--Well, I had secretly put Ave in charge. And of course, Ave hated taking responsibility. He didn't want to be the leader. We would ask him what he wanted, and he would yell at us, saying you guys decide. So we would start to, but Ave would start going, "No, I'm not going to do that" "I don't like that idea either". And after much arguing, Ave would tell us what he had originally envisioned in the first place. So next time, we though we'll just avoid that whole mess and just ask him what to do - and of course, it would start again. So what I had vowed to do was just pretend to agree with whatever Ave said. First thing he did was move out of the apartment and back in with his folks. Cheaper, and warmer I guess, still I couldn't afford the rent by myself. I could've found another roommate, but Ave had given away his half to this friend I never met, named Brian. Deaf fellow, a real jerk. Ended up leaving me mid-month, with no rent, forcing me to move back in with my parents, something I didn't look forward to half as much as Ave. Ave's next idea was to visit Aaron in Chicago. Ave planned this trip for months. He was sure that this was the moment that would make him a man, or transform him into...I don't know, the way he talked up this trip, what it was going to do for him... I figured he was never coming back. And that was fine by me. I was twenty-one, never been on a date, living with my parents, no real education, working at some fast food joint (I had spent all my money covering eveybody's rent), wasting my life. I was, in short, the most pathetic man in the world.
--But he did come back. And nothing happened there, as I guessed wouldn't've happened. We still had no drummer, when we did get together it was for one of Ave's movies, and after several months of doing nothing, "Jerk-O-Flux Love Capacitator" was still unreleased. And it was never going to be. Ave hated it and what I thought didn't count. He didn't like the fact that all the songs were done in one take. "I can't get it right with a single brushstroke". Plus he hated all these songs, that I felt represented his pinnacle, probably just because they reminded him of whoever he was dating at the time (I could never keep all that stuff straight). He wanted to do the next album all on the four-track, where he could go over and over and over every little thing. I was not looking forward to that. Plus I didn't think it sounded very professional, but you know... And he wanted to do the whole thing with a drum machine. Now, I personally am opposed ethically to the whole concept of the drum machine. I'm a musician and the thought that a metal box can do my job is frightening. Plus it reminded me of the "Prosaic" session I sat in on. One guy sat at the computer, while the other three sat one the couch with a handheld electronic poker game. They didn't even need to be there. Really creepy. But Ave and I split $400 on a drum machine anyway. The "songs" we were writing were hardly that. He would record his voice and the machine (after about three hundred takes) and then say, put some guitar on this. There were no notes, I had no idea what he wanted, I could play anything, but, it wasn't mine... Or sometimes, there wouldn't even be a single instrument on there. And he would make me sing one line - over and over - I never could get whatever it was he was looking for. On the good side however, these recording sessions were fairly random and sporadic. Every now and then, Ave would get on a kick, "We've gotta practice more". You know once we even did two shows in a row (on consecutive nights) - considering the rarity of our performances, that was quite and accomplishment. After the first one Ave vowed to try and keep up this pace, but Seth didn't wear his platform shoes for the second show, and Ave blamed his (in his one mind) lackluster performance on the forgotten footwear.
--I hardly ever saw Seth during this time, and never alone, so I couldn't really ask him how he felt. He and Nikki were sharing this house with Ave, so... Well, here I have to introduce a character as real or as important as any of the human members of the band, The Barn. The Barn was this big old house, the kind you're surprised to find running water in. The main source of heat was this wood-burning stove. Kind of like one of those "museums" you find in old mining towns, that's little more than a house with memorabilia and red velvet ropes scattered around. But it was impressive. For one thing, there were really like no neighbors. Which meant that we could jam as late and as loud as we wanted. After years of being confined in Ave's parents' basement, this was a relief. Adjacent to the house itself was what looked like a five car garage. And up a long narrow flight was a room just destined to become the band room. It just had the right atmosphere. The right acoustics. Everything. Of course, being this detached, made it extremely cold during the winter and unbearably hot in the summer. Plus the stairs were difficult to maneuver the amps and drum set up and down for each gig. But still something about that house, and particularly that room, I'm sure was half the reason for Ave's renewed enthusiasm. Shag carpeting. Paintings and Seth's metalworks all over the place.
