Jason DeLaTorre, Dave Cummins, Fred Minz ( Dr Klahn & Funkapotamus)

This was great fun for me to be able to finally hang out with these guys after many years !!! Great fun !!

#punkrock #punkrocker #sandiego #jermaddams #thewasteaways #musichistory #punrockscene #punkrockhistory #podcast #podcaster #Diy #jermwarfareproductions #skateboards #artist #redrumskates #halloween #mars #museum #haunted #oddities #bassguitar #bassplayer #unionandmetropodcast https://youtube.com/@jermaddams?si=4bjqYtyh3tUaPCUd https://open.spotify.com/album/6WxUfbKnAAtKiNDphjHvmT?si=hM7myq-RQ0qtRIvskClG8A https://www.instagram.com/jerm_addams?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Boxed sound. Make sure again we are up and running. So this is actually, I'm calling it the Seamless Podcast with me, Germ. And um so it's really loose. We can just talk about whatever, and there's no script or anything, just a conversation. And so I'll just have everyone introduce themselves so we can get like a mic check and people can get used to who's talking. We are um we're recording on the camera too, which I'll do cuts and I'll put it on my YouTube and and other shit. But Brian, you want to start it off?

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Yes, Fred Mintz, Funkopotamus.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Oh, sure. We're giving resumes.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Is that what a quiz? Yeah. All right, yeah, yeah. Freddie Mintz.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

I'm Dave Cummins from Dr. Klon.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

I'm Jason Delatory from Dr. Klon, also, but give the full name Dr. Klon and his army of extraordinary magnitude.

SPEAKER_04 1:09

I always said extraordinary magazine.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Did I pronounce it?

SPEAKER_04 1:12

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Extraordinary.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

Extraordinary magnitude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah. One of my favorite bands. But then also to lump it all in is the Mara Mesa Connection. Yes. Because I'm actually from Mira Mesa as well. And um that's what we were kind of talking about before. And um I you know, trying to remember like in the past when you guys were playing, I knew there was that Mira Mesa connection. And um just the the how many bands came out of Miramesa and the how much it changed still blows my mind, like when I go there and I try to look at the places that I skated. And that that's the shit that I like hearing stories about. So um you told me before, but as a refresher, how'd you guys all meet again?

SPEAKER_04 1:59

Or I think we all met at Ericsson. Well, Jason and I were in the same Boy Scout, true. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

But also in the Ericsson elementary, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because we had kindergarten. But I got but I got held back because I didn't speak any English. I only spoke Hungarian.

SPEAKER_04 2:18

And then, yeah, so I remember your friend just smiling and not saying a word. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

I just knew him as I So are you already a 50-year-old then?

SPEAKER_03 2:26

I'm 50, yeah. And then we had second grade, I think, right? We were together and we had a second grade grade.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Third grade was my first year at Erickson because I moved from Corona.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

So who'd you have for third grade?

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Mrs. Gould. And then who'd you have for first grade grade? Mr. Timmins.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

We were fourth grade. Oh yeah. Mr. Timms. Yeah. So that's how we knew each other that long.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

But I don't think I knew Dave until Well, I feel like we had kindergarten together, but then we didn't like really hang out until high school, probably. Yeah. Yeah. Because once Funkoponist started, and then we started hanging out, kind of got to know each other then.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

And I think we started hanging out in junior high.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Probably because of video. Even though I wasn't in your video class. Right. But we both had Mr. Ogden. There was some kind of overlap there. I think Sean Ellardson is the big merger. The connective tissue there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

That's crazy. I didn't remember any names. Like I'm trying to think of the first thing I'm trying to think of is what was there to skate at Erickson? And then trying to think of my teachers' names, and like I can't. I remember um you guys went to Mara Mesa High, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Um Jim Velasis was and he's got a Facebook. I was friends with him on Facebook. And then I felt bad, and I'm like, fuck, if he looks me up for whatever reason, oh man.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

I I know he wouldn't remember me, but I remember him to be a pretty stand-up guy as a principal. Yeah, I'm my memory of him was positive. Yeah. Because I got into a lot of trouble and he would routinely have my back. Like he wouldn't, you know, rain down punishment on me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Yeah, he was not like the Breakfast Club like principal.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

I know. He was really cold. Do you remember that t-shirt, Keep Off the Grass? Yeah. So his big thing was his mission was to get keep everybody off the grass. So they made a t-shirt of him and his face. Keep off the grass. And somebody I don't know. I think they somebody found it at like a thrift store. No. I saw that shirt in fucking Ohio. And I go, are you from Did you go to Mara Mesa High or something? And he's like, no, I just found this at a thrift store. So it's like you just kind of like recycled like Jim Blassis' fucking like base and like dragon. Keep off the grass.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

That's where we had our um the high school yearbook picture was on the grass. The one was in the middle. God, even my memories of the school now, it's so vague. But no, I always thought he was cool. All my teachers were were it was pretty cool. Plus back then, um I took every art class. I even took um I think I did one semester drafting because I was running out of art classes, because I wasn't good at much anything. I failed algebra two years in a row. Oh my god. I was it was just school was horrible. But then the memories I do remember is um Noggles. Yeah. And um there would be the Stoners hanging out by the one lockers. Um I remember there's two other punkers when I was in high school. And um that's when I met um Shadow Cat. He came in when I was in the eighth grade, I think it was eighth grade or ninth grade that he showed up. And he had wearing a trench coat, full goth, big black mohawk, and um he had his ear pierced. And for whatever reason, you know, I'm a scrappy freaking red-headed punk rocker. And so we became friends because, you know, we're both misfits. He's the one that I started piercing my ear, and then I had three in my ear because he had two and I had to one up him, and my mom and my sisters never even had their ears pierced yet. So that was one fond memory that I do remember of Mara Mesa and and growing up there. What year did you graduate?

SPEAKER_02 6:41

86. Alright, so sizable, not crazy sizable gap, but you graduated in 93 and then 94 for us.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

Yeah, our that noggles turned into that taco shop. Yeah. Because there were burgos.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

I I I actually don't know what noggles is. Remember noggles? No.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Yeah. It was kind of like del taco, but it was next to I think it became the delta shop. It did become delta. Yeah. It was like yeah, like burgers and tacos and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah, it was the the most American Mexican food. But I mean it was great. Like I still have a few friends from high school. But then, you know, getting back to um Kenny from or Ken from the neighbors, he lived just up the street from me. So I grew up with him and um I guess off of like Circo. Is it around Circo Street? I think so. I think that's it. Because I was on Santa Arminta. And then um Jeff Winfrey was up the street a little bit. Um, Gary Willis, which is my sister's husband, was up a little bit more in his sisters, Margie and Christina. Um I remember a few of the cats, but by the time going into high school, that's when I'd I'd never seen Kenny because I was what a couple grades older than him. And then um God, I don't even think I've seen Jeff. But we all used to skate. Jeff had a half pipe in his backyard. Um I went to Sandburg Elementary. So that was my and I've still, if if I'm there, I'll drive by and look out at the front, the big green box that I used to do bonuses off of, and oh man. That place was so rad for skating. You guys all skated, didn't you? Yeah, yeah. I tried. I tried and failed.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Because I was like Mara Mesa had like like Willie Santos like skating at Leaf Erickson, and I just I looked at everybody, I was like, I just I can't do this. I just can't. I try, I I I skated for two years. I think I did a kickflip like once and then I just I just said no, I can't do this.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

No, I think that's an accomplishment.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

I landed a kickflip once in two years of trying. I I still can't do one. I never learned them. I learned the old one. But yeah, my wife can do she could probably do one within five tries right now. But I might be a little generous, it might be ten, but yeah, I never learned how to do one at all. But I just all my memories of of Mira Mesa is skating, especially around the mall. I love those red curves around the mall. Or the bowling alley and the yeah, yeah, yeah. And then um we were talking about the music store there.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Oh music central. Yeah. Was that music central was yeah, was that always the name or Mira Mesa Music? And then it changed to Music Central, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

Yeah, Rob Toddy. Yeah, right. Yeah. I worked there for like a half a minute.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I don't know. The the Pizza Hut there. Yeah. I worked there when I was seventeen. Yeah. I might have been 18 by the time I left. But back then I was I was all fucked up, so I started downward spiral. But I did I painted the um all the Christmas stuff out on the windows in the mall. I I I miss those memories of going in with the carolers in the middle. I don't know if they still did those later in the 90s. No, I think that was before.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

That pizza was amazing. That was the best pizza in town. And I just remember going there, and I remember the jukebox just being incredibly loud. Like they were partying at that pizza. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

They still have the tabletop Tetris game.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

I don't think it's there anymore. They moved, they moved that pizza to the other uh section of the uh the parking lot, like over sort of by where um across from where Mervin's would be something like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Which is like a dress barn dress barn? Is that a chain of clothing that is there now?

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Oh yeah. Well before Mervyn's, I think it was, wasn't it like Walker Scott? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And New Berry's right there. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

He has a deeper memory of Meramesa than I do, clearly.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

They had um they had a cracker barrel too. Yeah, in the middle of the mall.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

In the middle of the mall. Oh, what's his nuts from the neighbors worked there? Frank. Yeah, Frank Andrews worked.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Yeah, his dad had like the hot dog. Hot dog express. Yeah, store there. Oh wow. What's his nuts?

SPEAKER_02 11:29

What's his nuts?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

I know we were doing really good with remembering first and last names earlier, but I'm my memory is so shot with names.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

I mean, it's it's really it's gotten worse and worse over kind of like the last few years. I just I can't there's like this mental block. I start getting anxiety about it, and then it'll come up later, like I'll remember it. But a lot of things now is I'm just so focused in on a few things that I just start stuttering trying to remember a name. Like his name, huh boogie. But um faces I'm getting a lot better at. I can notice someone from afar, and then I start going through the Rolodex trying to remember who they are, and then I get to the point of do I really want to go and say hey? Because what if I'm wrong? But you know, at this point, it it is what it is. I just chalk and chalk it up to old age. Speaking of, um, how's the book coming along? It's coming along.

SPEAKER_04 12:38

Yeah, yeah. So I got it back from um the editor like two days, like over the weekend actually. So I just went to reading through all the edits and and uh all the like the suggestions and my terrible grammar. So but yeah, yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, yeah, she had some good ideas. So I had um the the magazine that I had an essay with the one that you read, um called Digital Life. She the editor for there, she said that she would edit it for me, so I hired her to edit it. So she's had she had it for a few weeks and I just got it back. Cool. Yeah, yeah. So it's coming back.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

How long is this?

