Local Scene Flashback | Leppotone

Local Scene Flashback

Submitted by OldFatMarriedGuy on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 10:33am.

Anyone else found this site yet?

www.leonstemple.com/

I've been enjoying the many .mp3's linked on the site.

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	#1Submitted by paddle on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 10:41am. i was checking that shit i was checking that shit out....resin mattress?....fuck...hopefully he played the instrumental tracks....holy shit its bad....we recorded with sean hammer at waistern....wonder where those recordings went? whose doing this site anyway? reply quote


	#2Submitted by Tree on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 11:38am. I think it's J3FF T1LL from I think it's J3FF T1LL from Overman/Screwtape fame. He wrote recently, asking for permission to post Sinatras MP3's on some site he was working on. He also does the TASMlab website. I always respected that guy, although we weren't really close friends outside of our scenester roles. I recently bought Overman's RACECAR CD from CD Baby, great to hear those songs again. I think that's where I got the Rural Electrification Act disc as well. I can't (or don't) support "the scene" by hitting all the shows like I used to, but I like to buy CD's from bands who's members were cool with us. The occasional $10 could be considered payback for all the equipment I borrowed over the years. reply quote


	#3Submitted by Herb Tarlick on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 11:50am. I wrote this little screed I wrote this little screed (below) as a response to an e-mail from a good friend about the last article in the Gazette about Club Soda. I am putting it in here 'cause for some reason that site is making me think about Marci Persky and the Stoker years and a big fat insertion of Verve Pipe. I did like twitch (pretentiousness ot no capital letter aside) although I have found few who felt the same way. Don't know much about Jeff Till's stuff. By the way people have responded to my rant suggesting I haven't given Soda enough credit for developing the local scene but again aside from Johnny with an Eye I am kind of drawing a blank there too. In any normal size city Soda would have been a joke. Good riddance to Club Soda. A shitty club whose only real claims to fame were because of WIDR. WIDR booked Nirvana. Presuming Wick booked them (he was at the station at that time) it was still a WIDR event (New Music Night)and occurred through no effort or support by the Club Soda management (I suppose letting WIDR have Mondays constituted some support but it was really just an attempt to do something on the slowest night of the week). WIDR booked the Pixies, Camper van Beethoven, Dinosaur Jr. and all the rest. The truly influential years (meaning when the highest level of bands played there) was 1986-1990 (the peak years of the WIDR New Music Night) and actually Nirvana was close to the end of that era. Club Soda themselves booked virtually no independent touring acts. The only things I remember over a 15 year time period were Fugazi, Tortoise, and the Dirtbombs. Big fuckin deal. They had what appeared to be a state of the art sound system yet horrible sound. A terrible layout with nowhere to escape from a band you might not like. I hate to say it but I think that even the old Harvey's was better. I guess Soda did a little for the local scene a la Twitch, Thought Industry, etc. and whatever right wing units Mr. Van Dyk was part of (Doublewide?) but even on a local level (especially after their schism with Dorbin and WIDR) they certainly weren't very adventurous even in their local bookings. BTW, I was at the Nirvana show and I'm not lying. Actually there were more like 50 people there but hey it's close. And Bryan Charles writes fiction. Good fiction, but fiction none the less. Since he graduated from high school in 1992 he wouldn't have been there for the peak either. Goodbye Club Soda. May you rot in peace. http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1172298665280170.xml&coll=7 reply quote


	#4Submitted by Herb Tarlick on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 11:55am. And I am really drawing a And I am really drawing a blank on where the 17 venues playing local independent music in 1992 were. The Kalamazoo as 'next Seattle' myth I think is better forgotten. Sorry but The Freshman is not Smells Like Teen Spirit. reply quote


	#5Submitted by paddle on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 12:01pm. i was at the nirvana i was at the nirvana show....walked out five songs into their set....simply put....steele pole bathtub blew them the fuck off the stage....and i thought it was more like 20 people at that show.....i do have to thank wick though....he handed me strap it on said i'd really like it...then the next week they opened for the melvins...thanks joel....joel wick....why do so many people dislike him for trying....i dont think he ever really started anything with the thought of the end result being people pissed....oh well...... but club soda was the spot....so many great memories....so much fucking fun...going out back to get blew out was always fun......pre rolls playah! reply quote


