the lowdown on this site

I guess I should periodically explain the purpose of this here blog for anyone who's recently started reading it. It's oriented towards people who live or have lived in Lafayette, Louisiana and has a few different aims. One is to be able to stay in touch and see what everyone is up to. To that end, if you have a new band, 4 track stuff, a website, a blog, art on the web, or anything, we would like to hear about it. Another aim is to collect and document some of the aspects of the Lafayette "scene". So far we have MP3s of several Lafayette bands, flyers to old shows, scans of zines, photos of clubs, people, skate spots, bands, etc. and links to resources on the web that may be of interest to Lafayette-ians.

Here are some of the things we are looking for:
MP3s of old local bands (even ones that sucked)
Old flyers and zines
Photos of local bands, old shows, clubs, ramps, anything that was part of the Lafayette scene
Mpegs of old commercials (the more retarded the better, i.e. Bossman Says Letemhavit, any On-Time or Sam's Fashions, etc.) or video stills
Links to anything that relates to any of this stuff
Info or contacts to people who may have some of the junk we're looking for

If you have any of this, you can email me here. The site is open to anyone from the Lafayette area, so if you have some stuff that you want to post yourself, email me and I'll send you an invite so you can join the blog. We are currently using Soundclick to host MP3s, which requires registration to be able to listen to stuff (which is a bummer), but they allow an unlimited number of tracks. Myspace is good also, but they only allow up to four MP3s. We're storing images and some other stuff at Ripway, which gives us 30 meg of storage and 10 meg/day bandwidth. So if you have something that you think other people would like to see, let me know. It doesn't have to be realted to the music/skate/art scene either, so if you want to post the image of Jesus or L. Ron Hubbard that you found on your toast or something, that's cool too.

A couple of links

This is really pretty interesting: Steve Picou of Bas Clas has the details of his father booking Louis Armstrong at his grandfather's club in Eunice. This is exactly the kind of thing that I think needs to be documented as far as the Lafayette music scene is concerned.

Chris Cart has updated his Toxin III page: here.

Eric Doyle lives in DC now and is working at this tattoo shop.

Also, check out this New Orleans band, Dierotzz. (Thanks, Curtis.) They're kind of in the old school punk rock vein.

1960's Lafayette garage bands

Here are some of the garage band photos that Curtis sent. They're from the 1967-69 Lafayette High yearbooks. The Gentrys were from Memphis. Thomas Edison's Electric Light Bulb Band featured Richard Staggs, who later was in Richard Orange and the Eggmen, and Kim Foreman, who was later in Zuider Zee. The Sussex 6 had Keith Thibodeaux who was Little Ricky on I Love Lucy. He was later in Little David and the Giants, and is now a born again Christian.


The Gentrys 1968 @ Lafayette High. Nice pants. 


Wrong Way 


Thomas Edison's Electric Light Bulb Band 1968 


Sussex 6 with Little Ricky! I would kill for that Vox amp. 

Curtis Cottrell is THE shit

Notice the important semantic subtlety there. I generally fall into the category of A shit. Curtis is THE SHIT. As in, the MAN. See, there's a big difference. He has uploaded a ton of flyers to gigposters. They're mostly from New Orleans shows, but there are a few Lafayette ones. I completely killed our ripway bandwidth for the day uploading all the flyers, so here are some Lafayette ones. Two are from John's, which we think was the place that later became a transvestite club by the underpass on University, and the other is from Jerry's which was later Haricot's and then a Subway (sammiches, not a train). All of the flyers should be working sometime tomorrow at the flyer page. There are also separate pages for Baton Rouge flyers and New Orleans flyers. I resized many of the flyers that were already there and some of the new ones to save storage space, so if anybody wants larger versions, either check on gigposters.com or email me. There are probably more flyers on gigposters that I missed. (The site is not very easy to search.)

