me-thinks fun facts!
now that they're within stone-throwing distance of completing their long-heralded double e.p., it's prolly as good a time as any to review what we know about the me-thinks, haltom city's kings of self-deprecating bullshit and steamroller rockaroll. make no mistake: while these boyzzz may style themselves as "fort worth's shittiest band," what they really are is _masters of life-as-performance-art_ -- an endless floating crapgame / 15-year running in-joke involving a buncha good, old friends that like to get together and dress up funny, spin vinyl records, consume copious amounts of distilled spirits, and play a loud, aggressively punkoid strain o' metallic ramalama, infused with hazy cosmic jive and tongue permanently planted in cheek. (sample song titles: "super fucked, big drunk" and "bong macgyver." you get the idea.)
1) there are three of 'em: ray plays bass and sings. sir marlin von bungy plays gtr. will a.k.a. boyo plays drums. they used to be the pine barrens, then hasslehorse. while boyo was in the navy, ray was the drummer and marlin was the bassplayer. there are a coupla former members. we won't talk about them. (eat yr heart out, martin tamburovich.) when the moon was still the dog star, they used to have "haltom city nights" there and play as three different bands with the same guys in them.
2) either they or woodeye were the first band to ever play the wreck room, depending on who you talk to. recently, ex-woodeye bassist 'n' wreck bartender graham richardson was talking about the fort worth bowl and how "they oughtta just have unt and smu play it every year," which one barroom wag compared to having woodeye and the me-thinks playing the wreck every yr.
3) _of course_ they're all rekkid collectors. ray digs punk, but also classic old school stuff like live at leeds grand funk railroad. he sometimes blogs his current faves on the news page at me-thinks.com. a pretty interesting mix. marlin is the token metalhead. (there's even a song about it: "permanent krokus.") his first band actually wore _capes_. ex-new wave kid boyo confesses he could listen to nothing but the beatles, the who, and the kinks all day long. he's also getting into jazz: lotta bill evans and dave brubeck recs at his pad. and, um, depeche mode.
4) will, whom the others freely admit is the me-thinks' "secret weapon," has a side project called napoleon complex. he writes and records ditties like the fave rawk anthem o' the moment at mi casa, "god bless haltom city," in a style reminiscent of scandi power poppers like the yum yums and the wonderfools that will has never heard of. being the astute judges of material that they are, the me-thinks are co-opting "god bless haltom city" and recording a rawked-up version of it for the double e.p.
5) all three of them dig turbonegro a lot, even tho the norwegian "deathpunks" have gotten poppier on their last coupla albs, and no longer go in for the gay shtick quite so much. marlin actually flew out to l.a. last yr to see them live. like turbonegro, the me-thinks are masters of viral marketing. what they lack that their idols have: sponsorships. other me-thinks faves: desert rawker brant bjork and austin punkers the yuppie pricks.
6) they have formed a kind of mutual admiration society with another local three-piece with whom they share punk roots 'n' a sense of the ridiculous, darth vato. they're playing a show together at the wreck in march. don't worry, i'll remind you. maybe the vatos can give them a hookup for a dickies sponsorship.
7) re: their asian media crew (of which i am an honorary mbr), rat a.k.a. "joe smith" works in a haltom city convenience store that's also a video store -- kinda like a cambodian version of dante from clerks. calvin a.k.a. "captain pineapple" is an architect who once got beat down for jumping on the jesus lizard's stage by david yow and whoever the bassplayer was. "they bumrushed me just like a cartoon character," sez calvin. "i still remember their roadie telling me, '_chill out_, little man!' before throwing me out the door."
8) calvin and ray are also famous / notorious as "gorak" and "lokar," the "art criminals" of pussyhouse propaganda. they do lotsa rawk posters for the wreckroom, axis, and other venues here in the fort, plus murals and etc. my sweetie took a pic of carl pack singing with isaac hayes pointing a gun at his head from calvin 'n' ray's '70s blaxploitation-style mural over in "wreck west." you have to have _some_ way of compelling carl to sing beatlesongs. i also have a pussyhouse pin that i like real much on my gtr strap.
9) like b.b. king's lucille, ray's [bass] gtr has a name. it's "laverne." like lucille, laverne was made by the gibson company. ray sez she's been exceptionally well behaved since john at sessions music scoped her and set up her action.
