2nd LuvRoxx Album becomes the last

For an unsigned band from Amarillo, TX this album has enough controversy to rival some of the most well known recordings in rock history. I don't think I'll do a normal blog post on this DUE to the controversy so I'll just do a time line.

* Alan Dubose designs the Egyptian Ankh for the band as well as the proposed album art in the pic.

* Matt "Wolf" Kime commits to recording our next album on his Mac.

* "Big Cat" Chris Whitehead, Joe Jicha, Johnny "Feet" Williams and myself are in the band.

* We begin the recording process in the bands rehearsal digs at 616 S Polk.

* The tracks are recorded and the album is mixed.

* The band manager kicks me out of the band.

* Joe Jicha quits the band.

* The band is renamed to "Pagan Graves" http://www.pagangraves.com/

* The album is released as "Pagan Graves, My Right To Die"

* The album does fairly well and gets radio play on Rock 108 (Z-Rock back then) and kicks off a tour to support it.

The controversy on the album surrounds mine and Joe's exit from the band.

That's about it.

My First Bass

Joe and I were determined to start a band and he had just bought a Fender Stratocaster at a local pawn shop. I had zero denero but was determined. My old roommate Chris and I had traded back and forth for different things and I had ended up with a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle. I went to a local pawn shop with the hopes of a straight across trade. I fell in love with the late 70's Guild B-301. The pawn shop owner wouldn't trade straight across. Fortunately (for him) I was on my way downtown to pay my electric bill (which was about to be shut off). The bill was for $64 + change. I gave him the cash and the rifle.

I sat around my cold dark apartment playing an electric bass guitar without electricity for two weeks.










Here are some original ads that I found.

Out of order -1993

I just found this and thought it was worth posting. This is from a rag called "Foop" circa 1993. We were sure we were close to being Rock Stars.

More Live Shows - Best Of The Unsigned Bands

Well the New Year brings with it more shows for LUVROXX. Here we are at the Club House on 45th and the Canyon E-Way. It was a good show and we got to meet a lot of other local bands. Not only am I sporting my "big hairdo", but the moron at Center Stage thought I was Joe.

Promo Photographs

In order to prepare for the promotion of the album release we had several promo pictures taken. We had such a great time letting a photographer pose us in several different places around 6th & Polk. We talked about doing an "Abbey Road" kind of thing as we crossed Polk St. but decided a toilet in the middle of the street with Johnny Williams sitting on it was much better. At this time the band consisted of Chris "Big Cat" Whitehead, Joe Jicha, Johnny Williams and myself. These were some good times.

Album Release Party - November 1994

So now that we have our crappy first album, we have to promote it. It's kind of the same philosophy Microsoft lives by. Release it, then worry about how bad it sucks.

This is the flier from the party.

It was actually a pretty good turn out and we played live, ate a lot of pizza and drank a lot of beer.

The good news in the story is that we had already begun to plan for our next album and felt like we knew what NOT to do.

Coming up: Our first out of state show and the making of a not sucky album.

Recording our first album - Back From Nowhere

The band had several originals from it's inception. I had written a song about my favorite "Anti-hero" Wolverine and it was getting pretty good feedback at our shows. I also co-wrote a couple of songs with Chris "Big Cat" Whitehead (Scarecrow and Umbrella Tree that were too new to make the cut). The more we practiced and the more shows we were able to book, the more Chris began to pump out lyrics. They were really good but the band was taking on a different feel than in the beginning. We always saw ourselves as a punk rock heavy metal fusion band, but the lyrics were no longer about woman and comic book characters, Chris had found inspiration in politics, history and religion. The songs that we decided to record were chosen and off to the studio we went.

Here is the song list:

Harvest Time
A Year Ago Today
Treaty
Crucified
Time Down The Road
The Only Remedy
Wolverine
Dead Calm

Recording in the studio was a HUGE change and we all had a little trouble adapting. We had formed a bond during our thousands of practice sessions and several shows. We sort of fed off of each others mood, movements and attitudes. In the studio, I was sitting in a little soundproof booth with the guitar tracks and drum tracks (recorded earlier) playing through headphones. I have no idea how many takes it took before my bass tracks were finished (and to be honest I think Joe had to re-record one or two for me).

Joe Jicha was our financier on the album (as he was for most of our equipment). Not because he was made of money, but because he had good credit. We contacted a company called Disc Makers and purchased a package that gave us 1,000 cassette tapes along with a logo re-design, 1,000 post cards and the tape inserts. We paid for the studio time and for the mixing. Joe paid (charged) for the master recording to be sent to Disc Makers. Shipping, copyrighting, more posters and fliers for the album release, the model and photo shoot for the cover, there were so many costs we maxed out one of Joe's cards, started on another and still had to take up a collection from each band member. The idea was that the album sales would be able to pay off one credit card, then if we had to we would roll the balance from one to the other until we started to collect more from shows.

