Car Vs. Driver - The Latest Hit Sensation From Seattle Demo - November 20, 1993

From L to R: James Joyce (Scout shirt), Steve Wishart (Phleg Camp shirt), Matt Mauldin (Motherload Railroad shirt) and Jon Rothman (Winnie The Pooh shirt I think) at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in DC - July 1994.

Here is the first recording of Car Vs. Driver that I have, which predates the first studio session by a little bit: Car Vs. Driver Demo - November 20, 1993

There are no new songs here, but it is interesting how the songs got tighter and more refined as we recorded them later, especially on the last WREK show, which was almost a year after. I believe we were 4-tracking the songs as demo versions of what we would later record in the studio, but only 2 of these songs were properly recorded in a studio. The tape that this demo came from was labeled "Car Vs. Driver - The Latest Hit Sensation From Seattle", so I kept the title. Jon was playing the SG and a Crate amp or a Fender Twin with a Marshall distortion pedal, I was playing the old Royce drumset and Steve was playing the same Washburn, etc. bass setup that he had during the entire history of the band (and still plays now!).

Jon Rothman with the Walrus at the Smithsonian - this was the day after he punched Steve in the face while we were trying to park the van, and the same day he wandered off in Baltimore and we found him in an alley eating chocolate frosting from a can. This was also the same day Matt saw a cat piss on a car - he still says it was funniest thing he has ever seen.


Matt Mauldin at our last show - another one from the photo album.

Me and Jon Rothman in Birmingham, AL at the record store where Hal later played with Lungfish (I can't remember the name). We played an all day show there, and Jon had to have a bowel movement before we went on, so he walked all the way down to the hospital about 1/2 mile away to use a clean bathroom. He was gone for about an hour, and we thought he had left the band or was distracted by a shiny bauble. He was known for doing that (especially while driving).

Bloodspoon Live at the Wreck Room January 3, 1992 and 7" Single

Cover for Bloodspoon's The Day She Died b/w Deadwheeling 7"

I would like to thank the band Injected and their website for posting the Bloodspoon single, which I therefore do not have to transfer. One thing I did transfer was a tape from the soundboard of Bloodspoon playing the Wreck Room in Atlanta on January 3, 1992. You can download it and the single here:

Bloodspoon 7" + Live at Wreck Room 1/3/92

This was the first time they played "The Day She Died" aka Bloodspoon hit single number one. These guys would tear it up at the Wreck Room. It was their stomping ground, and their fans loved them. They had all the best metal/funk/hardcore elements that were popular at that time, so it was definitely a case of being at the right place at the right moment. Matt Mauldin quit the band in 1993 by a letter mailed to guitarist Danny Grady because their drummer got a double-bass drum kit (Danny - if you still have that letter I would love to get a copy), and started a band called Car Vs. Driver with myself from the Midget Farmers, Steve from Such As, and Jon Rothman from Turtlehead. The rest of the guys went on to form insanely popular and successful bands, which you can find at the Injected Fan Site Here. Cool guys, great musicians, good times.

They did one single, which was Mental Fist Records #1 (Midget Farmers "Happy As a Bastard" was Mental Fist #2). These were their two signature songs, and are included on this post. Supposedly they had some really great songs written right before they broke up, but they were never recorded so we lose on that one. I guess we'll just enjoy what we have.

Back cover from 7"

Lyric Sheet from 7"

Thank you list from 7"

The Primadonnas and The Summer of 1996

Here is the recording: Primadonnas Live on the Radio in Austin, TX

Noot d' Noot played with Judi Chicago this past weekend, and they reminded me of this great band from Austin in the 90's called The Primadonnas. When the Olympics came to Atlanta, I realized that I was looking at another summer working at the movie theater and generally not doing anything interesting, so I transferred to Austin, Texas to take some special Astronomy classes and have a great time. My favorite band during that summer was the Primadonnas, who put on the some of the best shows that I have ever seen. Once they played a house show with flashlight-lamps on their heads and spent the whole show with the room lights off and spinning their heads in synchronized circles. I wish I had a video of that one. They also made dolls of themselves for sale as merchandise. But they were the total package, including personas and back stories for the band and its members that they would adopt on the day of each show, including fake british accents. Here was their bio for the label that put out this CD:

"Three young scholars from Sussex, UK. Their story is famous and a little incredible, but unfortunately not without its share of heartbreak. After leaving the confines of their orphanage in England and stowing away on a submarine to America, they found themselves in Texas and proceeded to educate the masses on how to get shitfaced and puke all over your keyboard while still looking incredibly sexy."

