sure that if I met her, I would find her charming and beautiful. Pretty
girls have that effect on me. But, since I don’t think I’ll ever meet
her, I only have my gut feeling to go by, so Kate Hudson is boring.
And so will Wednesday nights be, after next week.
Kiss or Kill will be no more.
Sure, I’ve stopped going to Kiss or Kill recently (for the most part). I
can’t quite put a finger on WHY I’ve stopped, though. It certainly isn’t personal.
I owe a WHOLE lot to Kiss or Kill. It really did change my life.
Back in the early days of KorK ( the Garage era), Matt Southwell and I
were AIM buddies (FUITA). We’d chat daily about everything from
celebrity nudity to the latest awesome band that Matt saw at KorK
(Dollyrots, Waking Hours, OAOT’S, Letter Openers, etc).
I never left the house back then. I’d threaten to come out to KorK,
but never did. Instead I wrote and recorded tons of Wormstew songs that no one would ever hear. It didn’t bother me at all.
Anyway, Matt and I used to chat a whole lot on AIM. One day, he
suggested that I make a documentary on Kiss or Kill. It seemed like a crazy idea to me, based on the fact that I had only made a few short
videos at the time...but what the heck. Why not?
This idea went back and forth for a few weeks and almost died until one
night in early 2004. My friend Veneta and I went to check out the
Breeders at the Troubador. It ended early, so we jammed on down to Zen
Sushi, where we caught Bang Sugar Bang’s last song at KorK.
Finally, I was at Kiss or Kill! There was only one band left called Midway, and I figured I’d stick it out and hang around and see them.
I was blown away! The songs were so CATCHY. I was hooked.
So, I came around the next week. I brought my video camcorder. I was
gonna make a documentary! Matt introduced me to all his friends as
“the guy that’s gonna make the doc”.
I was treated like royalty- GIRLS would come up to me and talk. You
gotta understand, I’m the guy that hides in the corner if I go to a
party AT ALL.
I met many of the people I wanted to meet and be friends with….people
I had seen in pictures and videos…Joe, Danny, Simon, Sir Ian, Eric, The
Randies, Flaco, Johnny 99, Andre, etc….SO MANY people…and they were
ALL COOL.
After that, I met another ton of people that I hadn’t seen in
pictures and videos: Jon Rustad, Kevin from Midway, Celeste, forget it…too many.
If I go on, I’ll forget to mention some major people that mean a
whole to me.
And, of course, there is Rob Z. I sort of knew him (through Matt)
before Kiss or Kill. The man is amazing. To me, he symbolizes Kiss or Kill.
As for the documentary, this is how it worked: Each week, I’d get
there early and set up. I’d get a half way decent sound from 2 mics and to
board inputs…not the greatest, but better then “camcorder” sound.
Then I’d get myself and 2 other camera operators and film a selected
band’s entire set. I’ve got boxes of tapes.
The camera operators? Glen, Sir Ian, Jerdog, Nate, and a few others. Their work was INCREDIBLE. I’d go home, pick a song, and start editing…. They gave me SO much to work with. Many times, people would offer to pay me to film their band at a non-KorK event, but I’d
decline.
I couldn’t get my regulars to work with me, so it would end uplooking
like shit.
(Fuck..this blog is getting LONG. I didn’t expect it to be long. And
it’s getting to be boring. Kate Hudson boring. Sorry. If you’ve gotten this far, I’ll try to wrap it up.)
I was limited in free time to work on the documentary. I seemed to only
have time on Tuesday nights…KorK nights. I never got anything other
than performance clips. That’s okay though…the clips I got were pretty
good (thanks to my fellow camera operators and THE BANDS).
Let me talk about WHY I love KorK. Each of the bands (in the heyday) wrote SONGS. They were songs that stuck in my brain. I couldn’t get
enough of them. All the members were really nice, which was surprising
to me.
All the people on the “other side of the stage” were just as
important. We all felt like we were in an exclusive club (that anybody could
join).
The documentary (for ME) came to a close once KorK moved to the Echo
and my spare time was taken up with Pu$$y-Cow. It really WAS a dream come true to be able to play Kiss Or Kill. It was an honor.
It still is.
Instead of a documentary, I pledged that I would still use my talents
to help out KorK by making “video flyers”. Check them out if you’ve
never seen them…I have tons of them on my YouTube site. In fact, KorK promos take up probably 75% of my videos.
(To view a sampling click here or visit: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9021A78F47CE42B8)
Here are a couple of examples of the genius that are the KorK Video Flyers created by Mike Schnee
The Echo days were also very special. Many more people were met
(Ashley, the New Fidelity, etc), including one of the coolest and funniest
people around- Johnny Pumpkin. Did you know that it was SHE that invented the
term Creepy Cool? She’s pretty neat, but you all know that.
Here is that Chissum Worthington video for Creepy Cool:
Oh, that’s right. It was at the Echo where I met Chissum Worthington.
View more Chissum Worthington videos here
Nice guy.
After the Echo, Kork moved to Safari Sam’s. There were more cool
people to meet (Carina, David, Kjell etc).
It was around this time that I stopped going every week, and eventually
crawled back into my shell at home…writing tons of Wormstew songs that
no one will ever hear.
I’d go once in a while, but it always seemed to be when my band (or
Chissum) was playing. I felt pretty awful, to tell you the truth. I
feel that I should have EARNED the right to play KorK by showing up every
week.
Now Kiss or Kill is ending it’s long ride at El Cid. Great place.
It’s gonna be weird this coming Wednesday. Sure, I don’t go that
often, but it was always there…if I decided to come out of my shell once in
a while.
I’ve got a few hundred people to thank, but I will only mention a few
right here: Matt, Cooper, Johnny 99, Siria, Andre, Amanda and Rob Z.
You all should be proud of yourselves for making many people happy.
See you all Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment