Thirsting Quench Pisses off Hardcore Punks with New Album

I've been making little recordings under the pseudonym of Thirsting Quench since I was 17 when I formed a band called Dr. Kamikaze and the $35 Sound with my friend Jeff. He was the good doctor, so I needed an alternate identity as well. The formula for DK&$35S was usually that Jeff was the chaos/noise and I was the order/orchestration. Lately I've been recording solo and get to throw in a bit more of the noise myself, but there's definitely a through-line from Kamikaze to TQ material. But when Kamikaze performed live, occasionally Jeff would also like to add in visual or performance aspects outside of the music.

For example, in February of 2003, Jeff booked us for a hardcore punk festival in Madison, Wisconsin knowing that musically we were the furthest from hardcore punk a band could possibly be. For that show we played about 15 minutes of improvised loops of ambient synthesizer and piano drones accompanied by trumpet solos and spoken word with no drummer. If I remember correctly, there's a good chance neither of us even used any distortion pedals that night. Of course, our pretentious way of thinking of it as barely twenty-year-olds was that pissing off an entire room full of punks and not doing what was expected of you was just about the most punk thing one could do.

Somehow, the crowd reacted favorably and some mohawked students even came up to ask us about some of the sound sources we used (we'd also packed the place with friends, so by the end of our set there was enough applause to encourage others into thinking it was acceptable).

Not everyone was in favor of our crashing the hardcore party though. As we packed up our gear, on the last trip out to the car, while wheeling my amp down an ice-coated sidewalk, some of the attendees who were less liberal in their definition of "hardcore punk" saw us as they exited down at the opposite side of the building. They yelled some accusatory obscenities as they took off across the snow-covered grass to chase us.

Jeff slipped and fell on his ass. I kinda tried to ride my amp down the hilly sidewalk until it fell over. We were, all us, a little drunk (see, we did have common ground with these punks, if only they took the time to get to know us), so it's a bit blurry, but our friend Elliott, who I mentioned having attended his amazing-tastic wedding in a recent post, somehow saved our asses, and I believe he did it by choosing to stand his ground, yelling something like, "Back off," and, fists clenched, kinda rushing back towards the charging punks (who, in reality, weren't moving that quickly, trudging through several inches of snow). The punks slowed, almost paused, probably not expecting an actual standoff but just good natured chasing to put some fear in the outsiders, giving Jeff and me enough time to regain our footing, unlock the doors to my classy, green Chrysler LeBaron, and toss in the amp, before Elliott stopped in his tracks and hauled ass (he had been a track runner in high school--again, I think; it's all getting a bit blurry at this age, drinks or no drinks, nevertheless he was svelte and quick) and dived into the back seat (he was, for a matter of fact, on the diving team, this I do remember). Then we all went to a house-party and did many a stupid things. Later, Elliott fell into Lake Mendota. But that's a story for another time.

Anyway, that's just one of the myths from the Dr. Kamikaze book of legends. It's all just fair warning that if, dear reader, you identify as a hardcore punk, this new recording, called ʃmæltst may make you want to trudge through snow in the dead cold of a Midwestern February night to beat the shit out of me. Then again, hardcore punk, we thought we were going to piss off an entire venue of you once, and most of you came around to it. Maybe give a listen, eh? So try clicking here to listen and/or download the album for free. The sample track below is probably the most hardcore I've ever gone in my music and it sounds very little like anything else on the album. So click that link and check the rest out.

                       

ʃmæltst Cover

                               

Cloudy with a Chance of Ron Barrett

This past weekend my wife and I were more than excited to catch up with some of our best Madison and Chicago friends at the wedding of my buddy, Elliott (who I've known since sixth grade) and his beautiful wife, Rebecca. I've had some great times with Elliott and Rebecca, but many of those times were at Pitchfork Music Fest where it's kinda hard to get to know your friend's girlfriend over the sound of squealing guitars and too-loud neon headbands ("Neon Headbands," hey, that could be the name of a band reviewed on Pitchfork!). So I had no idea that her father was the one and only, Ron Barrett.

As his bio states, Ron Barrett is the internationally bestselling illustrator of many books for children, including Superhero Joe, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Pickles to Pittsburgh, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, and Old MacDonald Had an Apartment House. His illustrations have been honored by the Society of Illustrators and have been exhibited at The Louvre in Paris. He lives in New York City.

Ron is also someone I've admired for some time, especially for his work with National Lampoon (as Ron refers to it, "when it was really good"--he says he "later became the magazine's art director and funeral director"). Here's a sample:

Having loved his illustration and amazing sense of humor, when my wife and I began planning our anthology of prose, interviews, and comics about beds, The Way We Sleep, Ron was, I believe, the second or third person I contacted to solicit for a piece to include in the book. He was definitely one of the first to respond. And what a generous response. He offered to develop one piece, sending sketches and pencils along the way for editorial approval (I would've approved if he sneezed in a cocktail napkin and sent it our way). Then when he had finished the several page long, full color comic, he offered to create another original piece for the book.

The wine flowed, the Wisconsin cheese and sausage appetizers amazed, and the wedding was beautiful (despite the day drifting back and forth from stormy to drizzly). And Ron was, of course, gracious and generous, spending time on the day of his daughter's wedding to ask in depth about how the book's sales were going and how we were doing. Of course, I waited until my eyes were red with exhaustion and wine, my tie was disheveled, and the night was coming to an end to ask to snatch a snapshot. But Ron still looks dapper.

From left to right: Ron Barrett; Beautiful wife; Guy who doesn't know how to tie a tie

You can check out the two amazing comics Ron gave us for, like, absolutely no reason other than he's the swellest of guys in The Way We Sleep! And, obviously, go see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 in theaters!