They supposedly were in a skiffle band in the UK, and were trying to get back home to Sussex, but only were stranded in Austin temporarily. This was so new to people back then that some thought their story was true, and I would see people on the street go up to them and ask about their progress in returning back to the UK. They would totally roll with it every time, and never break character once.

This is a recording live on the radio in Austin, which has some of their best classic songs (Hong Kong Boogie is my favorite). They later did an album for Kill Rock Stars, but I never picked it up. It is important to note that all these songs are played live on two basic keyboards and an early sequencer. If they were around today, with all the currently available laptop/electronic gear, they would probably be one of the hottest bands out there.

Midget Farmer Motherload

Okay, so just as a disclaimer, all of the recordings on this post predate the first Midget Farmer 7" that was recorded in 1992 when we were in 11th grade. So this stuff is going to be pretty rough and extremely goofy. If you want the actual Midget Farmers discography, please go here: Midget Farmer Discography.

Here are the recordings:

Sexual Chocolate Demo: Sexual Chocolate

Live and Insane Demo: Live and Insane

665 1/2 - Not Quite Evil Demo: 665 1/2 - Not Quite Evil

We are in the Red Demo: We Are In The Red

Live in James' Basement Demo: Live in James' Basement

Live at the Wreck Room: Live at the Wreck Room

Chad Wiener was in town recently getting his doctorate in Ancient Philosophy, and I asked him to root around his parents' basement for any old Midget Farmer treasures, and he found it all. The picture above is everything he gave me, including the master reels for the Happy As A Bastard On Father's Day 7" and the America's Place To Waste Your Life Tape, as well as the DAT tapes for all recordings and many cassettes of early practices and demos (hereby included in this post). If you click on the picture, you can see the original track sheet for the Happy 7" as well as the bill for the entire recording, a grand total of $77! He also gave me a copy of the "Full Time Suckers" tape, which was a combination of the Weblo 7" and some additional songs recorded at the same time, all of which are on the complete discography posted earlier on this blog.

The Sexual Chocolate recording was recorded before I was actually in the band, I believe sometime in 1990. I work the tape recorder, and Chad Wiener does all of the vokills. Jason Albert is on bass and Mike Eckert is on drums. At the end, I sing some rough versions of Knowledge by Operation Ivy and King Of The Hill by Captain 9's and the Kinckerbocker Trio, which we were big fans of in the early days. Live and Insane is also I believe from 1990 or 1991, and we are playing all the classic MF songs in Mike Eckert's basement. There are some good interludes where Mike fights with his little brother, and other random hilarity, but it is mostly embarrasing for me because of my horrible singing. 665 1/2 - Not Quite Evil was recorded a little after Live and Insane with I believe Brian Lysne taking over for Jason on bass duties. We are in the Red is a recording with Eric Fickes on 2nd guitar, and was recorded sometime in late 1991 or early 1992. I called it this because Eric starts every song with "we are in the red - let's rock" or some version of that statement to let us know the recording light was on. The Live In James' Basement demo was also from early 1992, and is the last recording with Mike Eckert on drums. I took over soon after as we recorded the Happy as a Bastard 7". I believe this is our best version of the early MF sound, and is the most "professional". If you are going to download just one of these recordings, I would go with this one. Lastly, I included part of a live show from the Wreck Room and somewhere else (possibly Milo's), which gives you a picture of what our live sets were like. The last recordings are really rough, as Chad just put a tape recorded in the corner of the room, but the in-between noise is great. At the end of the last track, you hear Chad say something like "at least we got this awesome recording of the show" and the tape cuts.

I have also included many Midget Farmer flyers in my collection, shown below. Thanks for checking this out, and I apologize in advance for the rough, amateur, and silliness in the recordings, but that was our high school experience.


This was supposed to be our first official non-houseparty show, but when we showed up all the other bands had worked their way onto the slots before us, and we were pushed back to the end of the bill. DeFunkt took about 1 hour to set up, as the drummer had this massive cage and we listened to their bass player slap and pluck for the entire time, and eventually just left without playing. Funny thing about DeFunkt, I believe their guitarist was Ken later in Act of Faith. We played with a lot of funk metal bands back then.