--Of course, the place wasn't really Seth's or Nikki's or Ave's, it was Seth's parents. They were trying to sell it. But they lived in Colorado Springs. And they needed someone to stay there and show it to potential customers. And considering how much they were asking (although it was definitely worth it and more), we figured Seth and Nikki and Ave would be living there forever. And it was on the market for over two and a half years.
--Of course at this time, we just never performed in public. Every now and then some band would become infatuated with us, take us under their wings and insist on us opening for them every show. Bands like "Foil Drive" and "Mucis". As much as they loved our performance, they would usually get fed up with our unprofessionalism (and besides being realitively unknown bands, there was only so much the could do for us). So we hardly ever played live. Which was ok with me 'cause I would work all day on one song and then, I'd never hear it again. I don't think I could recreate that on stage. Songs like "I'm The Little Hot Dog Girl", "The Most Magnificent Masturbator", "I Am A Robot", "Big Ass Market" and "I Just Got Robbed" - some of the songs survived to become actual playable tunes, like "Hand On My Crotch It", "At The Moment", "The Barn Melts Away", and "Cookin' Up For A Kick In The Pants" - but I wrote the music for those. Ave had given up guitar. For a while he thought about just playing accordion (which he had recently picked up) and never touching the guitar again. In one of my few exceptions to the "Don't Disagree" rule I pleaded with him not to throw away the guitar entirely.
--But he was more concerned with lyrics now. He constantly going, "Aren't my words so much better?". Of course, I never actually heard him talk about any of them in specific. I never know what any of them meant anyway (well, once he told me about "Loud Guy/Quiet Guy" - it's all about the bourgeois and the proletariat and how people move here from California) - but really I couldn't tell the difference from these lyrics and the ones on "Jerk-O-Flux". Ave could though, and took all delight in trashing that album that I had paid for and no one heard. Another thing Ave decided was no more of "my" songs. Which was fine by me, the crowd always wanned when I began to sing. But since I was doing all the music, and hated my singing and lyrics, I was never really sure what were my songs anyway. I mostly hated the fact we weren't doing HIS chords....
--Every now and then, we would try to get a drummer - or ended up with a show. Once, as a favor to somebody I think, we were hired to play a kids' show. Now Ave was super-psyched about this. We found this really heavy drummer, named Jamie - who happened to be the son of one of the guys from "Firefall" - which is like a real famous one-hit wonder band. And we even broke our "no covers" rule to learn "Shaddly Dum Dee Duty" from the Mr. Roger's record. We practiced for that one for hours. We were going to get paid possibly, which was a first for us. Well, we showed up with puppets and costumes and pinatas and amps and everything. We were supposed to watch the kids in the basement, while some tabla player entertained their folks upstairs at the Temple Events Center. Well, only three or four kids showed up. And we were FAR too loud. The kids started crying and some of the parents showed up. They really should've hired a babysitter, not a band. I don't think we got paid. Now, Jamie wasn't actually asked to join at this point. We didn't say why, but I could've guessed.
--We were occasionally looking for a drummer. We did place an ad in WestWord. Got a few responses. There was one guy named Sergei who Ave was real psyched on because he couldn't speak English. I don't understand. There were a few possible prospects. But Ave never followed through on any of them. And I certainly didn't have the authority nor the knowledge of percussion to make that decision. But the real reason was Ave wanted Tom back, and now he could probably do it. It's just that he wasn't sure he would come back after they way we treated him. So after a couple more months of milling around - the return of Tom a.k.a. Cleetus Barfmarler. Now I hadn't heard Tom play in like a year and a half, and I wasn't sure if he was practicing (I figured why would he) so I was not looking forward to this. But he had turned into a fairly decent drummer. A lot different from Aaron though. Aaron was very of the moment. He never played a song the same way twice. In fact, he would often switch patterns for each verse. He would never hit the down beat very hard. In fact he never hit anything hard, and it always sort of flowed. Tom on the other, hit them suckers. Bang Bang. And you always played pretty much the same thing for each time. Neither was greatly versatile, but you could tell what song Tom was playing even without the rest of us. Aaron would try anything you threw at him, Tom would make sure he knew the song first, and would almost deliberately write a part to fit. We would move around his fills a bit, but you could tell which ones belonged to what song.
