part about us in Austin, click HERE.

Again I’m going make this more of a journal / diary post just to help me remember what the hell happened…after all, a lot went on.

Sat. Oct. 25th, 2008

Saying goodbye to Austin was not easy.  Even though we were running late Aaron and Ashley managed to get us to the airport in time to catch out flight.  We said our bittersweet goodbyes and caught the plane just in the nick of time.  It was nice to say goodbye to Morgan knowing we would be seeing her in just a few hours in another city.  I wish the same went for Aaron and Ashley as they were two cool people who I would have loved to hang with for many more days.  Unfortunately we already had an agenda to adhere to.

Morgan took a different flight than we did and arrived an hour earlier to San Francisco.  Our plane arrived with no problems in San Francisco and we took a shuttle to our hotel.  I can’t say the driver was the greatest but she got us to the Cova Hotel unscathed.

The area we stayed in may have not been the nicest but the Cova Hotel itself was awesome.  Our room was almost spotless and the bathroom was giant.  One minor problem though…no air conditioning.  Morgan informed me that a lot of places in San Francisco do not have air conditioning as the area is relatively cool year round.  It made sense but at the same time our room was a tad on the warm side and I really could have gone for some AC.  Luckily there were sliding doors we could open to cool down the room.

Our balcony overlooked the city and I took advantage of the scenery by taking as many pictures as possible.  I messed with the shutter speed and other options on my SLR and really pulled off some neat shots that evening.  After killing some time and grabbing some pizza around the corner Morgan’s friend Lincoln met up with us at the hotel.  Lincoln would be our tour guide for the duration of the visit.

Saturday night was a busy night in San Francisco.  As we walked around the neighborhood Lincoln gave us little bits of history as we walked past prostitutes, the homeless, and odd beings.  Lincoln was very knowledgeable about the surroundings and walked us through the Castro District, a predominantly gay area well known in San Francisco.  We took a pit stop at an acquaintance’s who was having one crazy party at his apartment but chose to take off mainly because we really did not know anyone, the Led Zeppelin video was very loud, and I was sweating way too much and needed some cool fresh air.

Lincoln told us about a lesbian party going on at a bar down the street and asked if that was something we would be interested in.  I was ok with it and so was Annie and Morgan so we paid the cover charge at this interesting club and Morgan bought us all a round…of waters.  Trust me, after sweating out gallons earlier, this was the best tasting water ever.

People watching is fun and the club we were at really kept us busy.  There were all sorts of interesting people there.  Guys, gals, guys dressed like gals, goths, good looking lesbians, and of course folk whacked out on illegal substances.  These people were being themselves and it was nice to see all of them having a good time while listening to goth trance club music.  I on the other hand really have no love for the techno goth music and really wanted to hear something more tolerable.  Luckily it was getting late and we were all tired so we opted to go back to the hotel and call it a night.

Right before we arrived to the hotel we passed a group of adolescent locals who clearly knew how to talk to women by saying all the right things like “hey beautiful”, “mmhmm”, and “daymummmm”.  Rightfully so, the women we were hang out with were beyond beautiful…  Well one of them put forth his best pick up line:  “You know you want to come home with me…confess.”  We all laughed.

Sun. Oct. 26th, 2008

In the morning we took advantage of the free continental breakfast on the top floor of the hotel.  The breakfast may have consisted of coffee, juice, bread, bagels, hard boiled eggs, cereal, and soup in a cup, but it was free.  Free is good.  The top floor of the hotel also hosted an outdoor balcony that was the perfect area to check out some of the city.

While waiting for one more to add to our party, Lincoln discussed areas we could visit.  There was a lot to do and only a couple of days for us to see everything so we picked some areas we really wanted to see and decided to see where it would take us from there.  Once Morgan’s friend Lizzy arrived we all left for a tour of the wharf, piers, and bay.  By the time we arrived it was still a tad foggy over the bay buy we could see the tip of the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Alcatraz.  Being it was a Sunday the area was slowing filling up with tourists like ourselves as well as regulars.  The sky was clear and the sun provided just enough heat to make for a great first full day.

After walking around checking out various shops and such we made way to Pier 39 to check out the sea lions.  That was without a doubt Annie’s highlight of the day.  People told me about the sea lions before hand but seeing them in person was just a sight needed to be viewed in a first person perspective.  It was like visiting Sea World but minus the barriers and trainers in their tight tight outfits bribing them to do tricks.  It was a semi natural habitat and the only reason I say semi is because hundreds of sea lions were just laying all over man made piers.

