Spike ‘n’ Mad John™ present
Pictures and Music of Our 80s
Fifties ducktails? Hmph. Sixties hippie-hair? P’shaw. I’m sorry, but there really was no other time in our country’s history that people had such… interesting hair. And the names for bands? Please. You can keep your Killers, your Hot Hot Heat, and your White Stripes. We had Gaye Bikers on Acid, the Butthole Surfers, Jody Foster’s Army, the Dead Kennedys, Multi-Death Corporation and, of course, Scratch Acid. To name but a few.
Yes, it was the ’80s. But was it really twenty years ago? It seems like yesterday we were all together at the ‘Skeller, drinking beer and listening to Y-Translate and Great Caesar’s Ghost while railing against President Bush and his ceaseless invention of imaginary menaces, mostly in the form of Saddam Hussein.
Oh, wait — that WAS last year. Hold on a second. So what else happened at the 20th Annual Spike and Mad John party?
Ah, yes – I remember. Among other nonsense and drunkenness, Gregor “Spike” Torrence — the industrious little rapscallion that he is — volunteered to scan all of Jeff “Mad John” Benjamin’s pictures from The Days of Interesting Hair, little imagining the amount of blood, sweat, toil and tears that would be involved in digitizing 700 pictures.
Can you believe he did it all while planning to marry the girl of his dreams? Quelle man.
And you? You lucky bastard? You get to enjoy the spoils of Gregor’s toils.
Enjoy it. Try and pretend you deserve to.
— Dave “The Weasel” Theis. — November, 2005
Y-Translate
Insert your favorite “Y” joke here. Y-bother. Y-Go Bang. Y-O-Y Did she swallow the fly? Perhaps she’ll die. Laugh if you want, but you danced your ass off to these songs and might have even gotten laid afterwards. So you’re actually indebted to this stuff. Everybody! “The way you make your body move communicates what you can do…”
Snapshots
A few parties, some memorabilia and a whole lot of “Hey! I know! Let’s all go downtown and take pictures of ourselves!”
Fort Collins Haute Couture
Sure, these bands all have pictures of themselves, and certainly spent their time in front of an audience. But some students were doing all of that and getting credits for it too.
Concerts
The Smiths! REM! New Order! Camper Van Beethoven! Somewhere between Chicago and Los Angeles, the tour bus is going to have to drive through Colorado, so against their better judgement, some decent bands stopped and played shows. And Jeff was there with a camera in his shorts.
Great Caesar’s Ghost!
The band that launched a thousand DUIs. The myth, the legend, the pencil: Great Caesar’s Ghost! Look, before you listen to any of the following “songs,” take a tip from someone who’s been there: drink a case of Huber. Hell, drink two. Lord knows, the band you’re about to hear sure drank at least that much before picking up an instrument. But they still RAWKED.
Jesus As An Ornament
Ever want to hear a band play a Christmas Carol while pretending to be Dinosaur Jr? Ever seen a grown man naked? Like movies about gladiators, Billy? If you answered yes to any of the above, enjoy the rarest of commodities: not a cover band, but a… sound band. They capture the sound of your favorite obscure ’80s post-punk outfit, and make it bleed until it’s red as Christmas. Purty stuff.
Maslow’s Hierarchy
Two men and a tape deck! Gregor and Jeff kill time in their living room. Undoubtedly, there was a lot of beer involved, not to mention scissors, scotch tape, a $1.29 microphone, and a spare refrigerator shelf. Special appearances by Trim Lizard’s Matt Jervis.