THE LOCAL MUSICAL FAMILY TREE..........this will probably only make sense to me...........

I have had the luxury and honor to be both a participant and observer of the evolution of music in my hometown of Augusta,Georgia..........the picture you see above was taken at SQUEAKY'S TIP TOP..........an Augusta landmark that was once described in GQ magazine by the members of a New York band called Lotion as "a tool shed with a bar on the side"..........they made the remark in the most loving way possible..........because most every band that came to SQUEAKY'S loved it.........Jay Aston from the 80's band GENE LOVES JEZEBEL calls SQUEAKY'S a friend to this day.........for a good long run, it was the oldest functioning bar in Augusta...........for pete's sake, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER came there for a burger and a beer after a round of golf at the AUGUSTA NATIONAL............

The picture at the head of this post was taken in the late 80's.......obscured behind the cymbals and drums is yours truly.........it was around the time that THE TIP TOP began having live entertainment..........that's my band NEATO TORPEDO.........waaaaaaayyyy back in the day..........the bands set up in the back of the bar at that time.........seeing that pic puts me in a nostalgic mood........so imma run down some of the bands from Augusta that either inspired me,blew my mind.........or of course the ones i played a part in...........(dig my dangle,Bpops).............

i'll start with a band that fueled my curiosity and desire to play music.........My dad's band THE PALLBEARERS............they billed themselves as "the last ones to let you down"..........and they made a name for themselves playing the frat circuit all over the southeast............i was not present for their career..........however........the memorabelia(sp?) i got to see, belied how big time these cats were.........they played white boy soul.........and they released records on two separate label imprints..........they rode the then very influential top 40 of WBBQ for many many weeks just prior to my birth...........and the music kicked ass.............

flash foward 15 or so years to the mid 80's...........as a teenager, i became aware of a burgeoning scene of cats that were doing the whole DIY thing and building the foundation of our music "scene"............

John Brownlee impressed me very early on as a sort of impressario.....he played bass with a band called THE FUNGOES...........and he brought bands from out of town to play Augusta............they held the shows in a practice space above a chinese laundry on 8th street downtown.........there was always a keg..........and the shows always got busted..........but it was cool as shit to me as a teenager........THE FUNGOES later became THE OUTLINES............and it was good.......

there were other bands sharing that practice space..........one prominent band was THE CRAWLING PEGS...........who's members later went on to form BLAH............

around this time, i helped found NEATO TORPEDO.............along side us, several great bands were forming...........taking our cues from the variety of great stuff we were discovering by bands from labels like SST and all the DUTCH EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY stuff.........FUCKSTICK turned into PAINTED TAMBOURINE......which evolved into SWIMMING GROUND............the boys from TIN SOLDIER eventually joined forces with DAVID BRADBERRY from STAN'S BIKE and ORPAN TRAIN to form DEBT OF NATURE(one of this town's all time greats)........

i joined DEBT OF NATURE upon leaving NEATO............DON dissolved into SMILE.........after SMILE, Dave Newhall and I formed MARY JANE JONES...........and so on and so forth.........up to now..........

in the middle of that span of time, there were other great Augusta bands such as DESOLATE JAMES,BURNING BUSH,JAMESGATE,PINE.........and how do you forget HUNDRED YEAR SUN..............

the list, the history and the chronology are by no means complete.........but the point is this..........this town has produced great original music for more than 20 years now..............

i'm proud to have been involved in whatever small capacity..........

Rock it like your next artistic endeavor may in some small way make history........lay that shit down with the most passion you can muster...........

Stak

COMING EVENTS...............

I'm looking forward to sharing the stage with OTITIS.......they're MCG students.......their name is medical speak for ear infection....pretty clever,no?..........They have a very new alt. sound ala MODEST MOUSE............APOSABLE SCUM is heavily informed by SONIC YOUTH.........should be an excellent show..........

Rock it like you're with the band..........be IN the band.......

Stak

R.I.P. CAPTAIN AMERICA............

PHOTO BLOG..........awards show pics courtesy of RHI.......

BRAGGING RIGHTS.............who's gonna get em this weekend?...........

