It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:27 pm

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 196 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 7  Next
Author Message
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:25 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
The best band I was ever in was called the Sonars. This band had an extremely short shelf life, which wasn’t surprising due to the many strong personalities involved. It started out as just a loose collection of guys jamming. We were all in other bands at the time. The next thing you know we were writing songs and playing some small shows in unlikely venues.

We became regulars at the Saturday night open mic at Weed’s. The bar’s owner, Sergio, usually set it up so the last act was this flashy dressing, flashy guitar playing Jimi Hendrix wannabe brother who called himself Cleopatrick. After a couple weeks Cleo wasn’t too keen on following the Sonars. We built up a nice little following there. I remember playing a long set one night. It had to be almost three in the morning when we finished up with a blistering version of “Train Kept A-Rollin’”. It was hotter than hell in there. Sergio was running around passing out shots of Tequila. I was soaked with sweat and doing my best just to avoid passing out.

Another spot we played was a real dive bar called Main Street Pub in the space where Double Door is today. We also played a place on Lake and Carpenter called D’s Rushmore Inn. We had a practice space right next door for awhile and we drank there regularly. Back then that neighborhood was still really just a market loaded with produce companies, meatpackers and hookers. It was surreal playing for a crowd of butchers at D’s. Half the guys in the place were wearing bloody white coats. The Lake Street hookers we had gotten to know came inside to watch us too.

The sound we were going for was like the Sonics or a band from the “Nuggets” compilation. Not many bands were playing that style at the time. As in most bands, one guy was far more talented than the others. In our case it was my buddy, Bill. Playing and singing came very easily to him and on top of that he practiced like a motherfucker. I sort of felt the way Chris Bell must have being in a band with Alex Chilton. I started out playing guitar, but I kind of play like a twelve year old. Eventually, I replaced myself and stuck to songwriting. Bill and I were at our best at the time. I knew I needed him, but I’m sure he didn’t think he needed me. I was important though, because I protected him from his own worst instincts. When we separated he ended up writing crap like “Zydeco Baby” and playing swing music for Lincoln Park trixies. There were a lot of arguments and fights in this band. Sometimes on stage. I think even the Oasis guys would have been appalled by our behavior. We did a lot of drinking. The two things kind of went hand in hand, I guess.

Bill hated tuning and that always caused tension with the other guitarist who was a perfectionist. Eventually we had a practice space upstairs from the Cubby Bear. The band came to a ridiculous end when Bill and I showed up for practice and found the other guys listening to Dire Straits on our old record player. I said, “Mark Knopfler is a royal British pussy.” Bill said, “You guys suck, you fuckin’ eunuchs!” We walked out to go get drunk at Jimmy & Tai’s. The band never played again.

Here’s an early demo of a Sonars song I found while going through some boxes in my storage unit. Bill wrote most of it. He played the main guitar lick over and over for about a month or so before we did something with it. I felt like I practically had to pull the song out of him. When we were finished, Bill hated it. He sneered that it sounded like John Hiatt and often refused to play it. But I knew it was a really good song.

I had spent a month or so in New Orleans where I dated a stripper. She used the stage name “Porsche”. Her real name was Amanda. But Amanda was just a stage name for a different stage. We were both transient people at the time. This song is kind of about that. It’s called “Flamingo”. In the first verse the “flamingo” is obviously a stripper dancing on a mirrored stage. As the song progresses “flamingo” takes on an even more figurative meaning- maybe referring to whatever it was we had inside of us that kept us moving and wouldn’t allow us to be tied down. Hell, I don’t know. I was a lot less introspective back then.