SPEAKER_04 13:17

It's um like 30,000 words, which is like I don't know. It's probably gonna be like 150 pages, which is pretty short for a book, but it's it's only like a snippet of like high school to like the end of Dr. Clinton, I guess. So it's like a five-year picture period, maybe I guess more. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

That's one of you know, memoirs. That's because um V was just asking my wife was just asking me about it. Oh yeah. And then we're going through all the people that we know of that have written books and just the process of that, which I still find fascinating. I because I wanted I think I told you I wanted to do the one. Um I was doing uh interviews with skateboard makers, DIY skateboard makers. So I had like these ten questions, and it was just called ten questions with DIY skateboard makers. But I wanted to take all those interviews because each one's story was different and different age ranges. And um I think I had someone overseas. I might have had a couple people, yeah. I I did definitely have someone overseas that I did an interview with and hearing how different cultures outside of California were, you know, how they got influenced and how they got into the idea of actually making their own. Because I always thought it was, you know, you know, you had the the wood shops do it or furniture shops. A guy like me can't make them. And I had my skateboard press in the back because I used to press them. And um just that whole world is just so fascinating to me. So I wanted to do a book. And then I started looking into it and I'm like, this I can't do it. I gotta stay in my lane. Stick with the twelve things that I'm already doing right now. But yeah, I'm still I like watching you go through it, yeah. I can live vicariously.

SPEAKER_04 15:14

Well, it's been fun in that. Like we were talking in the Greer Down the street of the air club, and I was like, oh, I gotta like all like the stuff about like changing sounds with Eldie and Joe. Like, oh my god, I didn't even think about like that part of it. Like, no, I gotta go back and I can't stuff.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

And since he brought up um just doing this, it brought up so many memories, and there because Dave said that you spoke very highly of our band, and I was like, Well, we were two different bands, and I remember there was a period of time where we convinced the bass player and the drummer to quit the band because we wanted to play a more pop punk style because we were so into like screeching weasel, the queers, um, you know, not like crazy off where we were at, but still a little bit more up-tempo. And I was so excited to get your opinion after our first show with the new rhythm section, and you were so blunt, you're just like, I liked the old version. You guys had this cool like New York dolls vibe, and I'm like, I've never listened to that band before. Uh just I just I it was a cool thing to remember, and I liked your honesty in that moment a great deal.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

It was pretty cool. Thank God. Well, I I convinced you to tape the breakup. Remember that? Yes. Like a like a hidden tape recorder.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Uh so what happened with that lineup? Did you continue it?

SPEAKER_02 16:50

We did, we continued. Okay, and we were it really, I think Screeching Weasel was the band that probably like set us off. Or it's like, oh, I like doing these like uh single string guitar melodies, and it's it's pretty poppy, but still like pretty like ragged at the same time. Yeah, and so it was still kind of dirty, yeah. It was it was attractive, and so I think that's what we were leaning into, and then we did that for a while, and then the drummer quit, and then my little brother played drums with us for a while, and then um I got really full of myself and wanted to start my own band, and then that's uh I think how that just went up to bed in several years, like I mean we from like high school, like early high school, I think. Yeah, it went on to like uh I guess probably 2001, 2002, does that sound right?

SPEAKER_04 17:53

Probably right around there, because I think right I got married in 2000, and it was right around there when when we just kind of stopped. And I was trying to remember like our last show, I couldn't remember our last show. I just remember recording in that warehouse in Power, and then that was it.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

I I had decided that I was an artist, and I I recall many occasions uh Fred specifically giving me a hard time about being an artist. But then I did uh play in Funkapotamus for a very brief time. And I think that which was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

I I I swear, like I think that that few months we came up with some really amazing stuff. I wish that we recorded it, but unfortunately John couldn't keep it beat. Yeah, we we tried. We tried.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

They're all like the goofiest riffs that my art band didn't want. And so I was like, all right, well, I'll see what Fred has to say about this riff. And so that's funny.

SPEAKER_04 18:50

Those are the fungopotamus riffs that they went out. Yeah, because they're they're I thought they were amazing.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Well, we had a mutual understanding of like what we appreciated in the world.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

I think that we we probably should have tried harder. Yeah, I agree. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

I agree.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

But it's like there's no there's no like I was like thinking about this like the other day, I was like, you know, there's no like blueprint to tell you how to do stuff or how to like keep things together or how to like how to function as a band. And I I look back on like certain things, I was like, well, maybe I should have been more of a ruthless like taskmaster or something. Like when it came to like uh fuck them, I'll fire them, get somebody out. Get a better drummer. Get a better drummer. Yeah, or get you know, it doesn't matter. Just like I know we're buddies, but no, you're done.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

But that's one of the things though, is when you get into that, it becomes a job. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's I think part of my whole thing has always been um a fear of success. But when I was at the club, I was so driven about everyone else. And that's why, you know, when you bring up my honesty, that's the same thing with like I don't remember who it was, but I always refer back to you know the big guys. Um, and I do remember specifically talking with Jonathan from Corn before, and I'm just telling him, you know, I don't I don't like your music. You know, but you guys are cool or whatever, you know. I've had to say that before, and I it might have been quoted somewhere where I've said, look, um I'm not here to judge bands by what I like, because if I did, it would be you know realistic. I probably did bring you guys up, you know, because I was a huge fan of Swindle. Um and then I hung out with Mike and the guys in Spen Idols. I liked, you know, the English stuff or New York um 75 sort of 77 stuff, like you guys. But I just booked everybody because everybody deserved a chance. So it wasn't gonna be on just this stuff. And if you send it like Venom, oh yeah, I'm booking you. I'm I'm gonna have you play at my house. I will have a tape to wake up to. So I just booked everybody and anyone I could because everyone deserved the chance, and then the bands that were fun to work with, then that was you know just made it that much easier because I had to put up with so much crap there. And that's why at this point, as part of my legacy, but it's not my whole life. I've done so much other than when I was at Soma, like uh playing with him while I'm trying to do a podcast. So why don't you go upstairs? Oh my lord. But um, yeah, I just always there was so much of a fondness, and it might have been because of the Mary Mercer because. But I just remember distinctly and then looking at some of my old books and then looking at eponymous stuff and then Dr. Klon and just just so many memories come back, and that's the shit that I do like to remember now. But like um when it becomes a job, any ban, to me, I'm like, ah I don't want to do this. And um have to make you know executive decisions on or even if someone's fucking up for whatever reason just saying, hey look, you're you're fucking up, you know, don't drink or maybe not smoke so much fucking pot right now. We're trying to play one song sort of thing. And uh because I had that I think we were called the graveyard dogs at that point. That's when things, alcohol started to and other issues with band members. And then it's not fun anymore.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

And then you start regretting it and yeah, like when Chris and Pat, like when we were getting along with them, it was not fun. And then later, like LD was not happy with us, and it was like less like going to practice it was like, oh, this is gonna be like not fun.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Right. For sure. At that at that point, I think we were still practicing in the 501 exchange, and so we were loading our gear in and out of practice every time, and so it's like physical work to go do something that you're supposed to love and you're not loving it anymore. And I don't know, I I look back on it as we were just stupid kids and we're like having a change in not music taste specifically, but yeah, it was uh I I don't know. I look back on that, I feel a lot of guilt because they were you know our closest friends. Uh Chris the drummer, his parents let us practice in their garage for years. It was, I mean, Funkopotamus even had the occasional uh garage performance there. I think we tried like tracking demos there, and they were usually pretty patient with us. And so it was like a yeah, strange departure because you want to remain friends with somebody.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

Yeah, a lot of guilt for me that because we were so close as friends we grew up, like and then to and then we just to change the style of your man. Yeah, and then that affected the friendship. Like it's like having like a musical divorce.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

You are fucking bitter. It's like it's like really, it's like a it's a musical divorce, it's like a divorce. It's just breakout. Yeah, it's it's awful.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

It's like a political divorce. Yeah, yeah. You voted for who? Yeah. Oh, I'm out, and the fucking dog is staying with you. Both of you can go vote for, you know, yeah. That's when I was doing um Poor, that's when I started to realize, well, they have damnation. So with me singing with them, and then with my just God knows what style, and uh never singing the same thing ever. I mean, it's sometimes I didn't even remember it, I just kind of make up shit. But it was always about the show. So with them and um I would have them playing for I think they played with Creator, they were called Damnation. I think they played with Creator and like Cannibal Corpse, and I kinda liked a lot of that stuff, but it wasn't my thing to listen to. So with them I always felt like I was in my own little bubble. Like I'm the token punk rocker, and it just happened to be this really fucking nutty one. But I kind of always felt like that in every band that I've ever been in. But back then, to be in a band, I always felt like to not ruffle anyone's feathers, just kind of be like a yes man, and so I would end up just kind of leading the charge, and then um, you know, my shoulders are big enough to hold that big head of mine. But yeah, anything new like bringing up a new song, someone brings in something, it's like, well, I don't know, I gotta put my hand print all over this to make sure it sounds like us. So, and now in hindsight, with the bands well with um working with Jeff and Sam, we're so collective and we're very um observant of where we're going and what direction we talk a lot of things out, and it's it's really fun because it's open and we have a lot of styles that we're doing, but nothing's like set, and it's like the freedom of being our age and being punk rockers still. It's finally the dividends starting to pay off. That stress isn't there, which is the only reason why I could probably still do it. But versus the other when I'm doing cemeterial, I just can't. I'm I'm waiting on a couple people who I won't mention, especially if they hear this. I don't want to call someone out. Yeah, but it would be fun to work with them, but at this point I'm having so much fun just writing all the music. I just gotta figure out my own home studio. Um, and then I'll just, you know, start doing it that way. Even if I'm a one-man band and I have it pre-recorded, it's not like I'm going on tour or anything.

SPEAKER_04 27:32

So does it seem like less like I feel like I don't know about change, right? But I was so like so serious, like I really was like, that was all I wanted to do. Yeah, it was I think the anxiety, especially with other people not getting along, was a lot because I didn't I would I didn't want that to end. Like I wanted to uh just keep playing shows and keep doing that the whole time. But I was surprised how well uh organized we were. Like you were saying, like you feel like you didn't push enough, like for like being like 17-year-old kids.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

I feel like we had practice schedules and we collected rent and in the studio and I do miss that that like intensity or like desire to create. I find myself with spare time not often these days, but like I still have I still want to create music, but I don't have like that same fire that I once had. So it's really cool to hear that you still do.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Yeah, well, it's been a long time coming though, because I had to get in the right headspace, you know, because that's a do you have kids?

SPEAKER_02 28:39

And no, two dogs.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Oh, okay. That's you got your hands full still.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Obviously, with you know, and he's supposed to be upstairs with the wife, but um, yeah, that's you know, and then do you have own your own business or what do you do in the Yeah, I I have a business in Los Angeles uh that takes a majority of my time, but um we we live in like a little back lot house, and uh we turned one of the bedrooms into my office, and I have my piano and my guitars in there, and so I'll play music on occasion. It's just like a like a weird spark has to happen when I get home. And my wife is very encouraging, like uh she's like, leave the door open, you don't have to close it, like go to town.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

It's how VS. It's refreshing, but still, I mean, you gotta get to a place where you can because I'm I'm obsessed on it, but I also do landscaping now. Basically, I'm doing the landscaping. Um yeah, just landscaping and music. It's nutshell. I'm not doing my um not really painting that much or doing any jewelry making, not much art. Um, so I actually have time to fiddle with my train. And I was running it earlier today, because that's usually one of those I would have to find a slot in my day, like, okay, I'm gonna go turn the train on, and I'm gonna get it running on the track, then I'll switch out some cars, I'll move some Hot Wheels around, but I would have to set it up, and then if anything else, a video came on that I wanted to watch, then I'm distracted. Or I get hungry, and then I'm outside fiddling with my pond or yeah. I mean a butterfly goes by, oh, and then I don't play with my train. But now I'm the landscaping business, it's just me, and it's you know, things are kind of drying out, so the schedule kind of runs itself, and I'm constantly thinking about music. I'm always writing a riff in my head. I'll actually play some music while pushing a mower or something, and then I'm okay, so then I have to turn it off and put on a podcast so that I have just white noise, because I'll just sit there and I'll work the riff and I'll work the fingering, and then I'll fight with myself, well, if you're gonna be playing this on guitar and but all that process of being really young, it's back. And I mean it's strong, and I'm almost 58, so you know, it just freaking hit me like you know, anything else that fallen in love, that's basically what is. I've fallen in love again with music. And my wife supports me, so that helps a lot. But he's obviously a handful. What about you, Fred? Do you still I live in an Island now?