This was a late-era show with Whirlybird from Richmond, who we loved very much. I will probably post some stuff on them sometime in the future. This was also on my birthday, I believe in 1994.

Chattahoochee Battle of the Bands - December 4, 1992. Chad had an autographed picture of Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard, so we had to use it. I remember Danny Grady from Bloodspoon playing with us on stage at that show.


Here is another Milo's flyer with the Sin Eaters, who were very boring to watch.


Playing with Spiney Norman and Bloodspoon at the Wreck Room (and probably 12 other bands as well including Funmud). What a lineup.



Live at PJ's Nest, which was the smaller club down the street from the Wreck Room owned by the same people. There was literally no one at this show and I remember Eric going outside during the set to play bass on Marietta St.


Another late-era show - March 15, 1995. I have some pictures from this show, and here they are:

View of the crowd from my drumset. How many people can you name?

Chris Curran, Steven Pelizer and Ryan Borque rocking out.

At Milo's in 19991 with Bloodspoon, Scarred Existence and Degeneration. I believe this was one of Bloodspoon's first shows.

With Finletter at the Wreck Room in 1992 I believe. This was the first time we saw the Finletter guys, and they blew our socks off.

With Car Vs. Driver, Sticks and Stones, Random Jed, etc. at the Somber Reptile in 1993. This was a very early Car Vs. Driver show.

With Boba Fett at the Wreck Room. Boba Fett was also called Barefoot Jamboree, and featured Dewey Tucker on vocals, an old skater friend of ours as well as J.T. Yost, who played accordion and whose parents owned the Dunkin Donuts on Holcomb Bridge Rd. The drummer was Craig Evans, I believe, who played later in Substandard with me and Jon Rothman (pre Car Vs. Driver).

Another show at Milo's, this time with Boba Fett as Barefoot Jamboree and Finletter. This is Feb 1, 1993 I believe. I contributed the girl on the motorcycle picture for this flyer, although I can't remember where it was from.

Another Chattahoochee 1992 battle of the bands flyer. This one with the master Ian Maisel drawings.

Ahh, the infamous Anarchy Convention show at the Art Exchange building in Grant Park. We played Anarchy in the UK, and the crowd was bummed. I remember Bloodspoon being a lot of fun at this show.

More Milo's flyers from 1991 - this time with Toast and Nobody's Heroes, who I do not remember at all. Soren and his mother from Milo's had a habit of calling you the day of a show to see if you wanted to play that night, and I believe we actually took them up on it a few times.

No idea about this one. Just another show at the Wreck Room.

This was a good show at Andy Stivers' house with Quadiliacha and Swank on July 4, 1994. Fun times.

MF with Ian Maisel as MC White Chocolate and the Go-Steadys at Somber Reptile. I believe we were supposed to play I'm Your Pusher by Ice-T, but Ian forgot the lyrics.

Milos with Orgo Ftmpsh. I have no idea what they sounded like, but with a name like that it was probably awesome.

Horrible homemade flyers. This was 1992 I believe.

The last horrible homemade flyer for a show at the Wreck Room, in 1992.

This officially concludes the Midget Farmer flyer exhibition.

Freemasonry – Sparrin’ With The Varmit and Others

Tightly packed bowls go out to the dude who sent the link to all the gaps in my Freemasonry collection (Kip?), now I can post pretty much everything you can find on this band here. Included is the Sparrin’ With The Varmit LP/CD/Tape on Sky Records from 1995, the complete 1993 Demo, the Pool Hall Demo and the complete Live at WREK from May of 1994 (the split LP with Scout is in an earlier post - and also on the right side of this page).