The lyrics to the first verse came very easily. The second verse was trickier. It’s a short, simple song and there aren’t a lot of words, so they needed to count. Bill and I would often change the lyrics we had written as we shaped a song by playing it live. Here’s a situation where I saved him from his own worst instincts. He began taking a cheap and lazy way out by rhyming “lonely” with “only”. I hated it and suggested the final lyric we would use. That gave the song its sense of place. It was New Orleans. But not Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. This song is set in that part of the wintertime when the days are the shortest. Around the holidays. No direction home. It’s about lonely people without any roots reaching out to other people who may be lonelier still and hanging on for dear life. Ultimately, those relationships aren’t built to last. But while the song is informed by a certain melancholic longing for what can never be, it isn’t a sad song. It’s a hopeful song about people who are simply thankful for being able to share the comforts of one another, if only for a short time.

http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/flamingo

Well, I saw you standin’ on one leg
You had your head held high above the water
Darlin’ don’t tell me no lies
She’s my flamingo in disguise

Oh, the city is cold and lonely
Walkin’ down the streets of New Orleans
It’s so hard to tell you good-bye
But my flamingo’s gotta fly

I don’t listen to all the bad people
I only do the things that I should do
Ask me now, how did I know?
Well, my flamingo told me so

You’re my flamingo
You’re my flamingo

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Last edited by Joe Orr Road Rod on Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:29 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
Posts: 40984
Location: Chicago
pizza_Place: Lou Malanati's
I think I know a band that could use some veteran leadership

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:30 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
It's a young man's game.

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:31 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:24 am
Posts: 38526
Location: RST Video
pizza_Place: Bill's Pizza - Mundelein
That wasn't bad

_________________
Darkside wrote:
Our hotel smelled like dead hooker vagina (before you ask I had gotten a detailed description from beardown)


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:32 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 4:54 am
Posts: 22706
pizza_Place: A few...
JORR needs to write a book.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 9:57 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:16 pm
Posts: 81627
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
The lyrics to the first verse came very easily. The second verse was trickier. It’s a short, simple song and there aren’t a lot of words, so they needed to count. Bill and I would often change the lyrics we had written as we shaped a song by playing it live. Here’s a situation where I saved him from his own worst instincts. He began taking a cheap and lazy way out by rhyming “lonely” with “only”. I hated it and suggested the final lyric we would use. That gave the song its sense of place. It was New Orleans. But not Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. This song is set in that part of the wintertime when the days are the shortest. Around the holidays. No direction home. It’s about lonely people without any roots reaching out to other people who may be lonelier still and hanging on for dear life. Ultimately, those relationships aren’t built to last. But while the song is informed by a certain melancholic longing for what can never be, it isn’t a sad song. It’s a hopeful song about people who are simply thankful for being able to share the comforts of one another, if only for a short time.

http://www.mediafire.com/?1s3q3qgivx2sd6f

Well, I saw you standin’ on one leg
You had your head held high above the water
Darlin’ don’t tell me no lies
She’s my flamingo in disguise

Oh, the city is cold and lonely
Walkin’ down the streets of New Orleans
It’s so hard to tell you good-bye
But my flamingo’s gotta fly

I don’t listen to all the bad people
I only do the things that I should do
Ask me now, how did I know?
Well, my flamingo told me so

You’re my flamingo
You’re my flamingo

Thats awesome JORR

And I really feel ya on the last two sentences of your description. I had a relationship with someone like that kinda recently. Im gonna use this song to hook up with her one last time at some point. Thanks!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 9:59 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:29 pm
Posts: 38014
pizza_Place: Lou Malnatis
Peoria Matt wrote:
JORR needs to write a book.

He is by a wide margin imho, the most interesting and the closest thing there is to a must read poster on this bored. First beer is on me JORR when you so desire :) :drunken:

_________________
Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 10:00 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
Thanks, boys!

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 6:58 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:56 pm
Posts: 37077
Location: ...
more evidence that there are thousands of bands no one will ever hear of...and that's a shame, as everyone has heard of katy perry.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 7:00 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:16 pm
Posts: 81627
W_Z wrote:
more evidence that there are thousands of bands no one will ever hear of...and that's a shame, as everyone has heard of katy perry.

interesting choice for an example of bad pop music.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 7:03 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:29 pm
Posts: 38014
pizza_Place: Lou Malnatis
W_Z wrote:
more evidence that there are thousands of bands no one will ever hear of...and that's a shame, as everyone has heard of katy perry.

Worst part is that JORR has a better rack than her too.

_________________
Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 7:15 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:17 am
Posts: 72289
Location: Palatine
pizza_Place: Lou Malnatis
Aren't you the dude that always insists he's not cool?

