25 Things

This is a self exploration exercise that has been spreading Facebook like wildfire lately, that I thought would be worthwhile posting on my site as its been a while since I've updated. Here are 25 random things about me.

1. I was first introduced to the internet in 1994, in my friend Cary’s parent’s basement on an early Mac running a 14.4k modem. I've been obsessed ever since.

2. I am left handed

3. My heroes are people who found something they were truly passionate about and then did it for a living.

4. I typically only read non-fiction books. There’s just something more fascinating to me about things that actually happened.

5. I have a terrible and unrelenting nail biting habit.

6. My wife and I recently bought a townhouse in one of the most liberal suburbs in Chicago, despite the fact that by most people’s definitions we are rather Republican.

7. For the last 5 years or so I have been obsessed with search engines and have become an expert in helping companies leverage them for business purposes.

8. There will always be a small place in my heart for Crystal Pepsi. It was a truly exceptional beverage.

9. I tend to be an incredibly blunt person which has probably given me as many opportunities as it has taken away.

10. I never went thirsty my freshman year of college once I got a hold of a copy of Adobe Photoshop, a good color printer, and a lamination machine.

11. When I was 17, I played a sold out show at the Metro in Chicago while in a punk/ska band

12. The last time I played a guitar was probably 6 months ago, the last time I performed in front of people was about 5 years ago.

13. My mom is a dietitian and my dad is a dentist, yet I tend to eat unhealthily and don't floss very often.

14. In 2004, I self published a book I wrote called “Two Years in Electronic Form” chronicling my travels through Europe and my senior year of college.

15. I have a bizarre fascination with Metropolitan Rapid Transit Systems (ex. "the el" "the subway" "the underground" etc.....)

16. I will have been married for a year in March.

17. I am generally terrible at video games. I have never been able to get past the 3rd level in Super Mario Brothers without cheating and using the warp zones.

18. I take ridiculously long showers.

19. My birthday is on 3/3 and my wife's birthday is on 7/7 which has always seemed kind of cool to me even though I suppose it's not.

20. My favorite band of all time is the Weakerthans.

21. I have always rooted for the underdog.

22. My wife asked me the other day; If I was on death row and had to choose my last meal what would it be? I said chicken nuggets and tater tots. She thinks that's weird and she's probably right.

23. You have probably never met someone who has less interest in watching & following sports than me, despite the fact that I’ve played ice hockey since I was 5, played varsity in high school all 4 years, and still play in an adult league.

24. For reasons unbeknownst to me, I feel a kinship with people that live or grew up in the Appleton, WI area.

25. I am on a never ending search for new gadgets and internet enabled devices that I'd like to buy.

Moving, Sublets, Cats & Other Nonsense

So I recently participated in the whole being married thing recently which has been pretty sweet. We just got back from our honeymoon in Australia which was filled with kangaroos and the sounds of didgeridoos in the distance and whatnot. Heres some other nonsense thats been going on that may or may not be of interest.

Moving, the Cat and Craigslist

While overstaying the welcome of my lease at my old apartment (in particular because of my landlord's "no pets" clause), we were recently looking at different options for living. At first I was looking at trying to board the cat for a few months and making a deal with my landlord, but I got a quote to board the thing and found out that it would cost $500 a month for a mini cat prison cell !?!

At the same time we starting looking for random, temporary 3-4 month living arrangements on craigslist. The thing that horrified me was that I discovered it would be cheaper to find our cat its own apartment at http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/sub/index100.html in Chicago and put like 6 litter boxes in there, and then rent a second apartment for my wife and I.

The Loft

After a few weeks of looking at different options we finally found this really strange artist's loft in a recently gentrified neighborhood in Chicago. The guy we are subletting from is an art professor who was going to Europe for 4 months to do an art showcase and needed someone to take over his loft for a few months, so we said what the hell.

The neighborhood is pretty cool place. Its kind of a blend of yuppies and hipsters with a smattering of people who want to steal things from you and/or cause bodily harm. Lots of great restaurants & bars and the place we are staying at is pretty wild. It is a huge first floor loft that used be like a Polish button factory or something (At least I think thats what my wife's Dad told me). Its also right next to the "el" which makes my commute a little better. I guess you could say its one of those types of places that you would never want to buy, probably wouldn't want to rent, but it would be really cool to stay in for a few months (depending on who you ask).

Real Estate and Other Nonsense

Lately we've been trying to figure out this whole real estate thing, which is a wild and hideous adventure that many of my friends have already detailed to me. We've been looking around the last couple months, so hopefully something good will come out of our hunting. Or of course theres always the likelihood that we'll fall in love with living in the city and just rent for another year or we won't find something we like or who the hell knows.

Things are crazy, but overall they are going well. My wife hasn't even tried to kill me yet. (Although she may be planning an extravagant plot as we speak.) I even sort of like having a cat.

A Sort Of Update

To be honest I don't know if I'll ever finish "the band story series" I think too much time has passed and my personal interest has waned and that is pretty much the end of it. I guess the end of the story is that I went on to record an album that still after all these years is one of my proudest accomplishments as a musician and I am am grateful to every friend that aided in the recording of it.

With that said I really haven't written in this thing in a long time.

I guess mostly because my present career has made me incredibly busy and as a result my free time has been at a premium and I have found myself losing interest in creating art in any form.

I have focused on more commercial ventures that are uninteresting to most, but generate a modest return. I guess that is probably the best explanation for my absence.

So basically at this point anyone that used to read this site has pretty much lost interest and disappeared.