Here they are:

Freemasonry Sparrin' With The Varmit Album

Freemasonry Live at WREK May 5, 1994

Freemasonry Fall 1993 Demo

Freemasonry Pool Hall Demo


So let’s talk about Sparrin’ With The Varmit, because it is a landmark album for DIY bands from Atlanta in the 1990’s, for several reasons. For one, this was the “breakthrough” album for our scene. They were the only ones of our circle of bands that got a true record deal, recorded at a real studio, and released and album on multiple formats. That being said, the album itself had some major flaws that I’m sure the band acknowledges, but probably hindered its success at the time of release. One is that the album title is possibly the worst title in the history of Atlanta bands (although “Out of a Silent Sky” is a close second). Second, the album art is really cool, but the “Sparrin’ With The Varmit” printing on the jar looks ridiculous. I remember Kip saying the same thing to me once, agreeing with this statement. The recording is very professional, however seemed to be mixed poorly. Sarge’s vocals are really weak compared with other Freemasonry recordings. I wonder if he was having voice problems at the time, or if the engineer/producer didn't know how to place his voice in the mix. Also, Sarge’s guitar is more buried in the mix while Bruce’s is more dominant. I think this was a mistake, as Bruce is really a master of texture and complementing Sarge’s riffs, but Sarge is really the guy who leads the melodic element of the band, so his guitar should have been more prominent. Another criticism is that the recording is actually too clean for Freemasonry. They need some grit and dirtiness in the mix to give it the crunch it needs, especially in songs like “Everyday” when Sarge and Bruce start chugging together. It sounds amazing on the Live At Wrek session, but almost muted on the Varmit LP. Marcus and Kip are in top form, however, so no complaints there. I think Kip (I believe it was him) captured the feeling of the album and band very well here:

“thnx for posting these. the label went bankrupt and destroyed all remaining copies of sparrin with the varmint. members went on to Haricot Vert, Chocolate Kiss, Copa Vance (all on Moodswing Records) and presently The Forever War. three fourths of Freemasonry experienced serious bouts with drug use: one is dead, one is unaccounted for and the last fled to isolation far from atlanta.

most would be surprised to know that those songs were born of it consistently heavy drug cocktails at practice and during shows.

and sparrin with the varmint is a pretty poor representation of the band vs other unreleased recordings. it presents a pretty sterile and inconsistent album. you are your worst critic.”

My last criticism is something that I had at the time of its release, but now am glad they did it this way. The album is over 50 minutes long, which is way too much Freemasonry to take in one sitting. It’s like listening to a Rocket From the Crypt album that is 50 minutes long – it just is not a good idea. These types of bands need to come in, blow your head off, and leave before you even know what is going on. Sparrin’ with the Varmit is epic, and like it or not is a milestone in Atlanta post punk, and I am glad now that they released such a long album. There is more Freemasonry out there to listen to due to this album, and it plays as kind of a greatest hits collection for the band, along with some new jams thrown in. I really like “Kitty Come Home”, which was my favorite of their post-Lunchbox songs. It was great that they included older songs like “Everyday”, “Einahpets” and “Mrs. Ecoli” from the Fall 1993 demo, but I wasn’t too into the new vocals by Sarge on “Everyday”. It kind of took away the power of those 3 lines in the middle of the song “Every little thing, you’ve given, every little thing you’ve taken, take a little look inside and see what’s changing”. That was just so amazing when they would play that song, which was essentially an instrumental, and then hit you with those lines in the middle – it was one of the most powerful moments in music that I have ever experienced, no joke. I also wish they had included “Freemissionary Style” as that was probably one of their best songs, and definitely the best song that was not included on the album, but you can’t have everything.

All criticism of their last release aside, the band was amazing and I am very happy to have this music around to listen to every once in awhile. So many monumental bands never even go into a studio, and I’m glad that Freemasonry didn’t take that route. Now if I could just get some video footage.

(back cover from the cd version)

(Insert and Lyric Sheet from the LP version - of course I own both LP and CD versions)

Days of Wine and Roses at the Masquerade

When people talk about the good old days, and there is some dude that says that those days sucked, and we are now living in the best time for music, I would like to defer to this flyer as Exhibit A. I saved this because it was the first big Go-Steadys show (with the Special Beat on October 21, 1992), but looking at it now, I am amazed at the other shows that were happening during the same 4 week period at the same venue in the Fall of 1992:

Screaming Trees with Luna and Seaweed on October 24 - $5.00 show no less.

Sugar on October 30

Shudder to Think opening for Daisy Chainsaw on November 2 - $5.00 show

Jesus and Mary Chain with Curve and Spiritualized on November 10 - Could you imagine how unbelievable this show was? I think I know someone who was at that show and said Spritualized was a real letdown live. I never talked to him again after that.

