Steak and Eggs (featuring Yoko Hambone) - Eggnog Overdrive

Merry Christmas, from Steak and Eggs (and Yoko Hambone).

Ish Records · Steak and Eggs - Eggnog Overdrive

Steak and Eggs - Punk Rockers Don't Use the Bathroom

Someone smashed the toilet in our practice space. Why not write a song about it? Why ask? Do!

Ish Records · Steak and Eggs - Punk Rockers Don't Use the Bathroom

The Fanta - United We Stand

United We Stand, recorded in Williamsburg VA in 1999. I found the lyrics to it too. Bonus! Not sure why the ball licking lyric didn't make the cut. Seems like prime Fanta to me.

Baby USA, the lost Southern Vibrations song

Here are some lyrics to a long lost Southern Vibrations song that was recorded, but we just couldn't get the vocals right. Don't know if we were too drunk, it was late, or whatever, but we just couldn't get it right. I hope Erik still has a tape of it for his 4-track, cuz I would love to hear it again. It was us doing our best southern rock Chuck Berry, if I remember correctly. Baby USA.

Bear/Nightcreelers timeline

Apparently, I noted everything Bear was doing at the time. Where we played, when we recorded, and who was playing bass, etc. I didn't know this existed until I was going through ye olde ish lyric notebook I had packed away in the archives. I had forgotten Nathan Mercer played bass with us for 1 show. Wow.

Scrotuculus flyer

Scrotuculus with Fulflej, July 18th 1994 at Chronos Cafe (Twisters), Richmond VA. I love how we were advertised as "Richmond's new rock metal gods". It was the first and the final show, but lives on in cassette tape form which I will have to share later. The back side of the flyer is a note to me from my old roommate that reads, "Phone bill money. Best I can do right now. $13.50. Scott" Funny, cuz the phone bill eventually became a really sore subject. You know the story.

Steak and Eggs - My Baby's Got The Gravy (9-20-09)

When the band is away, the Steak and Eggs will play. Lucius and I got together one Sunday afternoon and cranked out this gem. There will be more...

Ish Records · Steak And Eggs -My Baby's Got The Gravy

Bear (part 1)

Here are some Bear recordings from Brian C's living room, straight to boom box. This is part 1 of I dont know how many more, and I have a lot. I am unsure of the date, but I am thinking around 1993. I know Tony was still in high school and would sometimes skip school to come to band practice. The 'Merry Christmas' track came about after failing to learn 'We Three Kings' for a Christmas compilation we were asked to provide a song for called "Food, Not Bombs" on Whirled Records. 'Energizer Boy' was originally a "John Thomas Experience" song, which all three Bear members had recoreded with them. 'Wanted Her' was our version of the song originally done by the legendary ish band, "The Ocean Lovers". More on them later. Until then...

The Tom Jeremiah Band (2008)

Mike flew back from LA and Tom and Tony made the trip down to Raleigh to get the Tom Jeremiah Band back together. I had no idea what songs were gonna do, but Tom already had the lyrics printed out and was practicing what he was going to "ad lib". Of course none of us actually knew how to play the songs, but that's where my company laptop, aircard, and YouTube come in. We bought what I thought would be too much beer, and played well into the night, taking a couple hour break to sober up at my house to eat and play some Rock Band. Tony started falling asleep during "Sunglasses", as heard in his playing which is pretty hilarious. Mike and I were crying during the mixdown, and turned up the guitar part so it wouldnt be missed in the final mix. I dont think I have ever laughed that hard. It was a good feeling to get the Tom Jeremiah Band back together and something I hope never ends.

The Tom Jeremiah Band - You Belong To The City (2003)

A semi-annual tradition, The Tom Jeremiah Band is again the brainchild of Mike C. "Let's start a band where Tom J sings all the songs". Done deal! All cover songs, this one is a cover of Glenn Frey's "You Belong To The City". In attendance I think were Tom J, Mike C, Mike M, Tony B, Lucian C, and Joel L.

Roll Out The Red Carpet For Bear (1994)

Bear got together a garbage bag of loose change and dollar bills and headed to Winter Sound in Gloucester VA to record the Roll Out The Red Carpet EP. I think we had enough money for 3 hours of studio time. I remember the engineer being dumbstruck that we were happy with 1 take of each song. He didnt know we were pressed for time due to out limited pocket change budget. I always loved these songs, especially the very sarcastic "Temperature Surprise" with the cookie monster vocals and firebell. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian C "sangin and twangin", Tony B on "lead thunda bass", and Joel L on "2 pc. thunda drums". Bear.

Around the World

Someday

Temperature Surprise

The Demonics (1994)

The Demonics was an experimental thing I did in 1994. I had a cheap guitar and Nathan Mercer's old stereo. It was one of those GPX stereos that you buy at Ames, with the record player and dual cassette with a mic input. What you could do is play samples of records and record them on a cassette on the cassette recorder. Then you could put the cassette in the "player" side, play it back, and record it plus another mic track on the "record" side of the tape deck. You could do this over and over again, in essence multitracking one track at a time. I have a whole cassette tape of these experiments, but these 3 tracks are my favorite. The first song, "Wise Up" is 2 tracks, guitar and voice. The recorded voice is from an answering machine message that Vince Miller was leaving me when I rented a room form this goth girl we called Rose Scary (real name Rosemary). He was upset that the outgoing message didnt state whose house it was, and he let it be known, "so, wise up". Her roommate/boyfriend picked up the phone at the end of the message and his comment was conveniently recorded also. I threw the tape in the GPX and put guitar over it. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the clip at the beginning. That is a recording of my mom from the early 80s saying to my dad, "take down those goddamn christmas lights, faggot".