--And this was great for Ave, who had strapped his guitar back on and decided that what we need to do was Heavy Metal. He said he wanted to make fun of those cheezy metal bands of the 80's that he grew up on, but still it was Metal, and I hated it. A.) I don't know thing one about it or how to play it. B.) I can't stand listening to it, it's too loud and repetitive. Our practices were becoming less of jam sessions. We would play the song straight through. We wrote actual endings to our songs - something we were never good at. I didn't know what I was doing though. I just put the distortion way up and ignored everything. Ave loved it. Never when I was into the band had I seen him so psyched. We were practicing three or four times a week. I got the feeling Seth wasn't too happy either though. Due to the increased tempo and genre limitations, his bass-lines, which were always a integral and fascinating part of the texture before, had to devolve a bit. And I don't think he was too happy about that.
--One the interesting thing about the band was, unlike most groups, when we came together, we didn't have a lot of common influences. We didn't listen to the same types of stuff. While this did lead to some interesting combinations, it also lead to a lot of friction in the group. When I was little my parents listen to either a lot of folk from the three big J's - Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, and Joan Baez. Peter, Paul, & Mary - that kind of stuff. Either that or Broadway. "Godspell", "1776", "Evita". This is what I was weened on. The first album I ever purchase however was "Wierd Al" Yankovic's. And when I first started buying records (on vinyl at the time) - it almost exclusively comedy.
--I don't know what Seth's earliest musical memories are, but by the time I met him he was listening to groups like Phish, the Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band, and Bob Marley (so did Aaron - so when he was with us, we tended to sound a little bit more like them.) very groove-oriented jam bands. Ave on the other hand loved Ween, The Residents, Primus, Jane's Addiction, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Mr. Bungle. Pretty much stuff I didn't know. Now we all loved the Beatles. But the Beatles isn't really a good meeting ground. They were so stylistically diverse. We could both love the Beatles, but I find you like their earlier, straight-forward pop while I like their more challenging later material. You could worship "Sgt. Pepper" while I find it over-praised and that "Rubber Soul" was their true masterpiece. We could both find the White Album too long, but your favorites are the ones I'd axe. You prefer Paul to John. I think George should've been given as many songs as the other two, You'd rather not hear him at all. So we had a hard time finding a common ground. As long we were creating our own sound it was o.k., but with metal stuff, I don't know.
--We were performing live a bit more. Ave still wasn't playing his guitar 100%. A couple of songs featured him on accordion. Other he simply stood there and danced as he sang. Dance, Stage presence, Costumes, Visuals were all big to Ave. He would yell at me for just standing there on stage. Now I have always had a prejudice against bands with lead singers - particularly ones who didn't play an instrument. Ave however finally became assured in his voice. Before, it was a struggle to get him to sing, but now... He'd play guitar on songs like "Hot Roller Mama" and "Thunderpussy No.1" - and while I was grateful that he was writing chords again - these tunes, tended to sound like each other - just like the genre they were satirizing. Other songs - like "You Ruined My Life" and "Woman In A Red Dress" were fun to play, Seth, and Tom and I could work them out ourselves, but not a lot of input from Ave - at least not on the music. One of the few songs through this "netal peroid" really impressed me musically. "Treat Her Like A Lady" - a song that while retaining the palindrome structure of "Ode To Pedaphile" the various sectios sounded un-related giving the song a very schizophrenic feel. The sudden break-neck turns were hard to negotiate and thus we only played sucessfully to completion a handful of times.
--On the other hand, we also slowly started introduce covers (songs not written by us) for the first time in our repotoire. First there was a fun, joke-y version of George Thortoughgood's "Bad To The Bone". And sometimes on stage we pulled out a half-assed rendition of Alanis Morisette's "You Ought To Know" - a song we all thoroughly despised. I even learned Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock" for Ave, but we never played it. We tried to do a couple of Pat Benatar tunes, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "Heartbreaker", but we never quite got the guts to do them live. Once, while trying to up-stage Phish - whom Ave always hated for some reason, Ave wanted to cover The Beatles' entire White Album. I think we got through two songs ("Helter Skelter" and "Dear Prudence" which was re-named "Dear Cleetus"). Another time Ave nearly got us booked at his company's (King Soopers) employee picnic, telling his manager that we were a covers band. We tried to learn a few golden moldies like "La Bamba" and "Land Of A Thousand Dances" before the gig got cancelled.