Dead Milkmen with TFUL #282 and Sun City Girls on November 14 - I was actually at that show, the only other one on this list that I attended. I am an idiot by the way.

Flipper(!) opening for Gwar on November 15

One other item of note is Shrimp Boat opening for Poster Children on October 19, which was Sam Prekop's band before The Sea and Cake. That would have been another interesting one to see at the time.

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.

Infinite Potential - Freemasonry

(Insert cover for the Freemasonry/Scout Split LP)

Download the stuff here: Split LP with Scout

Freemasonry in my opinion was the best band that ever existed in Atlanta. I will just put it on the table right there. They took the power of a John Reis band (e.g. Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu), and combined it with the melodic elements of post-punk bands like Jawbox to make such an amazing mix of power and melody. This was a combination you got sometimes in bands like Naked Raygun, for example, but in this case sounded completely different. Sarge, the singer/guitarist had a great voice that was powerful, melodic and completely original. The dude was also one of the funniest guys I have ever met. I remember going to see them play a show in Andy Stivers’ basement, and he told me that "anything was okay in moderation" – yeah thanks for the tip Sarge. Bruce, the second guitarist, had a guitar sound that was unbelievable – especially when matched with Sarge’s guitar. Kip’s drumming might not be the most versatile out there, but it was solid and 100% Freemasonry, and was perfect for the music they played. Even later, when I played with him in Chocolate Kiss, I would hear Freemasonry whenever he played the drums. Not Fiddlehead, or Galanas Cerdd, but always Freemasonry. Also, all of the printing on the Freemasonry records were in his handwriting, so I always had him make our Chocolate Kiss set lists just to remind me of them. Lastly, Marcus was a great bassman, adding all these extra little flourishes and melodies into the guitar layers, and one of the nicest guys I ever met. I have included in this posting the songs from the split 12” with Scout, which was their 3rd and half of their 2nd demo tapes. Also included is the non-LP instrumental “Acacia”, and the last half of their Live at WREK show. If anyone has a good copy of the entire Live at WREK show (Kip?), please get in touch.


(Lyric Sheet for the Freemasonry/Scout Split LP)

The first time I saw Freemasonry was when Car Vs. Driver played with them in the fall of 1993 at the Liquid Bean. They were only a 3-piece at that time (Bruce hadn’t joined the band), but already they were amazing. Chad Wiener and I thought it was awesome that the drummer was named Kip. We kept on asking if his name was Kip Winger, and I think he got really pissed at us. Sorry Kip, we were in high school. We played with them a few more times, but things really kicked in when they added Bruce Bohannon from Fiddlehead on second guitar. That guy can play guitar like nobody’s business, and somehow had the best sound in Atlanta. I have played his guitar since then and could not get anything near his sound, it is true that so much of what makes a musician sound the way he does is not so much his or her equipment but how they play the instrument, and that dude could play. This addition improved the band’s sonic depth and composition exponentially. They were now able to add more power to the songs as well as an additional melodic element that was missing in the 3-piece lineup. For example, when they used to play “Freemissionary Style” as a 3-piece, Sarge would play harmonics on the guitar while singing the chorus, and it was very difficult to tell what was going on in that part. However, once Bruce joined he added a thick guitar melody which perfectly complemented Sarge’s vocal on the part. I don’t know why they didn’t put that song on their Sky LP, it was one of my favorites, how can you beat that opening line: SO YOU DON’T WANT ME ANYMORE - YEAH SO WHAT! They released the Pool Hall demo tape (Kip – I need a copy), and the Sensible demo tape as a 3-piece. Both “Everyday” and “Easy” are from the Sensible demo, so although they were great in that lineup, you can see what Bruce contributes to the sound. Once the 3rd demo was released, with Bruce on guitar, we knew something on a level much higher than any of us was taking place. When Car Vs. Driver was approached by Sky records to do an album, we played for them the 3rd Freemasonry demo tape and told them that this is the band they should sign, and they promptly went ahead and did it. I will post the Sky record soon, but I wanted to post all of my non-Sparrin’ with the Varmit tracks on this post as the golden years of Freemasonry.

