Caterwaul

 It's been quite a while since I've written on this platform.  So I have a bit of catching up to do.  The European tour was a great experience.  We played 14 shows in 16 days with Cani Sciorri joining us for all of it.  They were great tour partners.  They provided the backline, took care of a lot of the tour logistics along with Manuel Veniani who booked the thing. We had a great crew of Marco and Nano helping us out with driving and heavy lifting.  I went in with pretty positive expectations but I know some of the rest of the band had a more cautious outlook but I am very happy to report it was a lot of fun, the shows were solid shows, we got treated well by everyone that hosted us from the promoters to the clubs and most of all the fans that showed up.  Our friend Will Mainwaring joined us for a good portion of the tour and Tricia's family also caught up with us on a few of the dates.  Some people really went out of their way and I wish I could thank everyone on here but it's been a while and I'd hate to leave anyone out that deservedly earned a huge amount of gratitude. the Barcelona Crew especially the folks at Beauty Fool Records, Antena Krzyku, Jon at Gure-Hitzak, Michele Tripani, of course all of the clubs and their staff.

Personally, highlights were playing at Mando Bizzaro (RIP) and  not only having one of the greatest shows of my life but having a gentleman come up to me after we got off stage and, as I was outside trying to get some air in my lungs and cool off in my sweat drenched clothes, with tears in his eyes put a hand on my shoulder, and said in the most beautiful French accent, "I wait twenty-five years to see your band." I'll never forget that for as long as I breathe.  Other great moments were playing at a converted barn,  now community center, in the middle of France.  The very first gig at the Freak Out Club and meeting long time fans such as Valentina and hanging out with them long passed the end of the gig.  We all fell in love with Poland.  Poznan is a great city and Club U Bazyla is a great club!  The drive to Tolosa to play at Bonberenea was one of the most scenic and beautiful journeys you can take.  We all started to talk about returning there when we get old(er) and just spending time in that countryside.  I think what I'll have to do is revisit a few notes I took and write individual posts so I can share them on here. It's just quite a task to take on right this second.

One of the coolest things that happened was that on the last club date at in Hamburg at Hafenklang, Muck Giovanett asked us if he could record our set off the board.  Soon after he sent me the files.  I didn't do anything with them for quite a while but eventually I mixed the room mics with the board sound and shared it on Facebook.  After some time Gianlucca from Improved Sequence contacted us asking if we'd be interested in releasing it as a double lp.  Of course we agreed and eventually it all came together as beautiful gatefold package.  You guys need to understand how much "Live in Hamburg" means to me.  Having my name in the credits as a band member in one of my favorite bands with some of my favorite people is such an amazing feeling.  Gianlucca absolutely did an incredible job and it was a lot of fun working on this project with him.  I took on getting the images together and getting a rough layout for them to then make a reality and we are forever grateful for this album.  As a side note since that time my label Total Annihilation Records also co-released 400 Blows first album 3-19-98 on vinyl as well in conjunction with Improved Sequence and we're hoping to continue to collaborate with them on more releases.  (I'll include links at the end of this thing.)

Another great experience was having the Cani Sciorri guys coming to record with me in May of 2019.  They spent about a week in Los Angeles.  We took about 5 days working on the record that turned out to become Ten Tacos and One Burrito..a title they came up with when I would take them to the taco spot down the street from my home in East Los Angeles and Alessandro ended up ordering that much food...just for himself!!!!  I had a really fun time with those guys maybe I'll post more about that later but I have to say the raddest thing was just hanging out with them and eventually playing a gig at Club Nela (RIP) with my band Leopold and our friends Bratty & Jack Ass.  

Like I stated above, there is so much more I can share but I'll move it along. So after the European expedition we didn't do much.  Eventually we got asked to play the No Coast Festival in Arlington TX. and we also played at The Lost Well in Austin.  Those shows were really fun, all the bands were great and we were treated really well.  I suspect the folks at the Lost Well paid us quite a bit more than just what was collected at the door.  Again, it's amazing how cool people have treated us everywhere we've gone. Sadly, due to the pandemic, a west coast tour we were starting to book had to be canceled.  I'm hoping we'll get back on track with that soon.

So that brings us to the present...As of now we're playing some shows in a few months Caterwaul already being announced on May 28th with The Cherubs, The Vaz, Totimoshi and a bunch of other amazing people. We've already begun rehearsing.  Let me tell you, after not playing together for almost exactly 3 years it was a rough set of rehearsals last weekend. Songs that are usually not problem for me I had to review and concentrate on quite a bit.  By day 3 we started sounding better so I have not doubt we'll be ready but man...3 years takes it toll on you.  I'll try to post on here as we work towards getting ready. Honestly, I can't imagine it being anything other than.."We practiced this song and that song, and are now sounding better" but I'm sure I can find other things to share that relate to Distorted Pony.

Here are the links I mentioned:

Live in Hamburg (USA)

Live in Hamburg (Europe)

I feel it when it crawls...

We rehearsed for the first time together in 8 years.  As you'd expect it was a bit rusty. One thing is playing along to the recordings in the living room,  it's another to do it live.  Some folks knew some songs better than others but we were able to get a lot done, whatever one person struggled with a bit we would review or figure what needed to be done to patch the leak.  I'm confident we'll have a strong set together, there are some things we're going to try and maybe add to the core set as we go along.  We have another run of rehearsals planned and we're dedicating a lot of time to it just before we leave, which is actually only 15 days from now.

In other news many people have really stepped up their game with promoting the tour.  Manuel got the tour poster printed up which looks really cool.  The Barcelona Crew at Beauty Fool Records also printed up a poster, produced a promo video, and a radio spot. Thank God for friends.  I hope these folks can keep networking and helping each other out. It'd be great if it makes it easier to get bands to Europe if Manuel and others know they have people they can turn to and trust to put together a good show.

Now for the frustrations.  Merch.  The plant is running really late on printing up the 7"  we were supposed to have it by now and I was hoping to have it in Europe already but now it looks like we'll get it next week...so I'm hoping United Record Pressing will help us out and ship them out there.  With customs and all the other bullshit to deal with it's coming down to the wire.  We should have a tour shirt done also.  There are some other stuff in the works but I'm not even going to mention them until we have them in hand because I'd hate to get people interested in stuff and not deliver.