10) while the authenticity of their "recording contract" with indian casino records is somewhat suspect, they do in fact have a benefactor, who is _not_ a beer-sodden galoot from british columbia, but rather an employee of a software concern headquartered in the 'burbs of seattle which some in the industry have compared to satan. of course, like all residents of the evergreen state, he does brew his own beer.
1) there are three of 'em: ray plays bass and sings. sir marlin von bungy plays gtr. will a.k.a. boyo plays drums. they used to be the pine barrens, then hasslehorse. while boyo was in the navy, ray was the drummer and marlin was the bassplayer. there are a coupla former members. we won't talk about them. (eat yr heart out, martin tamburovich.) when the moon was still the dog star, they used to have "haltom city nights" there and play as three different bands with the same guys in them.
2) either they or woodeye were the first band to ever play the wreck room, depending on who you talk to. recently, ex-woodeye bassist 'n' wreck bartender graham richardson was talking about the fort worth bowl and how "they oughtta just have unt and smu play it every year," which one barroom wag compared to having woodeye and the me-thinks playing the wreck every yr.
3) _of course_ they're all rekkid collectors. ray digs punk, but also classic old school stuff like live at leeds grand funk railroad. he sometimes blogs his current faves on the news page at me-thinks.com. a pretty interesting mix. marlin is the token metalhead. (there's even a song about it: "permanent krokus.") his first band actually wore _capes_. ex-new wave kid boyo confesses he could listen to nothing but the beatles, the who, and the kinks all day long. he's also getting into jazz: lotta bill evans and dave brubeck recs at his pad. and, um, depeche mode.
4) will, whom the others freely admit is the me-thinks' "secret weapon," has a side project called napoleon complex. he writes and records ditties like the fave rawk anthem o' the moment at mi casa, "god bless haltom city," in a style reminiscent of scandi power poppers like the yum yums and the wonderfools that will has never heard of. being the astute judges of material that they are, the me-thinks are co-opting "god bless haltom city" and recording a rawked-up version of it for the double e.p.
5) all three of them dig turbonegro a lot, even tho the norwegian "deathpunks" have gotten poppier on their last coupla albs, and no longer go in for the gay shtick quite so much. marlin actually flew out to l.a. last yr to see them live. like turbonegro, the me-thinks are masters of viral marketing. what they lack that their idols have: sponsorships. other me-thinks faves: desert rawker brant bjork and austin punkers the yuppie pricks.
6) they have formed a kind of mutual admiration society with another local three-piece with whom they share punk roots 'n' a sense of the ridiculous, darth vato. they're playing a show together at the wreck in march. don't worry, i'll remind you. maybe the vatos can give them a hookup for a dickies sponsorship.
7) re: their asian media crew (of which i am an honorary mbr), rat a.k.a. "joe smith" works in a haltom city convenience store that's also a video store -- kinda like a cambodian version of dante from clerks. calvin a.k.a. "captain pineapple" is an architect who once got beat down for jumping on the jesus lizard's stage by david yow and whoever the bassplayer was. "they bumrushed me just like a cartoon character," sez calvin. "i still remember their roadie telling me, '_chill out_, little man!' before throwing me out the door."
8) calvin and ray are also famous / notorious as "gorak" and "lokar," the "art criminals" of pussyhouse propaganda. they do lotsa rawk posters for the wreckroom, axis, and other venues here in the fort, plus murals and etc. my sweetie took a pic of carl pack singing with isaac hayes pointing a gun at his head from calvin 'n' ray's '70s blaxploitation-style mural over in "wreck west." you have to have _some_ way of compelling carl to sing beatlesongs. i also have a pussyhouse pin that i like real much on my gtr strap.
9) like b.b. king's lucille, ray's [bass] gtr has a name. it's "laverne." like lucille, laverne was made by the gibson company. ray sez she's been exceptionally well behaved since john at sessions music scoped her and set up her action.
10) while the authenticity of their "recording contract" with indian casino records is somewhat suspect, they do in fact have a benefactor, who is _not_ a beer-sodden galoot from british columbia, but rather an employee of a software concern headquartered in the 'burbs of seattle which some in the industry have compared to satan. of course, like all residents of the evergreen state, he does brew his own beer.
posted by stashdauber at 6:02 PM
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