strange. the winter/spring of 1991 was 20 years ago. the gulf war started just over 20 years ago. i was 16. its been 20 years since i played in my favorite high school band.
i also realized that i've been using the same snare drum for 20 years. it was given to me by the drummer for the band "the van goghs" who were about to go on tour with "the rembrandts" - true story. this is super geeky, but knowing i've had the snare for over 20 years, i figured it was probably a lot older than that, so i found the product info. this is interesting only to me, i know this. its the only part of my 2nd drum kit that i kept, and its been an incredibly versatile snare. if it can keep up in a genre bending band like through the sparks, then its pretty solid. according to some of the usergroups i've read, the snare retailed in the mid 80's for around $250 and is generally regarded as being a powerhouse both live and in the studio:
1984-85 Model product model is: M-514D
The M-514D (6 1/2 x 14) snare were featured on the Professional series and all DX and DLX-7500 series drums as standard equipment. It was equipped with Pearl SuperHoops 2.3 triple flanged and had the new S-015EX "Extended Gladstone Type strainer providing sensitive snare tension at both sides.
its also been 20 years since i left the first band i joined upon moving to auburndale. after leaving that band...from '91 to '93 i played with my friend shawn boos, my then girlfriend zella, and our stoner buddy seth. i have video footage and photos of the show we played in march 1991 that i'll post at some point.
we were the de facto rock band of our high school and we played several in-school functions. it was always a lot of fun being able to leave algebra class in order to spend 2 hours in the band room rehearsal original rock music for an event later in the day that would also equal time not in class. it was quite a scam. after high school, shawn boos and i played with an older friend, tony insua. we only played one show as a 3 piece. from 1991-1993 this band fronted by shawn and myself was called ten29.
ten29 was based on the date 10/29/1990 - when shawn broke up with this air-headed blonde he was dating. yep. edit: zella (who has a killer memory) has informed me that ten29 came not from a break-up date, but from our friend shawn's girlfriend's birthday.
after graduating high school, shawn boos, tony and i rehearsed on and off for about a year but never played a show. then shawn moved away... then i moved away. i didn't play another live show until may 2000. overall, between high school and playing live in phoenix, i went about 8 years without playing live, with the exception of one or two songs sitting in with bands at the rustic. i didn't play drums live between 1992 and 2006. over 14 years.
other things that happened 20 years ago this winter... the weekend the gulf war started, two of my best friends, myself and a high school buddy piled into seth's vintage puegat sedan and headed to ft. lauderdale. 2 days later we were physically evicted form the city. i also made this crazy thing in ceramics class, although that was in the fall of '91. pretty hilarious:
anyway... so march came in with a bang. crazy rain storms and wind, and more warm weather. winter effectively ended about 6 weeks early this year. after a series of snow storms, the last of which was in early-mid february, the weather just decided to turn spring-like. pollination/blooming has gotten started quite a bit earlier than usual. more rain last night.
speaking of last night. some guys across the street from my apartment got into an alcohol fueled argument, and one of them killed the other. i showed up a few mins after all the cops and fire trucks got there.
more sxsw stuff... here's the official poster (below) for the show and a blurb about the secret stages music festival being promoted by travis morgan at skybucket. in june we will be playing in waverly, alabama at a bham-centric show promoted by standard deluxe printing and the thisisamericanmusic blog. here's the newest article on the bham goes to sxsw efforts, courtesy of bham weekly. and here's the media page at skybucket records, featuring music from all of the bands from bham playing sxsw this year.
