I recently took the time to revisit the experience of forming my first band, The Catatonics, back in 1995. My friend Ted has been chronicling the South Bend, IN "scene" that spawned Ted Leo and Sweep the Leg Johnny and the many, many bands that were supporting castmembers. Here is my contribution, which I hope you will find entertaining even if you don't know any of the personalities or other bands involved:
Ted has been asking me to write the story of the Catatonics since before he started South Bend Power 90s. Of course, I can see why. We were fucking awesome but there are probably only about 10 people who even remember we existed. I am tickled these songs are going to be up on the site and want to thank Ted for giving me the opportunity to spew about the Catatonics experience:
I came to the Midwest from sunny Oceanside, CA. In retrospect going to Notre Dame was a dumb idea, but I was also a Republican at 17 years old when I made the decision so there you go. I brought my skateboard with me and though I was not very good at riding it I quickly fell in with the 3 other people (on a campus of 8,000 undergraduates) who owned skateboards and we were very excited to know each other. Andy Yang, who faithful SBP90s readers will recognize as the distinctive presence behind the $90 drum kit on Obstruction and the Go-Lightly's recordings, was one of the other skateboarders. He was also from Southern California and like myself had come of age with a hackneyed So Cal jockpunk soundtrack. These early freshman days were really awkward. I actually considered myself straightedge when I hit campus and was making a concerted effort to enjoy that unlistenable strain of hardcore. Andy and I were both sort of confused, but we knew we loved punk rock and oldies and we found ourselves in an uptight Catholic Midwestern private school environment very dissimilar to what we had grown up used to. My reaction was to be sort of a lame provocateur.
The rest of the story, with photos and our entire 6 song discography available to download, is here:
6 comments:
I knew Notre Dame was a clean cut school, but when even the disaffected hardcore kids on campus where TIES at their p-rock shows....wow.
great article and pics; bring back the pompadour!
i would if i could, but nature has taken its course and those days are past us. Did you listen to the music?
not yet; tonight...
I remember the 90's- trashy! snotty! enthusiastic! inept! fun! Brings back memories, I'll bet?
Hey Chris, you look a bit like that singer from The Revelators- what was his name, Jeremiah?
Post a Comment