--There was another gig we had that will be hard for me to forget. We were supposed to go to C.U. and play some sort of celibration for finals being over. We almost had to cancel because it was during the a school night for Tom. Howevsuprised to learn that ten o'clock meant ten a.m. We'd never heard of playing that early in the morning before. And obviously no one on campus did either. There was literally no one else in the room when we plugged in to play. Now we had just purchased these rather large, loud new amplifiers, and we're testing them out this show. On the other hand, the entire student body was trying to sleep of a week of cramming. It's the only time I've ever been heckled by people who weren't even in the same building as me.
--The music was flowing. Ave was super-psyched. He even started to get away from the films for a while. So I was a little startled when he called me up and asked me to play this role for him. Only he wasn't directing it. Matt, some old friend of Seth's called him and asked him to fill in for this actor who went AWOL. Well, when yet another member of his cast deserted him, Seth suggested Ave, who was now doing Crispin Glover-esque cameos in other people's videos. Usually stealing the whole movie. Well, I don't know where Matt's streak of bad luck with actor came from but I ended up being recruited to play a Security Officer. Oddly enough, even though three Phlegmtones were in this project - all playing Security Officers - none of us had any scenes together. Well, it was easily one of the most disorganized, unprofessional, shoots I'd ever been on. Even stranger was having never met any of these people before, being stuck in a car with them as they drove me out to the middle of nowhere, dressed in a cop uniform and then offered marijuana - was just strange. I could've been a DEA agent for all they knew. Or a serial killer. Matt's partner on this project was a guy named Jeff with long brown hair parted in the middle and a full beard. Months later we saw him dancing at one of our shows and dared him to take his shirt off. Ave then dubbed him "Dancin' Jesus" and invited him on stage with us. Nikki was offended. After this - and forever after - Matt teamed with this guy named Chad. Matt and Chad. Chat 'n Mad. But first it was the "True Stories Of The Security Patrol" I didn't exactly have high hopes for the finished project, so I was quite surprised when much later I saw it and it was easily the finest production I've been involved in.
--At this point however I was getting frustrated. And I know it's my own stupid fault for not saying anything, but I felt like MY point of view was not being represented. I thought what I needed was a side project. Something for my acoustic, melodic, pretty much anti-heavy metal antidote to everything we were doing. So I placed an ad around saying guitarist available. I really wanted to put together my own group that I could front, but didn't quite have the guts to do that. I met with a few people. Rachel from "Flowers Of Aphrodite" sent me their CD and asked me to audition. I took one listen and, although impressed, knew that this was not the kind of music I was able to make. One band with the impressive name "Nuerotica" invited me but I never got back to them. Actually my best bet was going to be this polka-jazz band. But in order to try out I had to get my electric guitar - which I didn't keep at home because I didn't own an amplifier because I was trying to rebel against the whole death-metal stage we were going through. So I just thought I'd swing by the Barn when I knew Seth & Ave & Nikki would be out. But of course timing is everything. And Seth and Nikki were home - so I had to make up some excuse why I was there. I just said I was bored, and wanted to practice. Well they offered to take me to the laundromat with them. Well, I really couldn't turn them down, so I ended up missing my appointment. I always wondered what would've happened had I made it. I didn't really want to quit the Phlegmtones, I just wanted some release - some escape.
--We were playing live at a far more frequent rate. Not tremendous, but still... We even got one more show at the old Mercury Cafe. Pulled out all the stops (as usual). Ave bled from his nipples at one point. Later he tore apart an inflatable rubber woman with his teeth. Ave was not using his old guitar at this point. Anything from the 70's was in - anything from our past was out. So he was using this beat-up cheezy metal guitar. Well, Tom and I were the ones packing for the show - and we decided to bring Ave's expensive, graduation present guitar - which he never used anymore - just in case he broke a string. Well Ave got pissed at us for doing that. So of course to make things worse, it got stolen that night. Ave got really depressed for a while, but nothing seemed to be able to dissuade his ardor for the band. He was already talking about selling his car to finance CD distribution for our next album - a full studio realization of our new sound. At that Merc show, Matt had video taped the whole thing and splicing in some of Ave's Super-8 had put together a live videotape, that was copied, but never really sold - but just sort of given away. The same thing went for our rather time consuming but inexpensive 8 track release. In fact you can see us throwing away the cartridges on the videotape. Ave loved that video. We watched it like four times in one afternoon.
