bennythejetsblog

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Where hell have I been?

Most things have stayed the same; I've been listening to many non-decal-related music. I finally got a guitar upgrade, a 1998 Fender Stratocaster in Midnight Blue (Left Handed). Finally, I'm playing rhythm guitar in a band. I want to cover Decal one of these days, maybe some lotion; who knows?

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Windows 95 & 98 / Early webcore aesthetic graphics stuff!!

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"Gardening your wig" - Lotion, Around EP

Okay, little background on this one.

So, the band I was in back in the 90s, Lotion, were well liked by the UK press. That said, we got a fair number of comparisons to R.E.M. and Hüsker Dü. Which was both A) perfectly fine with us and B) rather obvious, given that we'd all become writers and players during the golden era of what used to be considered "college rock" (to be fair, our drummer, Rob, was more steeped in both 60s jam music and more angular new wave). Weirdly, one of the names we originally considered was Sugar. And Bob Mould was apparently at our second show!

Anyhoo, our UK label wanted to release a song from our album as a single* so we needed b-sides. Not sure who came up with the original idea to do this proto mash-up, but we got to record it at Fun City with the esteemed Wharton Tiers, who was an absolute sweetheart (although I do admit I wanted it to sound more Sonic Youthy, which may have led to my biting of SY's "Tuff gnarl" at the end - if he noticed the swipe, he didn't say).

So...two covers in one! We got someone else's chocolate into someone else's peanut butter.

*"Around," from our full Isaac album, a song that I am still inordinately proud of.

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Decal Test Pressing has been found!

These were kindly sent by Jeff Jewhurst of the band IFIC and Clarke Nova.

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misc music stamps

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The Ific just released a new album, and every song on it is a shimmering HIT!. I contemplate this for album of the year unless somehow a Decal comes out of the grave and releases an album; a man can dream, you know?!?!?!

Anyway, Jeff, Chris, Johhny, and Ferenc, great job; if this album gets released physically i will buy it (like always)

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On this day in 1996, Decal released their first album (EP) to the world.

Just wow, is what I have to say. Decal's Molotov Cocktails And Other Mixed Drinks is just a banger from front to start. You should totally check this one out.

Anyway, cheers to another 28 years.

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Latest pickup - 4/14/2023

The IFIC - Wrong Way B/w Flakin' Out. This is the debut single from the band, and it is absolutely fantastic. Give it a listen; you won't be disappointed!

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#stevefaine #decal #decalsf

TUMBLRRRRR!!! LOOK AT THIS POST RIGHT NOW!!!!!

in (approximately?) THREE DAYS (so on 4/16/24), it WILL BE.....

STEVE FAINE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!

☆ above picture courtesy of: source ☆

please draw or make some sort of extravalegant birthday cake of some type for the occasion!!! even if YOU, the person reading this, has LITTLE TO NO CONTEXT as to what you're seeing!!!

DISCLAIMER - this is NOT organized in a way that is harmful or mean to ANYONE including the person this is.... addressed to???? idk how to word it. i randomly thought of this while reblogging neil banging out the tunes posts and figured id do it lol

now.....GET OUT THERE AND MAKE SOME CAKES (or sushi?) BY (or on) THE 16TH!!!!

also you *can* do similar things on the other 3 decals' birthdays but ill get to that later

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Ah, those glorious days of the early Internet, when a tiny little San Francisco startup managed to pull off the seemingly impossible feat of streaming video and audio over dial-up connections. Now, that is very much possible, but back then, it was impressive as hell. Anyway, here is a promo video from ZDTV.

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Lotion - Vanillaroma, was that recorded in the studio and put out officially? Or was that a live-only song?

Hello, Ben!

We fully recorded “Vanillaroma” for the second album, Nobody’s Cool (including a flamenco inspired flugelhorn solo by Kurt Ralske), and even did a rough mix before it got dropped from the final tracklist.*

So, it’s never had an official release of any kind. But it may pop up on here one of these days if I can find it. 😉

*(hence the liner notes thanking Kurt “uncredited flugelhorn” Ralske)

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Where have I been last 2 months? well, this gets crazy.

On February 18, 2024, I got a message from @dingleberry-7708 saying, "Kingdom First is playing in Washington and Oregon." These two states are near me. I had the bright idea to drive 4 hours to see them and also drag two of my friends now bandmates, along with me, as well as get my decal Molotov cocktail record signed by both Chrises (more on this later)

I went to see the Portland show on March 2. It was a blast. The doors opened at 8, and we arrived around 8:30. We were in Once I paid for my ticket. I see Chris Stark just on his phone, sipping his drink. I approached him and asked, "By any chance, were you the drummer for the band Decal?", Exact words "holy shit, hahaha, yes." we got into good detail about the history and such it was great. Chris Stark was unbelievably cool, dude. He signed the record, and it was cool. Chris Carroll was absent from this show..... sadly ugh,

Talking to Matt Jervis, the guitarist for Clarke Nova. Matt was thrilled that I was a fan of the Clarke Nova. I asked questions about the band and such. It was great. He was cool as hell, also.

On the actual show, two bands played before K1. K1 went up, and I was in the second row in the crowd; there was so much energy from the band. Matt was so energetic for a frontman, and it was remarkable.

March 2, 2024, is gonna be remembered as an essential day in my life, I met a person I look up to and got to see K1. Thanks, Matt and Chris. You FUCKING ROCK!!!!

Listen to Kingdom first here The song being played is Look

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okay tumblr. i have....something that might count as a question

so basically on the original mid-late '90s website for Decal (an obscure San Francisco punk band I like that I talk about a little bit on my pinned post) there's....this section of the site (called Homemade Spaceship) which i assume was a side project of Decal's lead singer/lead guitarist Bob Conlon. (screenshot of main menu below)

another interesting thing is not one, but TWO (and maybe even three if you count the main-main menu) pages on the site that this strange amalgamation is on POSSIBLY INDIRECTLY mention the Homemade Spaceship site having some kind of audio:

this specific topic has peaked my curiosity for a while now and i wonder if anyone out there on tumblr would like to help with this.....search, if one can call it a search. thanks!

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Rest In Peace Chris Christopher Lehmann

I just found out that Chris Lehmann, guitarist/lead vocalist of the band Heavy Into Jeff, died about 6/7 years ago. The bassist of the band confirmed this. It's a sad day; he will be missed.

HIJ played with Decal and Clarke Nova many times in the past, and the band is noted in the liner notes of Molotov Cocktails And Other Mixed Drinks and ....finnaly

Definitely check out FU on Spotify its a bop.

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From the CD "Animania" (/Animania Vol 1.iso/anims_hi), via diskmaster.textfiles.com.

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