Curtis has links, poetry, and a great video clip of himself as a priest on his site. Check out the clip here. Jenkins said it's from some movie. We're not sure of the name. Curtis also sent all kinds of info on bands ranging from the 60's up to the 80's. Like Bernard said, he's like a Louisiana music encyclopedia. He even sent garage band photos from the LHS yearbook.

When Curtis comes to yo town, bow down.


Butthole Surfers / Reality on Trial / Graveyard Rodeo 1985 


Marching Plague / Toe Jam / Legion of Decency 1985 


The Effigies / The Horde / Pinhead 1986 

More flyers

Bernard turned me on to gigposters.com which has all kinds of old flyers and posters. I found ones for Urbosleeks, Liquidrone, Toxin III, Frigg, Strawboss, One Common Voice, Shellshock (a ton), and all kinds of badass zydeco flyers. Including this one from the seriously badass Rosie Ledet:


Rosie Ledet 


Frigg-a-go-go 


Clifton Chenier 


Toxin III / Snufflix / Disappointed Parents 

I put the ones I found on the flyer page. They aren't necessarily all from Louisiana shows though. Does anybody know if Shellshock moved to New York in their later days or something?

Zenbilly - The return of Thomas C.!

The long lost Thomas has resurfaced in Zenbilly. They've got four songs on their Myspace page and another four on their other page. It looks like from their myspace page that he is no longer in the band. Hopefully, I can get in touch with him and find out what he's been up to.


zenbilly 

Urbosleeks and Rare Avis

Rare Avis

There is now an Urbosleeks page and a Rare Avis page. There are also a few new MP3s (Oktober Groundfly, Meat Dingys, etc.) on the misc. MP3 page. Sorry for the semi-low quality, my laptop kind of sucks.


Urbosleeks

Plus, check out Jon J. having a little mic malfunction during his rock MC duties. I'm not totally sure, but I think he may have been indicating that you most likely are familiar with the routine and everyone should assume the "on your knees" position. Motherfuckers!!! Moop....meep.....mow!!!! Also, Jesus Lizard doing Ladyshoes at The Bayou (the Lafayette one) in 1992. I like the way Yow calls the audience "you all fag ass dipshits".

The Amazing Nuns, and some other stuff

Bronson is in a band called The Amazing Nuns. They don't sound anything like what I was expecting. It's very cool stuff. I'm partial to "If Jesus Came Back." Check them out, you'll be pleasantly surprised. More stuff here.

Dirty is apparently still in The Gin and Tonics. Alan Lafleur is playing with The Lost Bayou Ramblers. Unfortunately, their sound clips aren't working.

Modern Jazz Movement has 4 songs here.

Yikes!!! Somebody warn these people that being in this can lead to this. People, for your own good, just say no to band.

Ex-Urbos

The Urbosleeks boys have been staying busy in Athens. Schickenbutt already posted Ceramic Duck (metal), which has both Jasons (Jasonae?), Steve, and Jorge from Rare Avis, but they also have several other projects going. The Ginger Envelope has both Jasonses and Steve. They sound pretty mellow. Steve is also in Venice Is Sinking, and they have songs available here and hyah.

Behold, the shittiest rap on the planet, Anarchist Vampire. I recommend Hatchet Rydaz, but they're all winners. Fucking juggalos.

The Breast Monster

The Breast Monster. 

I dug this out the other day, from the Lafayette Street days. Ol' Mike A. sure wasn't too pleased about having all the precious boobies in his nudie mags sacrificed to make this beauty. But, I mean we only did it for his own spiritual well being. (He might have been tempted to touch himself. Inappropriately.) I think this makes a powerful statement. It says, you know what's in boobies? THE DEVIL. Just ask Perry Sanders. Or how about: "The modern female's psyche is juxtaposed against an idiom that has been perverted through societal pressures into a monstrosity. The breast, at once nurturing and pure, is also seen as detrimental, breast becomes beast, and is thus, AN ENIGMA." Damn, I should be an art critic.