Whats new with me these days? Well I recently got engaged to a wonderful chick which is very exciting. We are going through the sometimes comical adventure of trying to plan a wedding in what we hope to be the least painless way possible.

My LCD screen on my cell phone recently went out which has left me in a state of technological darkness. I'd be lying if I said I haven't thought about getting an Iphone. But I'd also be lying if I said I've come up with a way to rationalize it's purchase.

I'm mostly hanging out in my apartment just outside of Chicago watching obscure television shows on dvd and listening to as much music as time will allow.

Music as a whole hasn't been all that great lately though. I find myself more interested in documentaries and art flicks than going to concerts. more interested in restaurants than bars.

I've found my self getting sick of Rolling Stone and more interested in reading the Wall Street Journal.

Sometimes I wonder what the 16 year old version of myself would say about me now.

But then I remember that the 16 year old version of myself was completely out of touch with reality and wanted to be a professional punk rock musician.

My Top 10 Records of 2006

I thought I'd take a break from the long drawn out story I've been slowly writing over the course of six months to put in my 2 cents for the top records of 2006. So here you go in no particular order.

My Top Ten Records of 2006

• Bob Dylan - Modern Times
• Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
• Death Ships - Seeds of Devastation
• Hush Sound - Like Vines
• Plus 44 - When Your Heart Stops Beating
• Heavens - Patent Pending
• New Amsterdams - Story Like A Scar
• G Love - Lemonade
• The Format - Dog Problems
• Guster - Ganging Up on the Sun

Band Story V

Alright, so I started my junior year of college after spending the summer working a ridiculous summer job all the while completing my first full length solo album and playing my first show solo.

I moved into a beat up, rat infested college house right next to a soup kitchen with some friends and started preparing to start playing live shows at my college oh and study I suppose.

Right away I started making copies of the album and passed it out to my friends and soon enough I had recruited a buddy to play second guitar and began the preparations to put on a ridiculous, beer fueled bar performance that would allow me to play my songs, all the while entertaining the beer swigging frat boy types in the back. We played a first show at a college owned bar to a pretty packed place and it went pretty well, I mean I feel we rocked out pretty hard and such and overall I was happy with the show.

I began thinking of trying to set up more shows in the coming months, but then I decided out of the blue that I was going to move to England for 6 months as I was growing generally disallusioned with the whole college house party/bar thing and just wanted to take a break for a while.

During the month before I left for England I started writing a handful of new songs. They were more serious, sappy, soul searching type songs that didn't really fit in with the stuff I was doing before.

I met up with my friend who had done all my recording in the past, and my cousin on lead guitar and recorded what would eventually become another 4 song ep. We started using more complex arrangements as well as working in a lot more piano than we had in the past. I personally think it was some of my better writing.

At the same time, I didn't end up doing much with it other than giving it to a few friends and shortly after I left the country.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to bring any of my guitars over the ocean, so once I got to England I wasn't initially able to play. Over time I went over to an old guitar shop in town and picked up a shitty, nylon stringed guitar and started practicing my new songs soon enough. After a couple of months, I decided to play the new tunes at a few English pubs which I thought went over pretty well, considering I was typically the only American playing.

Other than that I really didn't have much time for music. During that six months I traveled all over Europe, was exposed to all different kinds of cultures and people, and in the process drank a lot of beer. I won't go into great detail about that though, due to the fact that I covered my travels through Europe rather thoroughly in my book.

Band Story Part IV

Christmas break of Sophomore year my buddy and I started on what was to be my first "solo ep." With the first song already recorded before I left for school, I began composing a handful of other songs and started on what would become a 5 song outing.

The recording equipment we used was as rudimentary as it could get. I had an old 4 track recorder that recorded directly to cassette tape with a cheap microphone and a beat up acoustic guitar. The songs in general weren't very well developed and for the most weren't anything better than a glorified demo tape, but nevertheless it got me back into playing again and gave me the confidence to strike out on my own. After we recorded everything my friend was able to mix them down to his computer and burn them to CD and the rest was history (well not really)

The whole acoustic thing was still very new to me at this time. I was used to writing punk rock and ska songs full of power chords and distortion cranking out of a marshall half stack. It really took me a while to transform from bashing out loud punk tunes to more reserved acoustic rock stuff.

The following Easter Break I came back to Illinois to record another demo of 4 songs I had begun working on during the second semester. By this time I was heavily into Bob Dylan and it was slowly starting to take over in my music. There was something about Dylan that I immediately connected with. I guess mostly that he was about as close to punk rock as one person with an acoustic guitar could get. His whole persona and style of music seemed contain a constant message of "fuck you" to anyone and everyone. He was willing to take risks even if it was at the expense of his fans and everyone around him and I dug that.

Now what does that have to do with me? Well to be frank, absolutely nothing as I was merely singing poorly arranged drunken songs about girls and beer, but after constantly listening to Dylan I decided to start playing the Harmonica which made its first appearance on this second recording.

After I finished this second demo I started passing it around amongst my friends and everyone seemed to get a kick out of it, which convinced me to keep going and writing songs. I'm not really sure what I was trying to accomplish with all of this. I guess I just really missed playing and enjoyed that I was still able to write and record new songs and that people were actually somewhat interested in what I was doing. I never really had any intention of playing shows or anything other than recording for fun, but over time it was just something that naturally happened.

Once the second demo was completed I started writing more and more songs, incorporating more folk influences and more harmonica and crafted what ended up being my first full length album. Once the summer hit I came back to Illinois to work with some friends on one of those shady "college house painting crews." During the days we'd destroy houses all over the suburbs of Chicago and at night I'd go into my parent's basement with some friends and record the album. By this time we had upgraded our recording equipment significantly. We were now working with a digital 8 track recorder and an actual mixing board.

