// YOUR BAND IS MY LIFE //

This was the first 7″ I bought that literally changed my entire outlook on life. Before I heard this most of what I was familiar with was your typical AMREP band or old school punk bands. I had never heard anything like this before. From that point on I truly became a hardcore kid. I still have the button up shirt I bought at the Antiquarium in Omaha. Everything about this record is amazing. I never did see them. But did get to see The VSS a couple of times. Sonny was also nice enough to put out a record for a band I played in. So anyway…here’s a life changer.

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I bought this record again in Lawrence Kansas. I saw there name on a flyer as well. Thought the name deserved a listen. Its funny…this 7″ reminded me of the girl I met at debate camp. I think it may have been my first true love. Her name was Susy. Funny. She lived in the Houston area. Her parents both worked at NASA. Really smart and cool people. I went and visited one summer. I decided to drive there on a whim. So I packed up my Mazda 323 with very little and drove straight from Omaha to Houston. It was really a great trip. I remember getting to Texas and being pretty delirious and seeing some huge statue of Paul Bunyan. It may have been my imagination I’m not sure. But I ended up getting to her house at like 4 in the morning so I just slept in my car parked in the driveway. I’m not sure why I’m telling this story other than maybe just for my own sake or remembering it.

So here is Zoom. Ends up the song is pretty boring. Oh and another funny note. Is I played for a short while in this band from Sioux CIty called Trike Press. Pretty good band. But anyway we covered this song. So here it is. PLANET PINBALL.

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When I was a sophmore in High School. Things started changing for me. I was completely put off by most of the kids at my school. I dyed my hair yellow, wore size 50 jeans even though i was barely 140 pounds. Brett, Chris and I were the best of friends. Brett and I drove old grandma cars. He had a Coronet and I had a Fairlane 500. We drove around constantly listening to music when we weren’t being stalked by our girlfriends at the time.

The Kurtz brothers and the Kestner brothers and I decided to start a band. It started shortly after the Kestners band Strychnine broke up. We started practicing in the attic of the Kestner’s house. I was 16 and it was a dream come true. We asked Chris to play bass. I think he was maybe just 14 at the time. He was singing in a band called Naked Lawnmower. Brett and John played guitar and Dave played the drums. We wrote maybe 20 songs over the course of a couple of years. We played alot of shows. Some of the most memorable of my life. The best being a show we played at the theatre in LeMars. We basically had the entire movie theatre to ourselves. It was a crazy night. I think I made out with some girl on a pool table.

But one of the most memorable moments of my childhood was going to record at Jim Boogensburgers studio in Omaha. John was living there at the time and we all stayed in his apartment. We recorded four songs. None of them were my favorites but what do you do. Its still one of my favorite 7″s. Here are a couple of tracks. I would tell you the lyrics but its better if you try to figure them out for yourself.

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This is the first record I ever bought. I was in Lawrence, Kansas at debate camp in 1993. On the weekends, we were allowed to leave the campus for a few hours, so I went down to the local record store called “The Love Garden”. It was actually the first time I ever saw a girl with dreadlocks and armpit hair, I was mesmerized at the sight. You see, I’m from a small town in Iowa and as much as I tried to be cultured, it was next to impossible. The entire store smelled like incense and cat piss. The walls were draped with posters of Jimi Hendrix, Sonic Youth, and Black Flag. I was in heaven even though I really didn’t know who any of those bands were. Coincidentally, on my way to “The Love Garden”, I remember ripping a DRI poster off a telephone pole and right next to it, was a poster for Zipgun and Panel Donor show  at the Replay Lounge.  When I walked into the store, this was the first record I saw. So I picked it up, acting as if I knew what I was buying. Even today,  after not having listened to it for about 10 years,  I don’t regret buying it. Both these bands are great.

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