Adding one more to the group was another pal of Morgan’s.  Dan met up with us just as we said goodbye to the sea lions and ventured to an arcade that had giant claw machines.  A little known fact about me…I love claw machines and I pride myself on having a pretty good run on winning little stuffed animals for people.  I did not wish to waste $3.00 a try with these giant claw machines though, I just was not feeling it plus the prizes were a bit on the weak side.

We left the seemingly gentle giants of the bay and headed to the famous Fisherman’s Wharf area.  With Halloween coming just around the corner tons of children with their families were trick or treating at all of the local shops.  It was a special day so it was even more crowded than normal.  I did not let the masses of people bother me at all.  I just slowly surfed through the clueless masses and hit up the shops I wanted to check out.

One shop I would like to point out not only humored me by the name of the business but also just cracked me up from the number of children that entered the small quaint store to get their Halloween candy.  The store was called “We Be Knives” and that is all they sold…knives.  Lots of knifes.  After looking at some automatic knifes (can you say switchblade?), I talked myself out of spending the money…for now at least.

In the midst of all the dressed up monsters and spidermans we decided to grab a bit to eat at a local outdoor diner.  I can not even tell you how disappointed I was with their selection.  I would have been better off at a Red Lobster and would have easily saved about $30 in doing so.  I had a plate of fried seafood that barely satisfied me and poor Morgan hardly touched her flash fried grilled cheese.  One thing that was good though was the lemonade.  Next time we go there I am going to another section of the wharf for some real San Francisco cuisine.

Dan drove to the wharf so we took advantage of his vehicle and all six of us packed into it to head to another section of San Francisco I wanted to see; Chinatown.  Chinatown is just like every other Chinese district in every major city I have visited.  We did your typical tourist shuffle and looked in shops and tooled around for a bit.  We headed out to the edge of Chinatown for a brief moment to check out a bookstore called City Lights that was next to amazing as well as roamed the adult area of the city.  The adult area was full of strip clubs and peep shows for all to enjoy.  We just checked a few out on the outside and continued on.

As we walked the street Lincoln provided some more info about the surrounding area.  I really wish I could remember half of the stuff he told us.  He spoke about novelists and the areas they hung around at and pointed out all of the bars they were thrown out of.  I most appreciated the recently restored alley named after Jack Kerouac.

While we were headed back to the car some of the group needed a potty break so we all went into a small quaint tea house to try and use their facilities.  I am so happy everyone’s bladders were full, otherwise we would have missed out on an important part of our trip.

Instead of an in and out bathroom break as I expected, we all took a seat at the tea house and were treated with various samples of hot tea.  Our hostess talked about all of the teas before brewing small batches for all of us.  Some were high in caffeine while others helped with anxiety.  All of the teas were loose leaf.  Some had blueberries in it and others had full rose buds.  It was really one of the most unexpecting yet interesting things we did that day.  It was funny too because I saw that some of the loose leaf tea was selling for $120 a pound and I told myself no way were we going to buy any.  Upon leaving I picked up a quarter pound of the blueberry tea and also a tea brewing set.  I was sold.  We were also permitted to use their restrooms too.

Bags in hand we said goodbye to all of the nice folk at the tea house and returned to Dan’s vehicle who was kind enough to take us all back to the hotel so we could all rest up.  While Annie, Morgan, and Lincoln napped, Dan, Lizzy, and I watched Scary Movie 4.  Wow, what a piece of crap.  ha.

For dinner we walked a couple of miles down the block, up some hills, and to the right arriving at an amazing Italian restaurant where we ate like kings and queens and had a bill to prove it.  After dessert and a nice warm latte we headed back to the hotel.  Dan needed to get back home as he was not as lucky as us and had to work in the morning, but we too had to get some rest as there was another full day for us coming up.  We all passed out before 11:00pm.

Mon. Oct. 27th, 2008

For the first time in a long time I slept a sound 8 hours and so did everyone else in the hotel room.  Annie, Lizzy, and I headed to the 8th floor to grab some free grub once again.  Morgan met us up there wondering what the heck we were doing.  I guess the three of us got engaged in some good conversation and lost track to time.  Lizzy was on a time schedule as she needed to get going just after noon so we all got ready and headed out for another day long adventure.