I also recruited my cousin to come in and play lead guitar on a number of the tracks and we incorporated alot more instrumentation on the album than we had on anything in the past. I had harmonicas, keyboard, a jaw harp, bongos, shakers, and all kinds of shit. By the end of the summer we had completed the album in entirety and I was really happy with how it came out. 13 songs about chicks and beer and the extreme difficulties of being a white kid from an upper middle class family attending a private university.

Soon after I was convinced to play my first actual show at a recently closed Cowboy bar turned after-work cocktail lounge with a bunch of punk rock bands playing. At the time it seemed crazy to play acoustic shows with a bunch of punk groups as the audiences are known for not having the openest of minds, but for some reason that actually got what I was doing and laughed their asses off with everyone else. There was actually some dude in the back of the bar rocking a cowboy hat and at one point in the show he tipped his hat to me in gratitude. And it was at that point that I knew I was onto something.

I soon went back to school with an newly recorded album in hand, ready to bring my brand of acoustic rock/comedy to the campus.

Band Story Part III

So my Sophomore year of college started and I had two songs recorded for what would be the beginning of my "solo career." The second I stepped foot back on the college campus after my first summer back at home I nearly forgot that I had even recorded them. It was back to the books and the booze and other music related activities.

For some reason I never took the first two songs I recorded by myself seriously. Of course I never took myself seriously before that either but I just never imagined myself being able to successfully play music at my college and have people actually interested.

At the same time I had spent my Freshman year virtually absent from music and was itching to get back doing at least something. So I took on an music internship with a company called CMJ. Most of you probably have never heard of it, but anyone who has even been exposed to college radio is very familiar. I worked for them for roughly 6 months promoting the CMJ magazine and up and coming bands, before their entire internship program went under. It was kind of a peculiar position but what I got out of it was some extra money to spend on beer, but most importantly an all expenses paid trip to New York (minus airfare) for their annual CMJ conference.

There I met with other college students from around the country who had way more sophisticated music tastes than myself and was exposed to all new types of music. It was 2000 and I was seeing Dashboard Confessional in a little coffee shop by the NYU campus, caught an up and coming indie rock band called Death Cab for Cutie and talked to all kinds of people who were into all kinds of different genres of music. I saw Chuck D from Public Enemy speak about the controversies of Napster and online file sharing, I saw a live performance of Radiohead playing songs from a bizarre album called Kid A. In general that 4 days opened my eyes to all sorts of performers and ideas and I came back re-energized about playing music again.

Only problem was, I couldn't figure out how I could play music at my college that people would actually listen to. No one wanted to listen to punk or indie rock or anything. Mostly people wanted to get wasted and listen to the latest Nelly single or jam out to the latest 3 Doors Down tune. (In hindsight I was somewhat wrong about that, but it helped me out down the line when it came time to become the ever dreaded "bar performer.") Then I remembered that joke song I had written and recorded with my friend back in the summer and immediately began working on an a 4 song EP that we would record during the upcoming Christmas break.

Band Story Part II

Months before I left for college, I hastily attempted to put together a new band. Gathering a few friends we started a group that was free of some of the artistic restrictions that I found in my "ska band." Of course these restrictions were ridiculous/non-existent in reality, and we ended up spliting up a group of talented and dedicated musicians and splintered into far inferior bands. During this time I also had short stints in two other bands with musicians I had met over the years, which further dilluted the time that could be dedicated to this new group.

At this point it didn't really matter though because this band was more something to keep me busy before I went off to school and allow an outlet to release some creative energy(whatever the hell that means.) Anyways we played probably about 10-12 shows in the suburbs of Chicago, and recorded a full length album that was thrown together far too quickly; recorded on a 4 track in one of my buddy's bedrooms. Looking back on it and listening to the record, its kind of sloppy and the recording is a disaster, but there are still some good songs. It was basically me taking a stab at writing full songs without my past counterpart on second guitar and backup vocals, which proved to be a challenge, as there was definitely something missing. Before I went off to college that group disbanded making it one of my shortest lived musical projects.

College
When I left Illinois to go off to college in Wisconsin, I didn't know what to expect. I had pretty much planned to stop playing music once I got there, which worked out well because this was not a school for musicians. This was a college full of highly educated kids coming from moderate to very wealthy families, none of whose plans were to start a rock and roll band.

These were kids who planned on doing more "traditional" things with their lives; becoming engineers, accountants, computer programmers, health care professionals etc... There were a couple musicians that lived on the North Shore that I knew from the Chicago suburban punk scene that came to the school as well and they couldn't take it. They transferred at the end of the first semester. I personally loved it. Keg parties everywhere, very friendly people from similar backgrounds, and somewhere along the way you managed to study your ass off inbetween. There was also access to just about every concert that came through Chicago. I had no complaints.

My freshman year I was crammed into a little pie-shaped dorm room living with a country-boy from Southern Illinois. Nice enough guy, but we definitely had nothing in common. I don't think I picked up a guitar more than twice that year, but I met a number of people (as many do in college) that were heavily into music of all genres and opened me up to all kinds of music I never would have listened to in a million years. I was also introduced to a wonderful program being passed around word of mouth by college students called "Napster" giving me access to just about any artist or album you could think of.

