Bummer school

Hey friends! Here's a quick run down of what I've been up to and in to.
1. I've been taking a German class again, after 3 years of struggling with this stupid language, and I have to say that things are finally beginning to click. I also picked up a great book called "English Grammar, for Students of German." It breaks down German grammar and explains the quivalent in English grammar (or points out when it's just different!) I thought cases didn't exist in English, I never knew that word order and pronouns are how we express them (in German, cases are expressed using articles and conjugation, and word order is flexible. Yowza!)

2. Anna and I did a presentation on "Radness in Graphic Design" and we did a screenprinting workshop at the Johanneum in GRAZ, Austria. It was interesting working with graphic design students, because we normally work with High School kids. I was fun to give a little lecture on skateboard and punk graphics, because I'm sure they haven't seen any of this stuff.

3. Soho in Ottakring, is the annual arts festival in the 16th district in Vienna. (AKA Ottakring) There was some good stuff, but I was seriously blown away by a short film called "While Darwin Sleeps" by an English film maker named Paul Bush. An amazing piece of animation, that reminds me of Stan Brakhage but Paul Bush takes his Brakhage influence and goes somewhere new with it.

4. Ted Leo's "Living with the Living" I think it's his best so far, I think it's his "London Calling." I seriously think he should be as huge as the Clash were in 1983! Right now the world needs smart and politically informed music! Ted Leo is a rocker for sure, but he's all over the place on this record, punk, power pop, reggae, and even a little folk, make this a great mixed bag of music.
Hey! he's playing in Vienna in June!

I enjoy actually having time to get some of my art and graphics finished! It looks like we might have some new shirt graphics, and the comics zine, might actually come out on time!

Bis bald-Steve

Their Greatest Hits

Today, Thursday, May 3rd. 2007, I feel as if I have somehow come full circle, or at least a very-small and minor chapter of my life has come to a close. But still, it's something that's bugged me on and off for 15 years!
What's the big hubub?
It all has to do with a band called Trusty. Trusty, a pop-punk band most of you have never heard of.

Yep, this is gonna be a long-ass record review, but one with a unique personal twist.

Let's set the way-back-machine to around 1990-1992. That's about the time I started driving, going to punk shows and hanging out at Zed records. One day I walk in and Big Frank Harrison is listening to a bunch of demo tapes various bands have sent to him. He hears one, isn't too thrilled, and he asks me if I want it!
I take the cassette and I'm pretty thrilled with it, it's good melodic punk rock, but with a real power-pop twist. Punk music that's really poppy and catchy, but it's loud and still has balls. Maybe if the Misfits and the Beatles teamed up.
Slowly, I become enamored with this demo tape, and want to find out more about this band, Trusty. Little information, I don't even know the names of the songs, I just got a tape with "TRUSTY" written on it!

So time goes on, and in a fanzine (probably Flipside, remember, this is pre-internet!) I read a review of a record by Trusty, and I find out that they are from Little Rock, Arkansas! (Punk from Arkansas, whoooooaaaa, that fat guy running for president is from Little Rock, right? (O.K. so it turns out they were hometown heroes, and there was a ragin' music scene in Little Rock, AK.)) So, I order the record from a label called Truant Records, a few weeks later, I get this weird looking record, it's orange, with a big T and it's got some ants drawn on it. I put it on, ...it rocks... it's pretty good....I get to the end...and..the...demo tape songs...aren't on it???
I pick up a few more Trusty discs over the years, some of which are amazing, and some of which are just O.K. Then I hear that Trusty have moved to Washington D.C. and are making some good tunes.

(Here's where I gush about this band.) Their song "Capitol Hill" appears on a comp called "Echoes From the Nation's Capitol." Which I picked up on cassette, of course! This song starts out sounding like the Misfits, and ends up in a chaotic crash of powerpop oohhs and aaahhs, with a little piano thrown in, and an extended chorus/outtro. Exactly two and a half minutes of power-punk-pop bliss After nearly 15 years this is still one of my favorite songs. Their Kathy's Keen EP on Desoto records is not far behind, both songs are really rocking punk anthems. This is some of my all time favorite music.
Their best stuff appeared on singles and compilations. It seems as if they gave their best stuff away, and when they made their proper albums on Dischord, they didn't have these incredibly strong songs anchoring side A and side B, respectively. As a result their records on Dischord never floored me. Maybe they're a great singles band, the Buzzcocks and XTC's best stuff are their singles. O.K., no biggie, I digress, Trusty were a great band. They put out another record did some touring, moved back to Little Rock, then split up in 1997. I never did get to see them play live.
....
Fast forward to 2007, I threw out almost all of my cassettes ages ago, the Trusty demo and "Echoes..." cassettes (along with hundreds of others) were lost in a endless shuffle and eventually I threw out boxes and boxes of tapes. I had been looking for an MP3 of "Capitol Hill" for ages, turns out my friend Royce had an MP3 of "Capitol Hill" and "Kathy's Keen!" I don't think Royce realized the treasure I had just found (thanks Royce, you will be rewarded in punk-rock heaven!) So I rock out to Trusty all over again, and I begin to wonder about those long lost demo-songs, Keep in mind, this is something that has been nagging at me, for like, 15 years!

I do a little searching on the internets, and find a CD called "The Paul Years" which is their first album as well as a few demos and compilation tracks, and it has also been out of print for almost 10 years! I manage to track down a record seller in Germany who has it, and when I receive it, it's like the first time I got the debut Trusty record; as I go through the songs, I realize that those precious demo tracks are absent! I start thinking; I imagined the songs, or maybe I didn't remember them correctly or something!?!?
After a little more internet researching, I find out that Trusty have dusted off their guitars, and recorded a few new songs, and along with the new songs, the new CD has a bunch of "lost" songs never released!
So I place an order.
Which arrived this morning.
Finally.
As I go through the songs, I realize the two new songs "Sugar Smack" and "Gone" are Trusty classics, and again they put two fantastic songs on an EP! Along with a 15 year old demo! Then, when song number 3 comes on, I hear this tinny demo tape sound, and it's sounds pretty familiar (I always thought my copy of the tape was of poor quality, but it was the recording itself!), then when I get to song 7, it clicks, and everything is exactly how I remember it.
I've got the names of the songs! Passive Spy, The Greatest Hits, 10th and Rock, as well as others!
I thought they said "the Brain is Dead!" It turns out they say "The Greatest Hits!"

What's interesting, is that, in the liner notes, they explain why these songs never saw the light of day, and were never properly recorded! (It's a long story, but basically they were going to be re-recorded and released, but their indie-label (Skene! of all labels!) folded and the band distanced themselves from this era of songs. Then the tapes were thought to be lost, and then eventually, were found.) I wonder what would have happened if Big Frank had liked the tape and contacted the band?

But what's interesting for me, is that at least one loose end in my life has been tied up. Let's call it a wrap, the mystery of the Trusty demo has been solved, let's go get some Scooby snacks. It's like being reuinted with an old friend, finding a lost heirloom, or stumbling upon some old photographs that you though were lost. Closure isn't the right word for what I'm trying to describe. To extend the "old friend" metaphor: it's like meeting an old friend and finding out what they've been up to, discovering that you still have something in common, and realizing that they've been wondering about you too.

Trusty's "Sugar Smack" CD is available at MaxRecordings.com. A fine distributor of all things Little Rock!
More Trusty available from Dischord