One more thing, I know you're all clawing at the walls waiting to hear what the pedal board will be...gear geeks take note. I intentionally chose a small board so I would limit what I use but as of now the chosen few are: Boss TU-2 Tuner, Boss, NS-2 Noise Suppressor, Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz (I guess I gravitated to the "2" series of pedals from boss), RAT distortion and taking care of reverb and delay in one stupendous, glorious box is an EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run.  I think that has all the bases I need covered.  That EarthQuaker pedal is pretty impressive, they have a more stripped down version called the Dispatch Master but I went with the Avalanche Run because it's more versatile and it'll come in handy at the studio.  I also got an Afterneath and a Palisades but those won't be going to Europe with me.  Other upgrades, I slapped a Curtis Novak PAF Jazzmaster pickup in my Classic Player, before we head out I might even swap out the tuners as well and call it my signature model.  I kept the 1 meg pot in there and it retains the sound of the original pickup quite well, still bright but a little smoother than the P-90 style.  It was just a bit then for my rhythm parts and considering that David plays the brighter, more melodic stuff in the band I wanted to make sure that midrange didn't drop out and also interfere with his parts.  I remember when I joined DP David and I spoke about how they always saw it as Tricia being the double bass, Robert the cello, and David the violin components of the band, so I'm trying to maintain that original philosophy.

I think we all wish we had another month to prepare but it's really amazing that this came together.  It feels like just a few days ago that it was even mentioned as a possibility, now we're down to just about two weeks before we leave.  I'm looking forward to the shows, meeting some cool people, hanging out with everyone in the band, we get along pretty well, laugh a lot, mostly at ourselves and the fact that we're in our 40's and 50's and heading off on a tour that most people do in their 20's.  Like Ted said, "I don't mind sleeping on floors, I just hope they aren't punk rock floors." Say a prayer and sacrifice a chicken for us...

One Month...

Sorry it's been some time since I've posted.  The rerelease of the first  Distorted Pony single that we're putting out has kept me quite busy.  The reference lacquer I received from Dave at Lucky Lacquers sounds great.  He did a really good job.  Thankfully I was able to ask friends to help with almost every aspect of releasing it.  My friend Frank from the band GORT has a print shop locally, GBY, that printed the covers.  Usen Gandara (Sleestak, White Eyes) who I've known for 25+ years handled the artwork and graphics, everything from laying out the new photo on the cover, the center labels, etc.. He also got the Instant Winner rerelease art ready for production.  I even sourced the nice poly sleeves with the sealing strip from my buddy Phil (Distortion Felix/Chavez Ravine) at Far West Record Suppy.  Sticker Guy came through with the pony logo sticker we're including too.  I first used him when Leopold went on tour in 1997.  It's a release between Total Annihilation Records which is myself and my best friend Anthony Francoso (Sleestak, Geronimo, White Eyes) and Beauty Fool Records (the 7" isn't on sale yet so don't bug them to death about it) in Spain which are also friends of mine Daniel  (WANN, Glitterhouse) and Edú (Glitterhouse).  I'm very grateful to all of them.   So we're pressing up 300 of them.  We'll have atleast 150-200 of them on tour with us but Beauty Fool is also going to have some up on their bandcamp. If you can't make it to the shows or want to guarantee you get one order it from Beauty Fool when the site goes up.  I'll put the link to their site on here.

The Instant Winner rerelease looks great and from what we've been told it sounds really good.  I don't think we'll get out copies until we're in Europe.  That's also a limited run of 500 with various colors and a limited poster.  Again, if you can't make it to the show order them because we probably won't have any available once we're done with the tour.

Tricia and I got together last week to go over music.  I have the multitrack tapes transferred onto Protools so we can listen to individual tracks to figure out our own parts when we need to analyze what we should be playing,  as well as play along with the rest of the band and mute our recorded tracks. We're trying to have enough material for an hour set which I don't think I've ever played except in the Ebola Orchestra, most of the time it's been 20-40 minutes for me. It'll be interesting to see how we come up with sets to vary things.  We have full band rehearsal coming up and I'm pretty confident but there are some songs where I have no idea how Robert created the noises that were coming out of his guitar and amp.  I remember from seeing DP live that it was more of a variation of things that he played and getting within the ballpark was what would happen most of the time.  I've learned a few things over the years so I'm excited to have my own spin on his parts.  To quote Tricia "Don't worry, at times Robert was so loud and feedingback we'd be like, what the hell is he playing, we couldn't' even hear ourselves!"  I'm all for the noise!  The more fucked up the better.

The guys in Cani Sciorri have been really helpful with getting gear together. London got lucky.  He'll basically only have to take his drumsticks and clothes.  The Cani guys scored a double bass pedal for him and their kit is pretty much what he uses...Ted even has a metal drum to bang on.  I'm a bit stressed on taking my Travis Bean.  Just a couple weeks ago I was working with Brujeria at the studio and the airline lost Anton's ESP/LTD custom (please see link below) It was supposed to be on his flight, then on the next flight, then arrive a few days later...it's been a couple weeks and still nothing.  So taking a rare, vintage guitar to Europe sounds risky but I've been playing that guitar at every show for the last 21+ years.  I got my Travis Bean Artist for $700 back in 1997.  After hearing the Jesus Lizard, Shellac, Sonic Youth, Six Finger Satellite all playing those I decided it was a pretty versatile, amazing sounding instrument.  I placed an ad on an America Online message board and some guy replied who was the roommate of someone in the Archers of Loaf.  His friend (I guess the guy in the Archers) was selling his TB because he wanted a Gibson SG.  So a few weeks later I had my TB1000 Artist in my hands.  I had that and a Karl Sandoval  custom tele for a while (he's the guy that built Randy Rhodes' polka dot flying V).  He's a local and I did the math and it was cheaper to have him build me a custom guitar than it was to buy a new Fender American Tele...go figure.  Anyway, soon after our drummer in Leopold bought a TB1000 standard that was pretty beat up for $450.  He eventually sold it to me for the same price, so now I have two Travis Beans. I'll be taking one on tour along with a Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster that I've modded a little since I need to use a bit of tremolo for dives and noise on some songs.  I spoke with Mario Lalli from Fatso Jetson, he goes to Europe a few times a year with FJ and Yawning Man and he said he uses a MONO double gig bag that he insists on taking as a carryon to make sure his guitar and bass don't disappear.  He's lending me his bag and he straight up said, "You have to be an asshole and make sure you get it on the plane with you."  Thanks, Mario.  Noted.

Still working on the pedal situation.  I've been trying out a bunch of stuff but nothing seems to sound as good as my amp.  The Cani guys have a Brunetti and claim it's bad ass so I'm praying that amp does the job on its own.  I looked up a few youtube clips but these guys on there play all these 80's hair metal riffs and never push the amp as hard as I'm used to. You see these guys copping Guns N Roses riffs and pretty much any Marshall based amp is going to sound good but when it comes to noisier music, there's just not a lot of examples out there.  They also play guitars that sound nothing like what I'm interested in, Charvels and BC Richs.  Whatever works I guess....
Well, that's it for now.  I'll let you guys know how rehearsals go.  I think we'll be pretty strong with the songs we did the last time around but the songs we're adding to the set we'll have to work on quite a bit. Wish us luck.