	#6Submitted by Herb Tarlick on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 12:26pm. To be very honest this thing To be very honest this thing is not as simple as it seems and after some discussion with my lovely missus two-pack I do think that I am loading some perhaps unwarranted personal animosity onto this issue. It is safe to say that at least some of the, oh I don't know, maybe 150 evenings I spent at Soda over the years were fun, my going there was in all probability what brought two-pack and I together in the first place, and I did get to see some awesome rock there. I'm not sure what's pissing me off. Maybe it's some unresolved issue and a hypnotist would help. Maybe it's my own mid-life crisis. Not sure but I think it is a personal issue. My prime moment will always be the WIDR nights from around 1986-89. Frankly, I was at the Nirvana show but I really don't remember much about it. I do remember the Pixies hitting me pretty hard. Also Dinosaur Jr. Nice Strong Arm. Christmas. Pussy Galore . fIREHOSE (with Slovenly). reply quote


	#7Submitted by dingey on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 12:36pm. bad feelings Eh, I have totally mixed feelings about Soda, too. There were times when it was fun, but the management was often weird to deal with for the bands. I did go to a lot of shows there for a while......The Fluid kicked asses. Afghan Whigs made me want to punch them, and I don't mean that in a good way at all. MELT BANANA was too intense for my drunken and blown-out system in the incredibly crowded heat, and I had to leave to avoid physical illness even though the show was AMAZING. I have good memories of many a Leppotone evening. reply quote


	#8Submitted by Criswell on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 1:24pm. Start from the beginning, Start from the beginning, the shows that I loved... Meat Puppets, Camper Van Beethoven, Snake Out (I know, goofballs, but that was the first time I talked to "the band," talked to the guy about loving old surf, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, etc.), Buckwheat Zydeco (not all great shows were WIDR shows), Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper, Roger Miller (big electric piano guy, not "King of the Road"), then there was a big gap where I was too broke or just didn't want to make the scene, Man or... Astro Man?, Dick Dale, Link Wray, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dirtbombs, KPOWW... I may have forgotten some others. I told someone that I felt, at the Soda's death, like I've seen a cool old grandparent languish in a vegetable state for ten years, and now he's dead. RIP. But, hey, I did get to see the Dead Kennedys without Jello, and I saw people hanging from meathooks! Good times! reply quote


	#9Submitted by Herb Tarlick on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 2:56pm. I told someone that I felt, I told someone that I felt, at the Soda's death, like I've seen a cool old grandparent languish in a vegetable state for ten years, and now he's dead. RIP. Space, that is very close to what I feel but wasn't able to articulate. reply quote


	#10Submitted by Ms. Info on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 2:25pm. hmmmm.... "There were times when it was fun, but the management was often weird to deal with for the bands. " I wonder how many rock venues this could apply to? I can name several in Detroit; one of which I was intimately involved. The "Man" (as in holder of some resource\authority)\artist business is tough dicotomy. I find, in general, that there are issuse on both sides of the fence; whether they be issue with authority, fiscal need or plain old substance abuse, the volatile mix of "the man" vs. "the artists (or artists representative) seems to be a constant. I bet someone out there has called Hilly Kristal an asshole once or twice. reply quote


	#11Submitted by Nathan on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 3:41pm. Even then As a rural teen with no connections to anything remotely out of the mainstream, beyond my parents records, finding New Music Night at Club Soda was a complete and total revelation to me. I cannot explain how much of my life has changed due to my attending a show there. The Smithereens played. They were fun, and they understood it, the dynamic. I mean, I suddenly understood it. I had only seen Queen in Chicago or Sammy Hagar at Wings Stadium. I had never gone to a show that rocked in that intimate a fashion. People danced in a fashion. Jumped around. Yelled. Threw things. Just fucking had fun. It was amazing to me. I wanted more of this newly discovered treat. Even at the time I thought of it as a new music thing, not something about the venue. It was the people there that made it for me and the bands, of course. Later that week I saw the Sinatras play. Blew my fucking mind the rest of the way away. Don't get me started on the "oil painting" audiences that came to dominate Club Soda later on (think folded arms and staring). reply quote