WYC?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 7:41 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:35 pm
Posts: 17873
Location: Warming up on 1st tee box
pizza_Place: Kaisers
Hey, I really dug this song. Post more if you have them. To me it sounded
kind of like the Steve Miller Band.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 8:16 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:03 pm
Posts: 42924
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
The sound we were going for was like the Sonics or a band from the “Nuggets” compilation.

I've really gotten into The Sonics and old garage rock stuff the past two years. The Nuggets comp is definitely an essential album of music to own. I would love to hear more.

_________________
Juice's Lecture Notes wrote:
I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 8:47 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:17 am
Posts: 72289
Location: Palatine
pizza_Place: Lou Malnatis
FavreFan wrote:
Aren't you the dude that always insists he's not cool?

WYC?

:lol: :lol: 8)

I love the fact this typo was the genesis of a couple pms wondering if I was referring to them

It was a dumb joke to begin with but I meant to say JORR always insists he isn't/never has been cool from what I read and that seems funnier after reading this post

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 8:50 am 
Offline
1000 CLUB
User avatar

Joined: Fri May 13, 2005 4:47 pm
Posts: 28635
Location: computer
pizza_Place: Salerno's
nice description of the Lake Street life...
225 N. Racine woo hoo!

_________________
@audioidkid
spaulding wrote:
Also if you fuck someone like they are a millionaire they might go try to be one.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 9:11 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 9:15 pm
Posts: 48754
Location: Bohemian Club Annual World Power Consolidation Conference & Golf Outing
pizza_Place: World Fluoridation Conspiracy Pizza & WINGS!
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
The band came to a ridiculous end when Bill and I showed up for practice and found the other guys listening to Dire Straits on our old record player. I said, “Mark Knopfler is a royal British pussy.” Bill said, “You guys suck, you fuckin’ eunuchs!” We walked out to go get drunk at Jimmy & Tai’s. The band never played again.


:lol: :lol: You're the best, JORRest. That was a good song. I listened to it twice.

Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
In the first verse the “flamingo” is obviously a stripper dancing on a mirrored stage.


Obviously. :lol:

_________________
https://twitter.com/DrKenCast


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2011 9:33 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:09 am
Posts: 3273
Location: Woodstock (not the trailer part)
pizza_Place: Jobu
Joe Orr Road Rod is definitely top-notch in my book.

_________________
1923-1927-1928-1932-1936-1937-1938-1939
1941-1943-1947-1949-1950-1951-1952-1953
1956-1958-1961-1962-1977-1978-1996-1998
1999-2000-2009
----------
XXI - XXV - XLII - XLVI


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:38 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
I know we recorded a killer cover of the Sonics’ “He’s Waiting” but I couldn’t find it, so this original will have to do for now.

Bill had a serious girlfriend at the time. Melissa was an artist from Memphis. The two of them were renting a little house on Cortland, across the street from Lottie’s. Melissa was pretty cool. She didn’t have much of a problem with all the drinking we did and she didn’t mind me hanging out at her house all the time. At least she never said so. Not to me anyway.

Bill and Melissa were so serious, they had actually discussed what they would name their kids if they had any. They liked the name Ashley Rose for a girl. That’s how this song got started. But it quickly turned into another stripper story. That should tell you where my head was at the time. Much to Melissa’s dismay, “Ashley Rose” stuck as the title.

Our aversion to tuning is readily apparent on this track. This isn’t close to the best rendition of the song we ever played, but we thought it was good enough for a demo. The bass sound is lousy and there are a bunch of other problems. I played the shitty little guitar solo figuring Bill or Jeff would come up with something better if we ever did a professional type recording of it. Each of us had taken that solo live at some point and almost every time it was better than this one. It should be a lot more aggressive than the way I played it on this recording.

We were listening to the first Stooges album a lot at the time. In fact, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t listening to that record a lot. When we played “Ashley Rose” live, Tom the bass player and I took to hollering, “SHE!” and “NOT RIGHT!” when we hit the breaks at the end of the guitar riff.