SPEAKER_03 31:48

I don't know anybody. I like a couple of guitars in the basement. I try to come up with stuff. I sent you a big list of songs that I that I thought of.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Song titles.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

All song titles. I came up with some riffs, but yeah, you can verbalize the riffs and because yeah, I can play a little bit, but my hands are so bad, carpal tunnel, from 20 plus years of bartending, now I'm uh custodian over at uh Brown University, and my hands are shot. Just shot, and I'm just exhausted. If I could just like you know find like a focus and I don't really know anybody, that's the thing, it's like you want to come up with ideas to for music, but you don't have any I don't have any ideas to bounce off of. That's why I love being in a band so much, especially with people like-minded people at the same time that creating a song is like the greatest thing ever. Being at practice. I loved practice, I love parties, play parties and shows, but practice to me, when you guys, when the guys came together and came up with a song like in ten minutes, and you're just like, This is the greatest song that I've seen ever.

SPEAKER_04 33:02

And then you just like powered out.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

Yeah, it was like yeah, yeah, 10 minutes, boom, like that. But also having somebody like a like-minded, somebody with like a sense of humor as well that has your that gets you. Right. Sean got me, you got me, um, and then also to have an extremely talented person like Ishmael playing bass that could just fucking amazing. Outgrew us like in like a year, but was like nice enough to stick around, you know what I mean? Yeah. So it was just, I loved, those were like the best days when we all had um our studio at soundtracks. It was us, Dr. Klon, Hypotamus, Time, I don't think Underby.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

I don't know if Time ever shared with us.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

And I think the neighbors I think the neighbors shared it with us for a while, and then they got a studio down the uh down the hall. I think.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

I I mostly just remember the the two of us, but it would make sense to cover the cost.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

I'm sure we were like most of the time. Most of the time it was only like share for like a hot night.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

But that's the same.

SPEAKER_04 34:15

What are the soundtracks at?

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Marimar.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, when I was doing um just recently, I was in Black Widow Prophecy and Morningstar, and the drummer for Black Widow was also on Morningstar, did guitar and drums, because Morningstar all we did was record and do videos. But there was a studio, I don't remember what it is, but it was up there on Miramar Road. Um I remember another one, I think it was Miramar Road, that Bucko 9 used to practice at.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

Um by the strip club.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

I think it was, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Yeah. No, further uh closer to the base. Yeah. Um it was like a two-story studio because I ended up renting a room there eventually. I just can't I can't remember the name of the place, but it was the far more popular rehearsal space than the place that we were at. Because I think the place we were at maybe had like 10 rooms total. Yeah, it was like a huge shape.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

We had the biggest one. I think so. The place was huge. Yeah, we put a lot of stuff in there. Yeah, we had like two couches. Oh nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

Refrigerator? Do we put a refrigerator in there? There's a lot of porno on the wall.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

Lots of porn. And didn't like didn't they have like a they have like a porn production company?

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Yeah, like reproduced like Justin and Jim uh from underbite uh found a bunch of these magazines and tapes in a dumpster and they decorated the walls with it.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

So it was that was one of those monthly room rentals. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

Yeah. But we were there for probably a couple years.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Yeah, because back back in the day, there was a lot more studios um like all over the place. And we used to practice, there was it's still there, it's behind the new uh Soma, not Mark Langford's place, but there's I can't remember what it. I was thinking it was called Soundtracks as well.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Is it right by uh society, the brewery?

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Um I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

Or like right behind it.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

There's uh modern times was right there. There's um so there's there's Soma and then whatever that back street is, Dixie Line that goes and back of Dixie Line and all that. It's right right there. I wish I could remember the address. But the place had um so many problems. I think that's the one where my old bandmates had a bunch of shit ripped off. Like some guys came in and just was going through all the different studios and pulling equipment out. But that's where um Cockroach used to play there. And we would just rent, you know, for two hours, we'd rent a room. I think that's how we started soundtracks.

SPEAKER_04 37:20

We used to rent by the hour. There was one down by the support arena. Do you remember that? Trying to get away from the room. Yeah, vague, vaguely.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

Is that that might be packing it all up? Yeah, that's how we were. Luckily I was a singer, so I didn't have a mic. But then there was also another place, um, Nestor Studios, um, and then there was another one out in Santee, I can't remember. But yeah, I was always used to like the the hourly, just rent a room. And then um used to play in the garage down here, which is actually connected to the all the properties next to me. Luckily the same LLC guy owns all this stuff, but we used to play down there, so we were known as the band on India Street. And uh we had this one time, sheriffs came looking for, because this place used to be split into two houses. That's why it has two addresses. So I had a guy that I was writing comedy with, his name was Justin, he lived next door. The funniest, most flamboyant, gay guy, just pick the atypical, oh my god! You know, spastic, but make him like a little turtle boy, like like Todd Gloria with his big turtle shell suit on. He was the funniest fucking guy, and he was so gay that it was just it was hilarious. He and I would both do well, he would be normal, and then I would mimic him. I would be rolling so much, he would be rolling, people would just look at us like we were freaks. The guy was a trespun baby, and um he had a warrant, I believe, for uh DUI. So the sheriffs came there. They were cooling if they let us finish the song, then they started cop knocking on the the door and we opened it up, and I'm like, fuck, here we go again. Because I've been busted when I used to live at the house up there. And um they said something about the band and all that, and then they're looking at my drummer Joel and he's like, Are you Justin? He's like, No, I'm I'm Joel, and he's like, Are you Justin? And then finally I figured out who he was looking for, and I'm like, oh no, no, no. He he moved already. And then I told Joel, I go, it's Justin, the short, um he's he brought up Hungarian, he's um, oh god, I can't remember what it is, like a Mediterranean type accent, his really demanding mom. This dude God, I miss him. But so I told um Joel who it was and kind of described and he said, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, so he thought I was gay? And out of the whole thing, that was it. Like, no, he just thought you were what it no, it's no Joel, you don't look you're fine. Everything about the whole situation I used to live at the house at the corner and um there's a studio below that in the basement. And um cops went there twice when I was living there. I only lived there for about a year. And they went there twice to tell me to cut it, or else they're gonna confiscate everything. So down here I thought that's what it was, but they were trying to find Justin. God, I missed that dude. He was the funniest fucking dude. The funniest guy. Oh my lord. So that's my story about playing in the garage. And it was in the summer, I do remember one summer, um, it was one of the really hot ones about 15 years ago or so. It was well over a hundred in there, and we were just frickin' cooking. So we would open up the door just a little bit to get some air, and then that's how we started attracting more and more vagrants, and then um the neighbors who actually um r live there, and I was paying them to sublet it, and they would come down a little drunk, and uh it didn't bode well a couple times, fights and yeah, you know, and I was in my forties then, so they never changed.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

I was gonna uh ask if children are more resilient to the heat, and then you stated that you were in your forties.

SPEAKER_04 41:53

Yeah. We've been like garage, it was hot.

SPEAKER_02 41:56

But I don't recall it ever being like that big of a deal because you're doing what it is that you want to be doing. I'm sure like we would walk outside, smoke break. That's also a crazy thing that not you, but that we used to smoke tobacco cigarettes.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

Oh god, we just smoked it was I think it was like up to like a pack and a half a day.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

Yeah, so bizarre. Were you ever I don't remember if yeah, yeah, I think that's how we would talk outside of shows. We would just hang, smoke a cigarette, yeah. You give me your opinion, and then yeah, for a while there I remember I was rolling drum cigarettes. Yes, I recall that. Were you playing in Cockroach in those days? Yeah. Okay. I was trying to remember like what the bands were in that time.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

Yeah. So back then um Poor played at um Union and then at Metro. And then Meat was at Metro, Cockroach was at Metro, and then after I'd left, I was doing Simson 77. And during that time, we're trying to do a band called Lot. Um that was near the end when I ended up leaving the club. I just never really it we were writing stuff, and we were actually practicing there on on the side stage, since I had the key and everything. And um, it just never never came together. And then um yeah, after that I ended up doing disurinary, which turned into urine, and then since 77 came after that. Oh yeah, so that's right. Meat oh god, we had done There's too many bands. Me turned into Enclosure of Blood. And then it turned into disurinary. And then Urine. And um That was fun because we had two bass players. Myself was more dirty. And then um Let's see. Me. Keith was doing bass and he was cleaner. And then and urine. Scott was doing the cleaner bass. And um really drony, almost kind of flipper. But then some songs would pick up and we would get going. But yeah, back then I was still smoking a lot too. And drinking a ton. Uh switched from Bud Light to Coors Light at some point. But then, you know, Guinness, um cider, Jaegermeister. Yeah. And that was another downfall for me, it was just all the drinking.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

Yeah, I I own a brewery, and that makes it kind of difficult to hone down the the less drinking.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

What what's the name of your brewery?

SPEAKER_02 45:14

It's it's called Ogo Pogo. It's a goofy little brewery in San Gabriel. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

That's bad. I didn't know. Now I'm like, damn, I quit drinking.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

I I heard. I was gonna bring some, but I decided to not uh for that reason.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

Yeah, no, I I actually I have a bottle of really nice uh tequila, my mother-in-law got me for my birthday, my last birthday. And I stare at that thing all the time, but I just don't I don't really have the the taste for it right now. I um just the other day I'd gotten some uh NA Guinness, because I still love Guinness.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Same.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

And um they're alright, but I was like quickly craving lemonade and because I drink a lot of lemonade and green tea. So I just don't have it anymore. But the the main thing is I had to give my body a rest. I was kind of falling apart and working six days a week, and then for a while there I was doing three kind of four bands um and just burning the candle at both ends, and I don't really sleep that much. And I was always stressed, so I was drinking a lot and a lot by myself. So yeah, but uh let's get back to the brewing. What what uh beer are you brewing?

