|
Home | Scrawl | Influential Music | Influential Film | Community Crap-O-Phonic | Yes, Mr. Smittercase | Links | Crap-O-Phonic Holes | Glisten | Syd Sartre | Myron Polk | Studio Log
|
October 12, 1962 – The inevitable occurs. Nothing can stop this life from beginning.
October 12, 1963 – I receive my first plastic guitar and proceed to smash it into the cake, licking it off afterwards. It was a very small guitar, as I was a very small person.
February 23, 1964 – Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Of course, I’m watching. Later that year, I develop a wicked Ringo impersonation with pencils.
Late 1964 - I see my first movie, A Hard Day's Night. How fitting!
Summer/Fall, 1966 – Spend practically the entire time affixed to the couch, staring into Klaus Voorman’s cover of Revolver while listening to it over, and over, and over...
December 25, 1971 – After years of begging and only receiving plastic guitars, I finally receive my first wooden guitar. I was only nine at the time, so you figure getting it any earlier would have been senseless. It was a Telstar, whatever that is, and was extremely cheap, but smelled really good.
October 12, 1972 – After a couple of months of lessens, by my teachers request, my parents give me an actual real live acoustic guitar (a Yamaha, which I still use to this day.)
October 12, 1974 – I promise, this will be the last entry that takes place on my birthday. But, when you’re a kid who wants guitars, birthdays and Christmas are the only opportunities. On this day, I received my first electric: a Sears Telecaster copy. I later sold it to some kid that I hated.
Spring, 1979 – I am introduced to the music of XTC while watching Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert. The videos for “Making Plans for Nigel” and “Life Begins at the Hop” are aired. A search ensues for Drums and Wires, and is successful a few months later.
May, 1980 – Six years of developing my playing and collaborating with people not serious enough to mention pay off when I meet the two people who would form my first actual working band. I meet Dave Kuffa and Dave Klug for a practice session at the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock, PA. This was an interesting venue for mere practice, but a perfect setting for the beginning of what was to come. I played bass that day, but in a few weeks time I would take the place of the lead guitarist in their band, Rage, and bring the bassist from the band I was trying to form. We later changed the name to Antix, and my brother Gregg stepped into the vocalist position, later replacing the less than enthusiastic bassist Sex Bob. Through Kuffa and Klug, I would later meet Steve Maruzzelli and Thom Kotch.
Spring, 1981 – With Antix in full force, playing a few jobs every month, I purchase my pride and joy, the Hamer Special, designed by Rick Neilson of Cheap Trick.
Summer, 1981 – Antix dissolves. Reforms as The Conflict with Thom Kotch replacing Dave Kuffa. The Conflict dissolves, but only after a local television appearance to promote an appearance at the Labor Day Telethon Carnival. Dave Kuffa rejoins, eventually developing into The Void.
October, 1982 – On a trip to Oakdale Mall in Binghamton, NY, I see Paul Simonon and Terry Chimes of The Clash playing video games in the mall arcade. They were playing in town in support of the 
Combat Rock album.
August, 1985 – I purchase the one tool that is the most instrumental in the development of my original tunes: the Tascam Porta-One Ministudio. Later that month, we record the Void’s White Chair cassette.
December, 1985 – I quit my job and begin what from the outside seems like four years of slacking off, but from my point of view was four years of intensive songwriting development and philosophical exploration.
Spring, 1986 – Recording sessions with Dave Kuffa bring Chris Maruzzelli into the picture. For years, Chris was only a legend: the kid brother of Steve who could play “Dream Police” beat for beat on the drums. Chris is anxious to get involved in vocalizing and drumming. We move base operations to Chris’ parents’ basement, seeing as that is where Chris’ drums are located. I begin to work more with Chris than Dave, and soon, Dave is out of the picture. It is also during this time that I hear Robyn Hitchcock's “Egyptian Cream” for the first time.
1987 – Syd Sartre is born (the name was culled from my two favorite pastimes of the time, listening to Syd Barrett and reading Jean Paul Sartre.) Chris and I devote ourselves to recording on a regular basis, and put out two cassettes that year, Sartreday and Clique (Chris can be heard yelling “click” at the end of most of the tracks we record, thus the altered title.) Steve Maruzzelli played on several tracks when he was in town.
Winter, 1988 – Brother Gregg returns home from college and joins Syd Sartre for the recording of Creepy Crawly Grab, the title of which came from a copy of the Sunday Sport Steve Maruzzelli sent from England, where he resided that year.
Late May/Early June, 1988 – I can’t remember what the actual date was, but it was definitely a night to remember. Several NEPA youths congregate at The Brook in Tunkhannock for a Syd Sartre show. We didn’t expect much of a turnout, but either the flyers that Chris put up caught some eyes, or the fact that we pre-empted Teen night brought in some unsuspecting teens. It was a glorious night, with a packed house of kids dancing to our songs and a few covers. For one brief, shining moment, NEPA embraced original music, but when the night was over, so was the band. I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the state of things in the area and decided to try Pittsburgh, where Dave Klug was having some success with Hector in Paris. This prompted Gregg to take off immediately afterward with his college band, Vertigo in Children, and head for Chicago.