	#12Submitted by Ulysses S. Eater on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 3:51pm. Tonight the landmark venue, Tonight the landmark venue, at 340 E. Michigan Ave., will host its final show, ending a run that began on Jan. 16, 1983, with the Texas blues band The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Weird, I've been singing "Wrap it up, I'll tyake yit!" in my Shitty Ray Braun voice as a cue for people to STFU the past few weeks now. I had good times at Soda too: Rocket From The Crypt, Sugar Hill Gang, Steel Pole Bathtub, New Bomb Turks, Man Or Astroman? (the one where they had dopplegangers play their set while the real band was playing another town was silly), The Jesus Lizard, the Delta 72 show and the heckles, THE HECKLES!, and the Kid Rock show I saw there was actually very entertaining. That lil doot was bumpin and that cracker-assed Kid Rock had 4 black dudes backing him up all funk style, and they were hot. Sad when friends and acquaintances that booked shows there got treated poorly, fucking funny as all hell when the place was open 4 days a week, with themed nights/dj's playing, and 1 day a week with live music. Rappin Duke said it best "Duh-haw-duh-haw" Who wants to start complaining about Krautbrew? Man, their sound is just too good. The beer gets me too drunk. I can't smoke inside, I can smoke at the bowling alley and in the teacher's lounge, why not at this bar? They only have 3 bathrooms. They're open too late, can't they close at midnight? I wish they sold PBR in there because I'm kinda working class and I saw sorta tuff looking guys in Detroit drinking it at the Tortoise show. reply quote


	#13Submitted by wizzybit on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 9:13pm. No complaints. Yep. I'd have been some sort of horrible club kid if it hadn't been for Club Soda. It was too loud, there was no where to sit 98% of the time, it was either super hot or extra cold temperature wise, and all my friends went there. Perfect. I saw almost every Monday night show from October 20, 1988 - 1991-ish. Later, more sporadically. Unfortunately, my brain is not good at naming things, so I can't even separate the experiences. reply quote


	#14Submitted by paddle on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 11:56pm. best choda shows....club best choda shows....club choda..... tar...lubricated goat...the verlaines....pussy gallore(first show at soda....end result played first)...numerous twitch shows..fucking king fucking tammmmmmy....holy shit....people should know......melvins twice....helmet twice....jesus lizard twice....nirvana....steele pole bathtub twice....seaweed....poison idea....helios creed....tad....fugazi(suck)....mind over four....watched thought industry destroy that place.... best band no one saw.....rein sanction....you don't know.... king snake roost...god bullies...hammerhead.....cum dumpster....sexplosive b....couch flambeau....eggs...railroad jerk...unrest....unsane(played with them twice....charlie ondras overdosed the next week)....hole....supersuckers....and on and on and on and on..... reply quote


	#15Submitted by timh on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 9:20am. Ulysses, you are the king Ulysses, you are the king funny guy! I'll follow up with a question regarding the Krautbrew. What do you guys think? If Kraftbrew could improve their brew and vino so it didn't cause suicide inducing hangovers but had to give up the live music in order improve their brewing skills would you approve of this? reply quote


	#16Submitted by dingey on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 9:44am. nope I'll take drink moderation over losing another venue any ol' day. reply quote


	#17Submitted by wizzybit on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 10:29am. Kraftbroy dilemmas Pros: Train, stage, "decor", staff, deck. Cons: Beer Yep, the pros outweigh the cons. I can survive for up to 10 hours without beer, so I can only blame myself when I have one there. Besides, they go down pretty okay - it's the day after that's awful. Perhaps I should switch to the wine, as I see that many have done. Or, invest in the flask. reply quote