One last note.  I realize I'm name dropping a bit but really it's simply to add details and give you a more vivid picture of what this experience is like.  I think it'd be pretty boring to be doing something like this blog and not include specific people and also, these people are helping me out and I very much want to publicly acknowledge them because I really appreciate their friendship and all they are doing for me and Distorted Pony. Thanks.

Antena Krzyku - Instant Winner (scroll down there's a few order options)
Beauty Fool Records
Lucky Lacquers Mastering
Far West Record Supply
Sticker Guy
Anton's missing ESP/LTD

Tour Dates Announced

The tour dates have finally been announced on the Antena Krzyku FB page (see below). They are the label rereleasing Instant Winner. We have twelve shows so far with a few left to confirm, so it looks like a pretty full schedule. Manuel has done a great job of putting this together. I've been practicing the set quite a bit, I know the Punishment Room stuff a bit better than the IW songs, probably because the tracks on there are a lot longer and the counts aren't exactly as predictable, some sections last a certain amount of bars in one verse but in another verse they may be a different number of them. I hate having to count so I'm really trying to get things to become natural where you can feel and tell that it's time for a change in what I'm playing. As much as I felt pretty confident with the Real Tube pedal a few weeks ago, now that I've used it more I'm not so sure it's going to make the cut. I tried different tubes in it and it was an improvement but it has a compression to it that I've noticed now that I've played it a bit that I don't care for.  It limits the low end from blooming in a way that I'm used to.  My friend Jon from the band Torche has a new amp and pedal company called Nuñez Amplification and he makes a great amp, it's the only amp that I've thought if I didn't have my Soldano, maybe I would get one of his. He also makes a bass distortion/preamp pedal and at the moment he's about to prototype the guitar version. So I am pestering him a bit about letting me do a little R&D. I have a feeling it's going to do the job. Tricia tried out the Bass Annex pedal he makes and she ordered hers a few weeks ago. I'll include links down below. If you play loud noisy music it's worth checking out his gear.
On the rerelease we're (total annihilation records) doing of the first 7" everything is good to go but I found a 1/2" two track reel amongst the 20 or so that Robert entrusted me with that is the stereo mix of the 3 songs, so I think what happened is that originally it was mixed onto to 1/2" but when they sent it to get mastered and pressed, for whatever reason, it was duplicated on to 1/4". So the 1/2" should have a bit more low end on it. I don't have a 1/2"  2-track machine, so that's getting transferred over for mastering. Also on that session was a song called "Whole of the Law" and "Scratch Out the Sky" from the Psychotechncis HURT comp. That's a great comp if you can find it. It has Slug, Babyland, a great band called Gecko that I really like but besides this comp track all I have from them is a 7", I don't know if they released anything besides that. Ethyl Meatplow (RIP John Napier) is on there, Death Ride 69 (David U was in that band for a minute), I only saw them once at Club With No Name years ago. Anyway, we might have some of those on tour with us since a friend got a hold of some copies. When I mentioned it to Ted, he said he didn't even have a copy so I'm sure it's rare in Europe. The original pressing of the 7" is a bit murky to be honest compared to the master so this pressing should sound really good. Dave at Lucky Lacquers is handling the mastering and lacquer cutting and United is pressing it up. A friend of mine has a print shop to ink up the covers so luckily everything fell into place.
Someone on Facebook asked if we'd have merch for sale after the tour and I'm sure whatever we have left over we'll make available somehow, maybe set up a bandcamp page or something like that where we can have a store on there too. We're still throwing around some ideas for other items. I'll post an update at some point once we've finalized things.

 Tour
16.06 Freakout Club, Bologna
17.06 Birrovia, Cuneo
18.06 tbc
19.06 Sala Begood, Barcelona
20.06 Bomberena., Tolosa
22.06 Mondo Bizarro, Rennes
23.06 Dibar, Plougonver
24.06 Magasin 4, Bruxelles
25.06 Mc Daid’s Le Havre
26.06 DS 17, Dordrecht
28.06 Poznan tbc
29.06 Urban Spree, Berlin
30.06 Grander Saloon, Hamburg
01.07 Fusion Festival

The kids home for Easter
Tour Dates Announced
Nunez Amps

12 weeks and counting...

We've been busy getting things together. We booked our flights a couple of weeks ago, that was a task in and of itself, Tricia had been keeping an eye on flights for quite some time, a decent deal came up so we jumped on it. We're hoping they won't stick it to us when it comes to taking our instruments over there. Travel light is the best plan I guess. It's a bit worrisome when I think about taking my Travis Bean on the plane, I hope I can carry it on. I thought about not even taking it but I love playing that guitar. They've gone up quite a bit in value since the $700 I paid for it in 1997. I've played that guitar for every live show since then. We're planning on having quite a bit of merch to sell at shows. As of now we'll have a repress of Instant Winner that antena krzyku is releasing, the Concrete Bruises 7" is also going to have a limited pressing of 300 with an alternate cover. We'll have a few copies of Punishment Room and also possibly a compilation of tracks from each release as well as comp tracks. They'll be at least one poster, possibly two, and some buttons. I hit up Manual and the band if it was cool to bring along some Leopold CDs so those will be eventually floating around Europe too. I just found out that our friend Will, is going to be joining us. We've met over Facebook a while back when he asked Michael Gerald from Killdozer to be on one of his projects and he ended up recording his tracks at my studio. Since then he's also had Tricia on a track and he's put up David and his wife when they visited the UK. We're trying to figure out rehearsals before the tour. David will have to get over here (L.A.) from Austin for a few weekends. I am an owner in a rehearsal studio business so we'll luckily have access to that and we also hope to rehearse once we arrive in Italy. Usually I'm used to being overly prepared for shows but this one is going to be by the seat of our pants. I think we're pretty confident though since we've all played together before and know we can do it. I've been trying to get pedal setup to take on tour. Since we're not taking our amps, it's kind of rough to rely on pedals. I went to try out a few pedals this weekend with my buddy Dani from Barcelona from Beauty Fool Records. They're fronting the Barcelona show. Luckily he's a guitar player so it wasn't much of an ordeal for us to go check out some stuff. I settled on a Real Tube pedal and luckily found one for really cheap on Craigslist. It sounds ok but I won't know until we land and I plug into whatever backline we have available. I may also take some other distortion pedals like a RAT and maybe even a DS1 or Eq pedal to tailor the sound a bit more. Last time we played I also had a boss noise reduction, Hyper Fuzz, and I'll probably have some kind of delay in there for a few songs where the feedback has a bit of ambience to it. To be honest I'm not a big pedal guy. Once I got my Soldano the search was over for my tone. That was it. I also need to take my Jazzmaster for a couple tracks that need tremolo and that behind the bridge noise. It's a fun guitar to play. I tend to like the Jazzmaster for the Punishment Room tracks and the Travis Bean for the Instant Winner stuff. If anyone in Europe has a Soldano Decatone I can borrow please let me know. ;-)

