Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Tha hal al Shedad - Jamesless in '95



This was the earliest picture that I could find of Ben and Ed, but it was actually taken in Auburn after I had joined the band (around June 1995).

Here is the recording: The hal al Shedad - Jamesless in '95

For your information, I was not the original drummer of the hal al Shedad - there was another before me. I don't remember very much about him, except he had a white drumset and played right-handed, but with his left hand playing the hi-hat and ride - like Frank from the 42. Ben and Ed did not know him before he joined the band, I believe they found him through an ad in the Creative Loafing. These songs were recorded in their practice space at Black Box, some of which would be dropped once I joined the band, but there are a couple that survived. "That One" became the de-facto hit single for the band, which never had a proper name. "Atrophic Revolutions" was also an early hit - and the most Circus Lupus'ey of our stuff, like "Right Turn Clyde" from Solid Brass. "Good Intentions" was an early song we recorded at the same time as our first batch of singles but never released until the singles collection came out a few years ago.

So they played two shows with this drummer - one at the Driverdome with Tired From Now On and Moonraker from Gainesville, and one at the Godless Red house in Home Park with Inkwell. I thought their musicianship was amazing, and they still in high school! I was two years older, but was so excited about their music, I wanted to be a part of the action. By this time, Car Vs. Driver was breaking up, and I had pretty much stopped playing in the Go-Steadys and The Midget Farmers were winding down. I wanted a new band to play in, and these guys were it. We went to Tortillas and had lunch one day, and when we got back to the Driverdome, I let them know if they ever wanted to have a different drummer, I would be really interested in playing with them. They went out to their car, and literally about two minutes later they told me that I was in. I think we practiced later that day, and played our first show in Pensacola the next week with Inkwell.

So here is the band I heard back in the spring of 1995 that was so fresh and exciting to me. Hope you enjoy it as well.

7 comments:

  1. Thank you very much for all the Hal stuff!!

    I discovered your band a few weeks too late. it was the fall of 97 when you guys played 2 shows in Belgium. I was enjoying the last days of summer and didn't bother going to shows. A few weeks later i picked up you're record (because of the name)and it blew me away. Sadly you guys never returned.

    So i'm very glad to hear some live stuff now.

    Great site, great music!!

    Greetings,
    Steven

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dank u wel meneer! Or is it "merci" in your part of the country? I lived in Amsterdam for a few years, so I picked up a little Dutch along the way, but only the Amsterdam-style, and not Belgian-style. Anyhow, we played some of those shows with Reizeiger, who I liked very much. I might post some of their stuff later, as well as more hal flyers, photos and recordings.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey,

    i was surprised getting a reaction in dutch!i live in the flemish part of Belgium, so dutch is my native language.

    Hearing the live stuff was a great experience, i should have been there ...!

    The belgian band Reiziger (named after a dutch soccer player) had some great songs too. The don't bind my hands ep and our kodo cd, are great. The singer is now in a band called Confuse the cat.

    I'm looking forward to some more Hal stuff!

    Hartelijk dank voor de muziek!

    Greetings,
    Steven

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hetzelfde! I always thought Reiziger was meant to mean "Traveler", or something similar, and was not named after an actual person. Very interesting. I would like to get a copy of the EP and CD you mention, if possible. I only have the self-titled Blue LP and the split 12" with Bob Tilton. I have a Hal live show from Aalbourg Denmark that I have to transfer from DAT tape, but pretty much everything else was released on the 2 albums and singles collection. I have some live videos, but I need to get more technically minded to transfer and upload these. Contact me via my Myspace account if you can share any of the Reiziger stuff. Bedankt!

    ReplyDelete
  5. James, the quality of your memory or my lack thereof scares me as usual. Thanks for the files I can't wait to hear what we threw out. -Benjamin

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Ben - I need the Cough Syrup and Astrosmash demos. They seem to be missing from my collection. All skeletons will be revealed.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AFAIK, "Unknown Track One" was called "Blank Soul."

    ReplyDelete