That first year was a riot. Alot of drinking, alot of studying, and a lot of puking. I met a handful of great people that first year of school, bonding over our love of underage drinking, fake ids, and the pursuit of higher education(kind of). After a year of studying and partying, I headed back home to Illinois to take over a summer job as a cabana boy at a local country club, serving cocktails, flipping burgers, putting lime wedges into rich people's diet coke's and what have you.

Sometime during the beginning of the summer, my bandmates from our once semi successful ska band, came to me with the idea of "getting the band back together." I thought it was a great idea at the time and we started practicing again. I dusted off my songwriting skills and wrote a handful of new songs and within a month we started playing shows again. As anyone who is a musician knows, you can't practice with a group of musicians a few times and expect to sound like a professional group. We rushed into our "reunion shows" which tended to be a generally sloppy affair, but we made some old fans and friends happy and got to reminisce about the "good old days." Looking back on it, I probably wouldn't have done it again if I had the choice, but I have to admit I did enjoy playing with all those guys again.

Towards the end of the summer we had planned to head into the studio and record the 4 new songs we had put together. Due to scheduling conflicts, we ended up scrapping our studio time and in a last half assed attempt we had a good friend of mine attempt to record the songs in my parent's basement. The recording session ended up being a disaster and the rest of the band ended up walking out after we were not able to get the equipment running right. With everyone gone my buddy and I were left with an 8 track that we still had rented for the evening. Feeling like it was a waste of a recording opportunity, I pulled out an acoustic guitar and recorded two of the songs acoustic and then crafted a new song right on the spot. The new song was a total joke, something meant to make my buddies at college laugh. Little did I know what I had gotten myself into.

The Band Story

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago where after a short faze in junior high of listening to Vanilla Ice and wearing Zubaz from a variety of NHL teams, I got heavily into a band called Nirvana. They were like nothing I had ever heard and from then on I was hooked on rock music and determined to learn how to play guitar. From there I got into a new band at the time called Green Day which lead to my discovery of Chicago band Screeching Weasel which I heard of for the first time on a Sunday night music talk show called Sound Opinions hosted by Chicago rock journalist, Jim Derogatis.

Listening to their records was the first time I was able to convince myself that I was actually capable of starting a band. The lead singer and guitar player Ben Weasel had done a short stint at my high school back in the early 80's which kind of inspired me, but most of all their albums were full of simple catchy three chord songs played in a way that made it seem obtainable.

Ben was also a very prolific writer with his own fanzine called "Panic Button." I had ordered every copy I could get my hands on from some mail order catalog and read them cover to cover over and over again. I was fascinated with his writings discussing the local Chicago punk rock scene from years before, his journey starting out in a band, and ridiculous stories about working different crappy summer jobs at places near my town.

From then on I was determined to start my own punk band. My parents bought me an amp and an electric guitar and I rallied kids from around my town to start up our own band in my parent's basement. We began playing Screeching Weasel, Green Day and Ramones covers and after a few months or so I started writing my own songs.

That lead to playing shows with other groups from the around the area at local Knights of Columbus halls and VFW halls. As I began to become a better songwriter, I started playing with other musicians from around the area and talking about music and bouncing ideas off of each other.

Some kids from a nearby high school that I knew through mutual friends were playing in a band that I really liked and over time we learned that we were into a lot of the same bands and starting hanging out more. They were a little older and knew about all these really good bands that I had never heard of and eventually introduced me to ska punk music. It was brilliant! punk rock with a horn section, I loved every minute of it. They got me into bands like Slapstick and Less than Jake and I was immediately hooked.

From then on it was my mission to round up horn players from my high school and get them to play in my band. It was kind of difficult to find high school band kids interested in punk rock, but eventually I befriended a trumpet player who I convinced to come in and practice with my band.

Around the same time my other friend’s band started incorporating ska into their music as well and I immediately soaked up everything they were doing. They were a little more organized and started playing more shows around town. My band had good songs but was a disaster with a revolving door of different musicians, and me the only constant member.

After a few months, my band had broken up and I was asked to join their group as singer/guitar player. They switched their lineup around a bit, I brought the trumpet player along with me and next thing I know we had put together a powerhouse punk rock ska band. We had a lead singer two guitar players/singers, a bass player, drummer, trumpet, trombone, and saxophone players.

Right around this time The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish had brought “SKA” to mainstream radio. As Ska hit big on the radio, we started playing shows at any All Ages venue we could find around Chicago.

At the same time we also recorded a 5 song demo cassette tape in the basement of a 60 year old guy who was really into punk music and used to do the sound for all of the local shows in the area. He didn’t charge us a penny to record, and next thing we know our demo tape is getting passed around like wildfire. We were getting play on all of the late night punk rock radio shows, and our concerts began getting more and more packed with people.

We continued aggressively playing around the Chicagoland area and as SKA became to pick up steam on mainstream radio we became a popular group around the area.

Soon enough we were asked to open up for Eve 6 at the metro in Chicago. I was 16 years old and playing at a major rock venue, opening up for a top 40 act. It still is pretty amazing when I look back on it.

From there were kept regularly playing at the Metro and the Fireside Bowl and went back to the studio to record a full length album strung together from our repertoire of songs we had built up and played shows with a lot of “big” punk/ska bands at the time. By this time I had become the primary singer for the band. We self released a full length tape and continued playing around the Chicago and Indiana area and continued to fill all ages venues.

Toward the end of high school our lineup changed a few times, but we were still riding on the “SKA wave.” A combination of internal disagreements within the band, the declining popularity of ska and the fact that we were all going off to college in a few months, the band decided that it was best to break up.

Months later I left the state for college.