I can’t explain in words how much I loved this band. The music is hard for me to listen to these days, because in my mind they could have been one of the biggest post-punk bands of the 90’s, easily on par with any of the Touch and Go, etc. bands of the time. And they were gone so fast, with such tragic consequences, which makes me miss them even more. As for Marcus, I don’t know if I believe in any kind of afterlife, but I hope he is at peace and wish more than anything that he was still here playing bass for us. I would love to hear “Everyday” or “Sensible”, or any of their songs played again.



(Acacia 7" cover - notice Kip's handwriting in all Freemasonry texts)

Jeru in Montana – Sunset On Tokyo 1997 Demo

(Jon Rothman and Sunset on Tokyo rocking his basement in Missoula - April 1997)

Check it out: Sunset On Tokyo - 1997 Demo

Car Vs. Driver ended on July 21, 1995. One of the main reasons was that Jon Rothman was supposed to go to school in Montana to study forestry (actually in 1993), but he delayed his trip by two years because he was having so much fun playing in CVD. So in the fall of 1995, he finally left for Missoula to follow his dream of becoming a park ranger. However, when he got there he ended up starting this completely amazing band called Sunset on Tokyo. The hal al Shedad played with them in Missoula and Portland during our Spring 1997 tour, and both times they were unbelievable. They had a great live sound, and Jon’s guitar playing grew exponentially from Car Vs. Driver days. I look at this demo as a glimpse into songs that might have been the basis of CVD songs, had we stayed around another year or two. Jon really got along with the other guitarist in the band, and I believe formed several other bands over the years with that guy (although I don’t have any recordings), and eventually joined up with the Long Winters out of Seattle. Go check him out next time they come through your town.

The Spacebird Takes Flight - Seventy Spacebird Unreleased Album from 1999

(Marcus Lowe giving us the 'Lakemonster' at the Living Room in 1999)

Here is the unreleased “album” by Seventy Spacebird that we recorded at the Living Room in 1999:

Seventy Spacebird Unreleased Album from 1999

The lineup for the session includes myself on drums and guitar, Marcus Lowe on drums, percussion and I believe some keyboards, Justin McNeight on guitar and bass, Mathis Hunter on drums, guitar and percussion, Rich Morris on keyboards and Ed Rawls on bass. There are no overdubs for this music – it was all created and improvised live in the studio as it happened, with all the noise, rough edges, etc. as part of the package. Here is some background information on Seventy Spacebird to read while you listen to the music:

(Mathis Hunter and the Seventy Spacebird setup during the 1999 recording session - notice the equipment spreads across two rooms with keyboards, drums, and amps everywhere)

Seventy Spacebird was the first band that I played in which relied almost entirely on improvisation. My introduction to playing music in an improvised manner came from the late nights playing music in the movie theater where I worked in the 1990s. My friend Josh Bohannon was great improviser on the guitar and especially keyboard, and we would set up in the theater after closing time (around 1:00 or so), and play whatever we felt and came out of us until dawn. I have no recordings from these sessions, but I remember them being extremely long freak-outs or spacey, droney pieces, in which we would run movies on the screen above us, providing our only source of light for the room, and jam on essentially one piece the entire length of the movie. Many times Mathis Hunter would also join us, and every once in awhile we would have Justin McNeight and Rich Morris (who are both amazingly creative musicians) playing along. After Josh moved back to San Diego in 1997, Rich, Mathis and I started playing at the Good Friday Experiment practice space on Armour Drive, once again from around 1 to 5 or 6 in the morning. As I am usually asleep at that time, playing whatever comes out of you that early in the morning can be a surreal experience, and one in which very interesting and unique things can happen. These jams were so primal and rudimentary, but would have moments of something that for me truly approached transcendence. You forget what time it is, where you are, what you are doing, and just let your body take over playing without any connection to your mind. It was like playing music as a religious experience.

(Outside the Living Room in 1999)

Over time we started honing our skills and making things happen musically on the fly, this eventually led to what I would consider a musical collective that ran from the late 90’s until the mid 00’s under the name Seventy Spacebird. I believe it was Marcus Lowe that came up with the name, as it seemed to describe our music in literal terms, and was also intentionally hilarious. The first incarnation of Seventy Spacebird was myself, Rich Morris, Justin McNeight, Marcus Lowe, Mathis Hunter and Ed Rawls. I would trade off on drums and guitar or percussion with Mathis and Marcus (but always 2 drumsets going), Justin would normally play guitar or bass, Ed on bass or guitar, and Rich on keyboards. This was more or less the improvisational arm of The Good Friday Experiment, and we even played some GFE shows when the situation necessitated it.