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Uh it's across the board. But we did recently make uh our attempt at making Guinness, and we dosed the cans with liquid nitrogen, so you shake it up, pour it, yeah, get that that same like creamy head experience. Next year we're gonna try it again. We're gonna get uh widget cans uh because you can't get the widget ball that they use in the Guinness cans, but there's another manufacturer that makes it as like a little puck at the bottom of the can. Oh, okay. And uh just better distribution when you open the can. Like you can actually drink a Guinness out of the can. You're not you don't have to pour it in a glass. Uh the beer that we just made, you have to pour it in. I mean, you don't have to, you can still consume it, but it's more fun if you pour it into a glass.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Well, it's proper. Realistically, a Guinness should be a very slow pour. So you sit there like this and you stare at it and you start thinking of things in life like butterflies and bunnies, and and then the next thing you know, your Guinness is done, and you sit there and you just watch the little floaties come down. Oh my god. So dreamy.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

I should have brought some. Just get you off the wagon.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Well, and realistically, I was just talking to the wife about because we're trying to do a movie night, and we started watching that Netflix um uh Lord of the Rings. Have you guys seen that yet? Yeah. Have you read the book or I've not read the book, but Lord of the Rings or Lord of the Flies?

SPEAKER_02 48:17

No, Lord of the Flies, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:19

I watched the Lord of the Rings though. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

The show the Amazon show. I just finished the Netflix Lord of the Flies. It was good. I want to reread the book. I've read it probably like four times.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

I'm getting chills right now because of it.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Um it was really well done. Uh there's definitely some changes from the book. Uh that's why I want to reread it just to be like, okay, what did they choose to change a little bit? But it was nice that they were all British, uh, unlike the original movie. I think they were American kids, which was less fun for some reason.

SPEAKER_00 48:53

But I mean because if well, this one just the violence still hits me as hard, but the accent kind of makes it a little bit more palatable. Because I'll be honest, that I just realized when we were watching the the series today, that has disturbed me and made me the punk rocker that I am. Just the violence and everything. That story I remember reading the book when I was really, really little, and it's all starting to come back now. Man, that story is crazy. It it it gets under my skin.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Just the the violence and we all worked at a business together for years, the three of us, with a lot of our childhood friends making uh body piercing jewelry, which is not exactly the most entertaining job. And we all started listening to audiobooks, and we had Lord of the Flies, like someone owned it, and so it made its way around. I think that we all listened to it at least. Well, probably not you, because you were on the phone all the time, but uh I know that I've read it physically twice, and I think I've listened to the audiobook a few times. It's just crazy as you get older how much you forget. Oh, yeah. And yeah, but watching it, yeah, it was just like I knew what I was getting myself into watching, and I was like, fuck, this is going to be rough. And you just forget these little moments, and I think they did a really good job like recreating the book. They might have altered some of the order or like the way they told it by doing it by like the four characters' perspectives, which I thought was pretty fun.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

I'm but still very upsetting.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

Yeah. Well, that's the thing is we were talking about for movie night, we should go and watch the movie. And I think I think V said she had read it in like fourth or fifth grade. She's academically way out of my league. I mean, seriously, just the crazy she's like jump grades and all this, and she's very, very intelligent and very well read. So to watch the movie would probably bring back even more of the memories that I had from a kid so I could ease into reading it. Because with the memories I have now of Rain as a kid, I had such a vivid imagination. Mind you, when I was really, really young, all that was on my mind, like when I read that was skateboarding, um ghosts, um, trying to understand why I can see and hear things, and then being born on Halloween and being a redhead. I was new as a freak. But reading that and the narrative that I had and thinking of like the pig's head and I'm getting chills right now thinking about it. My imagination had blown that thing up to like basically almost a narrative of what society has become in my eyes. So watching the movie, and then I can ease into reading the book again. Of course, it'll be another bathroom book. I'll either read Dave Dictor's book or I'll read Lord of the Flies. Or Brad Warner. I read um um he's the uh the Buddhist, the punk rock Buddhist. Um he wrote Hardcore Zen and a few other ones. I like reading that just to try to calm my mind down. Because that's another thing with music, is I'm trying not to do anything too political. Even with the goth band that I'm and cemeterio that I'm writing, I'm trying to like write poetry, and then because it's gonna be like a post punk type thing, it's not gonna fit the normal formula, I can just kind of drag on the lyrics and make it as eerie as possible. Hopefully. I I think I have the right ideas, and I've got a freaking bunch of music. Realistically, if I went to the studio, I could probably have enough for an album and then direct people to play the parts. But I don't know, right now I'm just having fun thinking of it all. But yeah, that freaking book movie. Yeah. It's creepy.

SPEAKER_02 53:23

We were just talking while we're at the Aero Club, our first song. Uh Dave wrote the lyrics from uh the book Brave New World, which I still haven't read. Um, but it's it was a cool thing, and you just brought this up because you said that me and Pat were such big Iron Maiden fans that you thought that's the way that we would be into it if you came in with some like story from a book, which I don't know why I didn't put that together as a child. Um but I just thought it was really cool. I'm like, oh what a cool angle because for me, most of my songwriting has been a lot of like woe is me, very like what is going on personally in my life, kind of lyrics. And I always thought that that was a really uh fun approach and did not associate it with Iron Maiden until an hour or so ago. Fred's lyrics, on the other hand, were very topical, maybe a little woe is me.

SPEAKER_03 54:20

Um yeah, probably more but not in the traditional sense. No, no, just yeah, what? She's peeing. She only thinks about me when she's taking a pee. And uh, well, like you said before, I didn't write any lyrics down until we were recording. Everything like for the show, for practice, for whatever, it's just the rhythmic style, and I would make it all up. And most of the lyrics came from that party we played.

SPEAKER_02 54:55

Oh, the Chris Michaels house? Uh I don't remember. Like the disco party?

SPEAKER_03 55:00

No, it was before, but there was a really good recording, and I made all the lyrics up, and those were the lyrics that were used for most of my songs. No.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

Which would be the I think that's the same house, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:12

I think it was our first party we played together.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

This was before the house at the end. Before you played the club?

SPEAKER_02 55:18

Yeah. Which quite a lot of parties. Which to say was pretty crazy that the first time we played the club, how many people attended that show was uh nuts. Because I didn't think that we were popular kids in school by any means.

SPEAKER_03 55:35

Yeah, I remember thinking like I don't know this many kids. Yeah, like there. Well, we played so many parties that it just it just turned into like it was the party circuit. And I remember we would get the phone calls like the day of or the night of, and then we go to the studio, pack up, and play a party. Yeah usually. That's how you remember it was like parties.

SPEAKER_04 55:56

It's just yeah, you just get a call and it'd be like, Can you play a party tonight? Yeah. You get an address and we just yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:01

And some of them were like super scary. Yeah. Scary parties.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

Yeah. Or you wouldn't know until you get there. Yeah. Yeah. What about it? Remind me to tell you the story that about um Justin Pearson and when I bug struggled, which we'll we'll get back to that one because it's well that's it's along those lines.

SPEAKER_03 56:21

That's we played a party once and the fucking Nazis showed up, right? Yeah. And they start swinging and banging around. And Brian Murphy, in his infinite wisdom, pops out of nowhere and says, sorry about the Jew thing, Fred. Like, what do you do with dude?

SPEAKER_00 56:41

Well, we had the the major problem with skins in different levels. Um would they oh wait a minute, there was a bunch of them in Mara Mesa, weren't there? Yeah. But then, you know, of course you got the whole Powway crowd. Yeah. Yeah. And then there was a bit in Peniscatus. When I was still skating the mall, so this would be like 83, 80, no, it might have been 82. I remember um I was talking to I was skating in front of the bowling alley, as as always, and a couple black guys come up to me, and I could tell they were kind of like a little edgier, for lack of better terms. They were officially and I'm trying to remember my emotions about it, but I do remember they were saying that I can't talk to them like that anymore because now they're um junior playboys. So they're part of they're the the young ones in the Playboy gang that was out of Mara Mesa or whatever. And then they were telling me that there was yellow jackets that were the penasquitas gang, and there was the Herbalists, which I guess was the Mexican gang. And I remember just being completely dumbfounded of like, okay, so I guess this changes the dynamic. So I am just, you know, I kind of lost some friends because they were going to gangs, and I was a redheaded. Wasn't really I was into punk rock, but I had longer hair and you know, I wrote a skateboard. I was, you know, typical Miramesa idiot. I don't remember a lot.

SPEAKER_04 58:37

I mean, I remember gangs like at the high school kind of like pseudo. I do remember that Playboy gang.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

Okay, I remember. I remember. It seemed like they kind of phased out. They phased out probably after colors came out. Because then everybody became like uh uh Kramer Blood. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. After colors came out, everybody decided it was weird.

SPEAKER_02 59:01

I just always assumed that everyone was in a fake gang. Yeah, they were fake. Yeah, I never except for maybe HC. A C. Well, sure, but it was mostly like car theft and car stereo theft, like coordinated uh crime, not like we're in a gang. Like turf work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh I don't recall that from Mary Maysa.

SPEAKER_03 59:22

I wanted to be in Cindomob because I thought it was a dope ass game, dude.

SPEAKER_04 59:27

There was a guy in my class that wrote Cindo on his notebook, remember?

SPEAKER_00 59:31

You know, um Sandberg Elementary has that park that goes down Big Park. And um for a long time, before they even developed that, it was just like most of Miramesa, a rocky set of plateaus. I remember oh god, so this is before the park, so I must have been again probably 14-ish. Maybe even soon it might have been god it might have been like 13 or 12, but I remember hearing that that area, that plateau there back when Sandberg, I think, was probably still just bungalows. Maybe some of the newer buildings were being built, but that that's where the gangs would meet, and they weren't like gangs per se by name. But um the thing was I heard people would have switchblades and like a bike chain, and just you better stay away, you're too young. I'm like so later as it got developed, and then they put those concrete benches up there, that would be a place, you know, we go and smoke weed, and maybe every now and again we go fishing and have like six pack of low and brows or bartles and james and just sit there and then you know wait for the cops because then it made it fun, because then you could throw and break a bottle, scream a circle trick lyric, and go running opposite direction of the cops to right where they were also coming. Running from cops all the time is so much fun. But I never took it serious, like we're gonna get shot or we're gonna get beat up. But then later, as I started getting older and older, then it started to become a little bit more serious. And then that's when the skinhead started ruining all the fucking shows. And I started noticing kind of the sex where they were coming from. Like, um well Pali always had its own thing. Yeah. Um I guess there was a few in Penasquitis, and then uh they're bringing up the jewelry company. Um, I'm thinking of JD and Industrial Strength. Where was he? Oceanside? I think he was like in Carlsman or something.

unknown 1:01:55

Close enough.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

Was it Carlsman? Uh somewhere up north, but that was that was like a complete north county scene. Um Escondido. Oh, he was in Escondito for a while. Escondido kind of had their own scene, but we had the problem at the club with the um the skinheads and that religion show wild with Nazis.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:24

I think it was at Selma.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:25

Yeah, I remember the queer show, there was a ton of Nazis there on the Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:29

No, which seems like an odd show to attract that audience.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:33

I was like, why are these guys here?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:34

Like I recall um my my younger brother and Jim Hughes, who were in underbite, were in this like anti-skinhead movement, and you I think had like to have words with them saying you guys gotta stop coming to shows and trying to beat skinheads up. Do you recall this at all?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:56

Uh it's totally sounds like something else. Yeah, um you know what I I think I do. Because they're gonna get their cells killed, if I remember correctly.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:13

They were wild kids, those two.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:16