Poster Children's tour log

I know I already posted stuff from Poster Children's tour log before, but I just checked it out in greater detail. Rose has kept a tour log pretty much since 1995 (looks like maybe even earlier.) It's interesting because the Lafayette entries are almost like a history of 1990's Lafayette live music clubs. There is Metropolis in 1995, Buck Nutty's in 1997, the Pussycat in 1999, and the Rinky Dink in 2000. Lafayette (and Baton Rouge) seem to have left a good impression on them.


From the tour log:

Lafayette, LA - April 23rd, 1995

WHAT IS IT WITH THE BATHROOMS HERE?

The most amazing bathroom goes to the Metropolis club. I suppose I am priviledged to be a girl and not have to see most of the men's bathrooms, but Rick had to take me back to see the men's bathroom of the Metropolis club. It had 3 sinks. One was clean, and the other two were those heavy steel industrial sinks and were completely filled with gallons and gallons of urine. The guy at the club saw me looking in awe at the bathroom and explained, "People kept breaking the urinals." The rest of our band seems to agree that this bathroom is the winner of the most incredible bathroom award. Word from Joe: "If I was any shorter..."

LAFAYETTE, LA

This is a wonderful town. I am beginning to think that the next big place to move might be Louisiana. I think no one knows it, but this is a really great place, and they are trying to keep it secret. The audience here is really appreciative of loud rock. Apparently Tar, Jawbox, and Arcwelder frequent this bar; that's an impressive roster to us. Tonight one of the guys in charge of the club cooked us dinner, and we were to show up at his house for it. This is always fun; usually when someone cooks us a meal, it's outstanding, and it's always very, very interesting to see a person's house. As you're walking in the door, you never know if it's going to be as messy as your house, messier, or neater, or if it'll be scary, with black candles all around, and tin-foil all over the walls. (I am speaking from experience.)

Going into someone's house gives you a better feeling of what the area is like than just seeing a club. Anyway, this guy had the most amazing house I'd ever seen. A guy who just looks like an average rocker-sort of guy, with a beautiful loft, artwork and white carpeting, who cooked us a meal of two types of chicken, and pasta and stewed tomato-stuff, complete with a cucumber salad. When we get off this tour, once again, we will be spoiled from eating so well. At home, the favorite recipe is Ramen noodles and vegetables. Sometimes we stir-fry the vegetables first.


Also, I have more flyers up on the flyer page. This batch were ones that were too big for my scanner so they're photos. The picture quality is kind of shitty on some.


Poster Children @ Buck Nutty's 1997 

Full Hank and Stalag 13

There are now separate MP3 pages for Full Hank and Stalag 13. I'm going to do the same for Urbosleeks and Rare Avis, maybe Frigg-a-go-go too if nobody objects. (Those are the bands that I have the most stuff from.) Miscellaneous other stuff is still on the regular MP3 page.

Also, I joined Tickle Dracula.

Life after Boudini

I was trying to figure out whatever happened to the Great Boudini (Cajun Magician with a foam rubber alligator who came on between Scooby Doo and Bravestarr on Fox 15 in the afternoons.) What the hell would a sixty year old with poor ventriloquism skills and a slightly discolored alligator do in his spare time? He seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. For god's sake, some guy at TV10 didn't even know who he was!?! "What's a great boudini?" (He got 50 lashings with a foam gator for that.) I finally found out that his real name is Ken Meaux. And as you would expect, he's doing the obvious follow up to a career in magic, he's now an expert UFOlogist. Also, a leading investigator into Cajun time travel. And, yes, even a Michael Jackson soothsayer:

(From an old Advertiser article or something)
Ken Meaux of Kaplan is a recognizable personality in the Acadiana area. For decades, he has entertained the public as The Great Boudini and is the author of 'Bec Doux,' a compilation of his cartoons that were once a regular feature in The Advertiser. Meaux said he classifies himself as a 'neo-magician.'

“I’m one of the early new magicians that seek to present magic as entertainment, but using the components of reality-bending principals.”