Above are my two bands................top photo is JOE GRAVES AND THE DIRTY LEFT HAND............the other is AMERICAN SKIN..............both bands and certain personnel in them got nominated for numerous awards..............you see, here in Augusta, there is an online zine devoted to local music called LOKAL LOUDNESS............at the end of each year they open up voting for two months to select favorites in various categories................then in february they have a big show and pass out awards to all the winners.........it's great fun..........for some reason, when all the local musicians gather in one place, the vibe is just capital...........great feeling of comraderie.............the fact of the matter is we rarely get to see each other because all always off playing somewhere...........so it's nice to hang for a bit.............

At any rate, these are the categories in which we have a vested interest................

Favorite Drummer:ME

Favorite Bassist:my wife Tracy(DIRTY LEFT HAND)

Favorite Vocalist:Brian Panowich(AMERICAN SKIN)

Favorite Local Female:Tracy

Favorite New Band:AMERICAN SKIN and THE DIRTY LEFT HAND

Favorite Band:AMERICAN SKIN

Favorite Song:AMERICAN SKIN for TOBE HOOPER.........DLH for SAME OLD FABLE

Favorite CD:DLH for SAME OLD FOIBLES

The LOKAL LOUDNESS CHOICE AWARDS SHOW is this saturday night(2/10) at the back bar of 1102 DOWNTOWN...........it starts at 8pm..........both of my bands are playing the event along with other nominees............THE LIVINGROOM LEGENDS, THE JOSH PIERCE GROUP,ALLISON FOSTER, HELLO LEFTY and THE EDISON PROJECT............the doors open at 8pm..........

Judging by the list of nominations we racked up,we must have done something right this past year............it's been fun..............i hope we get a trophy or two........

Rock it like it's the Academy Awards and they really,really like you........thank 500 people in your acceptance speech............

Stak

CHASTISED LIKE CHILDREN.......or why certain people should go fuck themselves.......

Good night, that pic makes me look like i weigh 300 lbs..........but it's from the show we played friday night........does it look like i'm disgusted there?..........i probably was just that...........you see that particular establishment has an owner who gets high on his own supply.........a very arrogant,opinionated Brit is one thing...........a shit-faced drunk Brit who is arrogant and opinionated is nearly intolerable.........in other words, this guy is a prick(i'll refrain from naming him here, we'll just stick with prick).........

You see, this joint is particularly small.........we made adjustments and played a lot quieter than we normally do........and unfortunately, the turnout was sparse(happens to bands much better than us all the time).......prick probably would've loved us had his bar been full........as it was, he proceeded to complain extremely loudly that the band was too loud.......even stopping us at one point and berating the singer like he was a child.........FUCK THAT GUY!!!!!!..........DOUBLE FUCK THAT GUY!!!.........

Our response was to play so quiet that we could barely be heard until PRICK left......then we cranked back up to normal volume again and played everything over again at the correct volume........but everyone in the band was pretty demoralized by the whole experience..........so that sucks..........but we don't really have time to continue fretting about it...........so imma leave it all here............

Besides, we gotta go collect some awards at THE LOKAL LOUDNESS READERS CHOICE AWARDS on Feb. 10th.........imma walk outta that thing with an armfull those cool plexiglass trophies..............

Rock like you're not an asshole drunk british poopyhead.........turn that shit up!!!.........

Stak

EVIDENCE...................

WAS I SOUSED?..............you bet i was.........

My band JOE GRAVES AND THE DIRTY LEFT HAND played a tiny basement joint in North Augusta,South Carolina called THE HIGHLANDER last friday......it's a british style pub complete with shepherds pie on the menu......the last time i played there many years ago, the owner was getting high on his own supply......in a very thick,very drunken british accent shouted "THE BAND'S TOO GATDAMMED LOUD!!!!" throughout the set.....despite the fact that the crowd was digging it the most, he proceeded to shout through thirty minutes or so of solid entertainment........before finally cutting the power.......

The power wasn't cut friday night.........but oh how i wish it had been........we struggled through the set.........screwing up in just about every way imaginable......you see the Yeungling draught was free..........and apparently crippling to musicians...........

We sucked..........

They asked us back...

Rock it like you're trying to commit murder.......

Stak