8 Years Later...

It's been a while since I've even looked at this blog. The reunion shows went well that we did in terms of our playing but the attendance wasn't all that great. The show at Echo Curio (RIP) was by far the best one we did, more of our friends and fans were there that saw the band in its original form in the 80's and 90's. I had a great time playing those songs and as a fan I think I did Robert's parts justice, I hope so anyway. We got together to record a new song a few years ago but not much came of it. It's up on Distorted Pony's FB page so feel free to take a listen. Fast forward to the later part of 2017... First thing I heard of the potential for a European tour was when Ted mentioned it on FB. A guy that's been reprinting shirt designs from noise rock bands contacted us some time ago asking about the Punishment Room t-shirt. Ted said to go ahead and do it and that lead to discussing us going to Europe. (Links at end of entry) I had tried to get us over there when we got together but the guarantees were not going to cover the costs, not even close. As much as we appreciated all the offers, 100 Euros for a gig was not going to cut it. We did get a few good offers but when it's five person operation, flights, backline, van, accommodations is a costly proposal. I met up with Ted for lunch and he told me the few details that he had. Manuel was going to try to book us a two week tour. He'd taken the Cherubs and some other bands out there and had some success so he was willing to see if he could get some interest and go from there. We posted about it online to try and spread the word and see how people would respond. It's been quite amazing how excited people are out there to see us play. The band never got to go out there the first time around since they broke up in '93. So as of today, we're are good to go. We bought our flights and have about a dozen shows booked, maybe more by the time all is set. There's also an effort being made to re-release Instant Winner, put out a compilation of rare, unreleased, and "best of" tracks. And my old label Total Annihilation along with my friends in Spain Beauty Fool Records is planning on re-releasing the first single that Piece of Mind put out. This all came about quite quickly so we are all scrabbling for time. I'll post more about those things as things progress. I've been going back each night and relearning/practicing the songs, we are expanding the setlist a bit to include more stuff since we last played. We'll see when we can all get together to rehearse. I have to tell you guys, this whole thing, when I think about it is incredibly cool for me to be a part of. Distorted Pony was a band that really excited me and inspired me to play music again when I was a kid. I was in a hardcore band during high school but that got boring after a while and I didn't want to repeat that. So all the bands of the 90's like DP, Slug, Sandy Duncan's Eye, Oiler, Babyland, The Jesus Lizard, The Unsane, Melvins, Cherubs, Shellac, Fudge Tunnel, on and on the list goes...they really excited me and I was lucky enough to form Leopold and be a small part of that lineage of music...but I never thought I'd be actually playing in Distorted Pony and especially now, it's quite mindblowing that I'm going to be on tour in Europe playing guitar in one of my favorite bands. I love the music and the people very much. Even when we haven't been playing music together I still meet up with Ted or Tricia once in a while. As expected, every one is just a lot busier now, some are raising kids as well as have careers so it's quite a task to find time to go to Europe for two weeks to play music. A while ago I was talking to a friend about how much I missed playing loud noisy music and maybe I should get Leopold going again or start a new band...well here comes Distorted Pony again and I can't wait to make noise. (US shirt link) https://thedarkslide.com/products/distorted-pony-punishment-room-t-shirt-by-surgeon-knife (EU shirt link) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1795276230503323&set=a.166758370021792.33883.100000628891227&type=3

Reunion Shows!

This past weekend we played our first set of reunion shows. They all went really, really well. The bands were great, venues were cool, audiences were into it. Our first night was at the bootleg theater as benefit for Blood Red Lost Head Dead Flacon, a performance that my friends Lyn and Michael are working on. We played with El Haru Kuroi and Totimoshi. HK seduced the audience and then we pretty much violated them. Totimoshi played a great set. They keep on evolving and you can hear the Spanish/flamenco guitar influences in Tony's playing have really pushed the band to become much more melodic than even a few years ago.
I think our set went well especially being the first show. I had some antics on stage, cut my hand, almost tripped due to mics cables in my way and at one point even my guitar strap slipped off and I almost dropped the Jazzmaster. I thought everyone else played well but of course afterward people vented whatever mistakes they made, there were no catastrophes even though there very well could have been.
The next night at the BLVD. we played with Toward Distant Suns and Aztlan Underground. I'm friends with both bands so it was cool to have them on the bill. Toward Distant Suns really impressed. It was my first time seeing them and although I'd heard Frank and Bradley play together in Gort it was cool to hear them in a new band. They have some similarities to Gort but the addition of a bass player adds a groove that Gort doesn't have.
Aztlan had a rough start, Zo's guitar rig died and they had to borrow mine, it took a while for them to get rolling but once they did they played a pretty strategic set. They usually play a bit longer but due to it being a Sunday night and the tech problems it was cool to see they could still pull off their set even with some time constraints. It made me think of a Coltrane interview I read where he said that normally they played My Favorite Things for over 20 minutes but when they were at a festival and only had under 10 minutes left in the set the quartet still puled it off and Trane was wondering "so what have I been trying to do with all this extra time we take to play?"

Our set was strong and loud. It was better than the night before and the audience was into it, mostly the members from the other bands were really into it and of course that fueled us. Here are some pics from the show.
The BLVD.


We hung out and talked with the bands for quite a while after the show was over, in fact we probably hung out for longer than we played! Everyone was really cool and we hope to play more shows with them. Not bad for a Sunday night.

On Monday our show was at Echo Curio. We played with Devin Sarno, who at one point was an early member of Distorted Pony. He does an effected bass drone ambient noise that travels from one mood to another. I really liked his set, I knew of him from back when he was running WIN records, I think he put out my friend Lynn Johnston's album as well. Devin's set was only about 15 minutes but people were into it and I think it as a great way to get things going.
The Mormons were up next and if you don't know who they are, well, get a life. They play a sort of Devo-ish punk rock. Patrick the singer is a great frontman, he really performs and gets the audience to maintain focus, you just don't know what he is going to do next.
Our set was a monster! By far it was the best set of all the shows we played and the audience was really pushing us, it was our show and there was an anticipation in the place that let us know we had to deliver. At one point I was lost in the energy. I didn't have to think about what I was playing it was all very organic and we were very much one entity. Some songs for me were crushing, Go kart, Death in the Turnstile, Slow Leak, and God's List were rushes. The venue is tiny, so it was hot, sweaty and in your face. We were loud as hell and powerful! By the time we were done I was exhausted. The crowd was great and people had nothing but praise for us, well except for the few songs that we didn't play that they wanted to hear! Towards the end of the show I went into the audience. I wanted to see it for myself, 17 years after Distorted Pony broke up there they were again and it seemed surreal that this time I was playing in the band. I think I did my part in making as it intense and furious as I remember as a fan. I had a great time and I had people coming up to me and being very supportive. We put a lot of hard work into making it happen and we plan on doing a lot more. I'll add a quote that London recieved:
Al's Bar soundman Greg--
"children turn away---MOTHERDISTORTEDFUCKINGPONY ! pardon my french"

"their third (and last for right now) reunion show last night was the best thing I've seen in years...YEARS! so happy, so unbelievably tired...better than sex. better than drugs. better than sex on drugs."