Bill recorded at least one version with another band. It featured acoustic bass and horns. They made the song sound like it had been castrated. Here’s the original in all its ragged glory. It’s far from perfect, but you can get a good enough idea of the way it was meant to sound.

http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/ashley-rose

Well, I remember little Ashley Rose, my darlin’
Long blonde hair and thrift store clothes, she wore
Wrong side of town the only side she knows, my darlin’
In between the cracks some flowers still grow, well alright now

Bright lights, big city done made her sway
High heels and a G-string are her trade
Just another pawn in a rich man’s game
She keeps hopin’ that love can find a way

Well, I remember little Ashley Rose
Long blonde hair and thrift store clothes
I just wanna love her from her head to her toes
Cause in between the cracks some flowers still grow

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Last edited by Joe Orr Road Rod on Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:45 am 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
In the early or mid 80s my friend Bill was living in an apartment on the northwest corner of Webster and Clybourn. He was right across the street from a bar called Batteries Not Included that booked a lot of punk rock shows and where we played regularly and drank even more regularly. Jim Ellison from Material Issue used to set up the shows at Batteries and one night everyone was over at Bill’s apartment eating chili and getting fucked up. Ellison looked in the sink where a bunch of dishes that looked like they had been there for months were stacked high next to a nasty dishrag, some empty beer bottles, many cigarette butts, and a sponge that looked like a science project and said, “That’s a bad sponge, man.” That’s how the band Sponge got its name and how the first album, Born Under A Bad Sponge got its title.

The first song is the title track which is specifically about that night. It was written and sung by bass player, Ron Richter. When I was first learning how to play guitar I would sometimes watch old horror movies without the sound and try to play what I thought felt like an appropriate soundtrack. The instrumental section at the end of this song is very much in that vein.

The second song is called “Fisheye Man”. It details a real-life encounter Bill and his then girlfriend, Jean Lyons had with a gnarled, half-insane panhandler and his old female companion on Michigan Avenue. When the bum aggressively approached Bill for money and Bill aggressively refused his overtures, the bum attempted to stab Bill with a pin. But more than simply recalling the specific incident, the song is a meditation on growing old in late twentieth century America. Very sophisticated lyrics for a seventeen year old kid. The “roll ‘em up and hook ‘em” from the outro is something Bill’s mom used to say that pretty much means, “okay, let’s get the hell out of here.”

The Fisheye Man
With the poison hand
Well he put the silver needle into me
He hated what he had to be
He kept fallin’, fallin’ far from grace
How I pained the walleye in his face
Whoa, oh, the Fisheye Man
He needs to feel the river on his boyhood feet
But the river cuts a man so deep
Whoa, oh, oh
Well, he didn’t want the help from the Varicose Betty
And from the ditches he’ll get to his feet
Lookin’ like a royal man who’s kicked away his last can
And when the cars drive by so late at night and move the windows ‘round the room
Well, the Fisheye Man is just a-tap, tap, tappin’ cause he knows that someday soon
We’ll all be fish-eyed too
And he says life is like an ashtray, it’s filled with broken butts
And death is like an anchor you can never pull up
Life is like an ashtray
Roll ‘em up and hook ‘em, baby, bye, bye, bye
Roll ‘em up and hook ‘em, baby, bye, bye, bye
Roll ‘em up and hook ‘em, baby, bye, bye, bye

http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/ ... eath-a-bad
http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/ ... e-man-born

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:59 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
Okay, this one is a cover for all you heathens and country music aficionados. On tour in the mid-South a slatternly bar broad got angry and said, "Why are these boys playin' spirituals in a honky tonk? It jist ain't right!" Bill's girlfriend Jean sang harmony on the record.

http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/ ... hands-with

Here's the original by Cowboy Copas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=janrTyxQVKs

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 4:34 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
I once read an interview with Tommy Stinson where he talked about playing a party in South St. Paul with the Replacements when he was thirteen years old. There was a wall of skinheads standing in front screaming, “Faster! Play faster!” There’s a lyric from the Bash & Pop song “Fast ‘n’ Hard” that goes, “I played as fast as I could, ya heard it slow.” I always figured he was recounting the same story in that song. He also said that they may have been trying to play hardcore, but they were always thinking Thin Lizzy. Anyway, I could totally relate. As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve got a lot of Baby Boomer in me. My favorite bands in high school were Zeppelin, The Faces, and Thin Lizzy. That stuff couldn’t help but be an influence in whatever I played. It was interesting playing with younger guys who had completely different inputs and grew up listening to Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Slayer.

