Revive the thread - Name Dropping

[hauser gabone]

my mom worked an office job with meatloaf in the 70s.

[JustinHedrick]

i work for matt talbott from the 90's band Hum. ...what else....a distant relative of mine was one of the worst acting general's in the cival war by many scholarly accounts. Gen. George Gordon Meade.

i suck.

justin

[kingnimrod]

I know / have met / hung out with / whatever a bunch of well-known underground and not-so-underground musicians. Some of them are good friends of mine. Others, I wish I hadn't met because they turned out to be giant pricks and I can't listen to the music any more. I won't drop any of these names because I don't see the point in it, unless I had a really good story about prince being an asshole or something. I've seen some really weird stuff, but I won't spill that either.

When I was in college I worked at the radio station and used that to interview people I liked, have them up to the station, record them, set up shows, etc. I'm pretty easy-going, but intense in my love for music. I don't do anything really related to the music industry for a living these days- I'm just a hobbyist and music junky.

It's really strange being around people as they are being "worshipped" by starstruck fans. I will admit I get a kick out of going backstage at shows, but that's mostly because there's less cigarette smoke there and the view is much better. But basically, I treat everyone the same, and I think people appreciate honesty, decency and directness. I guess it's a curiosity when you see someone famous, but I've never had anyone strike me as being on some higher level like that.

There are a lot of musicians / celebrities that could be total ego monsters that just aren't. I'm glad to say that I've met more than a few humble, extremely nice people who just happen to make great music.

It's strange how sometimes it works out that some of the more underground types are the bitter primadonnas that suck to be around. Ironically, it's these people who feel like they deserve to have recognition, and some of the more successful people realize that they are lucky to have it.

As far as interesting celebrity crap goes though, my mother-in-law was an actress in the 60s/70s and met a bunch of cool people. She had a date with Elvis, was friends with Sharon Tate and was invited to that ill-fated party (but didn't make it to that one), is somehow related to Alan Freed (coiner of the term "Rock n Roll"), friends with George Burns and a bunch of other things like that. She met my father-in-law in front of the Chelsea Hotel, where she was staying in NYC - same place where Dennis Hopper proposed that they run away together. Maybe I should move to LA - I might have some good connections I don't know about yet, heheh.

[orbb]

These are sort of minor:

When I was in college I used to follow around a band called the Jack of Diamonds, and knew the band guys pretty well because my sister did PR for them. Andy King, the bass player, went on to be the bass player for the Hooters, and Dave Derr, the lead guitarist, went on to found Empirical Labs and invent the Distressor.

Gene Clark of the Byrds played through my amp once. He was sitting in with Rick Danko & Friends and needed an amp. It shocked him because it had a grounding problem.

One of my clients, a 89 year old woman, used to date Jimmy Durante.

A non-musical one - Troy Brown, WR of the New England Patriots, coached my son's soccer team.

[workshed]

Oh man, let's see. I have a few obscure-to-semi-obscure underground musician encouters.

My old band recorded an EP with Clint Werner from the early-mid '90s band, Seaweed. He was super nice. It was right after they signed to Hollywood Records, so we got all the inside dirt on that transaction.

When I was in high school, circa the late '80s I played in a few hardcore/straight edge bands. We played a lot with some bands from Seattle, like Brotherhood, Christ on a Crutch and Galleon's Lap. Nate, the bass player for all of those bands, went on to play in Sunny Day Real Estate and is now in The Foo Fighters. He was always a really nice guy.

Greg Anderson, who played guitar for Brotherhood and Galleon's Lap, went on to form Engine Kid with Chris Vandebrooke, a high school skate punk friend of mine, and now is pretty high up in the Stoner Rock world (no pun intended) with his band Goatsnake and I think he runs Southern Lord Records.

Dan, who played in a Brotherhood offshoot band called Resolution also went on to form Sunny Day Real Estate.

I went to high school in the same era and town as The Posies founders, Ken and John. I dated a couple of Ken's ex-girlfriends back then. Prior to The Posies, Ken played in a punk rock band called Genetic Defects, which did Black Flag covers.

Oh and I went to high school with all the guys from The Kent 3. They were all great folks, and Tyler, the drummer, was my high school idol.