Yeah, um yeah, I think I do. There was I had to have a few lectures in the back, because I kind of seen the way that the the club was going from you know, I I also grew up there.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:32

You know that we like looked up to you, like you were like uh like a punk rock father figure, and we I I know personally that I was always wanting to impress you. It's like, oh, Jeremy thinks we're cool. That was like a a goal of mine. It seems really silly in retrospect, but that was a thing. And so I recall this incident with my little brother, and I remember pulling him aside, and we were like, come on, man, just knock your shit off, man. We gotta we gotta stay cool. How else are we gonna continue to play shows at this venue if you don't get your shit together?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:06

So that's why that probably stuck in my brain. I don't I don't recall too much skinhead history from our youth, but I was probably so self-involved that I just remember the things that had to do with whatever was my progress. Yeah. And so in this conversation, my brain goes there.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:24

It well, it came in ways that by the time we were at Metro, it wasn't as bad. But so, real quick, um Justin shout out, he's actually tour, he was in Prague yesterday, I don't remember where he is today. Um, but he was in a band called Struggle, and I was managing managing quotes, um, struggle, short-lived, missing children, psychic dykes. And it was in Ramona. I still have it in my books too, so I had short-lived and struggle playing, and I think they're playing with missing children. And it was in Ramona in a garage. Well, unbeknownst to me, because I never really took any gang seriously, um, none of them. I just like I lived in Santa. I was a punker in Santee. That was weird enough. And I wrote a skateboard. And I was um by that point, by the time I was doing this, I was probably a mere year and a half or so sober off of meth. And um because I I had it real bad when I was on it. I mean, real bad. But uh, I didn't drink or anything back then, didn't even smoke pot because fucking hippies and Jerry Garcia and all that. I just I was fully straight so all I was doing was music. And um this is way before the club, or a little bit before the club. I was working on uh um Compilation tape that was gonna be local bands, uh Dead Bolt, Cal Punks were some other bands that I was working with to put on it. I booked this show in Ramona. There ends up being all these skins there. Now, Struggle's a straight edge band. I mean, like full hardcore straight edge band, really, really good band. And short-lived is do you guys remember short-lived? No, I don't. Um it does sound familiar to me. Kind of there's think of like Down by Law, Bad Religion, that sort of genre of music and and all that for lack of better terms. Um they were playing and missing children, I think, were a little bit more aggressive punk, but we short-lived and struggled. We were all all of us were friends. As a matter of fact, they've all kind of intertwined in bands. That's why I'm stoked that I'm actually playing with Sam and Jeff. Because I never was in a band with all these guys that I grew up with um in my twenties. Well, the skin ed was such a problem there, and then uh a bit of meth was kind of going around. A lot of weed, of course, a lot of alcohol, and I kind of learned really quick to not only as a quote unquote manager to kind of you know be with the bands and I had to be semi-sober, which is funny that it I never was, but I had to kind of watch out for everyone to make sure they weren't mixing with you know the wrong people. All that knowledge came with me as I got into Soma. So I I would cling on to the people that I thought had potential, and I would do anything and everything I could to help bring them up and to you know mentor. But I always found it weird that anyone like respected me and like played for me as much as they did. Anytime that someone be like, Oh yeah, we thanked you in the record.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:08

That's a crazy thing that people used to do, have the the thank you section, and it was so important. Yeah, but I mean I also got that sense that you were looking out for us, like you knew that we were drinking in our cars in the back parking lot, where you would say, like, hey, just like don't don't leave your trash on the on the ground outside your car, like take it with you and don't get too crazy, you know. Make sure you can at least still perform. Like, yeah, don't get wasted, don't be an idiot.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:40

Trying to help everyone, but realistically, if it wasn't for all you guys, I wouldn't have well that's when I left, is I couldn't handle the raves anymore. Bands, a lot of bands started just, you know, because they started making some money, started to get some egos, and still to this day I don't like that. You have like a rock star, and I yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:09

We eventually got banned from uh playing there, it was never official, but when um Len's wife Erin was doing the booking at some point.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:21

And yeah, I called their house at like two in the morning and left a like a voicemail saying that she had messed up on the the booking of a show because we weren't on it, and I was like, I I noticed this ad came out in the reader and you you obviously made a mistake. We're supposed to be support for this show, and then never well I played there again later in another band. They didn't know that I played in that other band again.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:47

Yeah, that's Ronald that you won't?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:49

Yeah, yeah, we we'd never played there after that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:52

That's funny, because I um I was trying to book Black Lidow. Um this was oh god, just a few months ago, probably six, seven months ago. Um no, it it was longer than that actually, because it's been a while since I've been in it. But I looked up um Soma Booking, and so I was just trying to be like everyone normal. I send a link to um we had just put out a song, um, and we were recording well, we were supposed to record an album, but we had like more than enough for a full set. We could do a a headline set with a few covers, but we had enough material. We had a killer song, just put out the video, and so I looked up Soma Booking and I sent an email and just kind of explained, you know, hey, I'm I'm in this I'm blah blah blah. I'm didn't want to what's the word I'm looking for, like really push the issue of who I was, but I have this this band, um, just looking for an opening slot, small stage, tried to be as humble as possible. Here's a link to the video. I don't hear back, and I sent another one saying, hey, look, I don't want to have to probably use better words, but something about go over your head, and if I have to talk to Len, then I will. I know how this goes, and I kind of leaned into it a little bit. And then so Jerry, the co-host on the Union of Metro podcast, he tells me, um, you know, that's uh that's Len's wife. And first thing I thought of was, oh, he's fucking still married. God, what and then it started to oh, so it finally bit me in the ass. I told Len years ago, I go, you can fucking afford me because he won't he asked me about coming back. I said, You can't fucking afford me. And between us and the world, I am it's obvious now. I don't have a good relationship with them. He's he's a he's he's a piece of shit, realistically. So when I found out it was his wife, I'm like, oh, no wonder why. So now I'm back in both their heads because I'm trying to fucking book my band at it's nothing like you know when I was there. It's because I had free reign, basically. He just kind of let me do my own thing, but then when they got more involved, and there was more raves, then you know, everyone started blowing up and everyone was making money, everyone became a rock star, and then I was that fucking angry guy in the back. And um, so as I started to put all this together, I'm just like, fuck it. I guess I'm not gonna play there. And I I just wanted to slide in and see if I could just show up as a band member and I don't dress like I used to on stage now in my I I dress up to look like a mortician basically. So I figured I could just slide in, play the show. They wouldn't really know because I don't sing that many songs in that band. Just playing the bass, and I got I could do my makeup, so you wouldn't even really like it'd be easy breezy. I just want to play the place. You know, put put a period at the end of that sentence. Um instead it's more like an old school bomb because there's no way I'm gonna be able to play there now. And if last time I did go there, we were shooting um another video, the last video that I did with Morningstar. I went right after the video shoot to the club. I was trying to get information on um some big band, I don't remember what they're called, but it's some band I hadn't heard of. My daughter was asking about them and wanted wanted some information. So I show up there and I'm talking to Erin, the the ticket girl, and I got my makeup's all running, and it's all I just when I got home and I looked what it actually looked like, because we were doing a seance video. I'm like, oh my god, I'm sitting there talking to her, like, not Erin, um, what's her name? The ticket girl. What the Christina or Christine, not Erin. So I'm um talking to her, and I realized once I got home how fucked up I looked. And I explained, hey, you know, we're just shooting a video, but I'm like, they just think I'm a train wreck at this point. You know, because she knows who I am, but I don't the security didn't really know, and she usually stops people if I like slide up for whatever reason, which I've done a couple times. She's, you know, really nice to me, which I'm not used to either. I'm always expecting Len to come up and yell at me, tell me to get the fuck off the property. It's something rude. You know, but I don't know. So out of skinheads, it goes into my rant about not being able to that's a that's a major falling out.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:11

You were there for a long time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:12

Yeah. But realistically, I needed to leave. I wasn't making shit there. I there was times I went home out of money because I'd pay the cleanup crew. Um, Len just, he spread more rumors than a freaking porn star spreads in a film. It just there was so much I was hearing shit about myself that was really kind of like, come on, dude, you're a fucking grown man. Get over it. You own the club. You know, you're not me. So, but I don't know. You know, it is what it is. So I'll never play there. And it's hard to even figure out where to play now, anyways, because I don't really want to play all the bars. And I've only played Casba once. And now I'm amazed I even was able to do that, but did you guys play the Casbah? No, they didn't like us.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:12

They didn't like us. Um we played the Velvet. Yeah, we played the Velvet. Remember that. Um the Crowbar? Yeah. Crowbar, yeah. Crowbar, Velvet, Soul Kitchen, Pounders. Pounders, Escadito, yeah. Still there, did I work or something?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:28

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:30

Soul Kitchen was cool though.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:31

Soul Kitchen was cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:33

I I liked that place. Um and then remember when um Izod had what was it called? Down here at the World Beats Center. Izod had opened up that other place. He had two of them, one up in Orange County or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:49

Oh, or the uh Showcase Theater. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:51

Uh I think we only play there once, maybe twice.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:56

But I like the Soul Kitchen, and then um there's another place up in the cafe we used to play. Yeah. Um, they're still doing shows, which is crazy. I wouldn't mind playing there. I've I've seen um Dale from the Melvins doing a solo project there. I think that was the last show. But that was the hardcore scene, like um Swing Kids, Unbroken, all those types of bands used to play up at the Che a lot.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:28

Shea or I feel like when I went to the Shea, it was always like Three Mile Pilot and like the Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:33

Three mile pilot.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:37

Again, when you were talking about Mara Mesa bands earlier, I had because I was trying to think of Mara Mesa bands, I'd forgotten about the neighbors and how important that was as like a thing. So then you bring out Three Mile Pilot, I'm like, oh shit, that was an enormous part of my childhood. Were there any other Mara Mesa bands? I don't I like we only know what we went to school with.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:59

We were talking, I think there five or six, there's actually, I don't remember there was more, but like my time frame when I was a kid like still in high school, there I don't think there's really any band. I know um Battalion of the Saints was around. Um The Zeros might have still been playing. Um yeah, there wasn't there wasn't too much, and then by the time I got out of high school, because I didn't really get serious, I took guitar class when I was in 11th grade. And the music stand, that's I have the scar right here. I was standing below it and I was trying to pull it up, and I pull it up and it danked me. So the teacher sent me home. I get home and my mom's like, What the hell are you doing here? And I said, Well, I could freaking cut. She goes, put a band-aid on it and go back to school. Uh so I put a band-aid on it and I took it off, and it just it, you know, I had a nice line. It went all the way across the bridge of my nose. And uh people made fun of me at school, but um, I got a D in that class. So that's when I figured I was just gonna become a vocalist. And um by 86 I had moved out to Santee. Um by 88 I was I think it was eight eighty seven or eighty eight is when I was working at Wienersnitzel, and that's when I met the guys in short-lived, and then they ended up forming, and that's basically where everything came out of there was the Wienersnitzel Insante, which no longer exists, but the building's still there. And then um back then Gamma Gamma was around, and that's how it all started. Ray was in short-lived, worked at Gamma Gamma, Lynn was looking for artists, he brought me up. I brought up that I could book some bands, and um, again, I was still I was trying to be a vocalist, and I kind of messed around on the bass a little bit because I knew guitar was not gonna work for me because I got the D. And um yeah, by late 89, I was booking shows at Soma and the whole thing blew up. But by that time, um so bands like Fishwife would have been around. Um god, I can't remember. There was a few metal bands, like psychotic waltz. They were called Oslan back then. Um Skinmarks.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:00