The Update

These personal websites are a funny thing.

Sometimes I feel like I've run out of things that are interesting or exciting to write about.

I get older, I become more mature(yikes!) I get what some would call boring.

But what is wrong with boring? Nothing Really.

I have an amazing girlfriend

I have a great family

I have what appears to be a flourishing career

I have a nice apartment in a great neighborhood

I have a small group of friends that I see as much as possible

I have hobbies and interests that keep me occupied

And I'm excited about the future and what it will bring

The Paper Shredder

Dear Ex-Apartment-Mate,

I am an Idiot.

I recently bought a paper shredder, as I began to really like the one you had at our old place.

I've really been enjoying it and have been on a shred-a-thon the last couple weeks, shredding everything I can get my hands on.

I have gotten out of control and am not even looking at the things I've been shredding before I send them on their way to destruction.

With that said, I accidently shredded that check you mailed me last week.

I wish I was kidding. I was able to retrieve the sliver of the amount that was written out for.

Anyways once and if our ex- landlord mails back our security deposit would you mind adding that on to whatever we get back

I can't believe I did that.

I am an Idiot.

The Old Apartment

I recently moved to the yuppier suburb just east of my old apartment.

Its a really quiet apartment in a much nicer neighborhood and I couldn't be happier with it.

With that said its seems like the perfect time to look back at my old place and take inventory of all of the things I so greatly miss about it.

I miss my neighbors who lived above us. I miss their loud "domestic disputes," I miss how they used to play their Al Green albums with the volume turned up as high as it would go when ever they were getting "intimate." I miss hearing the unmistakable sounds of Ebonics. I miss hearing them "rearranging their furniture" at 2 am.

I miss our Landlord who was too cheap to put the heat on. I miss wearing a winter jacket and hat to bed.

I miss my hockey equipment that was stolen out of the basement and often wonder how much crack you can buy with ice skates and some smelly shoulder pads.

I miss the guy who would come into the alley of our apartment and let out a loud whistle at exactly 9:30pm every evening to let the nearby tenants know that "the drugs had come."

I miss the approximately 1 mile of bars down the nearby main street, with every drunken college kid in the area spilling out into the streets at all hours of the night.

I miss dirt cheap rent and reciting the old adage, "you get what you pay for" in my head over and over again.

I miss the bugs that began to infest the apartment towards the end of our two year residency.

I miss typing from my computer that was propped up on a card table.

I miss the times when I didn't have renters insurance and all of my personal belongings could be stolen or destroyed at any time with no chance of financial restitution.

I miss my twin bed and regret purchasing a larger bed with the ample room and superior sleep environment that it provides.

I really miss that place.

Seriously.

Interview with the Impossibles

I was randomly thinking about this interview I did years ago with this band called the Impossibles and remembered that it was probably stashed on an old laptop in the back of my closet. So I found and turned on that clunky old computer and what I found was a treasure trove of old writings from my college days. I then of course decided to get all this stuff back so I pulled out a floppy disk(remember those) and starting copying everything over to my current computer. I'm still thinking if I should do something with all of it or not. we'll see.

Anyways back to the interview. When I was 19 years old and a sophomore in college I had this half baked idea to start up a website called milwaukeeshows.com. Kind of a dumb idea, made absolutely no money, but at least I was able to go to a lot of free concerts while the site was up.

One of the things we'd do on the website was interview the bands. This girl Allison volunteered her time to help set up all these interviews and in exchange we'd get free concert tickets and get to meet whatever band came into Milwaukee at the time. 9 times of out 10 she would do all the interviews and transcribed them for the site, but on this particular occasion I interviewed the band.

The band was called the Impossibles who were from Austin, TX. They were this kind of this indie rock, punk rock, weezeresque, ska influenced band that I had really admired and was influenced by in high school. They broke up when I got to college and then had a "reunion tour."

Now that I look back on it, they weren't even really that big of a band, but at the same time they were just one of those little bands that you totally get into and want to tell all your friends about. So I went to meet these guys backstage before the show at this club in Milwaukee, WI called "The Globe East" that I believe closed down a few years ago. Backstage was a dark basement that appeared the owners used as a storage place.

I sat in a dark dingy basement of some rock club with a small tape recorder in my hand, interviewing a mid-tier punk rock band from Texas, all while taking in the aromatic scents of stale beer and cigarettes.

Interview with the Impossibles

For those of you who know the Globe, it's a small venue, and that is a generous description. For those of you, who have never been to the Globe, it's a small venue, and once again, that is a generous description. One could describe it as cozy, one could describe it as cramped, but regardless, the Globe provided the perfect scene for the Impossibles when they came and performed on November 9, 2000.

Positively 18th Street: Okay well I'm sure you guys must have been asked this question a million times before but what is your favorite Weezer song and album?

Rory: Oh geez.

Gabe: Ummmm…

Rory: Actually, we don't get asked that question all the time. Most of my favorite Weezer songs are not on albums, because . . .

Gabe: Weezer hasn't put out anything in so long…

Positively 18th Street: Did you happen to catch them on their last tour?

Rory: Yeah, we saw them in Austin…I didn't really like their new stuff, I couldn't really get into it. I think it will be better when they record it, like the first time when I saw them—when I saw them on the Pinkerton tour… When I saw them on the second tour for the Blue album, they played "Getchoo" off the Pinkerton album, and I hated it, but then I heard in on the album and liked it. I don't know… My favorite Weezer song would have to probably be, I guess, "Suzanne," off the Mallrats soundtrack. I've always loved their 6/8th stuff, you know.

