Aunt Mary's Microcassette

The first in a whole string of CHRISTMAS POSTS! I hope you guys are ready for a whole bunch of weird X-mas garbage and a few little presents tossed in for good measure, so stay tuned!

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This post won't be as nasty as the previous ones because it's about family. If it were about my nuclear family I'd tear 'em apart, but no, this is about three little old ladies in an old house filled with stuff.

My Great Aunt Mary was always fickle. I spent my summers mowing her grass and washing her windows to the tune of "Oh be careful," and "Do it like this, it works best this way." To the best of my knowledge, she, Sister Martin, and Sister Jocille (sp?) spent their days politely arguing about meaningless things and attempting to reorganize boxes of stuff.

"I can move that for you."

"Oh no, we're just going to throw that out."

Three weeks later the box is still on the kitchen table and I'm eating overcooked broccoli while Aunt Mary takes out her teeth.

Recently, while cleaning out the house, mom came across a little sump'n sump'n:

Coincidentally, the recordings are from a Christmas past and the recorder itself was a gift from Aunt Mary! The tape contains hymns and carols sung by sweet little old ladies that probably sang quite well when they were younger. Now, the harmonies are . . . interesting. If anyone can translate or ID any of the Polish songs, I'll give 'em a cookie.



Download Aunt Mary's Microcassette

Smash Aunt Mary's Microcassette

Also, I'm moving all of the downloads to my Google Drive because it's easier for everyone. Just click "File">"Download" if you're stuck, dummy.

Happy Thanksgiving

If you had any friends they might throw a killer Thanksgiving shindig and invite you. But you don't and they didn't

Instead, enjoy this one you weren't invited to. I hope you get thrown out for crashing the party.

Happy Halloween

Okay I goofed. It's no longer Halloween, I haven't posted anything in forever, and this was supposed to be for Halloween.

 

Sorry.

Real updates to follow but not daily as promised because you don't deserve them. Go polish off a couple pizzas and cry, fatty. 

UPDATE: Whores on the Floor History

Apparently Andrew is a Whores on the Floor whore. Thanks to Andrew for this enlightenment and further thanks to IzzyThePusher for the tip! 

Look at that! He even looks like a historian!

If you're confused as to what is going on, take a chill pill and assimilate the original post, you daffy drungle.

This text was copied directly from Facebook IM and only slightly edited to sustain the anonymity of certain individuals. Any punctuation, spelling, or grammatical errors are par for the course and Andrew's fault.

I don't have a total history of this band, but I can give you a few of my scattered recollections of when this band was around. -I want to say that this band started up in late 2005; I'm not sure on an exact date but I remember it being roughly during the late autumn of 2005. 

-The lead singer/frontman of the band was a guy named Ed. I don't remember the exact circumstances involved in me meeting Ed, but I do remember that we lived on the same dorm room floor (2nd floor of Kellogg hall) during the fall 2005 semester. Ed was also in the mass comm department, majoring in audio engineering. He left SIUC after the spring 2006 semester and eventually transferred up to Columbia College. To my knowledge (and this was from the last time I saw him, which was about two years ago), he presently lives in the Chicagoland suburbs and does freelance audio engineering work: helping run the audio for broadcasting of sports events.

-One of this band's first gigs actually happened at Herrin Teen Town (coincidentally the site of the first Tapeworms gig, if I recall); unfortunately, I don't remember the exact date of the show.

-I can't remember the name of the person who drew the album's cover art. However, I do remember that he was the bass player in Mr. Ned (which was an Oi-style punk band that Max and Luke Herron-Titus played in) and that he was the second bass player for the Broken Bricks (the one before Taylor). The back cover photo was apparently found on Facebook.

-Speaking of the Broken Bricks, a guy that I know was around quite a bit for the recording of the album (and is actually doing some of the vocals on the last track) was a guy named Andy who wound up as the first bass player for the Broken Bricks in the fall of 2006). Andy was another audio engineering guy/friend of Max's who, last I heard, was living in California.

-I want to say that their last regular gig was in either April or May of 2006 at the Davis-McCann center in Murphysboro. I believe that they opened the show, which was headlined by The Accelerators and Skinny Jim and the #9 Blacktops. I think that it was the last, or one of the last, punk rock shows to happen there. (As a side note, I believe that David Brown was also at this show; I vaguely recall that this show was one of the first times that I really hung out with him).

-As I've said, the band pretty much broke up after the spring 2006 semester, when Ed moved back to the suburbs. They did reunite for a few one-off gigs: the most recent of which took place at Maxfest (which was a bunch of shows that happened in Max's parents garage) in June or July of 2008 (I was at this show and it was the last gig that I can think of).

Those are my scattered memories of this band's existence. If you are looking for other (possibly more informed) perspectives on the band, I would probably check in with Luke Herron-Titus. I seem to remember that he was at most of the shows that they played (if I recall, WOTF played a lot of shows with Mr. Ned).

Otherwise, let me know if you need any other info.

Thanks!-Andrew

No, thank YOU! I hope you don't mind me posting this, because I don't care!

Curiosities Vol. 1

I, I, I, me, me, me. It's all about me. I apologize if I start ALL of my posts with "I," but it ain't about YOU. Fudge you, motherfarters. YOU SUCK. Are YOU bustin' yer hump posting all this meaningless shit?!

NO!

SO . . .

I planned to release a consecutive series of bizarre YouTube videos as teasers for other posts.

I FARTED UP.

This is too golden to pass up. I'm not partial to yoga but I found myself contorting, stretching my body as to fit my toes into my nostrils, repeating the mantra: "Dunnnnnnnnnnn-gis, Dunnnnnnnnnnnnnn-gis, Dunnnnnnnnnnn-gis."

Drunk Virago Practice Disc

For those of you who don't know, I took part in one of the loudest bands in Carbondale. I specifically remember Eli at PK's telling us to turn down and looking up at the crowd of people at the back of the bar, cowering in fear.

The initial plan was a "trip-hop/downtempo/dub-style" band, at which we failed miserably. But we soon captured the "krautrock/psych/play-one-riff-really-loud" sound perfectly. The original lineup comprised of Matt on drums, Howard on bass, Nick on keyboards and trumpet, and myself playing Minesweeper. A while later James was added on guitar and I followed suit in addition to some percussion.

To get a really good sample of us in our prime, check out this series of videos by IzzyThePusher. He did a great job documenting EVERYTHING and still uploads stuff from years ago. Thanks Tom!

If you wanna hear the coolest drum break ever (covered in a bunch of feedback), check out minute 1:55 of track 5. Tracks 3 & 4 are split but they are actually one song, and our best at that. So if you wanna listen to just one awesome track, you'll still have to listen to . . . uhh . . . two tracks. I'll stop rambling and give you the link:

Drunk Virago Live at the Ski Haus 5/14/11

But this little recording of mine is from long before that era. Apparently the backbone had thought that the guts weren't practicing enough, so they recorded backing tracks and gave them to us on CD-Rs. Yep, this is 20 minutes of drum and bass. I'm not gonna lie, I still noodle on guitar to this.



Download Practice Disc

Practice Disc-ing

UPDATE: Another of our songs, recorded by Karthik, was brought to light by my ever-inquisitive brain. Here it is on the ever-contemporary MySpace:

SORRY

Hey dudes. I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday. I had to do some laundry, clean my room, wash the dishes, cook dinner for a friend, and then get drunk at Hangar. Excuse me for being productive. 

To make up for it here's a picture of  some art my roommates made and my some of my favorite videos on YouTube.

Also there are two new posts.