What else can I say?

Luckily someone shot video of the show:

First Show is set!

May 10, 2010
We’re getting ready for our first show. It’ll be on May 22nd at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles. Totimoshi is also on the bill and we might have a 3rd band. The event itself is a fundraiser for my friends Lyn and Michael. They are artist that put together a theater production that has to do with an ancient Germanic play. Like anything else it takes quite a bit of funds to make it happen so they’ve asked for a bit of help. I first met Lyn in 2003 when Leopold was looking for artwork for our album. I spent weeks looking at various artists online. I happened to go to Totimoshi’s website at some point just to see what they were up to and they had a link to Lyn’s work. I was really impressed by her work and I emailed her asking if she’d be interested in having her work on our album. Everything worked out great. She and Michael came to our record release show and met us for the first time. Since then we’ve become good friends. They moved to L.A. from the Bay Area and seem really happy here. They work hard but we manage to find time to hang out. I feel like this is a way to repay Lyn for being so generous with her work. She really cut us a deal and let us use the images on not only our record but also the now defunct website. I would have loved to have pressed our record on vinyl and make it a gatefold to really do the artwork justice…maybe someday.

David will be in town for a stretch so we hope to have a 2nd show as well as come up with some plans for future goals. We’ve talked about recording some new stuff, touring a bit but we really do need to work on a game plan so we can be efficient with our time. I don’t think I’ve ever been this busy. Killsonic (I play tenor sax in that band) has been pretty active lately we played on KPFK last weekend and it sounded great. Distorted Pony will probably get on there soon. I’ve been busy at Total Annihilation working with a few bands, archiving the DP tapes and mixing the DP rehearsal we did, it sounds pretty blown up but you can hear that we aren’t holding back at all. By the third night of rehearsals we were pretty confidant with our playing. We sounded a bit rough on the 2nd night when we realized we had to fix some parts that David pointed out. I was (and still am) also getting used to singing Angel and Forensic and solely focusing on my parts and not playing the hybrids I was playing before.
By the third night of rehearsal we were pretty on it. We have some video footage and a few friends came by to check us out and let us know if we should just slit our throats now or keep it going .
London is going to try to put up a video of us rehearsing at the studio so look for that to come out soon. We’re hoping that it’ll get a bit of attention and convince folks out there that we aren’t old, fat and slow. One out of 3 is ok but more than that and you’re out of the band.

I have to say that I really hope people make it out to our show. We’ve been working hard, it’s a good cause and it should be a great night. Totimoshi kicks major ass so the bill is strong and we hope to hold our own and maybe get a few people that haven’t heard of us to pay attention.

First Full Rehearsal!

April 29, 2010
For the first time in about 15 years Distorted Pony got together as a full band. David arrived on Friday and we set up at Total Annihilation for four nights of rehearsals. Some songs we really kicked ass on. I have to say most of the stuff we did off of Punishment Room was played with such intensity I was worn out by the third song. David’s presence was a real shot in the arm. We’d been rehearsing this stuff before but at a much more tame level, mainly because we’d been really focusing on arrangements, playing the right parts and notes, attention to dynamics and tempo etc…all the stuff that makes a rehearsal not a live performance. I think once David stepped in we knew it was time to play as free and energetic as possible, we’d get to any changes and tweaks later.
We tore thru most stuff, only having to run thru things once and then at the end of the set we discussed what songs we had to work on some more.
So here’s the list:
HOD
Death in the Turnstile
God’s List
Krank
Gutbug
Forensic Interest
Dept. of Existence
Smitten
Slow Leak
Go Kart
A Fine View from the Temple
Angel on a Haug

Most of them we were pretty well prepared for but there were some parts that had to be ironed out. Slow Leak for example we really had to work on the intro arrangement. A Fine View, I had to get down a simple rhythm guitar part that was just a matter of moving a few note around. My biggest obstacle was singing Forensic and Angel. Angel especially is weird to sing because there is only one guitar part and some of David’s lines flow from chorus to verse so even though we are in the verse section what he is playing during the choruses doesn’t get resolved until we are already in the verse, so instinctively I was waiting for the end of those lines before coming in etc…anyway by the end of the last rehearsal most of that stuff was hammered out and I started to feel much more comfortable singing on those songs.
The first night of rehearsal went well, the 2nd night we were adapting to corrections that we’d made and I think by the end of the last night we were feeling really confidant about the set. We know there are other songs that people would like to hear and I expect that as the we continue rehearsing and playing together we’ll dust them off and start working them out, it’d be great to have all of the released material available for us to glean from.

Catching up...

February 28, 2010
Yesterday was the big Surrogate Spike Tape archive acquisition. I met up with Robert and he gave me over 16 Distorted Pony tapes as well as some recording of Down By Law, Mecca Normal, Saraspoden, Pop Defect and a few others. There’s even a Mecca Normal/Distorted Pony collaboration in there that I’d really like to hear. Along with the tapes Robert gave me his ½” 8 track and ½” 16 track. So we now have all the Punishment Room and Instant Winner tapes so we can hopefully glean some parts that are a little tricky from just listening to the albums. The distortion is so thick and dark on Instant Winner that at times it’s tough to hear the details.

March 17, 2010
It’s been a while since I’ve written in here. London is out of town for a couple weeks so we haven’t rehearsed but I did meet up with him at the studio just before he left. We listened to a bit of Instant Winner then pulled out some other tapes that we could hear on the1/2”16 track machine. There are some interesting things on those reels. There are some songs he had never heard so obviously they were new to me as well. I have to get the ½” 8 track fixed so that’s in the shop at the moment.
We’re still working on the European tour. Nothing solid yet, Jon has been working hard to try and make it happen on his end. It’s only March but even that is a little late for booking in August I guess. We have a 3rd Distorted Pony site going on myspace so once we get our previous fans over we’ll delete the old one.
In April we’re working on getting David out here and playing our first show. Not sure about any details yet because we need to nail down the dates but it looks like it’ll be the end of April if it happens. I’d like it to be a real show but seems like we may even play unannounced just to get the cobwebs out. Tricia and Ted haven’t played in a really long time and it’ll be the first time I play live with them so we’d like it to be fun more than anything else.
So I wish I could say that we have dates booked and things have progressed more but we’re still waiting on things to happen on the touring end. We should have new shirts soon and we are even hoping to begin working on recording or remixing some things in May.

