THE LUNATIC FRINGE (Auto)BIOGRAPHY
Well then...I, Ryan Bean, finally decided to get off my lazy butt and write up a semi-history for the band. It reads sort of like a soap opera, so bear with me. Here it goes:
Part One: Every Legend has a Beginning It all started in the month of March (or maybe Feburary) in the year of nineteen and ninetey-eight. We heard about a talent show going on in our school, so me and John and Jarrod and Dan Murphy, being the morons we liked to be were like "Let's do 'Unite'! " Unite's a song by the O.C. Supertones about, well......unity. Anyways I was like "I can play guitar!" (I had little to no clue), Dan wanted to play Bass cause he had some guitar experience and really liked the bass line. John's brother Luke had been playing drums for a while and had madd skills, so we got him to do it. Jarrod played trombone, and we recruited Jason Clark to play Trumpet and Ed Davidson to play Tenor Sax (wow...Ed was in TLF??), leaving John to sing. Anyways, The Lunatic Fringe was born! We practiced at my Dad's recording studio, and the first time we could get all members together was the actual talent show. We played Unite at the talent show in April, and lost to a hardcore band called "Random Acts of Violence" (cool, huh?), but it was cool and stuff, we had fun.
Part Two: Chaos With a Fence Around It Shortly after we played the talent show, Luke decided that he couldn't have the band as a full commitment, for apparently he had things going on and perhaps another band in Portland. This left a gaping hole in the Fringe. What were we to do?! We glanced around...there were no drummers in sight. So John heroically said "I'll do it!", for the fates had placed Luke's drum set in John's room, so he had been practicing a bit. This left a hole in our vocalist position. I think I recall this being somewhat of a debate, cause we thought about other friends trying vocals and stuff, but decided none could cut the mustard (how does one cut mustard, exactly?). So Jason C stepped up and said that he knew how to play guitar, so I could stop that and do vocals. Alas, one less horn player. Around that time Ed, lovable as he may be, was pretty much kicked out. He was a flammer and just slept at practices, and he had to go to college. Two less horn players. AND... Dan, who had been playing Bass, left to join a part of the ultimate conformity machine...the Airforce! One less Bass player. What was the Fringe to do?!? Luckily Jason C had a big friendly animal for a friend, named Aaron. Aaron volunteered to play Bass, and bought one quickly. He had played a little guitar, but not enough to count. It was rough working with Aaron at first, but he's turned out to be a good guy and a solid player. We wrote some more songs and attempted some covers...it was jolly good fun!
Part Three: Tragedy Strikes! It was a long practice at John's in the dead of winter, only around 5-6 pm, but very dark already. It began to snow big wet flakes, as we John was pulling out in the minivan, all our gear and all the band inside. I uttered the fatefull words "This would be like a perfect night for us to get into an accident and die." cause it seemed like the kind of night that would happen. Sure enough, about 2 minutes later I looked up and saw us swerving off the road, clipping a telephone pole, flipping on our sides, then finally landing upside down. It was real quiet and dark, so I said the first thing that came to my mind, hanging upside down "Well then." It sucked, but was wicked exciting at the time. Everyone was fine, with the exceptions of me and Jarrod who got tiny scrapes on our backs from climbing out of the car, John who's hand got scratches on it, and Aaron's leg got scrapped. A good experience. Wear your seatbelt, moron!
Part Four: Life is Peachy Life isn't peachy, but we are playing more shows and we got a new trumpet player this year, Jason Briner. He is cool, despite his odd career choices (just ask him). We hope to go into my Dad's studio and record an EP soon. We will be I guess splitting up soon, for John, Jarrod and I are going off to college, but it has been real cool, and we will come back and jam. So that's it, I guess...we still skank the night away in the pits. Oi!
I have just come to the conclusion that I didn't get off my lazy butt to write this...I was sitting. 6/11/99 Ryan Bean
We here at The Lunatic Fringe proudly endorse the use of Pringles brand potato chips both as a pre-concert snack and for feeding any Mcdonalds parking lot.
They're swell!!!
They're swell!!!