Here is the part of the entire trip I will never forget.  There is always one thing you witness while away from home that sticks to your memory.  This will stick with me forever…

As we left the hotel and took a left on Ellis St. I saw something so rare, so random, I think I went into a little state of shock.  I saw a hooker taking a shower on the sidewalk.  You heard me correctly.  To many it looked like a store owner was cleaning off the sidewalk with the hose and the hose accidentally was shot on to the hooker, but the group of us knew it was a hooker shower.  It was awesome.

Moving on we took a bus to Haight Street, a strip of shops that spanned 18 blocks.  We first explored the upper area of Haight first where I was most excited to visit the Kid Robot store and the Giant Robot store.  Both stores cater to Asian/American pop culture.  To me they are like fancy stores for geeks like myself.  I almost spent a lot of money at Kid Robot but controlled myself and only dropped about $50 on some vinyl toys.  Yes toys, I am still a kid at heart you know…  I was even better at Giant Robot and just perused the merchandise and art gallary without spending a dime.  I am regretting that decision now but there is always next time!

Lunch time is always a good time and we selected a Thai restaurant that was 1000 times better than the place we ate lunch the day before.  We met up with Lilly, a mutual friend through a website you will never hear me mention, at the shop on the corner of Haight and Cole.  While meeting Lilly we had to say goodbye to Lizzy as she needed to head out for a meeting the next day.  While we said our goodbyes and hellos I scarfed down a tofu delicious meal.  The food was satisfying but not as awesome as the Thai iced tea (a blend of black tea and coconut milk).  If there is ever an iced tea you should try, Thai tea is where it is at!

After paying our tab we continued checking out the shops along the strip.  While doing so I made sure I explored every alley of the strip looking for graffiti and other random wall art.  The coolest alley of graffiti was found on the wall of the ever famous Amoeba record store.

I talked about Waterloo in my last post and enjoyed it but Amoeba put them to shame.  The store was built in an old bowling alley and was wall to wall music.  I lost myself in the punk LP section for a while.  I can’t say the girls were too thrilled but I know Lincoln and I were.  I did not buy anything either at this shop but could have easily gone crazy buying everything in site.

Lilly only was able to hang for an hour or so and had to get going.  After we said farewell we hiked down to the lower Haight to check out the area.  It was not nearly as exciting but still was fun to check out.

Our tour guide Lincoln needed to get back home as he had an early class in the morning so we parted ways with him.  I really appreciated him taking the time to show us around in a city he has been living in for a while now.  He really helped make the trip more enjoyable not only by showing us around but also humoring us through out the couple of days.  I have the feeling it will not be the last time I hear from him.

Growing tired and down to three we took a taxi to the hotel to rest up.  There was so much more that I wanted to do but I knew time was not on our side so we chose to just take it easy and enjoy our time together.  Morgan found an awesome vegetarian restaurant that was just down the street we were staying from.  I forget the name of the place but it was awesome.  We ordered a lot of grub and had a great time stuffing our faces.

After dinner we stopped at a donut shop to grab some sweets for the morning and made way back to the hotel.  We spent the rest of the night just hanging out and talking about the crazy week we all took part in.    That night was a bummer of an evening because I knew the next day Annie and I would be flying back to our regular life, but at the same time the perfect way to end our trip.  I consider myself lucky to have a great wife who loves to travel with me and also privileged to have a friend like Morgan.

Tue. Oct. 28th, 2008

Saying goodbye to San Francisco would have been easy for us except for the fact we had to part from Morgan.  We always have such a good time hanging out with her.  The trip we took really would have been nothing without her being there with us.  Morgan, you rock and we love you.

Almost dying three times by our crazy shuttle driver we arrived to the SFO airport.  I seriously was freaked out during the ride from our hotel to the airport as the driver was going 80mph and there were no seatbelts.  He weaved in and out of traffic and was just on the verge of being insane.  I had nothing nice to say to him as he dropped us off except for “psycho” and we went in the airport as he yelled in his native tounge…

This is the part of the story where I tell you we caught our flight and made it home with no problems at all.  Wrong.  Let’s just say thanks to miscommunication and mechanical problems on our airplane, our trip was extended by one day.