Gabe: Holiday was a good one.

Rory: "Holiday" is an amazing song, but then they've got so many good songs. "Say it ain't So" is my favorite one that they play live. That song will always kind of evoke a certain emotion from you, it's like a certain time in my life.

Positively 18th Street: What was the reason for you guys initially breaking up and what was it that brought you guys back together?

Rory: Back in '98 the we got done with our first tour, like you were saying, it was a summer tour, and at the end of it was kind of like a devisive period, there was a split in the band, where there were kids who wanted to go to school, we had all just graduated high school. Then there were kids, who wanted to go to college, and then there were people…basically me, and I wasn't in school. So I wanted to play in a rock band and kind of do that, and so we kind of got to that point. On our first tour, like we said, where we played here, it was really rough and there were five people at every show. It wasn't like we had a whole lot to look forward to at that point, but I think that's what it kind of came down to. I don't blame anybody for wanting to go to school, man. I think that at the time it was a good decision. So the kids went to school and I kept being in a band, and it kind of just fell back together, where Craig was playing in a band again, and Pat wasn't really doing anything, and Gabe wasn't doing anything musically. Gabe and I started living together because I ended up kind of homeless, and so we ended up living in a one-bedroom apartment. It kind of fell together naturally. It was weird; it wasn't really forced at all. Kind of like, the idea came up; we had already been planning on playing together musically, and it pretty much took off from there. A lot of people have a weird conception about it, like initially people thought that we get paid a lot of money now, but we're still as poor as we've ever been.

Gabe: Especially now considering how, I don't think any of us planned on it happening

Rory: Yeah, not at all. It's like if you had asked me three months before if it were even possible--and kids did all the time, that's probably the thing--we got more popular after we broke up, then when we were a band. People would always ask me if the Impossibles were getting back together, and everyone went back to school. Now that it has, I think it has worked out really well for everybody. We're making music that we like, and we get to tour a lot, and it's been awesome.

Positively 18th Street: I noticed you guys have really been embracing digital downloads by offering tracks off your new album on website as well as a site on mp3.com with files. What are your feelings about the file sharing programs out there like Napster?

Rory: Um, I don't know,honestly, I totally see both sides of it. Metallica got crucified for trying to go against Napster, and I think that's kind of whack. I know that there are a lot of artists that agree with them, but they're too afraid to say anything about it because it is so "uncool" and anti-napster, it's like—I use Napster, so I'm not going to say too much about it. At the same time, I know that there is no real way to tell the impact of it. I don't know how many people have just downloaded our songs as opposed to buying our records. But, I look at it as just a promotional thing, I would rather have people have access to our records, and have people be able to listen to it, then as opposed to having it that they are not able to find our records. And that happens to us a lot.

Gabe: It's not like we are selling platinum . . .

Rory: I think the people that are hurting the most are people like Ricky Martin or Christina Aguilera, people who have one song that people really like. They [napster] spreads it all over and that's not going to sell the single and the single isn't going to sell the record like they wanted it to. As a web-designer, I think it is awesome that we can transfer cd-quality sounds easily like that. It's just that I think that people get a little too aggressive about.

Positively 18th Street: Are there any new albums out now that you guys are really into?

Rory: The new At the Drive-in, we were just listening to on the way up here. There is a new album by the band called the Fucking Champs… have you ever heard them? They are so amazing. They are like an all instrumental, heavy metal, kind of Brian May from Queen; he used a lot of harmony and stuff, and mix it with Injustice for All and Metallica. It's amazing, you should listen to it. If you get it, you'll love it.

Gabe: I'm trying to think of anything new that we are listening to…

Rory: There's a band called Ozma that Gabe and I are listening to, they're from California and we're really into them. They're really cool, they have this song called "Natalie Portman" that we listen to all the time.

Gabe: I'm trying to think of what else I listen to. Everything I listen to is old. What's that new one we just bought? Oh Kid A, Radiohead's newest album.

Rory: I think it is one of the weirdest albums. . . I think it's weird that people reacted to it the way they did. Everyone was like, oh, it's so experimental . . .

Gabe: I think more had to do with the buildup that people expected it to be.

Rory: It reminds me a lot of that EP they put out after OK Computer, the Airbag/How am I Driving It's not OK Computer, and it's not a start-to-finish, amazing sounding record, but how many of those are they going to be able to put out. It's not even conceptually like Ok Computer, but it's really good, and I like it.

Positively 18th Street: Rory, I know a lot of people out there are curious, what happened with you and the Stereo, and are you and Jamie Woolford on good terms?

Rory: (short laugh) uh. . . yeah, we are on good working terms I would say. He did the layout for our last record, so we, uh, still work together, but I don't know.

Positively 18th Street: Listening to your new album, I saw that you guys have completely abandoned the use of upstroke guitar this time around. Any particular reason for the switch? Do you guys still enjoy playing your old material?

Rory: Actually, if you play it backwards, the whole things got it.

Gabe: well, yeah, we were broken up for two years…

Rory: It was also has to due with that fact that those two years . . .we were 17 and 18 as opposed to being 20 and 21. Our musical influences shifted drastically. I haven't been able to really understand bands that have been able to play one-solid music their entire career over a span of ten or fifteen years. That just seems crazy. I want to change my music constantly. Every time you hear something new, it's like an inspiration. It makes you want to do something different. Nothing against bands like ACDC, cause I think they are an amazing band, but they play the same record over and over. It's a good formula and it works, and they are really popular, and that is cool, but I couldn't imagine doing that. I guess, for us, we have to keep our music genuine.

