sand & sea

“I just found the bio I wrote for “quebec” in 2003—the label never used it. some of the sentiments are outdated now as things have drastically changed–but it’s funny to read where it was at back then, at least according to my sorry ass: WTSR (Trenton State College’s radio station) was the central source of all things music in my life from 1984 to 1988. Trenton, NJ is about 12 miles south of where I grew up (and still live) in New Hope, PA today. Trenton also had a now legendary club called City Gardens that hosted every important band of the 80’s many times, and after 1984 I don’t think I missed a single show there. I saw every important band of the day there many times. the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Husker Du, the Replacements, Fugazi, the Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth, the Ramones, the Pogues, the list of bands goes on forever and I saw them all. The promoter at city Gardens was a man named Randy Ellis, a legendary and semi-controversial figure in the 80’s local music scene. I only say “semi-controversial” because he would charge 8 dollars to see 4 bands when other clubs would charge 5; if people only knew then. He also became one of my closest friends, and Ween opened for many of the bands on that list above. Randy was also a DJ at WTSR and had the most popular show on the station. His radio show, which was every Wednesday night, was spent promoting the upcoming shows at the club and interviewing the touring bands to help plug the show. I quickly became one of his biggest listeners, and eventually I would get my folks to drive me to the radio station so I could watch him DJ and meet the bands. My parents were very cool and liberal with letting their 14 year old son be in such an environment, but my family was from the Trenton area and dropping me off at a college campus for a few hours didn’t seem all that bad—plus Randy was a truly nice guy and was very cordial to them. Going to City Gardens was another story though—the club was located on Calhoun Street in Trenton, in one of the worst ghettos that New Jersey has to offer. There would be no way in hell my folks would ever let me go there, it was a very dangerous place to be for a 14 year old white boy from the suburbs. Finally, one Friday night I had my father drop me off at the radio station with an agreement that he would pick me up in 4 hours, but I was lying to him and wasn’t going to the radio station at all. I was going to my first show at City Gardens and had arranged a ride with one of the djs. The band was the Minutemen, and they were touring in support of Double Nickels on the Dime, their now legendary double album. There were about 25 people at the show and there were some opening bands—I don’t remember who they are now. The show literally changed my life and the direction my life would take. I met Mike Watt, Dennis Boon, and George Hurley, they let me sit in their dressing room, they did an interview for my fanzine, they autographed my flyer, I helped them load out their gear. They were the nicest most down to earth band ever and they had come to play. The fact that this was a band on a mission was clear—these guys would play 7 nights a week and sleep on floors. They were completely accessible and doing it solely for the love of the music and it was glaringly obvious in the way they carried themselves. To me they were rock stars, living the ultimate life, touring and playing music and (barely) making a living at it. To say it inspired me would be a massive understatement. It was also the first “national” band that I had ever interviewed for my fanzine, which was called “Yuck.” After this show I pulled the same routine with my parents a few more times, them thinking they were dropping me off at a radio station while I was really paying cab drivers to take me from the campus to this shit hole punk rock club in the ghetto of Trenton. After the Minutemen show, I was hooked though and had to see every band, it was IMPORTANT even. I came clean with my folks about needing to go to these shows so I could interview the bands and sell my fanzine and they reluctantly agreed after Randy Ellis called them personally and took responsibility for my safety there. It was like I had been given the keys to the kingdom. I don’t know exactly how many shows I saw there, but I saw all of them basically, literally hundreds of shows. Ween eventually started playing there (and this is no exageration) at least 50 times, opening for everyone. Our first gig was with the Butthole Surfers in May of 1985, we also played with the Ramones, Mojo Nixon, Killing Joke, Fugazi, even Foghat, the list goes on forever. I also worked at the front bar serving sodas and water, I did lights for the bands, I was the dj on many of the shows, I helped load gear, anything Randy would let me do. I never had to pay admission to get in—the owners of the club were the Nalbones, an Italian family from Trenton like mine, they knew my family and that’s why I got in for free, it’s an Italian thing—if you’re a guinea like me then you understand. I was a permanent fixture at City Gardens, and those are my roots. I was also a full-time DJ at WTSR by this point—unbeknownst to anyone in charge at the college, they had a 14 year old kid (and obviously not a student) on their airwaves with a regular time-slot. Looking back now, I realize that there was a hell of a lot still happening in the early to mid-80’s—this was punk rock’s last great era. There were labels like Twin-Tone, Homestead, and SST Records, their roster had Black Flag, the Minutemen, the Meat Puppets, Husker Du, Sonic