Anyway, back then you had to give the knuckleheads something they could slam to. Here’s a couple like that. The first one is called “Born To Skank”. It’s about the simple joy of the pit and banging into each other. We were fucking corn dogs. We’d go drink and pogo.

Born to skank, born to skank, born to skank
Livin’ his life like a Sherman tank
Skankin’ into the study hall
Gets sent down to the principal
Standin’ there all alone
Grabs the school microphone
Sendin’ out a call
For a slamdance free-for-all
Born to skank, He was born to skank, born to skank
While all his pals were havin’ a wank
Skankin’ into the dinner table
Yellin’ into the gravy ladle
Steppin’ on the wheat toast
He’s throwin’ out the pot roast
His mother’s turnin’ yellow
Cause his boots are in the Jell-o
Born to skank!

When I showed those lyrics to my girlfriend at the time she said they sounded like something a petulant teenager wrote after his parents sent him to his room. Well, yeah.

http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/ ... skank-born

The next one is an ode to teenage heartbreak and negative girlfriends.

Well you always just a look that way
You say I ain’t no boy next door
You always listen to what your girlfriends say
Ain’t gonna be your tool no more

For all you youngsters out there, this is what real guitars straight through amps sound like. No pedals or effects. Fuckin’ rock and roll!

http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/ ... r-you-born

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 4:53 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2010 9:09 am
Posts: 19926
pizza_Place: Papa Johns
badrogue17 wrote:
Peoria Matt wrote:
JORR needs to write a book.

He is by a wide margin imho, the most interesting and the closest thing there is to a must read poster on this bored. First beer is on me JORR when you so desire :) :drunken:


Me too. I will buy 4 beers.

One for me
One for JORR
One for Badrogue17
And one to split over Rogues skull.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:56 am 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
This is a song Jeff, Bill, and I wrote for the Sonars. At the time, both Jeff and Bill were driving Delta 88s. Bill’s actually did have Wyoming plates on it. I have no idea why. Goofy motherfucker should get himself some Illinois tags. Bill was always fascinated with the American West. He had Guy Aitchison tattoo a version of the cowboy on the bronco from the Wyoming license plate on his upper arm.

This is really Jeff’s song as he brought in the basic structure and Bill and I just finished it off. The Sonars version is pretty difficult to find. I know I don’t have a copy of it. This is a version Bill recorded at Steve Albini’s house with his rockabilly trio. I have to say he really made the song his own. This is the guitar solo that almost made Buddy Guy cry. Bill opened up for him during one of his January Legends residencies. I guess someone thought it was going to be hard for the old guy to follow this shit so they turned off about half the house PA. Bill went nuts and refused to play there again.

I got a Delta 88
Wyoming plates
Cruisin' down the highway
on a hot summer night
High beams in my eyes
I got no reason to wonder why
She told me to take it easy
But it was just too late
Come on, now!

http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/ ... p-the-wild

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:52 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:31 pm
Posts: 8798
pizza_Place: Bojono's on Clarendon
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
Bill was always fascinated with the American West. He had Guy Aitchison tattoo a version of the cowboy on the bronco from the Wyoming license plate on his upper arm.


This might require a "For all you young ballplayer out there"-type extrapolation. At a particular time in Chicago, a Guy Atcheson tattoo was quite a badge of honor among the inked set. A friend of mine who DJ'ed at a punk club had one on his bicep. Huge, sleeved meatheads used to come up to the booth and sheepishly ask to see it, like it was lunch period and he had a Penthouse stashed in his locker.