It's pretty sad that I have more stories of my friends' musical successes than my own, but I guess that's what name dropping is all about.

EDIT: I just remembered the best one of all. For my bachelor party, a bunch of friends and I went camping on the Oregon coast for a weekend at Short Sands beach. The morning after the first night of heavy drinking, I was sitting down at the beach and I saw this punk rock woman and her daughter come down the trail. Shortly thereafter, none other than Pig Champion of Poison Idea fame comes trudging down the trail, wheezing and sweating like an, er, pig. It was the last place I'd have expected to see Pig Champion, not only because it was the outdoors, but because it was at least a 2 mile hike down to the beach from the parking area. So yeah, Pig Champion indirectly came to my bachelor party.

-Bret

[agauchede]

Opened gigs for:

Shoe Suede Blues - featuring Peter Tork of the Monkees

Rubyhorse - Irish band - George Harrison played on one of their albums

Owsley - Hell Yeah

Sam Roberts - Really cool musician from Toronto - great band, too!

Digable Planets - It was a college festival and they played first, so technically they opened for us.

My cousin-in-law is in all sorts of movies and TV - Chris Ellis - check him out on imdb.com

Other stuff, too - I can't remember right now.

Chris

[jmiller]

I just remembered one that's pretty f-ed up:

In 1994 I was a naive little highschool kid standing in line for a concert in hollywood. Behind me were a couple REALLY trashy and drunker-than-fuck douchebags, one of whom was none other than lead singer of The Mentors, "Il Duce". Il Duce has been a guest several times on the Jerry Springer show, usually dealing with the subject of "hate-rock" or even "rape-rock". He smelled like enough alcohol to kill a mongolian army and their horses of cirrhosis. He was as much an asshole in real life as he ever was on the Springer show. He kept mumbling things like "let's go beat-up some fags" and other really atrocious bullshit.

Years later, he wandered too close to the train tracks while drunk and was killed.

Another Springer connection: a couple friends and I were flirting with some girls once. We decided we would leave and go to their house. They went to the bathroom, and us guys decided that these girls were kinda trashy. So we ditched 'em. One of those girls went on to be immortalized on a Jerry Springer: Too Hot for TV tape. Not really a name drop, but I just remembered it.

[cgarges]

As far as interesting celebrity crap goes though, my mother-in-law was an actress in the 60s/70s... was friends with Sharon Tate and was invited to that ill-fated party (but didn't make it to that one)

Holy crap! No way!

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[antilog]

My dad's 1st cousin is Adrian Cronauer. According to my dad, he is nothing at all like Robin Williams.

[farside]

Oh man, let's see. I have a few obscure-to-semi-obscure underground musician encouters.

My old band recorded an EP with Clint Werner from the early-mid '90s band, Seaweed. He was super nice. It was right after they signed to Hollywood Records, so we got all the inside dirt on that transaction.

When I was in high school, circa the late '80s I played in a few hardcore/straight edge bands. We played a lot with some bands from Seattle, like Brotherhood, Christ on a Crutch and Galleon's Lap. Nate, the bass player for all of those bands, went on to play in Sunny Day Real Estate and is now in The Foo Fighters. He was always a really nice guy.

Greg Anderson, who played guitar for Brotherhood and Galleon's Lap, went on to form Engine Kid with Chris Vandebrooke, a high school skate punk friend of mine, and now is pretty high up in the Stoner Rock world (no pun intended) with his band Goatsnake and I think he runs Southern Lord Records.

Dan, who played in a Brotherhood offshoot band called Resolution also went on to form Sunny Day Real Estate.

I went to high school in the same era and town as The Posies founders, Ken and John. I dated a couple of Ken's ex-girlfriends back then. Prior to The Posies, Ken played in a punk rock band called Genetic Defects, which did Black Flag covers.

Oh and I went to high school with all the guys from The Kent 3. They were all great folks, and Tyler, the drummer, was my high school idol.

It's pretty sad that I have more stories of my friends' musical successes than my own, but I guess that's what name dropping is all about.

