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Since my foreign garage sale correspondents are still filing their reports, wouldn’t you know I’d find another way to talk about garages. Specifically, the garage band. I’d love to be able to say I formed one in the 90s and that it enjoyed a small, jealous, following of anarchists…
But no. I was never in a band, though I did learn early on that the way to a confused teenage boy’s heart, or at least ego, was by being a groupie. So I sat there in a group of other young hopefuls, drinking suicide slushies and distressing the hems of our jeans with Exacto knives while blithely incurring noise-induced hearing loss. And for some reason rehearsals were never in garages–ranches were falling out of fashion, and parents didn’t seem to mind noise parties in their moldy basements. Ultimately, I was a bad groupie–I never learned how to sell “merch” and I never carried Preparation H to soothe the bands collective calluses (seriously–the stuff works).
But when I talk to people today, it seems they were either one or the other: groupie or band member. But could you ever properly be both? Regardless, I love hearing the names of bands people used to be in, or bands they’ve roadied (or bands they wish would’ve asked), so share the love if this includes you.
Comments (19)
Comment
I played Bass and Guitar in an early 80s band called Shotgun Labotomy. It fell apart when most of us had to get real jobs to pay the bills and didnt have time to play together anymore.
posted by sandburr on 9-25-2007 at 11:54 pm
I had a teacher in grade 4 who was in a band call the Parachuting Shoelaces and I was in my very own called Claustrophobic Sardines.
Ah, good times!
posted by Hayley on 9-26-2007 at 1:12 am
I played bass and sang background vocals for a band called Amazon Fug. We boasted having “more members than talent” and had a total of one non-paying gig.
posted by Carol on 9-26-2007 at 2:27 am
In high school I played bass in 7th Period Stress. We played a lot of Nirvana covers and never got out of the garage, altho the neighbors once came and listened.
And I was lead roadie for my friend’s band, Progressive Failure, for their grand New Year’s Eve tour; we hit up 3 parties.
posted by cousin on 9-26-2007 at 7:13 am
I still have a deep and abiding love for the Elbow Jockeys, formed by some of my friends in high school.
posted by Jack on 9-26-2007 at 7:26 am
In high school, my best friend and I started a band called the Snow Angels. It was more of a joke than an actual band, although we did write pretty good lyrics, and our guitarist was awesome. We considered merging with another band and becoming Dashboard Jesus and the Snow Angels, but that never really panned out.
posted by Molly on 9-26-2007 at 7:53 am
In college I worked in the kitchen of a chain restaurant and one of the other cooks and I had a “band” called Your Mom’s Lover. We didn’t actually play any music but we did make up silly little songs about our job and the other people there and sang them while we cooked. It was entertaining even though everyone else there thought we were a-holes.
posted by Marta on 9-26-2007 at 8:09 am
I’ve been in three bands with ridiculous names:
Dinner with Hern Berford
Mister Yuck
Subtext Becomes Text
But that’s high school for you.
posted by Ransom on 9-26-2007 at 8:21 am
I played in Wheatstone Bridge in high school and in college Redeye Express. After college I played in Post Toasty and Sundae Comics
posted by david on 9-26-2007 at 8:40 am
Lemme see…Epitaph, Path, Richard Cranium, that’s a couple of them. Path actually opened for Ted Nugent and Foghat in my hometown when the third bands bus broke down. That was a lot of fun. 30 years later, I still play about one or two weekends a month. I learned in high school that one could get with the ladies one of two ways. Get your head bashed in on the football field every Friday night to hang with the cheerleaders, who in the seventies were not morally vague (unless you were the quarterback), or be in a band and have the ladies who were, shall we say, a little more adventurous at ones side. Didn’t take long for me to hang up the cleats!
posted by Chas on 9-26-2007 at 10:05 am
I was in a garage band in the late ’60s. I played rhythm guitar and back-up vocals. We usually practiced in my friend Betsy’s bedroom. Betsy was lead guitar and lead vocalist. After one practice, Betsy’s mom told her I was the better guitarist and should be lead. The next time we practiced, Betsy’s mom told her I was the better singer and should be lead. That was the end of our garage band.
posted by Denise on 9-26-2007 at 11:25 am
I’m not ashamed to admit I was a groupie. I really had no choice. I loved music, and I had a thing for guys with long hair.
I dated a guitar player for several years, and followed local bands with names like:
Face The Faxx (it was the early 90’s, and the double-x thing was hip);
The Reign;
Mispent Youth (I loved to point out the “mis”spelling);
The guitar player didn’t work out, but I did end up marrying a singer-songwriter who performs more as a hobby than a career, has short hair, and just uses his own name. So, I’m a groupie for life, I guess.
posted by Bre on 9-26-2007 at 11:35 am
I played in several bands in highschool, but only one practiced in a garage. We were called Korova and stuck it out for about 5 years, playing locally. Even put out a 7″.
posted by Ian EBH on 9-26-2007 at 11:43 am
Footnote: I can’t believe I forgot to mention any of the bands my husband used to be in before I knew him. There were some good names.
Aztec Neighbor
Eargasm
Justin Case
Dallas McGhee
Asa Ramon
Rock City
He did a South Pacific military base tour when he was 19, and a Canadian tour when he was in his early 20’s. He has some interesting stories to tell. I joke with him that someday, some young woman of Asian descent is going to knock on our door and say, “Daddy?”
posted by Bre on 9-26-2007 at 11:48 am
david — where did you go to school? I remember a band called Wheatstone Bridge…i think someone in my family knew band members. I’m from Illinois…
posted by Chris on 9-26-2007 at 1:41 pm
Since 1994, I’ve been playing in a garage band called Garage Sale, and we used to practice in my garage until one of the neighbors called the cops. Now we don’t practice much.
posted by Skizz on 9-26-2007 at 2:50 pm
I was a groupie of a local band, however I did get on stage and sing with them once in a while-old punk classics. They are still a band so to keep up appearances I will not name them, my groupie days are past.
I did form a band at the same time, wrote some really great lyrics, but no one in the band could write the music. Needless to say, we didn’t go far.
posted by TracyB on 9-26-2007 at 2:57 pm
I was in a “band” in college. We practiced every Sunday night by getting drunk, going to Club Beat It in Hollywood, and picking up guys. Whenever they asked us what we did, we told them about “Sure Thing” and then explained our role in the band. I was the drummer/lead singer. There was also a keyboardist and a bassist. We had a lot of groupies (amassing many dude’s over two years) and some guest players (always on the tambourine).
We named ourselves after the classic film starring John Cusack. We made commemorative t-shirts. We believed in ourselves.
posted by emily on 9-26-2007 at 3:39 pm
i played drums in a band called the Blue Ribbon Band, and we always drank Pabst Blue Ribbon.
then i played bass for a bit in a band called the McShitz. but we didn’t eat McDonald’s…at least i didn’t…
posted by mikey on 10-3-2007 at 8:07 am