	#18Submitted by Criswell on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 10:35am. I won't say they're I won't say they're connected, but the last time I had beer there I ended up in the hospital in less than a week with internal bleeding. Let's just say there may have been contributing factors, but not a cause. Their wine is fine. I don't think I've had anything more than a mild hangover with the wine. reply quote


	#19Submitted by Ms. Info on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 10:47am. fight Kraftbrau wine makes me want to fight. Literally. However, I won't blame their wine for the aggression that burbles up inside me; most wine makes me overly punchy and then, soon after, sleepy and headachey. reply quote


	#20Submitted by Ulysses S. Eater on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 4:48pm. I love the CB's greazzzy I love the CB's greazzzy food and traditional bar beverages, but hell no, bands playing in what appears and sounds like a Comstock Park finished basement? Pop-Up-Peete's? Makes the Coronor Brah's stage/PA look like Planett Cock's in BC. PP's is the worst, cavernous, smoke-stained place. Last time I went, it was 11pm, show started at 9pm. Hey, at least I don't have to drink micro-brew, I'll have a Miller Lite, or Labatt, or PBR, or Bud Lite, or etc. "Dude, you guys drink a lot, it's all gone." I personally got here before I got here and drank all the beer? fuck, I guess I'll have a $3.00 BOTTLE OF COORS LITE and hope that the Beer Wolfe doesn't form an alt.smart.post.sweater.rock.group, which can open up for my sassy rock troupe Deer Wolf and The Forlorn Sweaters. Hardeeees has a spot for 2 people with kid-sized instruments to play, as long as there is no drummer. Nice selection of nachos, beers, dranks, and cheep dranks. King Looooweeee's closes at 1pm, just like Colonial Citchen, sorry I missed yor sho bro. What's the Toomerang sound like? reply quote


	#21Submitted by Kapn on Mon, 03/05/2007 - 5:20pm. 17? K'zoo "venues" I've played (and a few I didn't, but saw shows there), '85-'06 - Club Soda Harvey's Kraftbrau Corner Bar Missia's K Club K College "Quadstock" WIDR Friday Freebies kiva next to WIDR studios WMU campus ampitheater, forgot fest name? (skate ramp set up) WMU Union Wood Hall Grandma's Kitchen Couch House Hippy Hole Dagobah Square The Space 666 building Louie's World Tree Peace Center Arcadia Festival site State Theater Bell's Up and Under Flipside Repeat the Beat B-Side Wayside Mountain Jack's Pepper's Red Cap rental hall (OK, technically not K'zoo, but close enough for me) Haven't played or visited Wonderful's or Rocket Star. reply quote


	#22Submitted by timh on Mon, 03/05/2007 - 5:50pm. There was also: Rick's There was also: Rick's American Butthole Cafe Sgt Pepperonis Comet Cafe Hole in the Wall aka K-zoo Skate Zoo reply quote


	#23Submitted by Kapn on Mon, 03/05/2007 - 5:56pm. right on! I forgtot about the Rick's that was here - played the one in EL and skipped out on a show at the one in A2. How "punk". Also forgot to include Papa Pete's, Dirty's, and Holiday Lanes on my list. reply quote


	#24Submitted by giantrobot on Mon, 03/05/2007 - 9:46pm. Red Cap - played there Now a church. First show I ever played was in 'Crowded Morgue'. We opened for Desecrator, Forgotten Realm, and J2K2 at the Red Cap. Nineteen fucking Eighty Eight.. We WERE death. J2K2 said we were 'heavy'. I crashed my car two miles from home that night. Other places: As Crowded Morgue and various other lineups Bellevue High School lunch period (Kerry Johnson charged us $50 to do sound!) A corn field in Athens A party in Athens The Potawatomi Indian Reservation in Athens T*m Hall's basement in Battle Creek As Blue Metal, the Blues and Metal Revue Coconuts (now Heartbeats) in Battle Creek w/ twitch and thought industry MSU Student Union (what were they thinking?) Innumerable house parties in East Lansing I think my favorite show ever was Desecrator playing a St Phillips Catholic High School dance at the Valentine Center in 1987. Can you imagine? Favorite Soda Show, Blonde Redhead on a Sunday night with like twelve other people. I was at Soda 4-5 nights a week 95-97 but remember very few of the shows. To be honest, if I would have had to pay I would have probably been there very rarely. Soda was what it was. It had a lot to do with yayo and Jeff not giving a shit who was playing as long as money was being made. You think Kalamazoo is bad now? Try Bronson. I live next door to a bar called Stingers. From my kitchen I can see directly into the bar. Thursday night while cooking I was treated to a big redneck guy doing karaoke of 'Turbo Lover' with no sense of irony whatsoever. Jesus I miss Seattle. PS Did anyone say the whistle stop? PPS I almost forgot. KBraus beer gives me a headache about three minutes after I drink it. reply quote