EDIT: I just remembered the best one of all. For my bachelor party, a bunch of friends and I went camping on the Oregon coast for a weekend at Short Sands beach. The morning after the first night of heavy drinking, I was sitting down at the beach and I saw this punk rock woman and her daughter come down the trail. Shortly thereafter, none other than Pig Champion of Poison Idea fame comes trudging down the trail, wheezing and sweating like an, er, pig. It was the last place I'd have expected to see Pig Champion, not only because it was the outdoors, but because it was at least a 2 mile hike down to the beach from the parking area. So yeah, Pig Champion indirectly came to my bachelor party.

-Bret

Ha, I still have the Brotherhood and Resolution records. I missed seeing them the 1 time they played Buffalo.

Actually I'm like one of the only guys I know in my 30's whos still straightedge. What bands were you in back then? ...I played in a few different hardcore bands throughout the early 90's.

[workshed]

Ha, I still have the Brotherhood and Resolution records. I missed seeing them the 1 time they played Buffalo.

Actually I'm like one of the only guys I know in my 30's whos still straightedge. What bands were you in back then? ...I played in a few different hardcore bands throughout the early 90's.

I still have those records on vinyl too. That Brotherhood LP is classic. First time I saw them play was also my first straightedge show, they opened for Youth of Today and Angry Samoans.

I'm not really so straightedge anymore, although I just have an occasional drink from time to time. One of my best friends from high school, Dave Larson, runs Excursion Records out of Seattle, which you've probably heard of. Dave and Bill Baker (singer of Jayhawker, Slowsidedown, Pistols at Dusk) grew up in Bellingham with me and we all went to high school together, played in bands together, put on shows, etc. Anyhow, they are both still straightedge.

My bands are bands that you've most likely never heard of, and for good reason. We were high school kids, didn't tour, never released anything. Believe it or not, my straightedge band back then was called First Step, not to be confused with the modern day SXE band of the same name. The only band you may have barely heard of was called Hutch and we put a a couple of E.P.s on Excursion, but that was more melodic punk stuff.

Anyhow, always awesome to meet people from back in the day! Those were some great times back then. What bands have you been in?

-Bret

[effector]

sometime in the late 80s, when i was about seven or eight, i was in a short film with the butthole surfers. gibby haynes played my dad. apparently, the film was pretty sick, because i wasn't allowed to see the finished product; but basically, i was murdered by some weird rednecks and fed to my parents. the film was directed by alex winters of bill and ted 'fame'.

a 'friend of a friend' (yeah right) claims to have made morrissey cry in a restaurant.

my mom was a rocker chick in the 80s and partied with bon jovi for a week.

my grandmother went to high school with priscilla presley.

[farside]

Ha, I still have the Brotherhood and Resolution records. I missed seeing them the 1 time they played Buffalo.

Actually I'm like one of the only guys I know in my 30's whos still straightedge. What bands were you in back then? ...I played in a few different hardcore bands throughout the early 90's.

I still have those records on vinyl too. That Brotherhood LP is classic. First time I saw them play was also my first straightedge show, they opened for Youth of Today and Angry Samoans.

I'm not really so straightedge anymore, although I just have an occasional drink from time to time. One of my best friends from high school, Dave Larson, runs Excursion Records out of Seattle, which you've probably heard of. Dave and Bill Baker (singer of Jayhawker, Slowsidedown, Pistols at Dusk) grew up in Bellingham with me and we all went to high school together, played in bands together, put on shows, etc. Anyhow, they are both still straightedge.

My bands are bands that you've most likely never heard of, and for good reason. We were high school kids, didn't tour, never released anything. Believe it or not, my straightedge band back then was called First Step, not to be confused with the modern day SXE band of the same name. The only band you may have barely heard of was called Hutch and we put a a couple of E.P.s on Excursion, but that was more melodic punk stuff.

Anyhow, always awesome to meet people from back in the day! Those were some great times back then. What bands have you been in?

-Bret

Thats funny, I actually just recorded a track for the modern day First Step while they were in town a while ago.

In highschool I was in a bunch of bands with people who went on to be in bands like Hourglass, Buried Alive, Every Time I Die ect.

I was in a SXE band called Halfmast, we were around from 1992 -1996 toured and had a bunch of 7"s out. We were playing "old school" hardcore in the era when metal was the new big thing, and nobody seemed to care. In the late 90's/early 00's I was in a band called The Control. We had a couple records out on different labels, the biggest of which would be Go Kart Records. A few other random bands, but those were probably the biggest.