Gabe: It's not that it has much to do with us trying to make this new come back and as this new band. It has to do more with us growing out of it. It's not about us hating ska…you can really only do so much with it before it becomes something else.

Rory: I got this question in The Stereo too. Since I was in the Impossibles, why I stopped playing ska. These were all the same songs that I was writing, it's just that if we had not broken up, we'd have been playing the same basic songs. If you listen to those (The Stereo) records, you see that there is sort of a gradual motion. The only way it seems really abrupt is if you just bought Anthology, which is a ska record we made in 1994, and then you listen to the one that we just made.

Positively 18th Street: Do you like playing some of the old stuff live?

Rory: Some of the stuff. It has more to do with crowd reaction, honestly.

Gabe: Crowd reaction can really dictate how much you enjoy playing something, especially when we first started touring because that is what the people knew.

Rory: I'm already sick of some of the songs off our newest record because when you play the song every night for 6 months, that's how it goes. The ones that we play live, I stand behind as still being good songs. If I had written them today, they'd probably be a little different.

Positively 18th Street: What are your feelings on the 6 month ska explosion a couple years back and what it has done to the underground scene. How did you guys manage to get out before the entire genre took a nosedive?

Rory: It was kind of cool to be apart of it, and I think that in any type of genre popular blow-up like that…I can't talk tonight…

Gabe: The thing is, at that time, I don't think we were ever that popular, period. We were in Texas, but nationally, we weren't big. It was cool to be apart of it. And, it was definitely a time when you could put ska/punk on a flyer and get twice as many kids as just putting the band name.

Rory: It was fine to be apart of, but I think anytime this happens, there are going to be the bands just riding the wave, and the bands that are making good music. I like to think that we were making good music. I know that there were other bands in that same time period. They played great music. We just played with the Blue Meanies in Houston, and they kind of went the same way, those guys are freakin' amazing. I'm not as bitter about it as I imagine some bands who were drawing like 5,000 kids are now down to a couple of hundred.

Gabe: Yeah, we were never up at that point, and we got out at the right time, not that we planned it like that for anything, and we were never… I think the bands that got hurt the most were the bands that got elevated the most.

Positively 18th Street: Being that you guys are from Texas, I was just curious how you guys feel about George W. Bush and the presidential election in general?

Gabe: Don't get me started . . . I used to work for Gary Morrow who ran against Bush in the gubernatorial race the last time he(Bush) ran, and I was a researcher and I to campaign against him, and I have hated him ever since. It's going to be a sad day in American history when he is elected, and he probably will.

Rory: The way that we elect our presidents has been kind of screwy. I'm glad that it's getting some light shed on the fact that electoral colleges are f***ed up.

Gabe: It's just weird because for me, talking about George Bush and the whole political system, it's like he is preaching to a choir. Everyone I associate myself with usually thinks the same way I do about the whole political stuff, especially about Bush. It's just like really scary and weird to think that half the country voted for someone who is THAT Republican.

Rory: No one KNOWS George Bush at all. His political career was Texas for the periods that he was a governor, and we were around for that G: But some of the things he did there were just mind-boggling and scary like his extreme pro-death penalty and anti-gay, anti-everything.

Rory: He's voted against making sexual orientation a hate crime issue in every chance he has gotten.

Gabe: He will kill everyone else, but he won't kill someone just because they hurt someone who was gay. Don't even get me started, we'll just go on and on.

Positively 18th Street: Are there any towns that you have really big followings and do you have a favorite club to play in?

Rory: Houston, right now, is like our home away from home, Austin too. The Fireside Bowl in Chicago was really great too.

Positively 18th Street: what about ones where there aren't huge followings?

Gabe: California is still a huge nut to crack.

Rory: We did really well in Southern California, but we can't get a show in San Francisco.

Gabe: We can go one place and do amazing, and go another and have literally five people show up. Over a span of three days, we went from Orlando with 225 people to Charlotte with 15, you know what I mean.

Rory: As far as areas of the country, the Midwest is where we have so far done the best.

Positively 18th Street: Are you guys planning on recording any new material in the future and if so when could we expect a new release from you guys?

Rory: Yeah, we're recording in February with a guy named Brian—the singer for Battery. They were a hardcore band from Boston, and he has a studio. We're doing some work with him for out new EP that is due out in February and hopefully out by June. So it will be pretty interesting.

Positively 18th Street: On Fueled by Ramen? How are things going with them?

Rory: Great. I have talked about this a lot in other interviews. Fueled by Ramen has been great for us because we started when they started, and so as they have grown, we have grown. It has been a total gradual thing. We never really needed something they couldn't give us, nor did we deserve more than what they could offer us. It never got into that weird territory with us. It's awesome. I love working with John of FBR. John and our booking agent, Trish, are the best people I've ever met in the music business, honestly. I've met so many booking agents that are just jerks, and a lot of people have the theory that if they are jerks then they can get you more money and everything. They just have this theory that if you are a hard ass, then that makes you a better-business person. For us, we want somebody who is going to represent us they way we want to be represented. We are not D***s, and we don't want to come off as jerks because our booking agent is a jerk. It is awesome that we get to work with people like John and Trish who really are good representatives of how we like to do business.

Positively 18th Street: What are your feelings about major labels and would you ever consider signing with one?

Rory: I don't think we have any problem with other bands being on major labels.

Gabe: It's a big deal, and switching to a major label is a really big scary process.

Rory: We witnessed, second-hand, people going through really scary situations when they signed to a major label. For us, knowing that we are secure on this label and that we can do whatever we want and our label will be supportive of us is worth more then the money that we would get with a major label.

