a letter to elise

it happened one evening in the life of a young pre-teen. mtv (when it was worth watching) at nearly midnight on a friday night in (the godforsaken pit of) lebanon, or (a place in which the poor pre-teen was shipped from l.a.): the cure's 'fascination street' video played out of nowhere, and like a tonne of bricks fell on that young boy's head, he was captivated. the rolling bassline, the repetitive (yet impossible) drumming, the off-key? vocals, and a guy with weird hair and lipstick. he didn't know what 'it' was, but that was 'it'!

he quickly memorised 'the cure' and 'disintegration' and asked for the tape on his christmas list (as well as milli vanilli's 'girl you know it's true'). that christmas, just like in that moment on the couch in the den, the boy's life changed. as stan from 'south park' said: "disintegration is the best album ever!" and indeed, to this day, it is still my favourite album.

that album was my only friend at the time... in a small town, the 'weird kid' only hangs out with the dregs of society, and there were plenty. eventually, i stopped trying to fit in and just became myself. and through all the trials and tribulations, dabbling in metal (up all night, sleep all day) and hip hop (that girl is poi-soooon), disintegration and the slew of other tapes that i accrued were still the fodder for my ears and my inspiration.

so, yeah, i wanted to start a cure tribute band, throughout all the years in bands... but i never found the right people, and i needed the motivation to do it. so, after bouncing it off of many people, and everyone telling me it was a good idea, i decided to 'do this thing' with eric who played bass (well, i might add) in 1999. our first practice was just the two of us. for several months, we scoured portland looking for other interested members, and a few came here and there, but nothing panned out. (this is going to be a labour of love, i thought to myself) at this time, eric's job was killing him and i tried to convince him many times to get out of it. before he did, he let me know he had to quit.

i understood... i mean, this is just a silly pipe dream, right?

a week or so before i took a trip to atlanta (for Xmas of 1999), i put out a free ad in portland's willamette week . by the time i got home, i had several responses. i met each of the responses (that showed up... edgar didn't show up until 7 years later) and played with all of the ones that i liked. it was at this point that the bassist lorenna was added, as well as a guitarist/keyboardist (who was fucking brilliant) named pete was added. lorenna was always on time (musically and in showing up to practice) and pete had seen the cure in london in 1983 during the pornography days. during the next couple of years, we tried and tried to find a suitable singer, but it stayed a trio for the longest time. i gave up and started singing myself, while playing drums.

eventually, i met gino at a party (in vancouver of all places), and he asked me if i was still doing the project. i told him, of course, and we eXchanged phone numbers. he auditioned for the requisite 2 months before we decided we loved him and he played guitar and sang leads on about half the songs. and, while we were nailing some of these songs, and my life was changing immensely, and our main projects were coming and going (i was in 3 bands at this time), we never got to play out (so to speak).

this apparently felt to pete like it was going nowhere, and his personal projects were taking off, he decided to leave the band. well, i felt that enough momentum was going with this project to put out yet another willamette week ad.

this time, i either knew more about what i wanted, or simply the right people answered the ad (which was something like this: theXplodingboys seek guitarist and/or keyboardist. must be able to play from killing an arab to elise and lipstick and big hair is encouraged.), but i only met with a couple of people. we added 2 keyboardists, 2 guitarists, and 3 vocalists simply by adding 3 members, tony, chris, and george.

within the first month of adding these guys, chris and george were good enough sports to play a party in my basement. it was their second practice with me, and that took a lot of balls and they gained a lot of respect-points that night. and i was honoured and Xstatic to play with this great crew.

later on, near january of 2003, there was a mass eXodus. chris decided to drop all of his projects, and tony decided to focus on his projects. with the upcoming ban on underage people in venues in the state of oregon (which i'm still pissed about, but has since been repealed), george decided to drop out as well. theXplodingboys were left, wounded again.

at the same time, my harping on a friend, ashkelon, panned out. i knew since meeting ash about a year prior, that ash would be a great addition to theXplodingboys. ash tried out, and it worked out very nicely for a while. ash has a great attention to detail and the songs sounded better than ever. his addition of a baritone guitar really lent credibility to the sound, as the cure actually uses a lot of baritone in their work.

in june of 2003, i started grad school, which put the band on hold for a while. when ant's invasion called me for a halloween gig, i scrounged together whatever members i could (lineup ended up being gino, pete, amoree, lorenna, and i). the seattle show at the crocodile was amazing; the place was nearly sold out. but afterward, gino made it clear that he was tired of playing the cure, and moved on to focus on his band, the gentry.

it wasn't until january 2004 that the momentum started again. busy with school and all that holiday stuff, i was tired and had a hard time dealing with no singer. upon gino's eXodus, he recommended that i sing. hah, good luck finding a drummer.

another ad was placed, and at it, ross and tony, amongst some others, showed up. turns out, tony played drums (very well). ross's enthusiasm had rekindled the spark of interest in the band. ross has been in the band ever since.

so, we had our happy crew for a while, ross, tony, lorenna, and i set out as a core four piece. in lieu of a keyboardist, i picked up keys and started playing them at the front of the stage. we added brent as a rhythm guitarist for a few shows in 2004/2005. he was unemployed, like me, at the time, and was a real boost to the team. but, like always, life got in the way. a child, a house, and a job all made him unavailable.

all the while, tony's in 2 other bands, and i married him and his wife in september of 2005 (i'm licenced, it's ok), he got a dog, a house, and was in school all at the same time. med school, so this wasn't a light load. tony had to bow out after february's show in 2006. and that was our best show to date at the time. the fez was pretty well packed out, and the momentum was growing.

willamette week dug me up some new candidates. there was this guy who played bass and drums, but i needed a drummer pretty badly. and we still didn't have a real keyboardist. i can hold my own, but pete had come in and out again, moving this time to hawai'i. we settled on edgar as our drummer in the early fall of 2006. lorenna became pregnant after some time trying, and we knew that would pose some issues, but we resolved to do what we could as things came along.

we practiced in my house for a little while, but i needed to move. i was tired of living on the westside, so we took another hiatus while i bought a new house in a more appropriate neighbourhood. we rekindled the fire only to be hit with a pleasant surprise. in february 2007, lorenna had a baby girl. due to that, we had to replace her because there was this big opportunity for us to play the largest goth convention (convergence) in north america in may 2007. it was actually in portland! i had been in touch with another drummer, but i hadn't had any contacts with any other bassists. so, we decided to try out daniel as a drummer.

fast forward to may 2007. we had been practicing the darkest set we've ever played, edgar bought some new bass gear, amoree returned as a keyboardist, and daniel worked out splendidly. with a nearly new lineup, we closed the festival for an event nearly named in our honour: the funeral party. for the first time, we were able to play non-hit songs, and the audience 'got' it. it was eXtraordinary, and led us to a couple of contacts that we hope will be useful.

in 2008, we played a couple of more shows, one being a cure vs. talking heads night at the wonder ballroom.  earlier in the summer, we played a solo show at the fez with dj kenny which worked out really well.  we played four sets with dancing in between. in september, the boys played my wedding for our final acoustic set of the year.

2009 will be a busy year.  in februrary, we launched our new set of songs, including songs i've wanted to do since the very beginning (such as short term effect, scared as you, and halo). i've met bands in other cities that want to play with us--the trick will be to actually tour.  ross has become pregnant and will deliver in september or october. there are new tribute bands coming out and a bit of a resurgence feels like it is happening.  we'll see what happens, but i hope that this allows us to do some actual touring. this is really a labour of love, but it is a lot of fun.

i'll update more as more comes about... let the journey by train continue... (oh, and here's our lj community as well.)