Youth—-all I had to do was call the label (Mike Watt might even answer the phone) and say that I wanted to interview Curt Kirkwood. They’d give me his home phone number and I’d call him without any go-between or promotion asshole in my way. This was punk rock, and the whole idea of radio promotion or selling a lot of records was never even considered or important to anyone. The idea of a band like Husker Du being on Warner Brothers was fucking laughable at the time, those labels were homes to bands like Van Halen, who played stadiums and did cocaine in the limo, not guys like Greg Ginn or Bob Mould or Mike Watt. For some reason, this year I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. I’ve started to wonder how the music scene in the mid-80’s made the transition to where things are currently. I’m not sure exactly. I remember Husker Du getting signed to Warner Brothers, and the Replacements going to a major label, and the strangest one of all, Sonic Youth on Geffen, which still sort of has me baffled to this day. None of these bands really enjoyed any massive mainstream success in the major leagues, but slowly over a period of time things did start changing. City Gardens suffered the fate of most clubs, police hassles, lack of money, lawsuits. In addition to CG’s there were no more shows in fire houses, Elks Lodges, people’s basements, this all slowly disappeared. I was changing too, I had stopped doing my fanzine and was now completely focused on Ween. I wanted to be the guy in the band now and not the kid watching the show, I wanted to be sleeping in the van, playing in front of people in some shitty club halfway across the country, this was for me. One of the first people to show any real interest in Ween was Andrew Weiss, a bass player in a local band called Regressive Aid that I used to go see a lot. Andrew had a small record label with his friend called Bird O’Pray and he released our earliest home recordings, he also re-mixed them. When word spread that Greg Ginn (of Black Flag) was looking for a rhythm section to start a new band, Randy Ellis recommended Andrew and Regressive Aid’s drummer, Sim Cain, for the gig. This was a huge opportunity for them and I would (in a secondhand sorta way) receive the benefits of it later on. Within weeks of their first practice, the band (which was called GONE) embarked on one of Black Flag’s legendary never-ending grueling tours playing in the opening slot. Ginn and Rollins taught Andrew how they did it at SST, they played 7 nights a week, sometimes 2 or 3 shows a day. They carried their own gear, they hung up flyers, they talked to fanzines and djs, they played in record stores and radio stations, they took turns driving the van, they slept on floors to save money for gas and food. Later on when Ween started recording albums with Andrew (and he eventually joined the band on bass), we would benefit greatly from the knowledge that had been passed from Ginn, to Rollins, to Andrew. Nobody had a work ethic like these guys. Andrew still pretty much keeps us in check and calls bullshit on us as he sees it. So where am I going with all of this? You guys pretty much know Ween’s deal by now, we released a few tapes and an e.p. on Andrew’s label before getting signed to Twin-Tone in 1989 for our national debut, then we went to Kramer’s label, Shimmy Disc, and then on to Elektra for a ten year stint. Now we’re on a “semi-independent” label, Sanctuary Records. Now it’s 2004 and all that shit I mentioned in the paragraph above? That shit is gone now and the state of rock and roll is bad, really bad, maybe rock and roll is even in the worst place in it’s 50 or 60 year history. The radio, which was the single most important thing in my development, is very different, and with a few small exceptions it’s complete dogshit on the airwaves. This unfortunately includes college radio too. I won’t get into how Clear channel owns all the stations and chooses what you listen to because you already know this….but why does it seem like people don’t care, and what is gonna cause the dam to burst? There have been some very significant revolutions in music the last hundred years and they usually take place when people get tired of the pre-packaged corporate music they’ve been force-fed. for every Little Richard there was a Pat Boone, for every Chuck D there was a Vanilla Ice, but people have always caught on to the bullshit and searched out THE REAL THING, and historically if they can’t find it they start doing it themselves. Here’s the thing though, any significant revolution in music has to come FROM THE KIDS, teenagers. I’m 33 and I’d like to believe that Ween have always maintained our integrity and attitude and can still make a difference, but I know that any kind of REAL CHANGE has to start with a young band that has HAD ENOUGH. Had enough of the fake dishonest bullshit music that is forced on them by radio programmers and major labels. Historically, teenagers have been the most influential people when you talk about a real music revolution. 