Everything was ready, we were all walking around like kings.

Then we got the "master" recording from the recording studio in Sunset Center.

It sounded like CRAP!

The levels were off, none of the effects that we used were on, it was just three raw instruments and vocals slapped together. The guy either didn't know what he was doing or he spent know time mixing it. I jump on the phone and call the guy "It's just fine." he kept saying. I argued with him over and over. "The master doesn't sound as good as what Disc Makers will send back. If you want to re-record it you can, but youll have to pay for the studio time. It's just fine."

We were stuck, Joe tried to reason with him, I tried, he wouldn't budge. Disc Makers already had Joe's money - no refunds there. The guy with the studio didn't care he already had his money. And we had thousands of post cards, fliers and posters advertising an album release.

We put it to a vote and decided a crappy tape was better than a total loss. Besides the guy said it was "Just fine."

It wasn't.

I still have the master recording and one un-oppened cassette. We actually sold 700 of those tapes- mostly at our shows. The good news was we sold em' cheap and we were sounding good enough live that people were excited to get a tape. I would guess that those people felt ripped off the next day.

If you bought one of those tapes - sorry

Benefit for Misty Freeman - May 1994

A friend of ours organized an outdoor benefit concert to raise money for a little girl with cancer. We agreed to do the show for free. It was an outdoor show and I remember the turn-out being pretty impressive. The other band "Mirror-Mirror" (the name on the flier doesn't look right) and our band didn't get along very well. But we really rocked the show and picked up some of the other bands fans along the way.

Between this show and some of the other fund raising that went on for Misty she was able to get to Washington.

Fith show - Einsteins in Lubbock March 1994

With a new-found confidence because of our recent live performances, we hit the road again and got to play in Lubbock. We decided to place an ad in a local rag called Center Stage as it was distributed in both Lubbock and Amarillo. She show did not go over very well. The kids that hung out at Einsteins were into the new "Alternative" rock scene and we were cranking out Metallica, Van Halen, Juda Priest and Black Sabbath.

The show wasn't as big a success as our recent shows but the ad in Center Stage sparked a fued between us and the magazine that got us a ton of publicity.

Watch for the post about that!

Practicing under Bangers

Bangers was a heavy metal, head banging bar on Route 66, so we were very excited to be able to practice in the basement below. We had a lot of different places where we practiced but this was my favorite. We had to leave because of a water leak that the landlord wouldnt fix. We were afraid our equipment would get ruined.

Fourth show - Sud's in Borger TX Feb. 1994

Good bye Z.P.G. hello LUVROXX (with a line through it dude)! I can't remember who's idea it was (not mine, I liked the bands name) but someone said we needed to change the name. I remember there was much deliberation and we ended up putting some of the top choices to a vote. I think it was two members and our manager (again not me) who voted on LUVROXX. I think I wanted Z.P.G. and Joe wanted Cool Hand Luke.

Anyway, we were renamed and eager for another show. Playing in front of a crowd was intoxicating (well it was one of the
intoxicating things). The opportunity came from a place in Borger. We packed all of our equipment up on a
Friday afternoon and hit the road (hey few bands as young as ours got to take to the road even if it was a
short one). The show was AWESOME. We really played well. The crowd loved us. The neat thing about this show
was my unborn daughter was there. Her mother said that from the moment we started playing my little girl was
kicking like never before. We played two nights and felt like we were on top of the world.

Second (and third) Shows - Z.P.G. at OHMS

OHMS was a really good time. We packed the crowd with friends who applauded and screamed even though we still weren't that good. Someone broght a camera and took these pictures. There were always pictures being taken at our shows, but I never got to see many.

We played two shows at OHMS on two different occasions but I don't remember the dates.

My first show with Z.P.G. Late 1993

We had been practicing at Chris Whiteheads house for a few months and had a couple of original songs and several covers. A local rag (Center Stage) had an ad for a Battle of the Bands where the winner would get to be on MTV. We were all about it. We signed up, pooled our money and paid for the entry fee.

The night of the show we were all nervous and excited. Here we are unloading our gear into a real club with a real stage. There were a few problems that night. First, they wouldn't let us use our sound guy. The levels might have been right for a band that had been onstage before but not for a band that had been practicing in a house. Second problem, we stunk. Yes it's true we stunk up the place. We were cut short and asked to leave the stage.

As we were unplugging and packing, one guy was going up the stairs and he yelled "You guys ROCK!" Now that guy was pretty drunk, but that was still AWESOME to us!