	#25Submitted by OldFatMarriedGuy on Tue, 03/06/2007 - 9:11am. Stingers... I think we Stingers... I think we played some huge-@$$ bar called stingers near wings back in the day. The dude from shorty's booked the show. I think it used to be a dance club but I can't remember what it was called. Did anyone mention the lamplighter/scallywags ? edit oh yeah how could I forget Chaps, Chaps, we all love Chaps One band plays The other band claps reply quote


	#26Submitted by paddle on Tue, 03/06/2007 - 9:14am. WMU campus ampitheater, WMU campus ampitheater, forgot fest name? (skate ramp set up) that was the slammin salmon fest..... there was the hole in the wall on west main as well....lots of shows in that basement amy dipples basement on austin.... reply quote


	#27Submitted by skulker on Sun, 09/09/2007 - 12:36pm. me? i.. uh... hope u think good thots of me. reply quote


	#28Submitted by Samantha Stephens on Sun, 09/09/2007 - 1:59pm. I hate to read posts like I hate to read posts like this when people here talk about the scene back when and the places they used to hang and all the bands they saw. The reason I hate it is it reminds me how much I missed and how I wasted the time from when I was 16 to 30. Well nothing I can do about that now, I'm just glad I am part of the current scene thats going on. Still wish I had been on the scene about 10 years ago. reply quote


	#29Submitted by Napoleon Solo on Sun, 09/09/2007 - 2:03pm. MickeyMac you are really MickeyMac you are really going to get even more upset that when I tell you that back in the stone ages I saw some of those garage and R&B folks you like so much back in their heyday. Then again you werent even born. reply quote


	#30Submitted by Animal (not verified) on Sun, 05/04/2008 - 9:53pm. All right, who are you? You were at the 88 red cap show AND the Athens outdoor show? Remember Thunderbelly, that REALLY DRUNK REDNECK at the athens show that Spaeth finally body-checked off the stage in the middle of 'Red Barchetta?' Bobdammit, I have got to come home and start something. This is killin me. Loaning urge overkill guitars from 4peace because they're got stolen. Star World. F'n star world man. Me and Darrin Thomas owned that place. The 4house by taco bell on westnedge with 4drunk and overpeople and finally TI for the last show (FLYER~! http://www.lowgenius.net/images/4pti...). Me and Spaeth and Rob Singleton banging out horrible Motley Crue covers in my parents' living room sometime around 1984, 85. Banging the heck outta Jenn Ladd (WHERE ARE YOU, JENN?!) for about a week at the fruit company. Gypsy Blue's space above Stoop's. Shurgard with 4drunk and Tongue right next to each other, and Adam turning me on to cartoon percussion. Me and John Peake and Dan Jager and Opie and this little gay black dude named Issac who came outta nowhere having the best enhanced paper trip ever in the back of that place with Peake sitting on his GINORMOUS ass in a chair outside, watching the lightning and telling me he was waiting for God, because he had some questions. Me and Bogema and Reimer doing the world's worst impromptu cover of "stranglehold" at a fruitcompany after-party. GOD BULLIES in the basement. Farrows. Dillons, f'n dillons, I think I still owe them money for a kick drum pedal. I gotta come home, if for no other reason than to slap the snot out of Chris "Freedom Rock" Altman. -animal reply quote

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