Thursday, August 16, 2012

GIANT BAGS OF WEED - First Demo - Tape - 2001

    GIANT BAGS OF WEED started in Bloomington, IN back in 2001 when Billy (probably) hitchhiked there to hang out for a few weeks with friends. Matte, who appeared to exist on a strict diet of stale bread, Dr Pepper and Skittles, was always around and always ready to play drums (the latter is still true to this day). They got their friend, Chris to play bass but his car broke down 45 miles away and he couldn't make it to their first show. So, they got Matte's roommate Jim to fill in, which started a long tradition of the revolving door of bass players in this band. Other people who passed through that door were Chris (a different one), Jrd, Crab, Daniel and me.

   This tape sounds pretty rough and unrehearsed, but still contains my favorite GBOW song to date, which is the first one...aptly titled "One". The band was really prolific and threw songs away left and right. When I joined the band a year after this tape was made, I asked if we could play that first song. Matte and Billy had no recollection of it and didn't remember how to play it. During my time in the band, we would sometimes write a song and drop it a week later.
   These days, Billy plays in the excellent band, FUTURE VIRGINS and Matte can be found behind the drums with LANDLORD (the guitarist, Chris is the very first bass player of GBOW) or at a huge fest with NANA GRIZOL. Both are still winners in my book.



FUN FACTS
   1, We planned to go tour one time, but no one had a driver's license or a van. We made a plan to get a new band member who could drive. I left town for a while and re-joined the band when I came back playing second guitar. Our new bass player, Chris also didn't have a license. Total fail.
   2. I watched GIANT BAGS OF WEED play a show once in a kitchen where the floor later caved in.
   3. GBOW begged their way onto the final show at a sXe house in Bloomington, even though the residents of the house were very afraid that the band would try to sneak in alcohol. When the band DID sneak in drinks, they almost kicked them out...but didn't. Later the straight-edgers kicked out one of my friends in a very homophobic way. Later still, I watched each one of those guys break edge as they sat in bars trying to cover up their large sXe tattoos. 
   4. When the band was named, no one in the band smoked weed...and Billy was straight edge...and vegan.
   5. After quitting the band, I dumpstered a trash bag completely full of weed plants behind a bike shop in Knoxville, TN.

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Updated 3/2020

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13 comments:

  1. clancyAugust 16, 2012 at 6:07 PM

    haha for some reason i thought you and billie found two trash bags completely full of weed on a cruise ship and thats where the name came from. i wonder how much of my random information like that is totally off.

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  2. HarvesterAugust 16, 2012 at 6:15 PM

    If you wanna keep believing that, it's way more entertaining.

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  3. Blair MenaceAugust 17, 2012 at 12:28 AM

    Are you talking about Danny from Peru's kitchen? Bomb Threat made that kitchen floor cave in, I think.

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  4. Blair MenaceAugust 17, 2012 at 12:36 AM

    Also one of their bunnies bit my friend on the ass.

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  5. HarvesterAugust 17, 2012 at 8:47 AM

    That was the kitchen.

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  6. erick lyleAugust 17, 2012 at 10:31 PM

    Hmmm... I thought Danny's floor caved in while ADDC was playing in Fall 2002. I was at the show where it caved in and I remember them playing that night, but...
    Hmmm....

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  7. HarvesterAugust 18, 2012 at 11:47 AM

    I actually thought KLS caved the floor in, but who really knows?

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  8. Blair MenaceAugust 18, 2012 at 9:18 PM

    The show I'm thinking of was Dead Things/Bomb Threat/Shovelfight. Shovelfight played in the living room but only after we lugged my amp out of the ever-widening hole in the kitchen floor. I wouldn't be surprised if it had happened before that.

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  9. DeadBrokeRekAugust 20, 2012 at 12:21 PM

    lovvvvvve this band, dearly.

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  10. erick lyleAugust 21, 2012 at 10:50 AM

    Right! That makes the most sense... the floor likely caved in during ADDC but that did not in fact stop them from doing shows in the living room with the caved in floor. So the hole continued to widen. In a sense, then, all of us caved in the floor at Danny From Peru's place on Chambliss. All of us.

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  11. UnknownDecember 25, 2016 at 1:57 AM

    dude you have the Giant Bags Of Weed ‎– Dumpster Tape...???
    i reaaly love this banb, i listen split with shotwell and addc all the time...
    please respost this 1 album and demo...
    see ya...

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  12. ScottMarch 26, 2020 at 4:15 PM

    when you get a chance could we get a re-up of this tape I'd love to hear it!

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  13. HarvesterMarch 28, 2020 at 6:02 PM

    Done

    ReplyDelete