_________________
I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 7:35 am 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
Telegram Sam wrote:
This might require a "For all you young ballplayer out there"-type extrapolation. At a particular time in Chicago, a Guy Atcheson tattoo was quite a badge of honor among the inked set. A friend of mine who DJ'ed at a punk club had one on his bicep. Huge, sleeved meatheads used to come up to the booth and sheepishly ask to see it, like it was lunch period and he had a Penthouse stashed in his locker.


Yeah, as you say, he's a pretty famous Guy in tattooing circles. I don't know him very well, but at one time we had a lot of friends in common. For a dude who wasn't very good-looking and had a terrible complexion, he was always with an interesting broad, like the brilliant poet Lorri Jackson or my crazy ass friend Amy Pendry. I was never a big fan of his work. It was really intricate and too busy for me. When it comes to tattoo art, I prefer the more traditional.

He did the album cover art for the hardcore band of some dopes I know.

Image

I was never really a big fan of Impulse Manslaughter. Probably because I was sure my hardcore band at the time was far superior. But mainly because their drummer Glen Herman is one of the biggest walking rectums I've ever met. What a fucking tool that kid was! He's about 5'4" with the worst Napoleon complex I've ever seen. I wanted to crack him in the mouth every time I saw him. Every once in awhile I'll see a letter to the editor in the Tribune signed by Glen Herman. They're always conservative right-wing screeds. I'm sure it's him.

Their guitarist was a cool guy and a good player. For years I knew him as Mike Hanley. Then one day he inexplicably said his name was Chris. Here they are doing a cover of Aggravated Bob's favorite tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M561_YUvnsE

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Last edited by Joe Orr Road Rod on Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 9:10 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
I’m sure many of you who grew up Catholic the way I did had cars that featured a religious symbol on the dashboard, ostensibly to protect the family as you drove to do the weekly grocery shopping at the National Tea or went to movie night at the Portage or Patio or- most importantly- went to mass on Sunday morning. It may have been a plastic Jesus or Virgin Mary or a St. Christopher medallion. Perhaps if your family car was a hatchback it may have been a St. Jude statuette.

On the surface this song may seem to have something in common with the tune that Paul Newman sang as Cool Hand Luke- “at ninety miles an hour it ain’t scary cause I’ve got the Virgin Mary…”, but that isn’t really the case.

All of us had a real working class ethic. Bill had played in a band called The Proletariat and one of my early groups was The Wobblies. My girlfriend gets a big kick out of that. She’ll call me an effete Evanstonian son of a bank vice president unemployed bullshit artist with an English degree. :lol: She may be right but sometimes I think about all the shit that I’ve been messin’ up. My good friends were in a band called Dead Steel Mill. I believe they still may be a going concern. They were real steelworkers who were the sons of steelworkers. The lead singer, Corny, had a family member who slipped and fell into a vat of molten iron that was to be used in the manufacture of el cars. He’s always at home on the CTA. Anyway, lefty politics and pseudo-Communism were the order of the day.

This song is about the powerlessness of the average guy. It’s like he’s trying to drive a car from the backseat. Maybe he turns to religion. Maybe he turns to guns. Obama wasn’t far wrong. It’s about the guy who is compelled to grab his pen or run to his typewriter to dash off an indignant note to a newspaper or a politician. Big shoutout to Jack Spatafora and Butch Brzeski, wherever you are!

Did you ever think you was Jesus, honey
When you’re walkin’ all alone and the doors are all shut
And you start thinkin’ ‘bout all the shit that you been messin’ up
Did you ever write your president a nasty, nasty letter that he would never get
Because the president don’t read letters from crackpots anyway
When I was a kid I used to sit in the backseat of my car as it went through the autowash
I never met a person, never really met a person worth knowin’
Who didn’t have a crack as long as my arm in his pot
And I never, ever been the same
What?
Plastic Jesus!

http://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod/ ... jesus-born

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 7:51 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
In the early 80s, three of my friends, Casey West, Gus Roman, and Jimmy Kangles were playing in one of the early Chicago hardcore bands, Lost Cause. The frontman for the band was Joe Kelly. These days Joe plays in Beer Nuts. If all he ever did was write “Woke Up Tied Up”, it’s enough. We’re all a little fatter these days. Even little Gus. :lol: Anyway, Lost Cause was a band you either loved or hated. But they developed a good following because all four of those goofs worked at Metro and whenever a big hardcore band played there, Lost Cause would open the show. But Joe Shanahan was catching too much heat for the skinhead fuckery that went on before, during, and after such shows, so he stopped booking hardcore.