50 Cent, currently the most successful rapper on the planet, is covered in scars from bullet holes and you can find him on the cover of People magazine. Rock and Roll is supposed to be dangerous right? Your parents are supposed to hate it. My parents know more about 50 Cent than I probably do though. Hip-hop is used in most McDonald’s commercials now. One of the main problems I have with music in 2004 is that there’s NO such thing as “artist development” anymore at a record label. You either sell a million records on your first go-round or you get dropped by the label like a hot potato and they try throwing another young band at the wall (the radio) and hope that it sticks. By the time Ween landed on Elektra we had already made a bunch of records and played a million gigs. We had been together as a band for almost 10 years, producing our own recordings and had hundreds of gigs under our belt. We were on the best major label at the time too. Our debut record for Elektra was recorded in our apartment on a 4 track and their plan was to build up Ween at college radio for a few records before they tried to “blow us up” and sell a shitload of records. Obviously their plan was flawed. Mostly because our music is too strange to be commercially succesful, and also because the executives at Time/Warner wanted bigger bottom lines and decided to fire the entire staff at Elektra shortly after the release of our 2nd album for the label, “Chocolate and Cheese”. Signing bands like Ween did not impress the people who were really in charge. So they brought in a new president, Sylvia Rhone who would make her presence felt immediately. Sylvia Rhone is still the president at Elektra and she did a damn good job in changing the bottom lines. Under Sylvia’s rule, Elektra has brought you some of the music you haven’t been able to avoid the last few years, she brought Staind, Third Eye Blind, but nothing with any real integrity. I have no grudges with Elektra or Sylvia Rhone—-they are trying to sell a lot of records, that’s what they’re there to do, but at what cost? Have you listened to Rock radio or college radio nowadays? Is it important to sleep on floors and play shitty bars for 10 years before you should be allowed to go nationwide? I doubt it, but there are some fundamental things that ARE important to good music making and they are nowhere to be found on the radio or in the shitty magazines on your newsstand. Very basic creative virtues like honesty, integrity, and what about some kind of variety? All you have to do is turn on the radio and hear 2 seconds of the modern rock band of the day before you know what to expect melodically, or production wise. Is there only one producer and one mix engineer in the world recording rock records? It all sounds the same, and it sounds BAD, really bad. I read an article recently where it was revealed that the major labels have begun using a piece of software that analyzes the top 10 songs on the radio and the software looks for similarities in tempo and melody, etc. They are now having their producers work within these parameters to craft songs based on these factors —–are you getting this? Turn on the radio if you don’t believe me. And where do these “bands” come from? Like I said before, I don’t buy into the idea that “dues paying” is essential to writing a good song, but really though, where do these bands come from? Did anyone see Good Charlotte ever play in a bar? I’m curious. Is there like some obscure 7 inch available that maybe they made before their first record sold 20 million? Does it matter? It sure as shit does, because everything is like this now. EVERYTHING. While we were recording “White Pepper” up in Woodstock NY, RCA records had a band next door making their debut record. The “band” had 2 programmers, 2 producers, record company people there listening to every note, personal assistants, someone to give the singer “media lessons” so he could pretend to be articulate if anyone ever tried to ask him a question, and they had never even done ONE TOUR or made ONE RECORD. This is the way it is now at every label—not just RCA or Elektra or anywhere else; it’s reflected in the final product, and at the end of the day it is just “product”. There’s no love basically, no sense of purpose, no conviction in the writing and playing, no message- no balls- no attitude. No dirt underneath the fingernails, it is wimpy corporate music no different than Britney Spears on ‘N Sync. (Actually I’d rather listen to Britney any day because at least you know what you’re getting up front and not being tricked somehow into believing that she actually writes her own tunes or has anything to say to begin with.) Because I’m in a band I’m on a lot of comp lists for magazines, I basically get a lot of free subscriptions to music magazines. But I can’t read them, if I even open one up and read 2 pages I get so fucking pissed off that it brings me down, same with listening to the radio. So where will it end? Who’s gonna throw a wrench in this system? People always ask me how I feel about people downloading music for free online. I mean, I guess I need for people to buy Ween records so a record company will keep us on their roster but are you fucking kidding me? Is that question a joke or something? Not only do I support people downloading music, I wish they’d burglarize the offices of the record companies and kill the staff while they’re there. There are a lot of people who feel the way that I do; other than my family, music is the most important thing in my life. It has pulled me through some really bad times where I may have not made it otherwise. What concerns me is how does a kid who’s 18 even have a fair chance at finding “real” music on his own with the current state of the radio? Either his older brother has to help the poor fuckin’ dude out or he’ll never know anything other than Creed, or Linkin Park, or whatever. I mean it’s been so bad for so long that when HE was 14, the band BUSH was probably at the top of the charts. A band that rips off bands that ripped off bands that weren’t even all that good to start with. That kid doesn’t have a fuckin chance. So is he (as a teenager) gonna be the one that starts a band