Re:Musician stories
Saturday, November 12 2011 @ 12:23 AM CST

I jammed with some members from the squirrel nut zippers not to long ago..hehehe

Re:Musician stories
Saturday, November 12 2011 @ 04:08 PM CST

We need to toss in a couple of our stories. Our Artist page and the old recordings we made 1968-1973 which are posted here will give you some background information about us.

In 1971, Greg, the keyboard player, had to have a lumbar fusion, which involved removing damaged disks and replacing them with bone from the hip. He had to wear a plaster cast that went from his armpits to his crotch. It was thick and heavy. The guys in the band decided in stead of autographing the cast, they would decorate it. On item they painted was the Superman "S" we florescent paint. When we did "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath he would pull off his shirt and and turn on a black light, and he "glowed".

On night we were playing at the high school in Rochester, MN, and during the break a few of the "jocks" came back stage and warned us "long haired freaks" to stay away from "their women". Guess too many of their girl friends were standing at the stage waving and smiling. We could tell they wanted to fight. Peter, our lead guitar player told them "You take your strongest guy and have him hit Greg (wearing the cast" as hard as he could and it Greg said 'OUCH" we would pack up and leave immediately. They picked a guy to his Greg, and he wound up and hit him as hard as he could. We could hear the bones in his hand breaking! Needless to say, they left us alone.

Story 2. A couple of us went to find the lead guitar player a new guitar. We went to B-Sharp Music in north Minneapolis. We told them we were looking for a good but cheap guitar. They pointed to a Fender Strat hanging on the wall and said "I'll make you a deal on that Strat... $100 and it's yours". Peter took the guitar down, ran his hands up and down the neck, plucked a couple notes, and then turned it over to see how the finish was on the back. Suddenly he grabbed us and said "how much money do we have! How much do we have? We said "why"? He pointed at the serial number stamped on the metal plate. It was '0495'. We told the sales guy "It's okay, but not great. We'll give you $90 for it". He took it, and we left as fast as we could. We later had it authenticated. It was a first year Strat.

Don't ask what happened to it... I don't know.

More to follow.

I love reading all your stories... help reinforce that other bands went thru the same stuff as we did.

Re:Musician stories
Wednesday, November 16 2011 @ 05:18 PM CST

The hardest gig when you play it and you know this band gonna split
even if the music is good and all went fine ...its still bitter taste !

life goes on I guess

Re:Musician stories
Wednesday, November 16 2011 @ 06:53 PM CST

I've never actually done a real gig, i'm still in school and musician pickings are slim in this small town (most of the ones who do play are bastards). With my current band i've only played at a small battle of the bands at a school one of them go to. However, i've done my fair share of running the highway to make it to the bus in time to catch it home, and missed it too many times.

I remember the last time I had to do it, me and my band skipped wednesday school (i do IT at a seperate school 40 minutes away from my regular school on wednesdays) and caught the bus to the house with all the gear, and practiced all day. I had to catch a bus from one place to get back to the school and catch the bus from there to get home. So I made it to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare, and sat waiting for ages, until eventually my thirst took over me and I ducked into a shop for less than two minutes to get a drink and came out to see my bus escape around the corner. Even more unfortunately, i'd never taken notice which direction the bus goes after it rounds the corner and hits the T intersection. So I convinced myself I was going in the correct direction, and sprinted that way to try and get to the school in time to catch the bus home. Of course, it was the wrong way, which I found out eventually after running 10 to 15 minutes that way and gave into asking a lady where the school is. Back the other way.

So 15 minutes back to where I started, and kept running, still having no clue whether I would make it on time for the bus, and whether or not the school was coming up over each next hill. Over bridges, side paths through trees, and eventually ended up on a path next to the highway. Up the next hill and I recognised the area. I was almost there, so I geared my persistance-running into a sprint hoping the bus would be there. I had been running this direction for more than 30 minutes. Turns out I was around 10 to 15 minutes late.

No busses left on the timetable either, zilch. No money for a taxi, and I was a 40 to 60 minute drive away from home, and i'd never hitched. No phone credit.

The pay phones outside this school however, seemed to have been feeling sorry for me, and spat out triple the change I put in. This worked a few times, and then it started eating them so I stopped. Used the phone to call my parents home phone and their mobile, but they have dialup, and they don't know how to make proper use of a mobile phone, it's always in the bottom of a bag or the glovebox. So I left messages and tried calling a family friend but couldnt get through to him either.

Ended up going into the school and finding that they were having some science event, and after half an hour of following a lady as she tried to find someone to help me, I ended up in the staff room with the principal giving me a room with a phone to organise my way home, and offering me to stay at someone's if I had no other way. Very nice people, helping out the dodgy looking kid in the ACDC t-shirt.

Tried everyone again, got through to the friend, who was going to come pick me up, great guy, and just as he was about to leave I said i'd try my parents again, they picked up the mobile, and they were on their way, so called him back just as he reached his car, cleared it all, and then waited the hour for my family to show up.

All because I missed one bus by mere seconds. Bloody hell.

And I haven't skipped Wednesday school to practice since.

.aemyn.

Re:Musician stories
Wednesday, November 23 2011 @ 09:31 AM CST

Quote by: scofugate I jammed with some members from the squirrel nut zippers not to long ago..hehehe

Very cool. I've danced to them, at the bar/dance floor that used to be at the top of the World Trade Center. I wonder if you were playing?