So that’s it.  A huger mess of rambling for you all to enjoy…maybe?  Ha.  It was a good trip for sure and I can not wait for our next one.  Thanks for reading!

Just in case you are curious…more photos:

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Our Return To Austin, Texas…

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So I am sure all 3 or 4 readers of this site might have been wondering where I have been.  To all of you readers I owe you an explanation of where I have been.  The following is a blog about the adventure my wife and I took last week with friends.  I was not planning on writing anything about it so soon as I was supposed to be working but thanks to a 4.5 hour flight I am pretty sure I caught something from someone as I am not feeling so lovely today and chose to rest up rather than go back to the grind.

This blog has very little to do about music but I assure you there may be something worth reading below…plus pictures.  I took a lot of pictures. Many can be found on my MySpace profile…but I will share a couple here.

I have also decided to split this up into two parts.  I can only write so much…

In a nutshell my wife Annie and I went to visit our great friend in beautiful Austin to assist with an event and then traveled to San Francisco for a vacation of sorts.

Here we go…  I’m going make this more of a journal / diary post just to help me remember what the hell happened…

Wed. Oct. 22nd, 2008

After working a half shift at the day job I drove home, picked up the wife, took the dogs to my folks, and headed to the airport.  I was already stressing out a little bit as I found out at work that John McCain and Sarah Palin were throwing a rally at the high school of the town that my folks live in.  I was more freaking out at the fact that their flight was leaving at the same time that ours was at the Akron/Canton Airport and that meant a possible delay.  I hate delays.

Luckily we arrived to the airport well in advance and waited for our flight.  The McCain plane and the Palin plane (did they really need 2 planes???) left without any delay and we were soon on our way to our first destination for a few days, Austin, TX.

Our dear friend Morgan picked us up from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport around 12am and took us to the city to find a 24/7 deli as we were starving.  After eating a tasty grilled cheese and some fried pickles we headed back to Morgan’s house where 13 dogs were waiting to meet us.  Yes, 13 dogs.

We arrived to her awesome house and were greeted by just about all of them.  Some were hers, some were her mother’s who lives next door, and some were being fostered until a good owner could be found.  I was in puppy overload and still have no idea what all of their names were.  All I know is that Frankie looked like Paris Hilton so I changed his name to Paris Hilton Dog.

Morgan then gave us a present.  Vegan cupcakes.  Yum.  Best cupcakes ever.  She got them from a bakery that recently shut down but still took some orders.  German chocolate vegan cupcakes = greatest idea ever.

We were all tired so we called it a night.

Thu. Oct. 23rd, 2008

Bella the chip stealer

I had a hard time sleeping so I woke up early and waiting for the girls to wake.  While doing so I hung out with Paris Hilton Dog and Elvis.  I finally was greeted by the lovely Annie and Morgan.  Morgan had a whole day of events planned out for us.  Even though about a year ago Annie and I invaded Austin we did not do too much as we were with a ton of folk.  Morgan wanted to make sure this time we got to see more and check out the cool spots of the city.  First things first though….breakfast tacos.

Oh yeah, we took Bella the teacup chihuahua out for the day too.  Can you say chick magnet?  I need me a teacup chihuahua…  Bella was awesome.  She melted in your hands and just loved to be carried.

Throughout the day we visited Morgan’s shop, an adult boutique store, checked out many vintage stores, and even hit up a section of town with various toy stores, candy shops, and consignment shops.  We met up with two of Morgan’s friends, Miles & Natalie, hit up some more shops, and then decided to grab a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant.  Turns out the restaurant we ate at was in the movie Death Proof.  Awesome.

The Mexican food in Austin tastes so much better and it should as Mexico is just a tad South, but I am sure you knew that.  I got these giant nachos, three to be specific.  They were full of goodness and I devoured them.

Natalie & Annie

Morgan needed to get back to her store for a moment so we all headed back and hung out there for a minute.  We parted ways with her friends as one needed to get ready for her evening and the other needed to get back to his city.

Morgan then stated she had a surprise for us, “bro tattoos” for myself, Annie, and Morgan.  Annie was in on it of course…I did not mind though.  We all headed across town to Triple Crown Tattoos and got our “bro tattoos”.  This is the second time the three of us have done something like this as earlier this year we all got Ol’ Dirty Bastard cupcakes tattooed in us while in the Bronx.  I am not revealing this time what we got.  I am sure the girls would be quick to show them off, they are after all hilarious.  I choose to keep the shock value and will show as many individuals as I can just to see their reaction.  Just ask, I have no shame!!!