Seventy Spacebird played probably less than 10 shows in its lifetime, but they were always an event. Just setting up the equipment took longer than the show itself. We played our first show at the Yin Yang Café in Midtown in 1999 I believe, where we brought so much equipment that we had problems fitting the audience in the room. My favorite memory of that show is Marcus playing a hand drum and dancing around the room like something out of the jungle, completely tweaking the crowd. We played a party at the U-Haul warehouses in the West End with the Flakes (another Atlanta improvisational band), and the bass cabinet died right at the beginning of our set, reducing the entire performance to drums, guitars and keyboards. However, my memory of that show was us playing this amazing drone/dub jam that went on well into the morning. People were literally sleeping on couches in the audience while we played – for us that was the best compliment. We played Album 88 on the air once, which I will include in a later post, as well as a Live at WREK session which I do not have in my recordings, but have heard played on WREK since then. That show is interesting, because I remember driving in my car years afterwards and listening to WREK, and thinking that the drummer in the song was playing just like me, and then realized that it actually was me playing on the radio as a re-broadcast of that session! Also, for that Live at WREK show we used Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies in the performance of our “songs”. Basically, Brian Eno created these small phrases to help inspire his musicians during recording sessions, and we transcribed each of these phrases on separate pieces of paper and put them into a hat, and at the beginning of the songs each of us would pull a new Oblique Strategy out of the hat and let these statements guide our playing for the song. I believe I pulled one like “play everything backwards”, which helped me step outside of my normal habits during the session and really loosen up even though we were playing live on the air. I highly recommend techniques such as this when playing this kind of music. We played the main floor of Eyedrum when it was on Trinity Street (not in the basement), as well as the Caledonia lounge in Athens, and at the Engine Room in Athens during Athfest. For that show, we supplemented the band with Aaron from Ocelot and Craig Dempsey from At the Price of the Union, etc. both on guitar and called it Seventy Spacebird Psychedelic Orchestra. So for that show we had two drumsets, keyboards, bass, and 3 guitars. I have pictures from that show where Aaron, Craig and Justin are all soloing above the 12th frets of their guitars at the same time, which must have sounded awesome.

Eventually, the desire for us to create improvised music channeled its way into Noot d’ Noot, which brings a great deal of magic into that band (some would call it goofer dust), and helps to stretch the music further and create new and interesting songs and sounds to experiment with. Seventy Spacebird was like my music school. I probably learned more about playing music in that band than any other in my life, and had a great time doing it.

The Band Genome Continues...

I have made several updates to the band genome - here is the latest version (see attached). Thanks to Ben Davis for the link to John Coltrane, and Gray Kiser for the path to Youth of Today, and to all of you for commenting and tweaking it over the past few months. Insert your comments here so I can further refine it with regards to accuracy and completeness, and I will keep updating!

The hal al Shedad - Live at WREK May 6, 1997

So these pictures are not from our Live at WREK show, but at a live performance at a radio station in Los Angeles (I believe it was KXLU, but I'm not positive). As you can see, this was on April 14, 1997, during our Spring 1997 US tour, and our Live at WREK was May 6, 1997 right after we returned, so this is in the same general time period. We only did one Live at WREK session, and it was between the first and second albums. Two songs were from the first LP (Unification and The Art of Mapmaking), one song from our first 7" (Local Seeing), two songs from the 7"s between the two albums (Yesterday's Bullets, Human Again), and two songs from the yet to be recorded second album (1/1/97 and Ivan's Devil). I hope you enjoy, there will be plenty more hal al Shedad to come.

Here is the link: The hal al Shedad - Live at WREK May 6, 1997


As a piece of trivia, Ben still plays that Ampeg V9 bass head and cabinet on the right side of the picture in his current band - The Forever War (as well as the same Music Man bass!). I gave away that silver spray painted drumset years ago, and heard that the drummer from Deerhunter was using it for a time, but I know he got a real drumset later on. Also, Ed's 'Going to Grandma's' case for carrying his volume pedal and cables is in the foreground - classic hal setup.