from the onion family archives.

from the onion family archives., originally uploaded by nervousonion.

the mrs. and i were packing up a shit-ton (pretty sure it's a word) of old vinyl and whatnot, when she found this photo of one of my college bands.

the band, named fuckshovel (van halen was taken), consisted of myself on bass (on the far left), andy on vocals (in the tina turner "private dancer" tour shirt), and nick on guitar and drum programming (second from right). nick, is possibly on of the most talented musicians i've ever met. an incredible drummer, and on of those guys that could teach himself any instrument if wanted to. he's also a genius with recording equipment. i didn't deserve to be in a band with him. andy is one of the most creative people i've ever met.

nick, andy, and i were roomies in an 8-man suite and would kill evenings smoking, drinking hamms, and recording on nick's four-track. (mom. i know your reading this, so when i say "drinking and recording" i really mean "writing kick-ass papers about post-modernism and studying lots). two of the songs actually ended up being released as a 7". there were a whopping 300 of them made - pressed by a local record label that specializes in general noise, weirdness and music that is essentially unlistenable. i think i still have 3. i think i've listened to it once since. musically, it sounds like a big black 45 played on 33 1/3.

we played one show, the one pictured, in front of about 20 people in the "multipurpose room" at the north campus library of ULowell. since the university probably wouldn't have approved of fliers around campus that said "fuckshovel" we went by the name "WYLD RYDE" and brought our pals Glenn and Marc to assist.

apparently, there is a band in the UK that currently goes by the name "fuckshovel". they aren't us. and we aren't them.