March 22, 2010
Not much new to report. London is out of town so rehearsals have been put on hold. We are working on other non-music related stuff like the myspace page http://www.myspace.com/distortedponyofficial We did get asked to possibly play a benefit show in May with our friend’s Totimoshi. It all depends on who else is on the bill and if there is a space for us. Some of the other bands that might be playing are really great so it’d be a really cool thing to be a part of. As soon as we know if we’re going to do it I’ll include more details and actually even if we don’t do it, I’ll be sure to mention it on here since it’s to help out some friends.
We’re still waiting to here good news about Europe. No bad news but nothing set in stone yet. Jon is working hard trying to get us some shows that will allow us to get over there. The main thing is getting shows that will allow the booker/agency to recoup their costs and hopefully make a profit. It’s quite a bit different than touring in the U.S. The way it works is the agency pays your way and then they make their money back from the shows. The bands basically get an all expense paid tour and make money off their merch. Obviously this can vary depending on circumstances but they even pay your food, transportation, backline, lodging and just about anything else that comes along. So it’s a big commitment and investment on their part.
Another thing we are going to be doing is a daily upload on myspace of images such as flyers, artwork, pictures, music etc… just to keep things moving on there. Myspace and I suppose any website can become quite stale and I think this is one way we can keep things interesting on there.

March 31, 2010
Ted and one of his little ones came over today and we listened to a few of the Distorted Pony tapes. Quite a few songs that mutated far from how they originally sounded. Gutbug, for example, sounds way more somber and eerie. There’s a drum machine and Robert playing an ebow that really adds a toned down and atmospheric quality to it as compared to the noisy, feedback version on Punishment Room. God’s List also has a drum machine and different lyrics to it. A big surprise was Jahr Null with London on drums. That completely changes the song and that’s the case for the most part with everything else that he played on. The demo versions are much slower and not as intense and powerful as having a live drummer. Some of the demos are almost danceable. In fact, Gutbug is called “funktune.” I’m guessing it’s due to Tricia’s bass line being somewhat upbeat. You add a live drummer, metal dissonance and guitar noise and you have it evolve quite far from what it once was. That’s one of my favorite DP songs. I remember talking to David about it and he gave me some insight as to where he got ideas for lyrics and how he took pieces different sources to piece together the song and create the final thing. I won’t spoil it for you by sharing the details because I know what I get from the songs isn’t what others may interpret and it’s part of what I like about the lyrics. Same thing happens with other songs. I remember asking about what “keep talking about the beach” meant and he asked me to give my take on it and then he related where he got the idea for that line. It was so far removed from what I was thinking.
So now we’re trying to decide what to do with all this stuff. It’d be great for people to hear it and I think to package it properly and give the songs their own place in the catalog of material that DP has put out would I think be the best thing to do, it just depends on how we go about doing that. We’ve talked about limited pressing of stuff or tour releases. So we have to focus on a few things at a time and figure out ways to get them out there effectively.

Europe is looking more like it’s going to happen. Not set in stone quite yet but we’re getting a few more offers and if we can just pull it all together than we can make it feasible to spend a couple of weeks playing. Jon is busting ass and we really give him a lot of credit for trying to get us over there. Hopefully all his hard work will pay off and it’ll be a good experience for all of us. He’s really made it a priority to help us out. A couple of weeks ago it’d didn’t look so good but lately we’ve been getting a few more proposals that can really solidify things.

Looks like there are a few bookers out there that want to work with us so that’s great news. Most of the bands that I know that have toured in Europe always have great things to say about how bands are treated there. I was just talking to Tony from Totimoshi and he was cluing me in on how it went the last time they were there with Helmet. They’ll be going back this month with Mastodon. The one thing that was a bit hairy was the initial expenses, plane tickets, travel arrangements, gear, lodging all this stuff that you have to really plan ahead of time. You can’t just forget it if things aren’t working out and drive home. So things are looking good.

February 8, 2010

We started working more thoroughly on Fine View from the Temple and Slow Leak this weekend. Also came up with some things for Angel on a Haug. The stuff off of Punishment Room is starting to sound tighter. I think the arrangements and the overall writing was a bit more straight forward. Instant Winner has longer intros and more repetition, slight variations in the instrumentation and rhythms. There are some parts that go on for quite a while, building up the denseness of sound and working up the tension. Not quite the Swans but still restatement of certain parts is definitely part of the power.
February 12, 2010
We’re been discussing ideas for a band photo. I don’t think anyone really wants a straight band photo but rather something that symbolize the band. How we’re going to accomplish that, I’m not sure but we’re throwing some things around. Also, we’ve been working on Cripple and Death in the Turnstile, two songs I really like.

February 14, 2010
Yesterday went pretty well, the 4 of us our sounding tighter and the songs are getting easier to run thru. The Punishment Room stuff comes together pretty quick and easy. The songs on that album were written when DP was still using a drum machine so their structure is a little easier to grasp. Those songs are way more punk rock as well, just full on in your face. The songs on Instant Winner on the other hand we have to focus on more. The contrast between having a live drummer as opposed to the drum machine is pretty obvious. I still have trouble with a few of the longer songs, Go Kart and Smitten throw me off a bit. We started on Death in the Turnstile and nailed that pretty quick, still a little fuzzy on my parts but I know enough to get us thru the song. Big Sprawling Corrupt is getting worked on and we’re working on the arrangements, and possibly modifying London’s parts. We’ll see how it goes.

February 24, 2010
No rehearsal last week. We’re trying to figure out when we can tour, nothing going on yet with bookers and I offered to be more involved with booking to try and get the ball rolling.
Robert has the master tapes of DP’s recordings and we’re supposed to get those from him soon. He also offered to give me some recording gear that he has from back when he was running Surrogate Spike at the DP house. I have no idea what gear he wants to give me but I’ll take it. Funny things like that have happened at the studio over the years. I’ve gotten really lucky with getting gear.

Gutbug

Over the next few weeks I had a few conversations with everybody, David and I talked about figuring out guitar parts and what things to focus on. I already knew a handful of DP songs so that gave me the confidence to figure out more. I spoke with Tricia, she and London had already rehearsed and had a few songs down as well as working on a few others.

Everyone in the band is pretty busy with hectic schedules; Ted and Tricia are both parents and have busy careers. David is working on his PhD. and playing in Red X Red M, London is, of course, still busy playing n bands and working with children as a nurse. He’s got a couple projects, one is Millions of Dead Comps. (they cover entire legendary punk rock compilation albums). I’m running a studio, substitute teaching and playing in a couple other bands. As you can imagine time is limited but it looks like we’ll be working on stuff on the weekends.

