HM | The Hard Music Magazine

My humble prediction: Everything was going well for me and HM Magazine until I posted this blog. Then it all went South.

Ha ha ha. This embarrassing mess of a video was recorded by me and my band in the middle of Barton Creek Mall in Austin, Texas. MTV was in town with its traveling “Museum of unNatural History,” which featured a “make your own video” setup. It was an open air booth, with a blue screen behind us (if I recall correctly). Most of the customers were young pre-teen girls dancing in front of randomly generated by some editor in front of a computer moniter. They were making videos to songs like “Wild Thang” and “Funky Cold Medina” and other pop hits of the day. This was 1988.

We heard about this thing and decided to make our own video. We went down with a plan in mind, our unlavish getups and a cassette tape of our “album,” which was an 11-song tape (only) release called This Is A Condom Nation. We held up the tape when it was our turn and asked if we could use our own music. They patched up a cassette deck to their system and we proceeded. Paul Q-Pek devised all the “moves,” if I recall, like “freeze when Doug is screaming his lines” and then bounce around and sing the chorus with him.” He also planned the guitar solo using Maury’s arm. I love the embicile look on his face when he’s being played like a guitar and beat like a drum.

When we were finished, the crowd of people leaning over the second floor handrails and those standing around gave us a standing ovation. The MTV guys asked if they could make a dub of it. This pleased us to some extent.

I apologize for the poor quality, but without doing any doctoring, this is about as good as I can do. I ripped it from the “master” VHS tape. This was my first attempt at such, so it’s possible I will show some improvement in my uploading skills. I hope to eventually post all of the “conceptual” videos and a few live videos of my old (seen better days) punk band. It was fun while it lasted, but we have no delusions of grandeur. I wanted to put together a dvd of our stuff at one point, but never had the time. Now, with youtube making it convenient to share, I can let everyone see how crappy of a band I was in. hahaha I think it’s all too goofy not to share.

Note: If you do decide to chuck all remaining respect you had for me out the window (and I’ll understand if you do), please know that this was 21 years ago and the statute of limitations has long ago run out (for whatever taste laws I’ve broken).