The prospect of The Necro Tonz getting back together gave me mixed feelings
When Colleen first broached the subject, it was that I would sit in on a few songs but I felt like I wanted more involement
I set about looking for ways to use my skills to do a variety of things
The first thing that came to mind was that I could provide backup vocals and harmonies
This was soon followed with the idea that I would use my Roland SPDS as a percussion pad (bongos, timbales, triangle etc…)
The ideas that I have been brewing for Tiki Torture would also come into play with video
This would give me a real world application for my ideas concerning backgrounds
In addition, I also recognized the chance to handle compromise more effectively
After all, these were all musicians with egos and quirks equal to my ...

William had decided to move back to Minneapolis so I crashed at my sister’s house in Mc Kinney
I was there a couple of months when Darren from Voytek told me of this D.I.Y warehouse just south of downtown at Cockrell Ave and Lamar St
They had a room available and it was cheap

The last time I was in that area (before it became “Southside”) was when the Sex Pistols played at Dallas Music Complex but what I didn’t remember at the time was that I had been there when it was a place called “Dune Buggy Headquarters”
On that night, I watched the Austin band “Crust” perform for the first time
They had diapers on and had filled them with worm dirt from a bait shop
As they performed, the worms would fall out of the diapers
They finished by dropping their diapers and lighting their pubic hair on fire

The Necro Tonz have been asked to do a reunion show which will also serve as a KNON benefit
The venue will be LaGrange in Deep Ellum and the night will be Halloween!
We all met together at Colleen’s to discuss the plan
Firstly, the lineup will be exactly the same as when they stopped with one addition, and that’s me
Right off the bat, I decided that it wouldn’t be very fun to just sit in on a couple of songs on the drums
Robin Graves is without a doubt the most qualified of all the Tonz drummers in that he has such a rich jazz background so I had to justify my place on the stage
Nekkie had already asked me if I would compose video for the stage so I had the idea to utilize my musical multi-media skills during the entire evening
The Roland SPDS sampler pad will make a perfect array of bongo...

originally posted 2009-05-10
One summer, when I was around 12 years old, my Father asked me if I wanted to attend workshops at the local science museum
I thought it would be cool and so I went to several
It consisted of watching a movie and then doing a workshop afterwards
The only two I can rember were the films “The Andromeda Strain” and “The Hellstrom Chronicles”
The first one was about a virus from space (and had boobies in it, the film, not the virus) and the second one ended in us little kids being given dissection kits (huh?)
It was The Hellstrom Chronicle which had the most impact on me
Those images played over and over in my head throughout my life
I developed an obsession with insect footage
It wasn’t until the film “Wax-Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees” that I reall...

Originally posted on 2/7/2010
When I was a kid I….
-believed in god (and in santa claus too)
-worshipped KISS (I was gene or ace every haloween)
-was afraid of getting leprosy (after seeing a movie with lepers in it)
-wanted to be either a comedian or a rock star (and became neither or both)
-quit stealing when I got caught at the winn dixie (I gave them a fake address but, like a dumb ass, I gave them my real name)
-liked girls before any of my friends (never needed a cootie shot)
-was the hardest kid to tackle in “smeer the queer” (quit football when it became too serious)
-saw star wars when it came out (had star wars toys that would be worth a lot right now)
-looked forward to each saturday morning (sid and marty kroft muthafuckas!)
-got beat up very seldom (george tonroy and robbie go...

I had flirted with the idea of having a show on KNON for quite a long time
My first exposure to the station was when my friends Cabe Booth, Scott Miller and Danny Hollenbeck had a show
This was way back in the late 80’s and the station was very different back then
It was in a very rough part of East Dallas in a decaying old building that seemed on the verge of collapsing in on itself at any moment
There are too many examples to count when it comes to my musical education whilst listening to KNON
I always wanted a show but could never commit to the regular schedule

But then Dave Chaos called up two days ago and pretty much threw me into the deep end

He wanted to take the night off for the 4th of July and he thought I was ready to do the whole show by myself
Literally by myself because no on...

I have been having lots of trouble mounting any electronic pads on my chrome drum rack tubes
The tubes are very strong but, as a result, conduct a lot of vibration
So much that it transfers to other pads mounted on the tube
Simply put- If you hit one pad, it makes the other ones trigger

I have avoided using electronic pad rack tubes because they seemed to weak to support all the other things I wanted to mount on them but then I noticed that speaker stand tubes were the same circumference as the rack tubes but as light/thin as the electronic tubes
Based on that judgement, I assumed they wouldn’t be able to handle the weight of mounting drums on them

I have been re-building the electronic kit and was going to mount a PA speaker on the speaker stand
As I was lifting this bulky and heavy speaker on...

Originally posted Dec 13th 2007 at 11 am
One of the stronger emotions I encounter on a regular basis is the need to disconnect from the rest of the world
Things happen to frustrate or damage me and I just want to shut everyone out
I’m sure that everyone feels like this but my problem is that it happens quite frequently
My recent bout of drama has been particularly painful and it that withdrawl urge has been kicking in again
This lead me to listen to one of the most important albums in my collection
Gary Numan always seemed to tap into that emotion (or lack therof)
In an age where electronic artists were humans trying to sound like machines, Numan’s music seemed to assert the exact opposite
It wasn’t the precision robot-like music that Devo was performing (which FUCKING RULES!)
It was as i...

V Mercy from Apocalypse Theater posted that he needed someone to drive a second vehicle for their tour and I had nothing else to do so I volunteered
V asked me if I would do video and I thought that would be a great idea
So, I packed up the video rig and headed to Kansas City Mo
The first show was at Davys Uptown Ramblers club and featured Apocalypse Theatre, Mercury mad and a burlesque performance by The Bustle Review
I had my screen off to the side and that was cool because I was just figuring out what I was going to do for the show
Here’s a playlist of the burlesque performances

and individual APOX and Merc shows

Next was Topeka Ks and a club called the Boobie Trap
Some of the burlesque performers came along for this show too
This was a smaller gig and had less going on, so I could ...

In every new busking situaion, there is one factor you always have to consider
“Will the cops/business owners around this spot have a problem with this?”
I had eliminated this issue by scouting the location and actually asking the police if they allow busking
So, the rest of my anxieties (which turn into excuses not to make an effort) were about semantics
In this one case, the spot was Pegasus Plaza at Main & Akard in Downtown Dallas
My immediate thoughts were that it will be hard to park near that spot and it will be expensive
So, I secured all of the gear to a 2 wheel dolly and used my cymbal bag with backpack straps, drove to the Inwood DART rial station
There was no problem getting on the train and I made it to Akard station in no time
The station was only a street over so the trek was...