It sounds familiar. We were talking about like Santa Claus was the name of Santa Claus. Did your other podcast and talked about uh his first show, and that was a big thing for us as kids was the band names because they were some of them so ridiculous that it made it so hard to come up with a band name.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:25

That's why I thought Dr.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:27

Klon was so brilliant because we were just making we were we were making fun of having a band name. We're like, let's just make it the longest thing possible.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:36

And now there's bands like, and what's that one in the Will Find Us by our Trail of Blood?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:41

Yeah, Trail of Dead.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:42

Yeah, the freaking novel that they have to you know bring down to Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:47

Do you recall when um I made fake flyers for Soma? I confessed this to you years after doing it, but when we were in high school, I was in the print and graphic design class, and so the Soma flyer was very specific.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:03

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:04

And we would joke on a regular basis about I'm not you know making fun of these band names, but Laceration really stood out to us. Um and so we would just sit around and try to cook up what we thought were ridiculous band names, and so I made a fake flyer that we passed around our school. I printed hundreds of them. Uh, and the headliner was Mama's Llamas, Mealworm, The Bloodthirsty Leopards, and Evil Skull. And we'd made Evil Skull t-shirts as a fake band in high school. And I asked you at some point, like after we've been playing the club for years, I was like, Do you ever recall people showing up for a show that didn't exist? And you I think you said yes. And that was a very proud moment that I had achieved my goal.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:58

I I do recall something at some point of people coming up looking for a certain show. I think there was a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:07

Because there's no there's no internet, and so oh, you know what?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:11

That that sounds really familiar. Because those rave nights, I was wound up very you know, God, I hated those fucking things. I still, whenever I hear boots and pants, I just I start shaking. Um because yeah, those people were just they would smell like baby a lot of them would smell like baby powder and just so far gone on drugs. And everyone else seemed to have a great time. Um everyone had their own kind of well there was there's a few schemes going on. People, security, um, employees taking kickbacks. Um I heard through the rumor mill that uh security was taking drugs and then they would resell them. So there was all sorts of nefarious. So anything coming up with anyone talking to me about actual music and not drugs and monotonous music would have been the highlight of any rave. So I'm sure I would have found that uh they came to see mealworm. I still like mealworm as a name.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:28

Do you recall us making fortune cookies?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:31

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was the best.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:33

Did we do that at your mom's house?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:35

Yep. Yeah, I'd remember that now.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:39

It's such a ridiculous thing that you like in in order to achieve your goals of uh we brought X amount of people to the show, they have to say your name at the door. And we were always trying to come up with what's the best way to convince people.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:54

We made fortune cookies that said please say always it was both bands, too. Please say Funkopodamus and Dr. Klon at the door, and we would approach it like uh was the Beastie Boys and uh run DMC Together Forever Tour.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:11

Yeah, it was a Together Forever Tour.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:15

It made more sense to get the two because if like again, logically coming from a promoter standpoint, to split the two bands up, you're splitting up the crowd because you're either gonna come to see the show, but then if the phone rings and like, hey, we got this party, well we want to play. In my head, I'm thinking they're gonna be like, we want to play, so we'll go and then it gets all split up. But if I get all you guys together, then I get all the crowd together, because my whole thing was to have these shows as much fun as possible. That's the exact same reason why I wouldn't book certain bands. Um, and I refuse some like I refuse Jewel because I'm like, I don't think there's enough air going through the building to not only get rid of all the patchouli, um I don't think we can fill up the dressing room with enough people, unbeknownst to me. She ended up being huge, and we probably could have aired out the patchouli over a few days. So it was my bad. But I was trying to find shows that would be fun. So packaging.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:31

Was that Jewel doesn't seem like a standing room only?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:34

Yeah, no, I would, you know, because I was kind of paying attention to everything that was going on, and you know, the coffee shop was doing, especially the one in OB, that was doing really well there. I would go with Silas, which was um the door guy for a while. Down in Metro, he had the cane, or not Metro, uh Union. And he and I are are good buds and have been for years. But we would go flyering and and um whatever for whatever reason that we could actually go out because you know we were I was always booked every weekend. But whenever we could go out and we're say we're in the OB for whatever reason, like I lived there for a long time too. Just going by whatever that coffee shop was next to what is that, um, not Dream Street, um Winston's, that place would be packed. You know, and they're all they're outside smoking their cigarettes and they're having a little coffee, and you know, it just smells like a Julian hippies and I'm like, I can't you know, it's not really so much a punk rock club, but I can't see filling up the side room with a jewel show. And then um I did take a chance once with um I think they were called Drive.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:56

There was well they were older They were actually older than me, which was weird for me to book, and they were more like a college type band. I remember if that's the the band I'm thinking of, they did really well once. Yeah. Other people showed up and then I booked them again. And it was hard to book 'em because it's trying to find the right bands. And um they just it completely flopped. It was like it was the other one that flopped really bad that I remember distinctly is Goldfinger. Really? When I booked him and John, I think that's the guy's name, the main guy, is yelling at me. He's like, Where's Len? Where's Len? I go, he's at home. Or fucking, I know. It was during the Christmas break when I would book all those shows up until the New Year's. And um, so I booked him and he wanted the the dressing room and this, that, and the other thing. I'm like, dude, I remember telling him I booked you as a favorite of Len. So you don't have a dressing room. If you want to get your frickin' beer, you can go, and I told him to go in the one that everyone used. Because I knew I was gonna be getting a call from Len or a page from Len and I would have to call him because I don't think we even had cell phones then, or he did. But um, and they had nobody there, like literally nobody. So I don't even know how they got paid, but I'm sure Len figured out something and gave them like gas money. Um but yeah, some of those shows is trying to find the right people in the right crowds, and then to not have that element of whatever random skinheads would come in. Um it got it got tricky at times. So you guys were always a blast. And the the crowds were always great, always respectful, it just made it fun. Plus, I like the music. You know, and Fred, you were always just such a maniac. Just seeing me show up. It just your personality always was just so funny. I remember that distinctly, and then the name, so whenever I took the funk, I was talking to you right away.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:13

Yeah, natural showman.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:15

Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, there was that show we did the Cice Age, it was like us, you guys were the neighbors, like time. I think Underbite was all Mermansa man, yeah. And you wore the Mermansa like baseball jersey.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:28

Yeah, yeah, it was great. Well, I remember specifically uh trying got got you going by just saying, what was that bit? It goes, you know, Jeremy, I went bowling the other day, and uh you know it's really not that bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:51

No, I want to go bowling.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:56

I want to record that Funkoponus album now.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:00

No shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:01

We can get a we can find a drummer.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:03

I don't know people. The Ishwana lives in Michigan then.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:07

Yeah. And you live in Rhode Island.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:10

I would I would fly out to record the album. But we still have the I have to find those songs on Twitter. Do you have any of those songs on tape? Stop.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:17

Mel Mel might have them.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:20

Oh yeah. Mel? Maybe. What are you doing, buddy?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:24

They're just unusable, but we could still get the riffs from them.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:29

Because that's what I don't remember. I mean, I have like sleeves, I have that riff like playing in my head since you started talking about the failed attempt at record recording that.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:40

Yeah. Some good stuff. Yeah. Some good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:44

It's really sad, it never never got brought to light. Yeah. It was a fun, fun, goofy project.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:50

And I wasn't you didn't put out anything at all?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:54

They put out they put out a full tape with Sean.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:56

We put out a full tape. We recorded at Ninth Ring.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:00

Ninth Ring.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:01

Recorded at Ninth Ring Studios. Sounded okay. But we didn't have enough money to do the uh the mixing. So we just kind of like kind of left out in the air. We have a we have a rough mix of that. I I have a CD of those record of that recording at Ninth Ring.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:17

Did you record anything when Frank played guitar?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:21

No. No. We had Frank from the DMs play with us for a while. With John, I thought that was a good there was a really good live, that was a good live show with those two. It was really good. He played Sean's songs really well, but then there were some songs he just couldn't play. And Frank is like a master guitarist, and yet he still couldn't do some of Sean's like songs.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:45

There's something about Sean's approach to guitar that can't be uh duplicated. Yeah. It's just uh he is the master of being Sean.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:59

I couldn't I couldn't figure that out. I'm like, I want to try. Like, I don't know how that guy could move his wrist. So sloppily perfect. Like his drumming patterns were just wacky, but perfect. It was, I don't know. I I have a funcophus tattoo. I think I got it before I even played in the band.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:21

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:22

I was a I was a diehard fan.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:26

Yeah, you were the number one fan.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:30

Do you think if you went into the studio, like you would it would just all come back or I think we could I mean yeah, with with Chach playing bass, Fred vocals, and then just anybody who could just play the guitar and drums would be doable. Obviously, it won't ever be the same as Sean, but well, Sean's in Germany, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:54

But yeah, I think with Jason it would definitely work. Throw the bug on him.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:01

Send a message to say hey.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:03

It would be a lot of fun. Your uh ability to uh because you were mostly into hip-hop when you got into this band. I think the Dead Candice was probably like the biggest like punk influence.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:18

Well, I think that I was such a rap fanatic, but around like ninety-two, ninety-three, I kind of saw the handwriting on the wall that this is getting lame, especially when all the white boys started listening to the city.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:30

Like chili peppers start acting a little too funky.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:32

I started to get into like then I heard like screeching weasel from like Mark Prosy. Like it's like, oh, this is like fucking kind of cool, and then for some reason, Sonic You spoke to me. I don't know why. Sonic Youth like just spoke to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I kind of like forced myself on Sean and Ishmael like to be the singer.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:56

But lyrically, you had a lot of hip hop influence. Absolutely. You would make pop culture references to prove a point. Like you would do those kind of lyrics. Uh Beastie Boys.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:09

Like, yeah, like I'm I'm in single Conrad Bain. Yes, Conrad Bain.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:16

Well, then that's what helped you with lyrically to you know just be able to beat Johnny on the spot.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:23

Yeah. Well, that's what I used to do. I used to go to those those parties, Brian O'Douway would beatbox, and then I just rap over the keg. And that was like kind of like do a crowd, it was like a freestyle at a party or whatever. And then when I saw that, you know, Sean and Ish and Jim Ward back, rest in peace, was uh doing um a band that they did Kenyatta, yeah, the Kenyatta song. And then I just kinda I just really literally I forced myself on them. Like I'm I'm singing in your band now. Yeah, this is the way it is. This is how it's gonna be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:59