--It was then, watching myself dressed as a banana standing in the corner, wandering around lost, that I realized this isn't what I want to do. This isn't what I took up the guitar for. All of my favorite musicians used their work to express something personal about themselves. And what was I doing? I don't feel like a giant banana. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't say anything. I couldn't leave. What else was there for me to do? Be a solo folk artist? I tried that, I just couldn't do that. I didn't have the leadership abilities to start my own band. And I certainly wasn't going to subjugate myself to someone else's musical tyranny. The whole idea of a collaborative process seemed impossible. Besides I hadn't written anything new in like six months. I was lost. And then on a completely unrelated note, some guy screwed me over for $4,000. I had to get a job. Something I never really did (except once during the summer). Drop out of school. I had to (gulp) shave and get a hair cut. Well, Ave offered to do that for me - so he could goof around with my hair first. I didn't care. Sure. So he ended up making me look like an extremely orthodox Rabbi. Beard, no moustache, long braids of hair on either side. Kinda funny I guess. Ave said I should keep it for the show we had in two weeks. I said I would try, but it was going to be even harder for me to get a job like this, and I could end up sleeping on the streets. Well, I couldn't take it. I needed money. And this wasn't going to help. Days later I cut it off. And Ave yelled at me. Like nothing before. I should've just quit. Then and there. I was trying to keep from starving to death and he was mad at my haircut. But I didn't quit. That's when I realized that I was like some sort of sick co-dependent woman unable to leave her abusive lover.
--As plans for the CD progressed, things started to change. While I'm all for striking while the iron's hot, Ave wanted to wait until he was able to (in his own estimation) throw himself completely into the project. More songs were written, the Arabic sounding "Blood (Of The Camel)", the polka "Now", the quasi-flamenco tango "Two Hearts". At one point the possibility of a double CD was discussed. Ave wanted to put some of my songs on the album. Seth was going to sing "Alaska" - and he wanted this to be a real "group" project. I was stricken. I had given up songwriting. While I have a fairly uninteresting, simple voice, I never was big on singing. The problem is that I always enjoyed doing it (in the shower, at home jamming, etc.) to put the effort Ave did into really figuring out how to do it right. Well not exactly "right" but well... I had been pissed all this time, because I wasn't allowed to do my songs, and now that I could, I still couldn't. They just didn't fit with the whole Phlegmtones' image. I couldn't imagine what Tom would do to them. It was always so frustrating trying to explain how I thought they should go. Besides, my songs were so bad. Ave was digging up all those tapes I sent him from Washington. Stuff that hurt me so much when he ignored them the first time. Stuff I had forgotten and dis-owned. I didn't eve know how to play them anymore. They were just me trying to be clever or silly or whatever. Totally insincere. Unmemorable. I just couldn't do it. Ave was pissed at me for this. However, something else wasn't right. While, Ave had always been super-high on Tom's drumming, something had changed.
--Now, before every show Ave goes through this near psychotic episode of stage fright. While Seth and I have always handled it by trying to be out of the room at the time, Tom just wouldn't put up with it. He'd threaten slap him if he didn't calm down. And for a while this worked like a charm. But then little short arguments like that broke out at practice. He started to miss practice occasionally. Of course, aside from drumming, he was also busy studying to be a dentist and playing goalie for this hockey league. We'd occasionally had to turn down gigs because of class - something I had never before done nor relished doing. Of course this was Ave's dream now. He was sure we were going to make it big, and started to see what he called Tom's lack of commitment as hindrance. Ave had claimed to given up girls so he could concentrate on the band. Of course, I've never been able to get a date so, it looked like I was doing also. And Seth n' Nikki had been so tight for so long, no one expected anything, but Tom began dating somebody named Shey. Suddenly Ave started bringing in the metronome, claiming we were out of rhythm. This was always a pretty good sign that Ave was pissed - usually at the drummer. Of course, Tom being the out-spoken type, wasn't going to put up with this. Things were tense, and then...
--Aaron was coming back in town. Just for a week. He wanted to visit. Cool! He was a friend of mine - unlike Tom, who I was having a hard time getting close to, although I shared with him as I did all the previous drummers, my frustrations with Ave. Seth and Ave were looking forward to him coming back and even deliberately scheduled a show on the night when Tom had class so we could play with him just one last time. Aaron came over to the barn to jam and sat down in front of Tom's drums. Big mistake. Next day we got a note on the door to the drum room stating:
To Whom this may concern:
Yes, I DO mind when people set up my drums any way they see fit. I feel this way for the following reasons:
1.) I paid for this kit, it is one of my biggest investments. There is a perfectly good kit that can be played (especially since the owner of that kit was present at the playing session!) (He would have let you guys use it.)