A little sore, and a lot tired, the three of us headed back to the doggie kingdom for a nap.  We had plans at 11:00 that evening in downtown Austin and really needed to be awake for it.

Great tattoo shop

I am pro-Austin if you can not tell.  I fell in love with the city the first time we visited it.  Not only is the music scene incredible there, but the folk there are friendly, the weather is nice, and there is so much to do as a visitor or resident.

One day I hope to be a resident there.  One of the millions of reasons why I wish Austin was my hometown was the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.  If you like movies and more this place is for you.  We came there for Terror Thursdays and waited in line for a free viewing of Slumber Party Massacre.

Normally I hate theaters because it is cramped when sold out and just not comfortable in general but I like the Drafthouse.  Each row has a long bar table in front of it because you can order food while watching the movie.  It was like no other theater I have been to.  The MC of the evening gave a little history about the flick before it started and then it was time for the feature.  The movie was a horrible as the first time I saw it but more enjoyable as laughter filled the theater when something that was supposed to scare you appeared corny.  I was glad I got to be there.  Unexpected fun.

We all headed back to Morgan’s as two of her other friends were driving into town to meet up with us…well actually four if you include their dogs.  I could not stay up so I joined Annie in sleepy land and heard Aaron and Ashley arrive to Morgan’s around 5am with their Boston Terriers Elvira and Boris.

Fri. Oct. 24th, 2008

Boris & Elvira

I woke up early, shocking, and introduced myself to Aaron who couldn’t seem to sleep well either.  Once everyone was up we tried to grab some breakfast at a place nearby but were too early so we ventured just down the street and found more of a diner of sorts where I got something I never thought was possible…cottage cheese filled pancakes with ginger.  Don’t knock them till you try them.

Elvis

After filling our bellies we went to a few more shops in the area and then took a pit stop at the house.  Aaron and I decided we wanted to go into town and the girls wanted to nap.  We split ways and headed to Waterloo Records, one of the greatest record shops I have ever been to.  There was so much there I wanted to buy but I suppressed my urges and spent less than $20.  I am pretty sure I could have maxed out a credit card there.

Time was flying by quickly and we needed to head back to the house to pick up everyone to help set up with Morgan’s event.  As previously mentioned, Morgan owns an adult boutique called Sinsations and for the past couple years she throws an erotic carnival, a benefit event with all proceeds donated to AIDS Services of Austin.  This was our second time going to this event and after last years I promised Morgan that Annie and I would be back to help in 2008.  I am a man of my word and made sure we were there.

We arrived at Red 7 and set up for the amazing evening that was about to happen.  After setting up the silent auction section and securing some spots for games we headed once again back home, rested, ate some amazing Vietnamese food, and headed back to Red 7.

Mr. Lewis & the Funeral 5

By the time we arrived people were slowly entering.  We made final preparations, I armed myself with my camera, and before I knew it the place was jamming.

Sexy ladies performing burlesque shows, fire dancers, and Mr. Lewis & The Funeral 5 entertained all who attended.  There were adult games, silent auctions, and even a raffle.  The venue was 18+ but nothing got out of hand, even Austin has laws.  All types of people where there too making for an interesting gathering.  Some knew what was going and were there from start to finish while others randomly walked in from the street just looking for something different.

The wonderful Morgan

As if the event was not exciting enough, things wrapped up around 1:30am and as we were packing things up into the car we all witnessed a hit and run.  A drunk driver in a large truck chose to run a red light and plowed into an innocent driver and then continued onward forgetting his bumper in the intersection.  The Blazer that was hit spun in the street and crashed into a parked vehicle.  The victim of the incident was unarmed, but in shock.  The police were called and soon ambulances came to check on anyone who was involved.

Fire Dancing

If that was not enough we all heard a commotion just a few moments later and watched as someone pushed a motorcycle that was parked next to the accident to the ground and then got in a tussle.  Drunks.  That is all I could think of.  Then again it should not have been shocking as Red 7 is located in an area where the streets are shut down in the evening and are filled with folk, mostly college students, just looking to have some fun.  Don’t let that discourage you…they are supervised.  Plenty of law enforcement surround the area keeping law and order.