Since then I've been trying to build my engineering skills, build a following, and start looking for a building to move this opperation into.

I see from your website that you know the Undertow guys. I was really into them, and Halfmast played with them several times out on the east coast. I know Pettibone sings for Himsa now, but what are the rest of those guys up to?

[farside]

Anyhow, always awesome to meet people from back in the day! Those were some great times back then. What bands have you been in?

-Bret

Oh, and speaking of running into people from back in the day I recently started chatting with Vic Dacara from Inside Out/Beyond/Shelter/108.
He's got a studio down in San Deigo:
http://www.myspace.com/staticvoidstudio

[angry]

Oh man, let's see. I have a few obscure-to-semi-obscure underground musician encouters.

My old band recorded an EP with Clint Werner from the early-mid '90s band, Seaweed. He was super nice. It was right after they signed to Hollywood Records, so we got all the inside dirt on that transaction.

When I was in high school, circa the late '80s I played in a few hardcore/straight edge bands. We played a lot with some bands from Seattle, like Brotherhood, Christ on a Crutch and Galleon's Lap. Nate, the bass player for all of those bands, went on to play in Sunny Day Real Estate and is now in The Foo Fighters. He was always a really nice guy.

Greg Anderson, who played guitar for Brotherhood and Galleon's Lap, went on to form Engine Kid with Chris Vandebrooke, a high school skate punk friend of mine, and now is pretty high up in the Stoner Rock world (no pun intended) with his band Goatsnake and I think he runs Southern Lord Records.

Dan, who played in a Brotherhood offshoot band called Resolution also went on to form Sunny Day Real Estate.

I went to high school in the same era and town as The Posies founders, Ken and John. I dated a couple of Ken's ex-girlfriends back then. Prior to The Posies, Ken played in a punk rock band called Genetic Defects, which did Black Flag covers.

Oh and I went to high school with all the guys from The Kent 3. They were all great folks, and Tyler, the drummer, was my high school idol.

It's pretty sad that I have more stories of my friends' musical successes than my own, but I guess that's what name dropping is all about.

EDIT: I just remembered the best one of all. For my bachelor party, a bunch of friends and I went camping on the Oregon coast for a weekend at Short Sands beach. The morning after the first night of heavy drinking, I was sitting down at the beach and I saw this punk rock woman and her daughter come down the trail. Shortly thereafter, none other than Pig Champion of Poison Idea fame comes trudging down the trail, wheezing and sweating like an, er, pig. It was the last place I'd have expected to see Pig Champion, not only because it was the outdoors, but because it was at least a 2 mile hike down to the beach from the parking area. So yeah, Pig Champion indirectly came to my bachelor party.

-Bret

I played in a band called State of the nation, and we recorded both of our records with Clint in his basement in Tacoma.
Probably around the same time you did (95, 96), we also got the dirt on their Hollywood deal.
The other guys in State of the nation were Mark and Rob Haworth.
Mark played bass for Hardstance, Gorilla Biscuits, Inside out. And now is a tour manager for bands like New found glory, Sunny day real estate, Rancid.
His brother Rob played guitar in Hardstance, No for an answer, Farside.
With these guys, I was able to play drums for an Inside out reunion tour featuring Zack de la Rocha from Rage against the machine.
I recorded the narraration for the Rage against the machine "Live in Mexico" dvd in my bedroom.
I also played drums in Shelter for a japenese tour, and Bluetip for a U.S. tour.
Craig Werden from Shudder to think slept in my bed.
A good friend of mine, and the bass player of the first serious band I was in, plays bass in Institute featuring Gavin Rossdale from Bush.
Alice Cooper sat in my chair at my studio.
The current bass player for Helmet is a good friend of mine he also played bass in Jets to Brazil, and sang for Hansome and is the brainchild of Cub Country.
I spent a drunken night in a squat in Paris with some of the guys from Discharge.
I have a tattoo given to me by Scott McFearson who played drums for Sensefield and Elliot Smith.
I hung out and smoked some sweet shit with Jennifer Lynch (David Lynch's daughter).
I spent alot of evenings learning pro tools with the guy who was engineering the Guns and Roses "Chinese Democracy" debacle.
I think that's it.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.