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Back when I was in college with Skip Lunch, in Jamestown, NY, Skip moved to Omaha, Nebraska (!) to “make it big in punk rock (!). He went to live with some women who ran a zine called BEEF, and played in a band with them. Band was called BEEF. HERE is a kick-ass 80s punk rock song by Skip with him on guitar and singing, called “Smell The Shit”. Check it out.

When Skip got back from Omaha, returned to the town he swore never to see again, I interviewed him on my college radio show on station WTJU. I said, excited, “So? How was it, man?” He replied, “Well, Michael….I slept on the floor a lot. Can I say ‘lesbian’ on the air?”

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Here, in Skip’s own words, is the story:

The recording was done in a bedroom on an 8-track Tascam cassette recorder. (I thought surly Skip meant “Tascam 4-track”. I’ve never heard of an 8-track cassette recorder. He said, “Nope. 8-track. About 3 grand in 1982.”

Skip continues: I had a vision. Made 6 songs for a demo. Sent them to bars across the country and every night at 5:30 PM I’d break into _______’s dad’s business and use the office “Watts line” (old-school business phone line) to call all over the country. Then we travelled to the last gig in Portland …where the van died.

Here’s the thing: I approached the whole thing like an instant gestalt. I got a daily planner and went to work while I was on welfare in Jamestown sleeping on the couch in a 17-yr-old runaway rich kids house. From the moment I committed, it all JUST HAPPENED , like an EST forum or a “Create Your Dream” seminar or something. I mean, I formed the band at that moment for that purpose and then just MADE IT HAPPEN.

Oddly there was no pressure or stress, just inspiration and free phone calls!!! (I remember breaking and entering, very spiritual!) The point is, it was all done from conception to finale in 3 MONTHS!!! Completely positive energy just rocking the whole time, like MAGIC. I’m sure some of the members fell from the perfect grace along the way, but not much.. We rocked Portland along with bands like POND.

And actually the most intense thing was this…before the eureka moment , I asked myself “What do I want to do with my life?” “Dunno” I said to myself “Well if you can’t make a long-range plan, choose a short-term one, and by putting ENERGY into that, the future will reveal itself.”

Well, it did. In Portland at the end of the tour, I met a Jamestown friend from the early 10,000 Maniacs there and he was in acupuncture school. (I now do acupuncture) *bing0! Whole thing was the point in my life actually and inspirational too!

–Skip

P/S My guitar on that recording was later stolen from me from the building where I made my free phone calls. Karma rocks!

This entry was posted by Michael W. Dean on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under Gear porn, Other people's cool stuff, The world is a strange and beautiful place. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.