that changes music and with it society? Like the Beatles did? Or Elvis? Or the Sex Pistols? Or Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash? This is no fuckin joke people. This is important to us as a society, is that being overly dramatic? Not the way I see it anyway. Anyway, I’ll close with a story. I don’t know if it relates at all to that whole tirade I just spewed out of nowhere, but it sticks out in my mind for some reason. I have a lot of respect for Henry Rollins, maybe moreso than any other person I’ve ever come across in the music biz. This motherfucker works HARD, and does everything with a sense of conviction unlike anyone else i’ve ever encountered. He tours (or he did for over 20 years) tirelessly, 7 nights a week, maybe a day off and then he goes and does a spoken word tour, 7 nights a week. He never fuckin stops. Anyway, we were doing a european festival tour in 2000 and the Rollins band were on most of the same shows. Ween, of course, was relegated to the second stage as were the Rollins band and a few other bands who i can’t remember. The main stage was occupied by Limp Bizkit, Blink 182, the Deftones, and a few other “big name rock bands” of the day. Anyway, I hadn’t seen Rollins in many years, he and Andrew Weiss had a major falling out when Andrew quit the Rollins band and they basically hate each other now. After that i sort of lost touch with rollins save for a few short encounters. Anyway, so i see Henry backstage in this outdoor area they had sectioned off for the bands after the “new” Rollins band played their set. They were good, really fuckin good, better than any lineup i had seen him with him in a long ass time. Compared to the bullshit acts on the main stage the difference was night and day. I have no idea how old Rollins is, but whatever, at least 40 we’ll say, and he rocked hard, kicked fucking ass even. So he’s sitting there drenched in sweat having just walked offstage and I walk over to say hello. He’s genuinely happy to see me and tells me that he loved “the mollusk” which makes me happy too. We bullshit a little bit and suddenly I hear something. I look up and it’s none other than Fred Durst, surrounded by 2 bodyguards that look like they’re from the WWF. Also in his little entourage are a few fake tits looking model bitches and personal assistants or whatever. He looks at me and Rollins sitting there and he announces to his little pack of yes-men, “whoa guys, stand back, look at this, it’s Henry Rollins—-give the man some air—-this is some punk rock shit sitting right here.” It was totally sarcastic and his little pack of hanger-ons were laughing at their boss’s funny little jab at Henry. I expected Rollins to split this little prick’s brain open with his chair but instead he just continued what he was saying before we were interrupted, never even acknowledging what had just occured. Because you know what? Nothing needed to be said. This guy couldn’t carry Henry’s jock, he doesn’t even deserve the opportunity. He couldn’t do what Rollins does for 2 months, it would kill him. We both knew it. Here’s the irony of the story though, after Limp Bizkit’s record sold 80 trillion copies, Fred Durst, singer for one of the worst bands in rock history, was given some position of authority at Interscope Records, one of the more successful labels in the biz. Put in a position to sign bands that get programmed on the radio you’re forced to listen to. The whole incident happened in a few short seconds, but it stuck in my mind. I was thinking “this guy embodies everything that’s wrong with rock and roll in the year 2000.” I had no idea that the values of rock and roll and the radio would get increasingly worse over the next 4 years and the foreseeable future. You have a lot of down time on a long tour, and that means a lot of time for reflecting. It’s not always easy to sleep on a tour bus, and this year I spent a lot of nights awake in my bunk thinking about who I am and where I come from, and how lucky Ween is to even be able to afford to rent a bus now. A lot of musicians are whiny little pricks, I know this from firsthand experience, but I’m not interested in surrounding myself, or making music with people like this. The guys in my band love what they do, that’s why they’re in Ween. Not a day goes by that I’m not thankful to be able to play music and make a living from it, it’s a privilege that I’ve been fortunate enough to be in this position and I try my best to never forget it when I step on a stage or talk to a fan. That’s not meant to sound self serving, it’s just the way it is. The current climate of the music industry and the radio (in particular) really bothers me. I don’t know if the opportunities that Ween were given are available to a young band anymore. It seems like the labels are just throwing darts, trying to hit the jackpot, and if it doesn’t work out on the 1st try they just move on to the next pre-packaged crap du jour. Don’t be fooled, there is a lot of great music out there, you just have to search very hard to find it anymore. I have a basic faith in people, I still feel that kids want the “real shit” and if given the opportunity they will recognize it and support it. If you’re passionate about music, you should start your own band, promote your own show, make a fanzine, or even a website. It’s not as hard as you might think and it’s actually a hell of a lot of fun too. -Mickey Melchiondo 2/04”

Just wanted to reblog this again to hopefully stop it from disappearing, and also to add a quick note to clear something up.

And here's a non-social media link to the video too, how about that.