Summer, 1988 – Pittsburgh didn’t work out, so I came back home. Steve came back from England a little later, and we formed Zen Café (cover band) with Chris and Dave Kuffa. (Zen Café was named after a café in the background in many a Gumby short. Art Clokey, Gumby’s creator, was a Zen Buddhist.) People loved us.
June, 1989 – After a very satisfying stint with Zen Café, my bootheels got the itch to be wandering again, so I headed out for Chicago. While there, I engineered a cassette for Vertigo in Children, but two months later became dissatisfied with the living arrangement and came back home.
July, 1989 – XTC play Chicago on their 
Oranges and Lemons radio tour, and I take a bus to the station to meet them. Like an idiot, I take a tape of my songs to give to Andy Partridge, an event that would later inspire the tune “Mr. Partridge Must Think I’m an Idiot.”
August, 1989 – Got together with Jim O’Brien upon my return to record four experimental spoken word/bizarre music tracks. (I’d first met Jim on a road trip to State College, PA, for an R.E.M. show in 1987. He and Steve were going to school there.) One of these tracks, “The Sun,” can be heard at Jim’s website at www.jimo.tv. It was also during this month that I returned to the work force in full force.
Spring, 1990 – When I suddenly find myself alone in my pursuit to create original music (everyone else had moved on to other things and other places), I whip up enough money to buy a machine to take the place of everyone. It was the Alesis MMT-8 multi-track midi recorder in conjunction with the Kawai K1II synthesizer. With this set-up, I’m able to perform as a full band at small parties and record completely instrumentalized songs on my own. Unfortunately, this move kept me from my dream guitar, the Rickenbacker 330, which I could have afforded, and led to a dark period of non-guitar music.
Spring, 1994 – Chris and Steve Maruzzelli and myself reunite in the most awesome cover band ever to walk the earth, The Johnny Rations. Steve has to commute from Hoboken, NJ, but that doesn’t seem to get in the way. Also playing in the band are bassist Paul Binner (who played with Chris at the same time in Dead Letters) and vocalist Gina Gibbon. After an excellent gig at a club in Scranton, nobody does anything to take the band any further, and we’re all left wondering what happened. This incident sparks the tune “Let My Hair” some years later, which I’d originally written for Gina to sing.
Fall, 1994 – I purchase the one CD that restores my faith in pop music and gives me a prime example to live up to in my songwriting endeavors. That CD is Martin Newell’s The Greatest Living Englishman.
Spring, 1995 – A year after hearing the greatest living CD, I have enough songs put together to assemble a cassette to be proud of, I Forgot I Was a Musician. This tape renews Chris Maruzzelli’s interest, and plans begin to formulate.
January-August, 1996 – After a couple of months of planning, a studio session to record 12 songs for a CD is organized. We begin recording at Bruce Barre’s (Dead Letters) basement studio, first with Chris and I laying down scratch tracks, then drums and guitars, Steve comes in to lay down some more guitars, and Gina Gibbon does some vocal tracks.
Fall, 1996 – A live incarnation of the band that was to become Glisten is formed, with Chris on drums, Steve on lead guitar, Gina on bass, and me on the rest of it. Unfortunately for us, the CD isn’t ready when interest is at its peak.
Spring, 1997 – With declining attendance at Glisten gigs, and disagreements about the direction we should take, I pull the plug on the band. I find that I am always the one who ends it all.
Winter, 1997 – I release yet another tape to be proud of, With Eight Cool Phrases, a title taken from the song “Interactive Cardboard,” which also appears in re-recorded form on Scrawl.
Fall, 1998 – And again, a tape to hold dear, Gary Childress. I am definitely on a roll, but the Tascam is showing signs of age, and recording becomes more difficult.
October 5, 1998 – I change jobs. Step One in the Crap-O-Phonic master plan.
December 6, 1999 – I buy a house. Step Two in the Crap-O-Phonic master plan.
November 3-5, 2000 – I take a trip to Arlington, VA, to visit with Rick Kakareka and begin intensive hardware/software training/obtaining for the impending “gift from employer.” We record the basic tracks for “Assman from Outer Space,” as well as visit some sites from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Strangers on a Train in the heart of Washington, DC. Step Three in the Crap-O-Phonic master plan.
November 24, 2000 – The computer I receive as a bonus from work arrives. Step Four in the Crap-O-Phonic master plan.
December, 2000 – Recording feverishly begins on the CD project that would become Scrawl.
February, 2001 - Scrawl is complete. Money from Uncle Sam arrives just in time to purchase a CD writer. Crap-O-Phonic Recordings is officially up and running.
