AND THEN HE WAS A ZOMBIE!!!!

BAND: Apropos
SONG: Sing You Sinner

I’m still bummed that this band never really got any proper recordings. The first thing you might notice is the total lack of vocals, mainly because this was recorded on a sony tape deck back when we were still working on the music so I could, y’know, write the lyrics on my own time. Bummer.

The lyrics, when I did write and perform them, were about the book The Isle of Doctor Moreau, specifically the cruelty of curiosity and BLAH BLAH BLAH PRETENSION. Just know the lyrics were kinda awesome but nobody knows them anymore so fuck it let’s just assume I was singing about Chalupas or something.

Oh yeah, and I played the lead line on my hot pink guitar while singing. Go me.

BAND: RFD
SONG: Go!

My second favorite song from Rapid Fire Distraction. This was a bit different from a lot of our other songs, a little tighter in general, and just plain catchy. What I dig most about it this one though is that each verse is sung by a different member of the band, and there’s a pretty solid chorus we all do different shit on too.

What’s really fun though is that we wrote this song like a week before recording it. I was fucking around on bass during rehearsal, and next thing we know we’ve got a full song sans lyrics. Since the the album recording time was coming up on us quick we decided to throw caution to the wind and just write three throw away verses each, without consulting each other (I think that part was kinda unintentional actually) but surprisingly enough, every verse we wrote all had the same theme. Preeeeetty awesome.

I sing the second verse, and have the growlier voice on the chorus.

BAND: Apropos
SONG: The Flesh I Leave

So there were a few years there where I wasn’t in any solid band line ups. I spent time in a few no-name projects, and did a stint in a band called Lutheran Gun Club, before eventually moving up to Tacoma, Washington (near Seattle). That’s where I started co-jump started this band with my roommate Eric on bass, a co-workers wife Alicia on drums, and her friend Vanessa on guitar. I sang and played lead guitar.

I’m SUPER sad that there aren’t any actual good recordings of our band. We did spend time making an EP, but it was so godawful none of us ever kept it. THIS song in particular though is pretty awesome, because we (Eric, Alicia, and I, this was before Vanessa was in the band) actually recorded it at the EMP in Seattle, where they had a room you could just jump into and record whatever for fifteen minutes and for like ten bucks you got a CD.

This was pretty much my baby. Everyone in the band was amazing and contributed great things, but it was pretty much my heart and soul in it. I called us a queercore band (me the gay dude, a lesbian, a bi-poly girl, and a straight guy) but really my lyrics tended to be more literary and socio-political, barely touching on queer politics. But still.

I really really loved this band, and I loved everyone in it. It’s too bad they all died in that fire at the same time.

BAND: Code Orange
SONG: Pretty In Black

This song is from the band Code Orange that I played bass, and bass alone, in, and which I was in at about the same time as RFD. If you heard the last one, you’ll notice a TOTAL AND COMPLETE change of style between the two bands. RFD was straight up punk. Code Orange? Well, we were around during the metalcore boom, but we weren’t quite that.

We played a number of metal shows, and everytime we played that people would be like “Oh, you’re in that punk band!” And we’d play punk shows and be called “That metal band!” Either way, people dug us well enough, but we never got quite a solid following.

I wound up leaving this band (on good terms) to go to college when I was like 19 or 20, I think. Still one of my favorite bands that I was in.

BAND: Rapid Fire Distraction
SONG: Atari

I’m taking the night to post some music from some bands I’ve been in, because a lot of people weren’t a part of that world when I was into it.

This first song is the last track off my old band RFD (Rapid Fire Distraction)’s album Breaking In. Our album wasn’t great, but godDAMN our live shows were awesome! We had a following, I tell you what.

I sing leads on this song (usually they were song by Jay, the guitarist) and I play bass. I wrote this song before this band was around, when I was in a band called ChAoS Organized? (yes, question mark and everything).

SO HEY, I’m finally dicking around with some of this kinda-cheapish recording equipment I bought over christmas and HOLY CRAP SO MANY OPTIONS. It’s a piece of crap that fails often, but when it’s running I want to have sex with all the amp/condenser/room/mic options it has. Seriously.

This is the “first” thing I recorded, and I wrote it like ten minutes before. Can’t even say I “wrote” it because I just played it over and over and over and decided to hit record (like eleven billion times, but I digress).

I’m probably going to create a Death From Above 1979 style one man band called Kid & The Squid. This song is called Wash Cycle Blues, off my first album “And Then HE WAS A ZOMBIE!!!!”

You’re welcome, World.