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Jean Mills Society Torch started in December of 2000 and ended in January of 2002. Since then we've decided to start practicing again and play occaisional shows. JMST started when I was in 11th grade, and Darick and Joe were in 12th. Our original name was Ass Pepsi, meant to reflect our hatred for the inferior soft drink brand. We decided to change it because we were afraid Pepsi may one day hear of us and sue us. Ha ha. So the name became Jean Mills Society Torch, after a long deliberation process in Sociology class. The first practice was one afternoon after school. We took all our stuff to Daricks house and played some Black Flag and Germs covers for an hour or so. At first, it was just the three of us, with me playing guitar and singing, Joe playing bass, and Darick playing a dilapidated drum set, with hi hats that were definately a health hazard. Jean Mills was originally a side thing, since the three of us were all in different bands. But, a week or so after forming, I was kicked out of my band, and Joe and Darick's band broke up, so Jean Mills became our main focus. We wrote a ton of songs (most of which never saw the light of day), and practiced 3-4 times a week. We decided early on that we needed a separate singer, so Devin was sought out. After a couple months of heavy eating and practicing, we recorded our first demo with Jon Fatur and got a show. The demo was called "I Got Brains", a referance to a Fartz song. The show was at the Salvation Army. We used Guess Again's equipment, and played sloppy fast thrash for about 13 minutes or so. We were never allowed back. I said "fuck" too much in between songs. It was a lot of fun, and we were surprised to see people singing along to some songs, since we had only given them tapes 20 minutes ago. (long enough to listen to it at least 3 times). We quickly wrote some new songs, and got another show at some girl whom we didn't know's party. The party got cancelled (I guess someone gave her one of our tapes...) so we played at this kid Pat's house instead. It was fun watching a 6 kid circle pit in his basement living room. A month or so later we were called on once again to play a party, this time a "last day of school" type thing at another person's house. We recorded another tape, once again with Jon, and were surprised to have kids ask for copies of it. We got rid of all 18 copies of it within 15 minutes. We felt like major bad asses. Things kind of slowed down after that. After about 2 months of nothing, we started practicing more for, you guessed it, another party. We also got a show the following week at a church in Jacksonville.(MD, not FL, stupid) The show was with a really bad pop punk band called Jakob's Petting Zoo, and we played to about 10 teeny boppers and a bunch of our friends who came up with us. It was a lot of fun seeing the looks on those kids faces when our friends started ripping that place to shreds. Next up we played the "Carrol County Showcase" at the Longwell Armory, probably the best show we ever did. Sorry to all the kids that bought Jean Mills/Full Catastrophe split shirts and then lost the print in the laundry. I swear, it wasn't my fault. We played in a basement in the suburbs outside of Baltimore, after some kid bled all over Daricks drums. Hardcore. Our last show was at the Westminster Karate Academy. At that point, there was some tension between members of the band, and we felt it was time to end the band while we were all still friends. Jean Mills was the most fun I've ever had in a band, and I'll never forget what its like to jump off a drumset while seeing kids sing along to words I wrote. We recently decided to start up again. We all missed the fun we had in the band, and enough time has passed to let bygones be bygones and just play some ripping thrash.