Gabe: I think the scariest thing about a major label for everyone is that the emphasis shifts on the record bill so much more. You could make the greatest record of all time, but if it doesn't sell, then you're gone.

Rory: Like Superdrag's Head Trip in Every Case. Have you ever heard that record? Amazing record! Amazing! But they were on a major label and they got dropped right after that. Gabe and I think that the only time to sign with a major label is when you are holding all the cards. Like the band Built to Spill on Warner Brothers. If Warner Brothers decided to drop them, it wouldn't hurt them because they've already got a super-strong independent following. Less Than Jake was the same way with Capitol. If we could do it, staying on an independent label the rest of the time, then that's fine too. It's not like a goal. A lot of bands have that goal like if we get signed to a major label, then we've made it.

Gabe: Really, if you're doing really well on an independent label, you stand to make more money on an independent, some of the times, obviously not all the times.

Rory: A lot people don't know the fact that Fugazi are millionaires, and not everyone is going to be like that. But, they never sacrificed anything, they never had to because they were always working hard as a band and making really good music that people loved.

Gabe: I really believe that if you continue to make really good records, then in the end, everything works out, and for the best, the way you want it to, because that is really the root of everything, the most important thing.

Rory: If you're not making good music, then what's the point or doing it anyway?

Positively 18th Street: Have you guys ever had a Milwaukee's Best Ice?

Gabe: I actually had a really bad experience involving Milwaukee's Beast. I've never had it since then…

Rory: We got a keg at his house…

Gabe: I wasn't an experienced drinker at all.

Rory: He ended up throwing up and passing out in our van.

Gabe: On this tour …should I tell him about Craig?

Rory: Well, I'll tell them if you won't. So Craig doesn't drink very much and Craig only drinks beer so when he drinks other stuff, he thinks that it's like beer.

Gabe: He was drinking Jagermeister. We were at a party and they were just feeding us drinks like crazy. They were giving him just cups of it, and I think when all was said and done, he had at least 20 shots by the end of the night. So he's just passed out in our room. Then the middle of the night, our roadie, Dan, who is this little 18-year old, skinny kid is in the bathroom, you know going number 2, and just sitting there. The door cracks open, and Dan says, "Craig, I'm taking a shit, Craig." Dan can't see Craig, but asks if he's okay, and Craig says, "yeahhhh…noooo." Then Dan says, "Well, hold on," and then all he sees is this stream just pouring onto the bathroom floor. I was in the bed and I heard it, and Dan was just laughing too hard. He wasn't even making a sound. All we could hear for about a minute was the sound of piss hitting the floor. We didn't even clean it up that night. The next day, Craig says, "Why isn't anyone going into the bathroom?" And we were like, "You asshole. You have no idea what you did?!"

Hope you enjoyed this interview. Here is a list of albums released by the Impossibles.

The Impossibles Anthology CD. (1999, Fueled By Ramen)
This is a collection of their first "self titled" full length album and the "Back for the Attack" ep. There is definitely a small place in my heart for this record, in particular the EP.
Buy it

The Impossibles Return CD (2000, Fueled By Ramen) This is their "Reunion" album. It is definitely an interesting record and shows the potential they had beyond the weezer/ska thing, but it loses a lot of the energy and excitement of the first one as a result. "Never say Goodbye" was an instant Impossibles classic in my book.
Buy it

The Impossibles 4 Song Brick Bomb EP (2001, Fueled By Ramen)
4 song brick bomb is a really cool record that I've always liked. The thing I enjoyed the most is this is the first time you see some of the influences they discussed in this interview in their music. There is a definite Radiohead type vibe to some of the stuff, while obviously still rooted in their punk roots. I definitely could have done without Get it + got it + good though. "Long way from, long time since" is a beautiful song that deserves to be rediscovered. "Oxygen is also highly recommended."
Buy it

Post-Impossibles

The Stereo - Three Hundred (1999, Fueled By Ramen)
Paired at the request of Fueled by Ramen, who most likely didn't see a Jamie Woolford solo record as commercially viable, set him up with Rory Phillips who together recorded this pop-rock gem. Rory's songs clearly out shine Jamie's stuff, but I think it serves as a good mix pairing the two up. The title track in particular ranks up there with the best of the Impossibles material. Jamie went on to record another 3 bland rock albums under "the Stereo" name but nothing compares to this first one.
Buy it


Slowreader - Self Titled (2002, Fueled By Ramen)
This is an absolutely beautiful record, that I think may have gotten lost in the shuffle and not discovered by alot of Impossibles fans as I don't think it was marketed well to their rapidly aging fanbase. This is Gabe and Rory completely reinventing their sound, very electronic based in the vain of Radiohead and the Postal Service. I still love this record even as I've grown older and my music tastes, more snobby and elitist.
Buy it

The Filet O' Fish

How is it that my half assed attempt at Catholism brought me to consuming a Filet O' Fish sandwich at McDonald's for lunch today?

1 Christmas mass, 1 Easter mass, and a filet O' fish sandwich on Ash Wednesday.

I am most likely going to hell. But at least I will not have to go there on an empty stomach.

Links to Things

Brokeback to the Future

Invasion of the Computer Snatchers

The Book I wrote almost 3 years ago

Jack Johnson

Netflix

101 Dumbest Moments in Business 2005

Digg

Sixteen Military Wives

Indeed

The Smartest Guys in the Room

Trapped In the Closet

Big Powderhorn

Unlost But Not Quite Found