Yeah. So that's funny. But that's that's the best way. Just like, okay, I I gotta do this. Yeah. You know, because I've been on the other side of trying to coach someone and and stroke their ego to get their confidence enough to continue, um mainly because lack of anyone else, you know, wanting to keep pursuing things, and that never goes anywhere quick. I've had bands where and since in 77, um when I started that, I told Stoney I brought him in first, he was from uh Diablo 44. Remember those guys? So I brought him in and I said I want it to be like New York style, um 77. Um, I said I did I didn't want to do I wanted to play clean bass and I was playing a PV, an old PV at that point. And um I didn't want to sing in this. I just wanted to be the bass player. I just wanted to kind of be my little corner and do my thing. And we went through we did a karaoke bar and we had a a girl try out there, which she was from England, I believe, and it sounded pretty good, and we're like, this this might work. Um we had Monica from um Dodgeball try out, and I'm like, eh, this might work. And then we had Stoney's girlfriend Candy, which was in some other band doing back at Vogel. She ended up being the one because Stoney as well didn't want to sing. He just wanted to play guitar. And it turned out to be a rad band. But then I had to leave because I didn't I had issues with the drummer, and I was trying at that point I was trying to get sober, and um I wasn't at Soma anymore, and he tried to get me into computers, and still to this day I have a hard time with remotes, the phone, computers. I'm not a computer guy, and he's like, oh, you should get in the computer. He wanted me to work with him, basically. And uh I couldn't do it, so I ended up leaving the band. But yeah, that will. And then I've had trying to think the next one after that, I basically had to convince people. I've had to do this actually, I've think about it. I've had to do this a few times. Tried to get my little brother years ago to learn the drums. We actually, his dad, he was my half-brother. Um Adam Dreamers. I tried to teach him how to play drums, and that time I'd learned to slow down my my pace and do more like sludge stuff. And um my buddy Will, who's our light guy, tried to teach him how to play guitar just so I could have someone to play with. It was just horrible. And it zaps all the energy when I'm like, fuck, I got all these songs that I want to do, but I have no one to play with. And then we went through that with uh Morningstar. We were trying to find a drummer for a while. We tried a few people and just no one we couldn't get anyone. Even now it's with everyone getting older, it's a matter of uh either having the time because you know they're running a business or whatever. Um they still have kids, or there's always some excuse. It's hard when you know we get older, but luckily I've finally reached that age where I plateaued. All the good years are behind me. So I'm able to have more fun, but yeah, it's hard getting a band. So if you find people that are doing it and you force it in, like it. And that's why I was doing so many bands for a while, too. But I don't know, I have to do something artistically all the time. All the time. Oh, you do the book.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:22

Yeah, just writing a lot. Yeah. You know, it's probably the same.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:26

I'm very excited about this book.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:28

Yeah. It's probably the same idea, you know, as like not playing in a band but for years, but I can kind of relive my my youth through that. So yeah, it's it's good. I'm excited. So we're gonna follow I gotta find a publisher and then are you gonna still look for a publisher?

SPEAKER_00 1:40:49

Are you gonna do something?

SPEAKER_04 1:40:50

So I don't know. I'm kind of just things I should just self-publish it. Oh DIY. Yeah. But we'll see. So I gotta I gotta go through all the edits and uh clean it up and then and then see what the next step is.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:01

But what about um photos and flyers and all that? Are you gonna add that in or yeah, I've got a bunch.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:07

I brought some actually, if you want, but um yeah, I want to put photos in it and of flyers and like all the old shows and stuff, so it's it's um oh wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:21

But um uh that was some of the most fun was making the flyers.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:28

Yeah, we made this one. Yes, we did. Absolutely, that's the first show.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:35

Oh, that's not the first show. That's I thought that was the first show. It's the main stage. Yeah. Which we were surprised that you let us do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:43

I know, right?

unknown 1:41:45

That's so.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:45

But yeah, I want to put photos and flyers in it to get and kind of thicken it up too, like make it more.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:51

Yeah, that's tough.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:54

We would appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:00

Oh, Nugget.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:02

Nugget, that does sound familiar.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:06

Yeah, Mike Hathaway, remember from the music door?

SPEAKER_02 1:42:09

Oh, yes, I do. I do remember. I didn't know his last name, or I couldn't remember his last name because I was thinking about him recently because of this.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:18

Yeah, sometimes we'd mail it in. Sometimes we'd really get some effort.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:22

Always the curious George, like what was the place that was up in 24 hours? King Code.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:29

Oh, we spent so much time at the King Code on Poway Road and Community? Is that right? Yeah, Powet one? Steve Harris. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:41

Well, oh, and then there was that uh that music trader up in Poway. Yeah. Actually, Dev's um was that Pyro Peak store?

SPEAKER_04 1:42:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:56

Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:58

Because the store that I worked at, or we all work for the body joy company, Dennis, he he had a store a Fred and I worked at was across the street from Music Trader.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:06

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:07

Fred used to go over there and be like, I'm gonna borrow these CDs, and you come back with like the clash, like the whole discography of the clash, and like, where'd you get this? God, Ms. Trader. They'd just be like they'd just be like in our shop, like we wouldn't never bring them back.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:20

This is a crazy lineup.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:23

Yeah. Yeah. That's so crazy looking at those.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:29

We played with slightly stupid. Oh, before they were uh reggae band. Yeah. Kind of metal.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:37

Yeah, because Adam um had his double bass kick. Um bass kick? Double kick. Oh, how funny. Oh, that was a better show though.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:56

Whoa, we played with NIV. Built to last. This is like a hardcore show. Oh, Carter Peace mission.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:02

Carter Peace mission.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:05

Don't get you started.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:09

Yeah, and then this color of gray that was on our walls. Yeah, yeah. I couldn't look at that color for years.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:16

Yeah, there's one in there where we put it POD and I didn't I don't remember that at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:21

I do. You do at some point. Um where's Turkey Mallet? How there's turkey mallet here. Agent GDC.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:30

Yeah. I just um I was looking through seven inch records the other day and I found my Agent D D C record. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:37

Remember they did that cut down song. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:40

The Cutdown Clown?

SPEAKER_04 1:44:43

Yeah, Jessica and my wife was dating the singer. Oh I didn't know, like when we were played to that show.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:51

That's so cool that you have that.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:54

Yeah, putting those in the book home.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:56

Yeah, so that's the idea is a lot of the photos in books. There were photos in the book.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:00

I'm assuming I made this fire.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:01

Oh, for sure. It's got the eddy on the top. Um, yeah, that's thick a little bit. But yeah. The nobodies are cool. I remember I've played those guys. Oh, the nobodies. Oh, Ever Ready too.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:12

Yeah, nobody's great.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:15

That's so crazy. Yeah, we did. I mean, we played some cool shows, I feel like.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:21

It's crazy how many that you actually did play. Yeah. You know, looking at all these flyers. I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:26

Yeah, you get a phone call at your home land line. Yeah. Hey, do you guys want to play a show at the uh with these bands on this day? And then like it changes your mood for the day. You're like, oh my god, we're gonna go play.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:42

No, I remember the first call he I thought it was a prank call. Oh, really? So you were like, Well, I just got your tape, sounds really good. You what do you think about playing the? I was like, dude, whatever. Like, you know, I didn't and then he's like, Well, if you don't want to fucking play, then don't. And then you called right back. I go, dude, I thought it was a prank call. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:09

In fact, then it was so funny because my mom, I one of the few memories I have from so many calls. I used to be so good on the phone. I used to, you know, beautiful Johnny on the spot thinking, and uh it was because it's like being a salesman. So my mom just brought this up years ago. I would call her for you know whatever reason, and I would be like, hey, this is uh germ from Soma, and her reaction would be something along the lines like, I know, you're my son. I mean, oh yeah, yeah, mom, mom. Sorry, whatever. And um, I guess I'd done that a few times. But yeah, back then, I remember I was always on Christmas, a few times we would go to um in University City, there was one of the hotels there, had a big Christmas buffet. And I remember a couple times being there and I would have my pager on me, and I always have a pocket full of change. So every time without fail on Christmas dinner, I would have at least a caller or two that I would have to deal with during Christmas dinner. My family's just like, yeah, whatever. You know, but you know, I didn't really look too Christmassy. I don't like Christmas anyway. So and uh my family, you know, I'm the oldest out of all the kids, so I'm in whatever plaid and a band shirt and my creepers and whatever color hair. Bondage pants, yeah. And you know, a fancy hotel, restaurant, and where's your phone? Probably reeking of beer because I didn't really eat much then. So I'm you know, I'm walking around with my pager. I get to the phone, I'm sitting there, you know, booking shows or talking whatever. Because there'd be times where people will call up and say, Oh, we can't play, you know, so-and-so's sick. So then I'd have to come up with like some way to keep them showing up, have some people show up, maybe get another band to play on short notice, but trying to keep the whole machine going, because any little bump in the road, you know, it wasn't just me, I would have Len come down on me, and uh I didn't like that much. I didn't like being told what to do. Still, you know, being like a rebel and you know, he did give me a lot of free reign, but I had to, you know, kind of stick within certain guidelines, or else, you know, we wouldn't be able to keep doing what we did because there was times where there was hardly anyone that would show up to a show. It would be a bummer, but you know, just the way it is. But if it was my fault, ooh, that would not be good. And uh I would probably drink a lot that night and um just be bummed and pissed, and then whoever showed up the next day. But usually like if it was a big touring show that would come through, um, and I would have to be there at noon, open it up, and then let the you know crew come in and the sound. And I wouldn't have to talk to anyone, so I could just like slowly sober up by the time people started showing up, or if the local bands if there were by then hopefully I would not be that angry. But uh yeah, times it started it got kind of rough.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:43

I feel like we were there a lot. Like if we weren't playing there, we would go to see bands play there. Like there was like not a lot to do. Like it was every Friday, Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:54

It wasn't a party or something, we'd always or I think that's probably where my addiction to special. Treatment began because I don't like going to shows anymore. I yeah, I was like, I don't want to go if I have to stand in the crowd for some reason. Just after just years of touring, it's not fun. But I've gone to shows, and friends are like, you don't want to be backstage because everyone's on in-ears now, and so you can't even hear music backstage, so the the fun is lost. But yeah, I definitely think that I don't know, having that relationship with you early on, you would oftentimes we would go to shows, and I think that you would let us in through the back, and we could watch a show that we wanted to see and feel like we were cool or part of a scene, and that made us feel like yeah, somebody's there wasn't many people that I was actually that cordial with and in hindsight now, um, which was the reason why I sent today that I wanted to sit and chat with you guys because it been God, how long has it been? Easily 30 years longer.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:06

Yeah. So but you know, those were fond memories. It's anytime that there was something there to kind of keep it lively and feeling like like a party but organized. I miss that, and that's what at the end for me I wasn't having anymore because like I said, everyone there's so many attitudes and just just chaos, and you know, the wheels were falling off and you know, it just wasn't fun anymore. So luckily I did leave because you know, 7-Eleven needed me. And Mermeza, right? And I worked at two of them, but you know, that and everything that I learned from there is after that when I left my plan was, and I did go to Mesa because I was gonna go to school. And I was like, fuck it, I'm just gonna get back into landscaping and you know, doing gardening and all that. So I figured I would go to school. And a couple times trying to go through the process there, I'm like, I don't fit in here. I'm like I was older than pretty much everyone there. Um some people knew who I was. Some people were looking at me a little weird. I would I had no safety net. I wasn't backstage with my stool. You know, I wasn't like going into a record store and you know, I had to say hey to a couple people that I knew. It just there was so many people and I didn't know anybody. And I didn't do well in high school or any school, so it was just a bad decision. So after leaving that, I ended up doing 7-Eleven. Did that for three years, then I started doing um waterfalls and trying to build a business with that, and then I was doing handyman work, and then I did uh high-end tile for a few years, and I'm back to what I was doing when I was 18, which is pushing a mower, and I'd still I'll do some hardscaping every now and again, but you know, I didn't I didn't know what the hell I was gonna do. It was it was kind of scary to be honest. What year was that day last year? Uh 97. Okay. And it was let me think. So I when I when I turned 30, I was still living in Obi. Um I remember the Misfits I think it was I'm trying to remember like what part of the year I left. It might have been in the beginning, because when I was I turning 40. No, I believe I was turning 30. The Misfits were playing Soma and Jerry, my co-host with the other podcast, um I talked to him and my girlfriend at the time, and they were supposed to bring over Doyle and Jerry only. And we're gonna celebrate my birthday afterwards. Um I don't think anyone came over. As a matter of fact, I think my girlfriend at the time went out with her other boyfriend or something and didn't get in till late. I'm pretty sure that was the year that I sat by myself and just got wasted just waiting on, you know. I didn't really care about Michael Graves coming over because it wasn't Dan's egg. You know, and he's well, you know. But I was I was stoked on on Jerry and uh Doyle, and they never kicked fucking bastards. But on a good note Yeah, because I know we've had concerts that we don't like the Misfits.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:05

Like you don't you're not a fan of Misfits, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:08

Can you got great songs?

