Nowhere on this record does it say "Monster of Rock", but that has become the (un)official title of this record because all three of these bands toured together upon the release of this record and that was the name of the tour. I set up their final show of the tour when they came through Cleveland, MS where I was living at the time. JACK PALANCE BAND, after being one of the best region bands for the last ten years, were on shaky footing and didn't even make it to this show. Nevertheless, we drained the better part of two kegs and still had an amazing show out in the middle of nowhere in the Mississippi Delta.
When all the bands left, the next day, I layed on my floor and listened to this record over and over. As the years progressed, these songs felt darker and stranger than I initially felt them to be. In my mind, their hometown of Chattanooga (and my former home) had taken a dark turn and I was afraid it might stay that way forever. I'm being purposefully vague because this is just my interpretation, but I got in touch with Daniel from ADD/C for info about this record and I think I was mostly right. I'll keep it simple so that you can just enjoy the thing. Pretty much, the whole record is about drugs (and not really in that fun way) and losing friends. "Now and Never" is about our friend Allison and sometimes I like to imagine that the song is just simply an ode to drugs themselves so I don't have to think about how they took Allison away from us just a few short years after this song was written. And I'll leave it at that.
Notes on the recording quality: It's not great. It sounds like an alien transmission to me. I always thought it had something to do with the mastering, but Daniel told me that all the bands recorded on a broken 4 track (or maybe an 8 track with only 4 working tracks) with 1/4" tape on the top floor of the tree house, which was a long running freak abode in north Chattanooga. He blames that. Still, this record retains some weird, dark magic. QUEERWULF and ADD/C went on to do a lot more, but this was JACK PALANCE BAND's final release. Enjoy.
3 comments:
thanks for posting this. one of my favorite records ever. some of the best bands the region's ever produced. not my favorite queerwulf song (and i LOVE queerwulf) but the jpb/addc songs are so solid. any way you can somehow post the queerwulf/sharp knife split LP sometime? i used to listen to that all the time lost it throughout the years.
This has been one of my favorite records since it came out, and of my top 5 memories of shows was the athens,ga show on this tour. I live in ATL and am friends with alot of same ppl, but not sure if we ever met Or not Greg. My name is Jake.
I remember having pretty much identical feeling about this 7" and what it was like in Chattanooga & Atlanta at this time. I also listened to this almost none stop for weeks, hell maybe months without it barely leaving my turntable.
Also birthday is Sept 13, you made my bday a little better last year when i saw this post.
I apologize for the rambling on here. I feel like i didnt quite get out what i originally was trying to convey, not very good at expressing what im thinking and tranfering it to writing.
I guess, thank you...
That was a special time and place. the end of an era, documented. I have a whole roll of film from that tour. None of the pics are of shows. Most are just porches, grilling out, playing basketball, and my junk on Anthonys head while he's asleep. Its ok, he did it to me all the time. I'll figure out how to upload a QW music video Ryan made, ends w/ me waking up to Anthonys balls on my head in Alabama. pics look like a family reunion or a retreat for dirty boys more than 3 seminal Chattanooga punk bands first half first decade of a new millenium on tour. It was a family. Eric looks like a proud papa. Speaking of Eric. He'd had a rough year. He acquired a rare disease causing the flesh on his hands to fall off. Don't know the 100% accuracy of diagnoses but after much research and donations by friends for doctor visits he found out he had an allergy to concrete. I think his focus & obsession to green and botany in future writings of his comes from this. He eventually gets better and plays guitar. It was a relief throughout the city & beyond. BAM! Its announced a tour with all 3 bands happening ASAP. I had been booking a 3 week tour for when it was planned suddenly a week tour with all of Chatt. I felt stupid having to cancel all these shows but Eric Nelson getting his songs to the people that have been WAITING was more important. Time has proven that. Songs were recorded on 4 track in and a 7" was out in no time by combined effort. geeks take note: these 3 bands are the only THIS HERE bands that didn't break up when their 7" came out or shortly after. There was alot of hard work by these 3 groups. Not a drop of internet presence, actually it was scoffed at. Had we only known, its not very fun being a big fish in a small pond. 2-3 days in I sang for JPB half the shows cuz Eric lost his voice. In G-ville it was JPB karaoke for frothing fans. Know the song? Ok, you sing it. I still don't understand why Eric never got exposure he deserved. As close as Gville & Chatt once were Eric should be as well off as some No Idea Artists became. JPB drummer, Jerome, had a child on the way & left before the 2nd to last show in Mississippi. The next night for our homecoming JPB didn't play, neither did QW. Ryan's back went out. We played a tense show with maybe a young drunk Scott Youth on drums and improved drunken noise. We announce we were no longer QW but straight dog & Chattanooga stood around confused. That was it. 4 reunion shows happened. JPB was over but resurfaced as HIDDEN SPOTS a few years later. When QW broke up & some of us moved to NC. ADD/C was off & on as usual but did some good records and Harry joined. We all played in other bands. The 2nd Hidden Spots lp got shelved for almost a decade until recently. A small few know a whole second JPB album never got recorded! TRAGEDY! It measured up to everything else Mike and Eric did. QW stopped before someone died. Ashley Krey holed up in Chattanooga & here we are. I don't see how this record is a drug record. We couldnt afford'em. QW's least popular track-the only one I wrote the music & words to. Here's all this positive outlook by our buddys and I'm over here sucking blood. The band hadn't even learnt it but recorded anyway on SEPERATE tracks, one member at a time-a song no one knew, we never did- for a record. ADD/C and JPB did live music with vocal overdubs. Besides the obvious different method of tracking our track is all off, lyrics printed wrong too. Sounded good live when we learnt it! I'd prefered a bookbox recording from Anarchtica in hindsite. NERDS TAKE NOTE:Lots of ass bustin'. This was the last THIS HERE release besides a CD-R that's not on here. A CD-R was not technically a release. For discussion seek THIS HERE #14. Also, where's THIS HERE #10?
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