After awhile the other guys in the band had a falling out with Joe and Lost Cause split up. Casey and Gus played a one-off gig at the Thirsty Whale with a guy named Chris Splatter as the Garbage Pail Kids before getting back together with Jimmy and a frontman named Lance Griffin to form a band called M.O.S.H. M.O.S.H. stood for Mean Obnoxious ShitHeads. When they went to book their first gig at the Iron Rail Pub on West Irving Park Road, the owner asked what M.O.S.H. meant. When they told him, he said, “Why the fuck would I want ShitHeads to play my bar? Get the fuck out of here.” So the next night they all ate a bag of mushrooms and changed the name of the group to Mean Obnoxious Shroom Heads. Ridiculous but true.

The guys in M.O.S.H were all serious players on their respective instruments. They weren’t really a hardcore band. I had never heard the term at that time, but years later when I heard the term “math rock”, I knew that’s what M.O.S.H. was- instrumental virtuosity and lightning quick changes. Plus there was an air of danger to them. Casey and Lance were two of the few black guys on the scene, and that could prove unsettling for the fathers of punk rock girls from Lincoln Park, New Trier, Columbia College or SAIC. Especially when Lance would sing lyrics like, “So nice, so clean, so white, Bwahahahahahahahaha!”

These guys were so much more accomplished as players than anyone in my band at the time, the Maggots, that it truly disturbed them when we would play a show together and the crowd was way more into us. But I knew how to write a hooky chorus that people knew and remembered after only hearing it once and could yell along with the next two or three times through the song. They were up there trying to play like Rush but faster and nastier. After awhile our bands both fell apart and I started a band called Hazardous Youth with a guitarist named Timmy Matlock. Eventually Casey and Gus joined us. For the most part I was able to impose my sensibilities on these superior musicians.

Here’s a tune that was written by Casey and Lance after they drank a case of Carling’s and puked their guts out. We recorded it on a small cassette player at our practice space on Lake and Carpenter. It doesn’t really sound too great, but Timmy and I were blazin’ away. It’s called “Intestinal Disorder”.

https://soundcloud.com/joe-orr-road-rod ... l-disorder

Why must I drink this fuckin’ cheap beer?
It’ll only make me sick, get it away from here
You stupid fucks who think Black Label’s heaven sent
It’ll only make you drunk and ignorant
If you think drinkin’ cheap pisswater’s fun
You won’t think it’s fun when you awaken with the runs
So get out of my face with that dog piss in a can
Get out of my face, ‘cause I’m a Bud man

All I said that I wanted to do was drink
Look at me now, fuck, I’m pukin’ in the sink

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:34 pm 
Offline
1000 CLUB
User avatar

Joined: Fri May 13, 2005 4:47 pm
Posts: 28635
Location: computer
pizza_Place: Salerno's
8)

awesome...

reminds me of Antioch VFW shows in 1988 and 1989.

Ever hear of a band named Natas...later renamed to Not-Us?

_________________
@audioidkid
spaulding wrote:
Also if you fuck someone like they are a millionaire they might go try to be one.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:09 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:00 am
Posts: 76673
Location: Chicago Heights
pizza_Place: Aurelio's
doug - evergreen park wrote:
8)

awesome...

reminds me of Antioch VFW shows in 1988 and 1989.

Ever hear of a band named Natas...later renamed to Not-Us?


Yeah, I saw them more than once, I think. Probably at Hell House or the Warehouse.

Also, I think there are still shows at the Antioch VFW. A few years back I had this chick working for me. She was in her early twenties- if that- and from Mundelein and I'm pretty sure that was a place she used to play. Her name is Kristen Georges but she went by Kisston Gorgeous.

http://kisstongorgeous.bandcamp.com/

_________________
His mind is not for rent to any God or government.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 196 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 7  Next

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group