2.) The cymbal stands are set the way they are because I want them that way. No one else's opinion on this issue matters. So don't fuck w/ them.
3.) I don't just invite people into play your guitars (although I'm sure you wouldn't mind!) Even if it was Aaron, it doesn't make it right, since there was some obvious ignorance* concerning proper set up of the cymbals and the floor tom.
4.) Yet another pair of quiet sticks is gradually being destroyed by someone other than me. Wonder who did that? Can I have the opportunity to destroy some myself?
*Fact: The clear heads on the bottom of the drums is drastically thinner than the top head. Playing on them makes the drums even harder to tune than they already are. Oh and the cymbals should be bolted down between the two cymbal felts. This avoids damaging the holes in the cymbal. If you are going to fuck around with someone's drums at least do it right.
--I do appreciate the fact that you guys didn't dismantle the cymbal tree, for that I would have had to slit your throats and drink from the blood that would percolate forth from your severed corated artery.
--Next time just ask me, a little courtesy goes a whole hell of a long way.
--I have re-adjusted the drumset to MY liking, leave it alone. I f you must play, move my kit aside and set up Ave's kit.
Sincerely,
Cleetus Barfmarler
--Well, Tom re-arranged his drumset and then his schedule just so he could play that show. Aaron got to sit in the audience to watch. But we were still talking about getting this CD out. Even Ave said he was ready. We were in a rut. We couldn't go on to the next thing until we got this metal stuff out of our system. But Tom wasn't ready to make the commitment. He was talking about getting a ringer drummer for some of the recording sessions and not telling him about it. Just doing the songs Tom was good at - the Metal ones. Tom wouldn't play any of our old tunes, like "Loud Guy/Quiet Guy". For months Ave refused to play this classics, saying we needed to move on - work on our new sound - he hated those songs - etc. So Seth and I were really ecstatic when Ave finally got nostalgic and started playing those oldies again. But Tom would just sit there behind the drums and not do anything. We thought things were tense before, but then...
--Shey was with child. Tom was going to be REALLY busy now. Ave wanted to throw him out of the band right then. Tom wanted out. I just wanted to get these songs recorded so we could move on to something else - and I certainly didn't want to spend the time teaching them to a new drummer. I suggested to Tom that we record all the stuff we went spent so much time working on, then he would have a memento of his time with the band and leave on a good note. This is what he e-mailed me back saying:
Scot
Yes, there is some tension. It is not from me though, as far as I can tell. Playing in the band is not fun anymore. Ave is always pissed at me and for what reason, I don't know why. I try not to cancel, but as you said, I am really busy all the time. Ave seems to think that school is something I should drop for the band. He is sadly mistaken. I don't think we should record a CD, if everyone is splitting later this year. WASTE OF MONEY! We should play the Roddenberry show, and call it quits on a good note. If Ave wants to replace me, he should, being good friends with you guys is far more important to me than playing in a band. I would far rather front a punk band than drum anyway, I just cannot commit the time to playing the drums. We should throw a cool party at Seth's house and play for all our friends, instead of spending the money on a CD that will get us no where. We should stop the madness before we are unable to talk to each other anymore. Think Fleetwood Mac!
Goptta go, See you on Wednesday Night @ 7:00 or so.
Cleetus.
--Well, we played the show, and considering everything, it went pretty much like any other show. Ave had finished this stop-motion Super 8 film starring his Star Wars action figures. We stood behind the screen with a microphone and tried to give them voices. Most of it was out of focus, but it worked. It was supposed to be a tribute to "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry - but no one seemed to care. Fairly solid stable show. I guees he did go out on a good note. Shortly thereafter he and Shey packed their bags for Minneapolis where he became a dentist. Kinda sad I think, but I could understand why he did it.
--And once again we were a trio. Back to square one. All the energy and time Ave had put into the band dried up. He even started dating again. I don't know where we're going from here. Bolstered by our performance in "True Stories Of The Security Patrol" Ave and I wrote a short script for a movie, and he was talking about hocking his car to finance that. But I don't know. At this point we looked like we'd given up being a band in favor of becoming a comedy troupe. So it was odd that it was the filmmakers Matt and Chad who came to our rescue.