a rough history of Skank.....

September, 1995:: Josh White, Lin Teachey, Roger Baker, and Lance meet at Applebees; munch-down appetizers and talk about Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and Dead Kennedys. Josh is the only one who eats (read: has enough money). Josh runs an errand while Lin, Roger, and Lance crash Taco Hell for some more cost-effective vittles. The evening ends in Roger's garage with a spirited punk jam session. Nothing was taped and none of the stuff created that night was ever used for anything, but one of the riffs still sticks in Lin's head.... maybe someday. Lance never returned for another rehearsal, so the search for a new guitarist began.
October-December, 1995:: Jason Hempel dusts off his guitar and joins Skank, bringing a heavy metal flair and chunkier sound to the group. This line-up produced what would become Skank's first volume of original music: My Life, Rainbow of Happiness, Confusion, and Jailbait Skank Queen. Early rehearsals were crude with no PA system and vocals sung straight into the recording microphone of "the Box" which rehersals were recorded on. Later, with a generous loaner from Ron Harris, the boys had a PA complete with mixer board.
January-March, 1996:: Roger leaves the band because he thinks he's moving. He didn't, but got replaced anyway. Unfortunately some great rehearsal space is lost along with him. Excepting the CB chatter from I-75 that frequently interrupted Jason's guitar amp, no one ever really bothered the boys. No band activity during this period of time.
April 1996:: Roger is replaced by Greg Hageman and rehearsals are resumed in Lin's garage. Jason makes two rehearsals before Lin and Josh decide something they had talked about most of the winter. Despite Jason's proficiency as a guitarist and knack for songwriting, having to show him how to play the stuff he wrote every week, because he'd forget it, slowed things down too much. Jason was replaced with Ruel Davis in mid-April. Lin's neighbor, after calling the police one time and coming over to complain once himself, effectively ended rehearsing there. The band moved into Barb Watson's bedroom parlor (ok so it was her mother's basement).
May 1996:: Intense rehearsal period. Ruel and Greg caught up to speed with the original material. Ruel, Josh, and Greg who had all played together as Screamin' Semen and the Nonoxynol Nine dusted off some of that old material, adding Mental State of Mind and Wasted Time and tweaked a Screamin' Semen no-brainer into a goofy little in-joke called Kill Your Mother. Two new originals surfaced as well: Greg's 8th in Z Minor, a noise instrumental that the band members were too scared of to violate with words so they scream over the music, and Punk as Fuck, a nose-thumbing scorcher inspired by a Spin magazine cover-photo of Green Day.
June 2, 1996:: The band's first gig was a Sunday night "all ages" show at the Wrocklage in Lexington. Slughog from Boston, Massachusetts headlined with Richmond, Virginia's Water Main in second place and Skank opening. About ten people showed up and the club's PA system was so crummy that no one could hear the vocals. The set included the nine originals, with covers of Short Songs by the Dead Kennedys, Green Day's Brain Stew, plus an impromptu rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama. Impatient and pissed off by the small turnout and horrible sound, they burned through it in about 30 minutes. The night wasn't a total bust though, a delinquent roadie/friend-of-the-band "acquired" a fully operational parking meter for the band, that still resides in their rehearsal space.
June-August 1996:: A weird time for the band; Josh was stabbed in a robbery attempt at work putting rehearsals on hold for a couple of weeks. Ruel missed a few rehearsals, during which Josh, Lin, and Greg wrote some odd things which may become songs someday. All in all, about two good rehearsals were managed in the summer of discontent. One might suppose the lack lauster first gig had something to do with it, who knows. One new song came out of all this, a glorious one-chord anthem called Skank Revolution.
August 28, 1996:: The second gig took place on a Wednesday night, in the middle of fratenrnity rush week, on the evening of the first day of classes for the University of Kentucky. It took place at the House of Heresy in Lexington, Kentucky. Local metalli-power-trio Ozone headlined the show, with New York's arty-shoegazin' Sunday Puncher in the middle with Skank opening. Everything was going great, despite the poor choice of nights to be playing a gig and the few rehearsals since the Wrocklage disaster. The Heresy forced the boys to go on a half-hour earlier than they had been originally told, which meant all their friends wouldn't be there for another half-hour. Which meant, there were two people in the club when they started their set, one of whom was recording audio and video for them, and the other two bands. Having learned a lesson from the Wrocklage, the boys vowed to not let it get them down, and played an inspired set to the walls. The set included all the originals with the exception of Kill Yr Mother and Greg's 8th (which they intended to play, nut when Josh forgot how to play it, it turned into the Eagle's Burnt Out which transformed into the Beastie Boys' High Plains Drifter). The set also included covers of Short Songs, the Monkees' Stepping Stone, and Loch Ness by Some Velvet Sidewalk. They laughed, joked, insulted each other and taunted the crowd that slowly began to fill the club 30 minutes into the set. The set ended with a noisy breakdown of Skank Revolution to an audience of about twenty. One drunk in the audience remarked

September 1996-January 1997:

Between busy work schedules, the holidays, and Josh's marriage; the boys in Skank haven't had much time to rehearse or play out.

February 1997-June 1997

Skank decided to part ways with Ruel because of his busy work schedule and inability to attend rehearsals. Skank briefly interviewed some possible candidates for restructuring the bnad, including a female vocalist and another guitarist and bassist. Josh is moving to Texas in the summer so the boys decide to pull the plug on the band. There are discussions of a recording and a farewell gig of sorts at the Outside Inn... Again.
August-September 1997

After over a year without any activity and Josh mysteriously still in central Kentucky, they decide to give it another go and begin actively seeking a new guitarist and considering other possible rearrangments to things going again.

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