Exhausted, drained, beat…you get the point.  The event marked our last full day in Austin as well as the center of our vacation.  Saturday afternoon we were to catch a flight to San Francisco.  Time to catch up on some sleep.

Sat. Oct. 25th, 2008

After slowly waking up we all crammed into a vehicle and went back to a restaurant we tried to have breakfast on Friday and this time they were open.  As we ate we sat and talked about the carnival as well as the future.  All of us, minus Morgan of course, agreed of having plans to be a resident of Austin one day.  Whether that happens or not is to be determined in the future.  It is not that far around the corner though and is completely plausible.

Aaron and Ashley were kind enough to take us to the airport where Annie and I took one flight and Morgan took another to San Francisco….

More of our San Francisco experience to come….soon….until then, enjoy some more pictures…

90's, Interview, Music, Music Video, Post-Hardcore, Random, Rock, Times Of Yore

Stompbox Bassist Tells His Story

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One of the cool things about having a blog site is just the total randomness.  I posted a blog a couple weeks ago about post-hardcore now defunct band Stompbox in my new Times Of Yore posts.

Apparently one of the former band members happened to come across my post and shot me an email asking if I wanted some elaboration on what really happened.  The band member was Patrick, the former bassist of Stompbox.

Well of course I did.  So I interviewed him…

I sent him back an email asking what really happened to the band and what he and the rest of the band members were up to these days.  Here are his responses collectively as I’ve mixed up the few emails we exchanged and categorized them with Patrick’s approval of course.

Stompbox Flyer - Vintage!!!
Stompbox Flyer - Vintage!!!

The reason Stompbox called it quits, what happened to the lead singer Erich, and what direction did the band members took:

The reason Erich left the band is that we asked him to. There are/were rumors flying around that drugs had a lot to do with our breakup, but that’s all blown way out of proportion.  Sure, Erich was doing drugs, (as were most of the rest of us) but it didn’t bother any of us much.  Erich was (and still is) kind of a dick. By “kind of a dick” I mean a real a–hole. In addition to that, he was… …uh, let’s just say he was an inconsistent singer.  When he was on, he was great, but a lot of times he was off. Way off. There’s some live recordings that Jeff has that are just brutal.  Also, we had some very fundamental differences in what we wanted to do musically.

Erich was in favor (and in hindsight, he was probably right) of “giving the people what they want”. All the kids that came to our shows really wanted the “big riff” so they could get sick in the pit and hurt each other, and (except for the part about hurting each other…we were very “Fugazi” about that and stopped a lot of shows when fights broke out etc…) he (Erich) was perfectly happy with that.

The rest of us wanted to be “artists” and “express ourselves musically”.  Again, hindsight (or maybe cynicism) tells me that we were probably foolish.

So, we gave him the boot and changed the name of the band to Slower.  We wrote a bunch of new tunes and did a couple more tours.  We added a second bass player (Mikey Welch, who later was in Weezer for an album) and I took over vocals.  I wish I had some good recordings of that band, but there just isn’t much around.  I’ve got some abysmal recordings from a show we did in Seattle, but it was straight off the board, so pretty much all you can hear is the drums and vocals.  It’s brutally bad.  There’s a tape from a live radio show that I have, but it’s in pretty crappy condition, much of it is all garbled up.  Zephan’s ex-girlfriend supposedly has a ton of live Slower video, but they didn’t exactly break up on very good terms.  I guess when your boyfriend breaks up with you by telling you he married somebody else, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Go figure.  Zephan is a phenomenal drummer, but he’s a bit on the self centered side!

We did one tour billed as Stompbox still, and used that to introduce the “new sound” to people who were into Stompbox.  Some people liked it more, some liked in less.  (On one of those tours we played with Jesus Lizard at Peabody’s in Cleveland…David Yow drank me under the table and then went out and played their show. I guess he’s got what’s called an “iron constitution”…Ha! I was so tanked I had to pass out in our van after about two Jesus Lizard songs. Good times!)

After those two tours, we just sort of imploded.

Zephan and Mikey Welch [went on to] play with Juliana Hatfield on her attempt at rocking out called “Juliana’s Pony”.   Jeff is [currently] the musical director for the Blue Man Group in NYC now.

