Tuesday, October 29, 2019

The GoGoBots - "Earful"

This video is from an early show of The GoGoBots. In fact, it is our first show ever, which happened on 13 Oct. 1996 at Verder Hall on the campus of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio USA. Three members of the band were in a precursor to The GoGoBots called The Hot Glue Guns. I don't recall why exactly we changed the band name. We may have found out that there was another band called The Hot Glue Guns, or maybe it was because Micah, our second guitarist, joined the band. In any case, this was the first show with the four of us and under The GoGoBots name. I'm not even exactly sure why Micah joined. We might have just liked him, or he might have been the ticket to getting a practice space. We had a lot of trouble at that time in finding a place to practice. For The Glue Guns, we used to practice in our apartment. Since we lived next to the laundry room, we'd do laundry to cover up the noise. We changed apartments in 1996 though, so that wasn't a possibility anymore. We had some goofy experiences like playing on the back loading dock of the music building at KSU, but obviously with winter coming we needed something inside. Micah was friends with a couple of women who had a practice space, so that might have been his ticket into the band. In any case, we started rocking as a quartet. Mike and I both wrote songs (Micah also contributed one or two during his tenure) and you can hear us finishing up a Mike song at the beginning of the video. Before the next song starts, I was seeing if any of my students were there (I might have been giving extra credit). This lineup lasted only a couple of months, and then Todd left to go play in Songs: Ohia or something. We replaced him with Greg and carried on. There's another VHS tape of The GoGoBots, so expect some more videos down the road. This one is again courtesy of Jimi Imij.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

The GoGoBots - "Gumshoe"

I went through another VHS tape. This one was courtesy of Jimi Imij. I found a few gems that I will be sharing over the next few posts. The first is this video of The GoGoBots playing our "home" venue, the Mantis Gallery in Kent. The Mantis was a trip. It was a BYOB performance space run by Sam, an old punk rocker. Sam was a cool guy and definitely was open to new sounds, so we played there quite a bit. This song is from the trio era of The GoGoBots, which was my favorite era. It features the end of the song "Gumshoe", which was one I wrote after reading a few too many hardboiled detective novels. The lighting makes it look like we had cool dramatic lighting, but really The Mantis just had bad lighting (also, the toilet was usually broken).

Sunday, October 13, 2019

New Thirsty Bear & Hungry Snake Comic!

Every once in a while, I get the urge to whip up a Thirsty Bear & Hungry Snake comic.  This one is different because I decided to forgo the fumetti and draw this one.  The result is below (click on it to make it bigger).  Enjoy!

Sunday, October 6, 2019

New Song: "Bonehead"

I wrote this while I was in Pennsylvania this summer. We're all boneheads from time to time and must pay "the stupidity tax", but some people live it. The lyrics are below.  It's the same deal as always.  If you like a song, then feel free to cover it if you're in a band or whatnot.  I love to hear covers of my songs, so please let me know about your version.  If you start making money, then send me a check/we can work out a deal.  Similarly, if you want to use a song for your Youtube video or whatnot, then just let me know.  It's usually fine by me unless it's a commercial product or whatnot (and then it's likely fine as well--I just want my cut).  Find out first though.  Write me at wredfright ATATAT yahoo DOTT com.

I don't want to be a bonehead.
Don't want to be like you.
Always making the same mistakes,
Never knowing what to do.

Ooh! Bonehead.

You always say you have no money,
but you always have cigarettes and booze,
plus a new cell phone
and a new tattoo.

I've got to get out of this town
before I become like you.
That would be my worst nightmare.
I don't want it to come true.

Written August 2019
Recorded August 2019