Meaux was recently among a number of local residents featured in a British Broadcasting Company production on the local folk healers known as traiteurs. Meaux also acted as a consultant on the project. Meaux said that when looking into future events, it’s best for the reader to know as little as possible about the subject matter, to avoid having it influenced.

“Subconsciously or consciously, I’m going to base a reading on what you told me. It’s better not to tell me anything about it.”

Meaux makes predictions with one caveat: “Fortelling the future is almost impossible. The future can’t be known, because we can change it.” Still, Meaux has some predictions for the world of entertainment.

“For Michael Jackson, he’ll be found both guilty and innocent. He’s guilty of something, but not this one. He’ll be found innocent by his fans, but guilty by the courts. He won’t serve time. It’ll be probation or house arrest.”

Good job Boudini! You've successfully predicted that MJ is a rich perv. Way to go. You have to love Lafayette celebs. Other towns have their football stars, movie stars, etc. We have time travelling ventriloquist ufologists from the future. Viva Lafayette!


"Hey chile, come sit in Boudini's lap and tell Mr. Alligator hyah where ya daddy keeps his viagra." 

Various band links

Orbis Quintus leads to all kinds of cool stuff. Like this Louisiana discography. Did you know Bas Clas was around since the 70's? I didn't. You can listen to Bas Clas here. Also The Normals, from New Orleans are definitely worth checking out. And of course The Zoomers and The Buns on Orbis Quintus. I saw that Toxic Shock (now Toxic Ranch) still carries Shell Shock. I think I'll have to get off my lazy ass and order some of this stuff.

This guy (Rocky) was in various old bands and has stuff up on myspace: The Numbers 1982-83, Private Joy 1983-85, and Swinging D's 1987-89. Then he apparently got into rap metal. Interesting evolution, new wave to rap metal.

Hello, bumper. Nice to meet you. I'm T'so's face.

Here's an entertaining short video clip of T'so biting it in Baton Rouge while trying to railslide up an old car bumper. Get it while the bandwidth holds up.

Orbis-quintus.net

This site has quite a bit of info on old Baton Rouge (and some New Orleans) bands from back in the day. Plus they have MP3s of several of them. I was hoping to hear a Shitdogs track, but those links were dead. But the rest of them seem to work. I heard of the Shitdogs (great name) and The Zoomers this week from Chris Cart and I gather from the site that they were a pretty big deal in Baton Rouge. They've got several Zoomers songs, so check 'em out.

It also looks like they have plans for doing a Louisiana punk/new wave show in the near future. Very cool.

I noticed that there is a Toxin III MP3 available at this link, which I didn't post before. Check it out, you heathens!

The Ragin' Cajun, Johnny Fasullo

Check out The Ragin' Cajun, Johnny Fasullo on WWOZ radio (New Orleans) Sundays from 1-2:30 PM (CST). You can get the web feed here. I'm not that into traditional cajun (I'm more of a zydeco guy) but this dude is the fucking best. I don't know where the hell he's from, but he sure ain't from the west side of the swamp. He sounds like he crawled out of Justin Wilson's ass or something. (By the way, if you from the west side of the swamp, make them other cajuns bow down. When they come to yo town. You like the Ice Cube of the swamp and shit. Now go save the groceries.) Anyway, it's worth the wait just to hear him ramble about stuff.



"Nah fyaw fyaw fyana hah, yessah. Haha! Nah, ya'll fyana fyaw wicha Johnny Fasullo hyah! Hoo hoo!" 

Old skate spots

I've got some various old skate photos stored here. I'm trying to focus on the skatespots as much as possible- various ramps, parking garages, banks, ditches, etc. If anybody has some good ones, send them to me and I'll post them or I can just send you the link and you can do it yourself if you want. Some of the ones I had kind of suck but I'll replace them if I can find better ones. Mucho gracias to Smiley for the great photos, especially the Pink Panther (abandoned concrete skatepark in New Orleans), and to Fly for the old pics of Thomas's ramp. Anybody have good photos of John Wayne or people skating in the park downtown?