Jeff and Zeph were also in a band called Milligram for a while. The CD called This is Class War is absolutely amazing if you can find it.  [Milligram] had Jonah the singer from Only Living Witness and Darryl from Slapshot/Roadsaw playing guitar. That cd is so good it STILL makes me jealous!  You can download the whole Milligram album This is Class War for free, which is a pretty sweet deal! That website has that whole album, plus the EP they did AND a bunch of punk rock covers.

I was in another band for a while called Placer.  Noisy arty stuff.  We did one CD called Summer on Dopamine Records, a teeny indie label out of Boston.  You can find the Placer album on iTunes.  Even if you don’t want to buy it, you can hear little samples of the songs. I played steel guitar in that band. Oddly enough, when I quit that band, Jeff (guitarist of Stompbox) too over my spot on steel.

If you want to hear what Slower sounded like, Jeff’s got a homemade video up on YouTube.  The sound is from a radio show we did, and you get to hear me totally flub the second line of the song.  Slower was in many ways the opposite of Stompbox.  Stompbox was music that made us laugh with words that were brooding and self indulgent, while Slower was words that made us laugh with music that was self indulgent!  Jeff also did a pretty cool video for “Jake Song” with the original demo track we did. It [can be found] on YouTube too.

These days Erich’s living in Los Angeles. I don’t really know what he’s doing for sure, I think he runs sound in clubs.

I had pretty much dropped out of the music biz after Slower dissolved. I decided that maybe it would be fun to find out what it was like to have money to live on. As it turns out, it’s pretty cool!

I live in Toledo now, and am a stay at home dad. In fact, until about a year ago, we were living in Lakewood, not too far from were you are, I guess.  I used to go to My Minds Eye a lot.  Cool record store.  Bent Crayon too.  I wasn’t a huge fan of Cleveland in general, but I REALLY liked Lakewood. In fact I kind of miss it, which I didn’t think I would when we moved.

The real story about the departure from the record label:

The deal with Columbia was that our A&R person left and went to Maverick. That left us at Columbia with nobody who really cared much about us, so we were sort of in limbo.  Finally, we asked them (Columbia) if they’d let us (Stompbox) go with no strings attached, and they said “Sure!”  Mary (the A&R person from Columbia who went to Maverick) wanted us to come over to Maverick with her, but this was all happening at the same time as we were getting ready to kick Erich out of the band.  After we booted him, she kind of took it personally and said “Oh, well f— you too” and signed the Deftones. (as it turns out, that was a good move…in fact, I still have to say that they were a pretty cool band. I don’t know if they are STILL a cool band, cause that sort of thing can change over time…)

Thoughts about the unofficial Stompbox MySpace Page:

That MySpace thing is pretty funny. I don’t know who started it, but it’s pretty crazy that so many people even remember us.  On the list of Stompbox’s friends, we (the individual former members of the band) are the top four friends. It makes me feel important. (har har)

Videos:

So there you have it.  That was a greatly appreciated dose of information from the source itself.  Patrick, props to you for offering to tell your side of the story.

Funny, Hip Hop, Metal, Music, Music Video, New Release, Random, Rap

Flying High…Literally

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This little update comes from inside a Delta airplane (of course it was posted after we landed). I imagine I am currently over Georgia or Louisiana right about now. I am pleased to say I have enough leg room where I can ramble on for a minute here on the good ol’ laptop. Thank supernatural being of your choice for emergency exit seats!

After playing around with my iPod on what seemed like an endless disappointing shuffle play I have found an album I intend to listen from start to finish.

So what am I listening to?

2Pac/Makaveli – The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory – 10th Anniversary Edition

That’s right folks, I am dipping into some 90’s gangsta rap and loving every second of it. Enjoying a surplus of thug life lyricism, this album brings back some memories. Mostly of the days where all I wanted to do was listen to rap music and thump some bass in my Olds Cutlass Calais.  I was far from gangster but just loved the beats and the bass.  It was a good sound.

2Pac was brought to my attention when I started hanging out with a new crowd after a lot of my friends went to college.  Tupac Shakur just has that smooth rap flow and brilliant writing skills like no other. He was way ahead of his time in the 90’s and of course his life was cut short…  He still lives on.  There is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the most important icons in the rap music history.

So while I am stuck in the plane where I could be listening to something a little more calming, tracks like “Bonnie & Clyde” and “Live & Die In LA” have been thumping in my ears…  I still know most of the lyrics too…good times.