I got together with Tricia and London on Sunday. I hadn’t seen London for a few years. He was at a Leopold show that shared a bill with some friends of his and we chatted for a few minutes, so it’d been a while and he vaguely remembered me. We went back to London’s rehearsal complex and soon after Tricia showed up. We talked for a minute about songs and I’d told them the songs I knew. Tricia had just about gotten Krank so that was the first tune we played. London said he’d count me in and started keeping time with his sticks…my mind blanked…I’d forgotten that I was supposed to start that song but after a second I remembered the intro…..We fumbled the first time but after a quick clarification we tried again and got all the way thru it. London gave me props which was pretty cool since I know he really wasn’t aware of how well I could or couldn’t play but I think I made a good impression. We went thru Krank, HOD, Gutbug, Go Kart, Smitten, and God’s List. I think Krank sounded best but we made a lot of progress and I felt really comfortable playing with London and Tricia. The tough part is playing without vocal cues on some songs and having to cut all the weird divisions for the songs lots of odd numbers, not quite math rock but still a little tricky. There’s a song or two that they want me to try and sing so we’ll see how that goes.


February 2, 2010
This last weekend the four of us go to rehearse. Ted showed up with a large wok-like, grill pan to play on. By the end of practice it looked like a topographic map of Europe. We had the Alps on there and everything. We'll see what his rig eventually consists of. At one point, if I recall correctly he had some cool metal to play on, a big, old fashioned milk jug, and a snare-like contraption with chains on it (is this right Ted) and that sandpaper block to scrape that you hear at the beginning of Go Kart, plus a couple of toms.
I was having some headaches with my parts, recalling how long the sections lasted but we got them worked out. It’s tricky at times because I’m having to combine David’s and Robert’s parts for the sake of rehearsing. Once David gets in there it’ll be cool to hear how our parts crash together. We worked on the previous songs and also started on Dept. of Existence and Slow Leak, just getting reintroduced to them. Slow Leak is one of my favorite songs. For years whenever I would plug in my guitar and check an amp I would play the intro to that song. I like the way you have a chord, a small melody ringing out and then that huge low D note sustaining. Great intro, really gets your attention. Also when the rest of the band comes in there is just a lot of power in that rhythm. Ted and London do some really cool stuff in there as well, they trade off parts, ending each of the cycles and really compliment each other.
Besides music, we’re also working on designing a new t-shirt and getting the tour rolling. Tricia proposed a Heavy stressed font like the letters on the Punishment Room album and I suggested that the Distorted Pony logo from the first single (I think it’s on the label of Work Makes Freedom e.p. ) be overlayed on the letters to be somewhat in the background. It’ll be on a similar color to the olive green of the album.

So am I in the band?

About 10 minutes later David called me and caught me up on what was going on. The last time David was in town the idea of them playing some shows to mark their twentieth anniversary was brought up and they were really interested in going to Europe since that was something they’d wanted to do back when they were playing together. They still hadn’t contacted London or Robert but would be doing that soon. He also stated that my name had been mentioned as well as a few other friends, in case Robert wasn’t interested and it was a matter of just seeing what the band decided. That was a pretty rad moment I have to tell you. Seriously, Distorted Pony’s music was such a big influence on Leopold and to be considered to play with them, I was pretty blown away.
David and I hung up and Ted called me soon after basically letting me know the same thing and that he was also interested in me playing with them. They also were interested in using my studio to listen back to some of the individual tracks from Instant Winner to try and figure out some guitar and bass parts that were buried in the swamp of distortion they’d created at the time. So I knew one way or another I would be involved. I’d also mentioned doing sound for them as well incase they didn’t ask me to play guitar. But come on, obviously I wanted to be there playing with them.
It’s kind of a weird feeling because on the one hand I was hoping that Robert would join them but on the other hand to play and tour with David, Tricia, Ted and London seemed pretty cool to me.

I waited for a month. Didn’t hear from anyone and started to think that maybe they had decided to go with someone else and they didn’t want to bum me out. Eventually I called them. I had been trying not to jinx the whole thing by calling but I really wanted to know what was going on with them regardless of whether or not I was playing with them. I left David a message asking what was up. He called me back about two days later and he said that London had agreed to play with them again and he and Tricia were going to start rehearsing soon. He also said I was in the band. Hell Yeah! I expressed how happy and appreciative I was and the conversation quickly led to talking about gear. Some of Robert’s parts had a bit of tremolo bar torture and behind the bridge noise and I had already started thinking about getting a Jazzmaster. We talked for a few more minutes and he said I should get in touch with Tricia to see about scheduling rehearsals and starting on a set .
I spoke with Ted soon after and he said he was glad I was playing with them, and ribbed me a bit as is his usual way. Do I still want to be on tour with this guy???

February 8, 2010 We started working more thoroughly on Fine View from the Temple and Slow Leak this weekend. Also came up with some things for Angel on a Haug. The stuff off of Punishment Room is starting to sound tighter. I think the arrangements and just overall writing was a bit more straight forward. Instant Winner has longer intros and more repetition, slight variations in the instrumentation and rhythms. There are some parts that go on for quite a while, building up the denseness of sound and working up the tension. Not quite like the Swans or Geronimo but still restatement of certain parts it’s definitely part of the power.
February 12, 2010
We’re been discussing ideas for a band photo. I don’t think anyone really wants a straight band photo but wants something that symbolize the band. How we’re going to accomplish that, I’m not sure but we’re throwing some things around. Also, we’ve been working on Cripple and Death in the Turnstile, two songs I really like.

February 14, 2010
Yesterday went pretty well, the 4 of us our sounding tighter and the songs are getting easier to run thru. The Punishment Room stuff comes together pretty quick and easy. The songs on that album were written when DP was still using a drum machine so their structure is a little easier to grasp. Those songs are way more punk rock as well, just full on in your face. The songs on Instant Winner on the other hand we have to focus on more. The contrast between having a live drummer as opposed to the drum machine is pretty obvious. I still have trouble with a few of the longer songs, Go Kart and Smitten throw me off a bit. We started on Death in the Turnstile and nailed that pretty quick, still a little fuzzy on my parts but I know enough to get us thru the song. Big Sprawling Corrupt is getting worked on and we’re working on the arrangements, and possibly modifying London’s parts. We’ll see how it goes.

February 24, 2010
No rehearsal last week. We’re trying to figure out when we can tour, nothing going on yet with bookers and I offered to be more involved with booking to try and get the ball rolling.
Robert has the master tapes of DP’s recordings and we’re supposed to get those from him soon. He also offered to give me some recording gear that he has from back when he was running Surrogate Spike at the DP house. I have no idea what gear he wants to give me but I’ll take it.

First Entry Part 2

It was a really cool time back then. I was only 18 and the place to see all ages shows was Jabberjaw. I saw everyone from the Melvins to the Jesus Lizard there, Jon Spencer, Karp, the Unsane, godHeadSilo, The Cows, The Nation of Ulysses, God and Texas, Oiler, Sandy Duncan’s Eye, Mecca Normal, Steel Pole Bathtub, Unwound, Bikini Kill. Everybody played there when they were in L.A. It was a great place. I don’t mean to sound nostalgic or even worse, old, but there are times when certain artistic, political, cultural movements have their momentum really propelling them and I think the late 80’s to the mid to early 90’s really did have something great going on and Jabberjaw was the place to see them. I know there was Al’s bar, and eventually the Smell came along but Jabberjaw was still the place that all these bands had to play.