I was looking for pics of Charlie's old decks and found this Charlie interview. It's pretty old, but I thought it brought up some good points. Why hasn't Charlie gotten the recognition he deserves? I guess because he's always been such a nice guy. Meanwhile dipshits like Bam and Muska are sitting on top of giant mounds of money. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they aren't great skaters, but as far as personality goes, what a couple of douches. Maybe if Charlie had made a couple of really shitty hip hop tracks and stuck his head in Port-o-lets a little more often, things would have been different.

There are also some band related photos and junk here.


Smiling Michael. 


Lil' Smiley. Awwwww!!! 

200th Coming Home Tour, or How to Tell When It's Time to Throw in the Towel

I was recently checking on our old friends Zebra. Throughout the late 80's and 90's you may remember their (it seemed) constant radio commercials: "LIVE!!! AT G-G-G-GRANT STREET!!! Z-Z-Z-ZEBRA!!! THE COMING HOME TOUR!!! (Sound effects)" where they consistently played to packed houses of about 23 people. Here are some indicators that might help you tell when it's time to retire:

1. Most of the audience only knows you as "that band that keeps coming home."
2. Neither you nor anyone in the audience can remember the names of any (either) of your hit songs.
3. Your triumphant "C-C-C-COMING HOME T-T-T-OURRRR!!!" is held at places like The Sports Page. On Moss Street. Most of the audience is there because they serve liquor to minors. (As in, half are minors there for the liquor, the other half are creepy drunks there for the minors)
4. Your tour schedule looks like this:

July 2 Saturday Mike's Club Plaquemine La 11:30pm
July 4 Monday The Slidell Heritage Festival Slidell La TBA
August 13 Saturday Six Flags - New Orleans New Orleans La TBA
September 23 Friday Generations Hall for Rock-N-Roll for Kid's Sake
New Orleans La Midnight
October 14 Friday The Oyster Festival Violet La TBA
October 15 Saturday St. Cletus Fair Gretna La 9pm

5. Your promo photos look like this:


#1. Not so good. 


#2. Yikes. Mullets and collars do not mix. (unless they're leather collars) 


#3. Ok. Nevermind. Maybe 1 and 2 weren't so bad. 

Another indicator would be that you were in an original band that received some national attention in the past, but these days you are playing in a Led Zeppelin tribute band. Felix, has it come to this?

Yes, I think it has.

Hodgepodge of Lafayette related links

Sally has her own clothing company in San Diego. Looks like it's mostly t-shirts, although some other stuff too. Also some lovely ladies modelling the stuff.

Heith is a high falootin' intellectual type textbook author nowadays. Some of his other works include such classics as "Situational Constructions of Masculinity Among Male Street Thieves" and "The Effects of Criminal Justice Contact on Employment Stability for White Collar and Street-Leel Offenders", either of which I'm sure will land him on the best seller's list any day now. His students apparently find him "sooooo cute."

This Hek-atomic Cherries site has some old flyers (Milton Civic Center?!) and some funny photos of Steve and friends in their younger days. One of the other guys in the band has songs available here and I guess they were in some way related to this band Thunderpants.




A few folks' blogs:
Meister Fruge
Phillip
Tristan

And some old links that are still functioning:
Frigg
Hand Bob the Spoon
True Man Posse, still around after all these years.

And some that are gone, but survive via the way back machine:
Urbosleeks I
Urbosleeks II
Rare Avis
Cantina Recordings
Troy Premo
Strawboss

Black Bayou Construktion

Dege has a new band called Black Bayou Construktion and they have some tracks available here. Very different sound from Santeria. The members are

Dege Legg / vox, guitars
Steve Kerin / piano
Esther Tyree / violin
Chad Willis / bass
Hawley Joe Gary / drums

There are still some Santeria songs here. And check out Dege's Anatomy of a Scream project where he interviews all kinds of crazy people. It's pretty damn interesting. I'm not sure why, but he is also playing with C.C. Adcock.


Unless you're at the florist or hanging out in the Mystery Machine, never trust a man in a sash.