This is still my favorite story. Can't even think of a word to describe it:

Quote by: Lennon714 I worked with a guy who is a Phoenix native (kind of a rarity) and when he was in his early 20's he spent a lot of time in the local metal scene. This is the early 1980's so he's spending his time with Surgical Steel and some others. One of the other bands was an outright Judas Priest cover band. Similar outfits and look, etc. Doing the whole thing up right. Well this coworker of mine is at a desert party and he stumbles across the fake Rob Halford having oral sex with the real Rob Halford... in similar costume (what was left of it). Had to be wicked surreal.

When ever I see this photo, I think it's me as a sophomore in high school. Astounding resemblance:

Quote by: Dadai.2

Many here may not know this, but alto saxophone was my first instrument until my early twenties. I played alto sax with Maynard Ferguson's band. Rehearsing went well. I loved the charts, and Maynard was the coolest cat I had ever met, ever been in the same room with. I know some people called him Mr. Mellow, but it wasn't mellowness, really, it was more a supreme tolerance and ability to be interested that gave the impression of calm. He had such a large dose of cool, an honest non self-conscious cool, it made me feel less evolved, if that makes sense. Anyway, I recall my first live show when everyone in the band stands up and walks to the from of the stage or somewhere along the thrust or walkway (built out into the audience) to blow their brains out at the end of MacArthur Park. I was looking forward to this, since, at that point in my life, I loved playing totally weird third wave jazz lines. Well, I started blowing and soon realized I could not be heard. I was totally drowned out in the cacophony of sound, near deafening, that swelled all around me. I doubted I was playing half as loud as these monster guys. I was, at that point, a 138 weakly, in comparison. On one hand, it was freeing, since I could play whatever I wanted and was simply unheard. On the other hand, I felt like a kid, like someone without the diaphragm to make it happen. My fingers moved fast enough, but my lungs couldn't keep up. It seems my body wasn't evolved enough, either.

While playing piano, I felt like I could say things people could hear. Anyway, I knew from that first performance alongside these giants that sax was not my future.

Then I got pregnant. (Well, you know what I mean.) Choices had to be made. No more MF. The hospital bill came due, over $2,000. I sold my Selmer to pay for my first born.

And the rest, they say is history...

Re:Musician stories
Wednesday, November 23 2011 @ 04:12 PM CST

dang... awesome

Re:Musician stories
Wednesday, November 23 2011 @ 04:38 PM CST

me and my friends had been drifting in and out of bands a couple years when in 1981 we formed the terrorists which was a revamped rorschach from 1979. I recorded everything and still have the tapes. we "practiced" several times a week -- with a little radio shack groove box -- in whomever's bedroom living room or den was available.

a lot of drinking and partying. we were 20 and 21. our major goal was to outdo the lizerds and teen suicide lol two bakersfield bands we'd been in. teen suicide made a video at the college and the performance got punk rock banned up there forever. the lizerds had the same drummer bruce brink of rotters fame (stevie nicks sit on my face) and the rotters had made records. that stevie nicks song got pulled after being played on KROQ by rodney on the roq. rotters were from oxnard -- metropolitar compared to bakersfield

it was common knowledge to "make it" you had to move to LA. so the lizerds did. and they made a single on demos tones records -- their own label -- recorded at a pizza place in bako. they faded quickly in LA and disbanded but were an inspiration nonetheless. and that single ended up on a KBD compilation and is worth hundreds.

anyway so as the terrorists we were fading a year later so to bolster the band (we never moved to LA) I took one of our bedroom tapes and had a single pressed. not a 1500 single run but only 100. when the other guys saw the single of course they were excited and we played the college. we couldn't be punk though so we called ourselves the home boys and said we played funk. the activities guy knew he'd been had after a couple songs and warned us lol. but hey we did funk it up a little we were listening to rick james by now.

anyway I took the singles up to rough trade in SF for distribution. we sold 12 worldwide and never saw a dime lol. never made a compilation either. rough trade had the most horrible bands and we were dismissed as worse than amateur. the guy lostened to 10 seconds

the terrorists disbanded but for years I gave out singles. some guys in oildale were drinking beer and when they heard the single it got tossed literally out the door like a frisbee. I wasn't there it's what I heard. their tastes ran along 38 special lines at that point lol

in 1986 I smashed the remaining singles in a religious furor along with all my old punk hippie junk. all my vinyl went in the trash. the homemade tapes survived but with the info sleeves tossed and labels peeled off. I was going to rerecord religious stuff over them lol but never did. I still have them relabeled and newly sleeved.

the remaining lizerds singles got tossed in the 80s too. but it didn't stop me from looking for them years back when they were going for $800-900 a pop on ebay. I went to the bass player's former house and boldly asked the new owner if he'd found any records in the attic. no he said just some encyclopedias and stuff. but he noted they did find 6 empty nitrous tanks buried in the backyard. lol I wonder where those came from? ahhh the early 80s what a time for youthful experimentation.

I did end up selling a complete set of terrorists recordings to some guy in malaysia or somewhere years back -- all on cds for $75. if any terrorists singles ever float to the surface they will go for hundreds as with any one off pressings of early 80s california punk. the lizerds singles pop up pretty regularly and still command a premium in bidding wars. they did an actual 30 year anniv reproduction repress and it's on itunes. glory days