I only got to see Distorted Pony about 10 times. One of the shows my friends and I helped organize. We were in line waiting to buy tickers at Music +, remember that place? If you don’t then you are a lot younger than me. It was a chain of record stores in Southern California, not independent by any stretch but I bought my first record there when I was 10 years old, Led Zeppelin IV and eventually Sonic Youth’s Confusion is Sex so they had some good, albeit slim pickings there. Anyway, you could buy tickets to shows there and we were in line to get Sonic Youth tickets. We started talking to these guys and it turns out they were putting a show together to benefit Aids Project Los Angeles. They asked if I knew any bands and of course I mentioned a few. Eventually we put the show together and on the bill were Oiler, Sandy Duncan’s Eye and Distorted Pony. We shot video of it and it’s floating around somewhere. If I get my hands on it I’ll try to share it. Beyond being a worthwhile cause what was cool about it was that it took place in East Los Angeles where I grew up and still live. Noise rock bands never played East L.A. We had plenty of hardcore shows and there’s always been a strong metal scene, also a rock-a-billy type scene but nothing like the stuff we were into at the time. I was really happy to be bringing bands like these to the area. I remember Bikini Kill played at a hall in Montebello and that was like aliens arriving over Manhattan. At one point we talked about starting our own all ages venue in the neighborhood but we never got it together.

Eventually Distorted Pony broke up. I remember being really bummed out. I had hoped that I’d be able to get a band together and we’d get to play with them but I wasn’t able to get Leopold up and running until 1996 and by then David was in Austin playing in Sweet Pea, Dora Jahr was doing Saraspoden at the time but that didn’t last very long. Ted, had actually tried out for Leopold but didn’t quite fit and he was in Go kart with Steve from Slug. London was also playing in Buccinator although I don’t think he’s on the album they put out. Robert, pretty much left music behind, as far as I knew. Funny thing was Robert works with a cousin of mine for the Department of Water and Power so I’d hear how he was doing from my cousin every once in a while.

After that I’d keep in touch intermittently with various members, mainly David who I would call up and chat about our bands, guitars, amps and school. Ted I’d run into every once in a while, he’d moved near Santa Barbara. My best friend Anthony was going to school there and we met up with Ted for breakfast once.

Fast Forward a bit to Spring of 2000. Leopold was asked to play a showcase for SXSW. I called up U to see if he could put us up, by then he’d bought a house and was pretty well settled in Austin. He warmly agreed to put us up and we got to spend about 4 days hanging out with him and enjoying Austin, the music and the food, but most of all the company. I was glad that David was going to get to see us play. I think the show went well. Also on the bill that night were 400 Blows, the Icarus Line and Matterhorn so California noise rock was well represented.

A year later I had the summer off. I had been teaching by now for a few years. I rang up David and told him I was bored in L.A. and would he like some company. Three days later I was on a plane to Austin with my saxophone. The week I was staying at his place Switchitter was recording an EP and I ended up playing sax on it. I have no idea what I did and to this day, 9 years later I haven’t heard the track! David, still waiting.

That week in Austin was really cool, we went to guitar shops, lots of meals (Ruby’s BBQ is amazing!) and long conversations. It was good to have the time to catch up.

So that’s how things went for years, David would come to L.A. to visit his family and a few of us would meet up to hang out. Always a great time.

Back to the recent past. Along with offering helping with gear I also had to interject that if they needed another guitar player, since I knew that Robert wasn’t into playing anymore, I would be more than happy to join them.

I also called Ted and left the same message.

First Entry

January 25, 2010

Early in December I was talking to my friend Anthony when he asked me what was going on with Distorted Pony. I had no idea and the first thought that ran into my mind was that they were going to release some rare stuff or something like that but he said that on facebook they mentioned they were thinking of reforming and playing some shows.
I quickly hung up with Anthony and called up David U. I left him a message expressing how excited I was that they were thinking of playing together again and that anything I could do to help out I’d be more than happy to lend a hand. David lives in Austin and the rest of the band lives in Los Angeles so I knew he’d need to travel back and forth and I offered to lend him gear or Total Annihilation Studios to rehearse. We play similar gear, in fact the gear I have is based to a good degree on the first time I heard Distorted Pony at Jabberjaw back around ’91. I remember walking into the hot, stale, sweaty “coffee house” and hearing this amazing wall of sound. My friend Usen once said that they sounded like the apocalypse and I think that states it best. Anyway, I heard that sound I instantly knew what I had to do. Both David and I are gear geeks, him to a greater degree but still we can go on for quite a while talking about guitars, pick ups, amps, tubes, etc…Over the years I bought a Soldano Decatone, Tele, and a pair of Travis Beans, all guitars which both David and I love. He’s usually a step ahead of me in regards to pick ups that he’s swapping in and out of the Tele.


What I really love about Distorted Pony is that they are heavy but not metal, fast but not punk, slow and dirgy without being doom and dark without being obvious or “goth.” The lyrics were about the darker side of life and people but not “evil” and stupid. There are songs about cancer, politics, pining, despair, vanity, boredom, greed, lust, hopelessness and faith, yet it is up to the listener to make what they want of it. It’s not spoon-fed and blatant, things are hinted at and subtle. You have to do a bit of digging and contemplating to get an idea of what is going on. You need to spend some time with the songs to gain perspective on them.
Moving along, I was seeing all this great music and that really compelled me to start a zine to get to know bands that I really liked. Distorted Pony, Sandy Duncan’s Eye and Janitor Joe were in it as well. I got to interview Kristen Pfaff who was the bass player at the time before she joined Hole.

After that interview for the zine (in fact we interviewed David twice because the tape recorder malfunctioned) I began to become friends with all of these musicians. I really liked being around all of these people and always had questions about the music and what they were up to. A couple of times I went to the Distorted Pony house aka Surrogate Spike studios they’d be practicing or there’d be a band recording there. One time I went there was just to check out a Travis Bean wedge that Albini eventually ended up with. Another time I was there Down By Law was recording an album. Slug did records there and countless other bands were in and out of that place. Amongst all this music and noise the one night a week there wasn’t sound pounding the walls was when Beverly Hills 90210 was on. I don’t know what it was about that show that these noise rock geeks were attracted to but on Thursday nights around 9pm you knew there were members of various bands all gathered there to see what Brandon, Donna, and the rest of that bunch were up to. David wrote an article in a zine about that show that I wish I still had. It was like a dissertation on the damn thing. I think he’s still doing the same thing pursuing a PhD. in media studies.