SPEAKER_02 1:55:10

Can you play a Misfits song?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:12

It does. But I they're not my favorite. Yeah, I'm not a fan, like of the huge fan.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:17

I mean they're I like the hits. I like the hits. Whatever that yellow album is. The hits. I love the hits. Oh I never dug deep. But there's like 21 songs on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:29

Yeah. Is it the is the I think I might actually have that one. Yeah, I never really I mean they were alright, but it's they were to me, they kind of remind me of the Ramones. And I'm not really big on the Ramones.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:45

Oh yeah, we were we were all big Ramones people growing up.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:48

Um but I liked Well, obviously Venom. I still freaking love Venom. What was I really into? The Exploited. I I like the English stuff more than anything. The Exploited, um 999, Buzzcocks, um Buzzcocks, P. I. P. I. L is actually um, or Pill is actually Johnny is more of an influence on my singing than I even realized. Um Cockroach when we did um This is not a love song, that's based on a Pill song that I just fucked all up and of course my bandmates. Colin on the um the kitty litter box with the fucked up drums and crack cymbal. I think he had one cymbal and sat on a kitty litter box and had a tom turned on its side for a kick drum. We were everything the epitome of making fun of everything about pop music. It was brilliant. And I I don't know how I sloshed through every set. It was it was art to the point of is this really art? Can we really call this music? It was so rad. I missed that band. But um then uh thing I had a trend of thought.

SPEAKER_04 1:57:17

Um You were saying the good news is and I interrupted it.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:22

It's a um there was the Buzzcocks 999, and then um on the flip side was like really into Neurosis came in when they had just they came through, they were promoting or they were just about to do Nut Enemy of the Sun. Um I can't remember the name of the album. It just won't stop, babe. Um, but nonetheless, so then I got into neurosis, and because it was like almost anti-music, but I never really liked this cheesy generic misfits um Ramon's texture.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:09

Yeah, he loves his trains. The misfits always seemed like like just like KISS to me, like the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:15

Yeah, I never liked KISS either. The whole like get up. And I I mean I I like the aesthetic to a certain extent, but now it's it's so manufactured, and and I've I've um I've heard horror stories about how they are now um through the eyes of Dave Lombardo on what he's he's said about them. And um they're you know they're not that talented at all. And um, I think it's Jerry. One of them just pounds the shit out of his guitar. Who's who's playing guitar? Do you they're not following? Well, one of them, the guitar is so bad that um I I think it's them that there's someone that's backstage that they kind of keep in the back to not have the emphasis on that's actually holding down the song. Um kind of like how people nowadays, everyone's using the in-air, so no one has hardly anything on stage. There's no stage volume, which to me is weird. Yeah, it's like Lemmy from Motorhead saying, Yeah, I'm I'm I'm just gonna go direct to the house. No, he's louder than the house, just him alone. Back in his day, rest in pace, Lemmy. Um that's another band I never really got into. I didn't really I wasn't a Motorhead fan. I like the hits. But yeah, I could not tell you a Motorhead song. Ace of Spades. I guess there's a lot of handful that you know if you've heard them. And then like We Are the Road Crew and Um He did do a brilliant um uh what is it, the Rolling Stones song. Um Pleased to Meet You. That song, whatever the hell that title is. Did a really good cover of it.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:18

I'm also not very well versed in the Rolling Stones. Somehow that escaped me.

SPEAKER_04 2:00:23

Yeah, I don't know any stones.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:25

I like them more now than I did as a kid. I remember um the one album with the zipper. Someone at high school, back in the it was no, it was junior high. For some reason, someone had that um at school. I remember seeing it, I think it's called Sticky Fingers. And I seen it like, eh, that's cool, but I was, you know, I was into punk rock. By that time, punk rock and definitely venom, um, black flag, Aussie, Black Sabbath. Still a huge Black Sabbath fan.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:03

That was a a constant in our garage. Um just like at the age of 15 where you're like you know, learning things, you start smoking pot, start taking acid. Uh I forget which Sabbath album was like on a loop in the garage. I don't know how many crazy just taking some acid Sabbath or Pink Floyd is on. That's what we it's very weird that we were in a punk band because we listened to so much. Like, well, Iron Maiden was probably like the beginning for me and Pat coming out of like Michael Jackson and George Michael. Um but we listened to so much like Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Hendrix. It was like all classic rock, but we were also into these punk bands, but it wasn't what we listened to as like a group collectively.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:01

Probably because of the drugs that was the influence there.

SPEAKER_04 2:02:06

The Pink Floyd.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:07

Listening to the Ramones wasn't as fun on acid.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:11

See, I never did acid, but the drug part David did not do any acid for the I don't know. That might be in the book though at the very end. No, I I was never like that either. I'm trying to think for in my teenage years, back when like Kenny, or Ken, sorry, Ken. I'm still thinking when we're a kid. Okay, good. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. When uh Kenny and and Jeff and um so back then it would have been Jim Napulanoa. When we were all hanging out, um, there's a little bit of weed going around. And back then, in those days, you would have to watch out who you got your weed from. If it smelled too much like gas, then you know that it was Mickey that came over the border. Um, but you would have to what you can't get it from the older stoners because it might be dipped, it could be laced. Um, and then you know, we all seen the movie about doing PCP and you jump out of windows. Like a buffet. Since weed is a gateway drug. But um, but yeah, we we would smoke a little bit of weed, and every now and again there'd be a little bit of alcohol, but we didn't really that wasn't our thing. Just music was just kind of always there. But Kenny brought in um because his parents would buy him a lot of records. Um he I think he's the first one to bring in Merciful Fate. I think so. And then uh but for Maiden, I remember our friend who lived so Kenny and Clay lived on the same street. And Clay's parents were really, really religious. But somehow yeah, uh Clay and his sister Corby. Um, he had Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden, and I I think he's the first one to have peace of mind, or maybe Kenny had it. But we were huge I'm I still love Venom. I mean Venom, obviously, uh Iron Maiden like big time, the older stuff. Um after Power Slave, I kind of dropped off from them. But the thing, when we were growing up, I saw it slowly come into place. If you were whatever style of music or whatever thing you were into, whatever click, you weren't supposed to like certain things. Like if you liked punk rock, you could not like metal. That's why I was like, Well, that's not really punk rock.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:06

I recall there being some shame in the punk rock community. Like if like even the neighbors had definitely had like some of their older songs where like there's a lot of metal in this, and then they'd kind of phase those songs out over time, and it seemed like they had some metal shame there. I always thought it was fun and maybe even funny at one point. Um, because I played in my little brother's band under under my for a hot second. Uh, and I kept trying to put metal solos into everything. I was like, oh no, no, no, this is this is this is cool.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:42

Metal solos are the best.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:44

And they were trying to be like a ska pop punk band.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:48

And they started out like pretty pretty cool, and then it got a little ridiculous. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:57

Which was fun. My cousin Paul played uh trumpet in it, and so I loved not that we weren't hanging out anyway, but just gave me extra time to hang out with cousin Paul.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:07

That's cool. But was it so there wasn't really that much shaming back then?

SPEAKER_02 2:06:13

Because it seemed like No, they wouldn't get mad at me for doing the metal solos.

unknown 2:06:18

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:18

They're like, come on, Jason, take it easy. And then I'm like, no, no, no, this is happening. And then uh, yeah, Jim.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:26

You don't understand. I am doing this right now.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:30

Jim, Jim, much better guitar player than I, and he was playing guitar and singing, and he decided he didn't want to play guitar anymore because he wanted to have the freedom to just sing, and so that's where I came in. I was like, all right, but you realize what you're getting here. And we recorded also at uh what was that studio? Ninth Ring? Ninth Ring. And he would like want to take the guitar away from me. He'd be like, I'm just gonna play this part, like this is how this happens. But I squeezed a couple. Ridiculous. I would turn the gain up so high. Yeah. I don't know why it's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:09

I I was doing that until um a couple years ago I started playing clean. Well, it started with the left outs, and whenever my wife and I would jam, so I started playing clean. And then I was like, I like this because I'm freed of my petals now. I have this this acceptable tone. I can I can be more diverse. And well, I'm back to my all my petals again, but it depends on how raunchy I want it to sound. But I so playing clean it started to open up this new thing of like, oh, I can start playing this, and actually in the left outs we wrote a song that was gonna end up being a kind of a country song, which I never thought that I'd ever play, just because I opened that door of I don't have to be pigeonholed into playing like a meat grinder of a bass all the time. And um that was that was a lot of fun. The left outs was really for me for a while there. I actually have all the songs that we were doing, just waiting to rehash them again. It was very stiff little fingers. And so along with that, my voice started to change to where I don't have to yell at everyone all the time and I don't have to sound like I'm dying, so therefore everyone around me should feel the pain. And then getting more into like telling stories and and being a little bit more personal. That's kind of a lane that I was writing, but now I'm I'm having too much fun do it. But now I actually have you know different bases for different things that I want to do. But alright, just quick tangent. I thought I was playing the clean bass. Um I had something else that I was thinking along with that, but I digress. Um we are my voice is starting to go, as you can probably tell.

SPEAKER_02 2:09:13

I have to use the potty.

SPEAKER_00 2:09:15

Um you guys want to just wrap it up? We got a couple hours here and hang out for a little bit. Yeah, super fun. Let's um we'll just close this out. This is the the sceneless podcast that this will be on. I'll give you guys all the links and I'll get I'm gonna get this out right away and do some video. Um, but I'm not kicking you out of the house. We're just gonna finish the podcast for now. And um I'll do uh the cheesy boxed outro.

SPEAKER_05 2:09:49

Here