"Feeding Ducks" was a song written during the time of the infamous Lorena Bobbit story. I had heard this story about how common it was in some other country for wives do the same (you know, penis trimming) and throwing the remains out the windows of their homes for the local ducks to feed on. Not sure if that is true, but that is the story I heard.

"Thirty Seconds" was just me and a guitar singing into the aforementioned answering machine. I thought I had 30 seconds to record something on to it, but apparently I only had 25.

Southern Vibrations part 2 (1999)

I am not entirely sure how this came about, but there was a second Southern Vibrations session. I think Mike C was away at school, and the sounds of ye olde Vibrations made their way to Richmond VA where Matt F heard them and had to be part of it. I knew Matt as a the drummer of Dragstrip Syndicate, and had no idea he could play bass until he sat and laid down the bass for the "new" Southern Vibrations. There was actually a 5th song recorded, in the vain of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode" that we could never get the vocals right, and hopefully it's still sitting on Erik's 4-track waiting for us to one day actually record the vocals. I don't remember much else about recording this stuff, but I still feel like I cheated on Mike C since this was his idea to begin with.

Daisy
 
81 South
 
Little Billy Ray
 
Wildfire Soul
 

Killer Bananas (The Christmas Mice) (1992)

John S gave me a cassette tape many years ago from ish richmond division, called "ish 34, a tribute to the gnome". On it were a bunch of bands I hadnt heard. One of those bands was the Killer Bananas. I will let Erik S tell the tale.

It was Dave D & I during the summer of '92. "Steve Lewis" was about our boss at "That Seafood Place", who we hated. "Swim Wish" was a "tribute" to the Smashing Pumpkins whereas "Chromatic Life" was a tribute to S.O.D.'s "Chromatic Death." Somewhere Dave has the full length recording. I think we may have called ourselves The Christmas Mice at one point too.

Southern Vibrations part 1 (1999)

Around 1996, a bunch of us were sitting at Taco Bell in Williamsburg VA and Mike C told us his genius idea of creating a southern rock band called Southern Vibrations. It was a funny joke, and none of us even listened to southern rock at the time, so the idea sort of went by the wayside like many other bands that could have been. In 1999, while Mike was on a break from school, the Southern Vibration's idea came to fruition. Another one-off ish band, but this one was gonna be real songs with real song writing, still mostly recorded in one take. It was Mike on bass, Erik S on guitar and Joel L on drums. These were the most challenging ish songs to date, with actual song structure, multitracking, and lyrics but that's not to say the humor wasn't there. The sound a of a beer cracking open on "Loose Legged Woman" sets the tone for the rest of the session. By the time "Southern Man" was ready to record, it was late and we were drunk and you can hear Mike falling asleep at the bass, barely plucking away at the strings. That is easily my favorite part of this session. Mike was so tired, he went home, leaving Erik and I to finish the vocals on "Southern Man" to ourselves. Our faithful 4th member, John W, was there to share ideas and cheer us on throughout the night. I had always hoped there would be another Southern Vibrations session, and eventually there was, but that will have to wait until another time.

Loose Legged Woman

 Flyin' High
 
I'm A Southern Man
 

Rheum 237 (1989)

The very first ish band, Rheum 237, recorded these songs in Joel Lindelof's attic in 1989 with Joel on drums, Nathan Mercer on bass, and Dave Cashen on vocals. I had to dig deep in the archives for this one. The band was named after the infamous room in The Shining. Nathan was playing some homemade bass he called "Methusda" through a tiny amp with lots of distortion. "Moose Goosers" was a song Dave had heard when he was younger, so we put music to it and had a song. The rest of the tracks were all improvised and done in one take. Nathan and Joel were listening to a lot of Cure at the time, and there are some Cure covers that will appear eventually on this blog. That's it and that's all.

The Nightcreelers 4 track (1994)

Recorded sometime around 1994 (I think) on a 4-track in Brian C's living room, this was a brief period of The Nightcreelers without a bass player. I am not sure if this was after Tony B in between Dave J, or after Dave and in between Tony returning. Regardless, it is Joel L in Drums and Brian C on guitar and bass. "Holly Portal" was Brian's knock on the Jolly Mortals, but sounding nothing like them. "Firebell" was obviously an homage to the firebell I had mounted on my bass drum, though there is no firebell anywhere in the track."Let It Ride" was one of the first songs ever we ever wrote as Ladybug, then Bear, and then passed on to The Nightcreelers. You can hear Amy singing backup on the last chorus. "Telescope Man" was our attempt at writing a trashy surf rocker. Apparently we were listening to a lot of surf music and trash rock at the time and Brian must have just recently got the tremelo/pan pedal as it's everywhere on these recordings.

Let It Ride

Holly Portal

Telescope Man

Firebell