Hello—Wayne here. Over the next few weeks, leading up to the release
of the vinyl version of EBLC, we are going to post thoughts, pictures,
and maybe some demos from the time frame of the record. I started
writing and kept writing so my little tale may take a few installments.
Remember, these are my memories of that time and may not reflect what
Brandon, Chris, Dave, and Timbo (Head mutant pop guru) may recall. So
here we go!!!
Part 1—WHAT? A NEW DIRECTION…SWEET SAD GOODBYE TO A FRIEND AND MEMBER…HELLO DAVE SPODIE!…
We started working on the songs of Eternal Bad Luck Charm not very
long after we completed recording Earthbound For The Holiday. I want to
say it was in November or December of 1998. I do remember two of the
earliest songs we did were “Knockout” (with a lot of different lyrics
than what ended up on the record) and “Leak”. A lot of little fights
and bickering were happening among the four of us. Hhhhmmm, this is new!
While I loved Earthbound and wanted to continue that style; I also
wanted us have some faster (punker?) shorter songs as well.
My idea was for it to be a cross between Earthbound and the first
self-titled record. Everybody seemed on board with the idea at the
time. So the decision was made to make it 50% short and rocking with
some harmonies (Mutant Pop loved the harmonies!) and 50% to have no
“punk rock rules”…You know, kind of continue the path that was started
with Earthbound For The Holiday. Brandon loved the idea of going in a
new directions while I was like “What? A new direction? Let’s keep it
simple!”.
In March of 1999, Rob left the dungs. It was a
painful and bad situation that I really still feel uncomfortable
thinking about even today. Rob played on our first three full lengths
and several seven inch, ten inch, splits, complications, etc. He had
become part our DNA as a band.
So, we started practicing as a
three piece. I remember “Fearful Symmetry” being worked on during this
time (lyrics evolved a lot during those practices), “Captured”, and a
few others.
When it came time to picking a new guitarist, only
one name was on our list. Dave Berger from Cincinnati’s SPODIE. To me,
he was the perfect guitarist for us. He could play AND sing.
To those who never had the pleasure to see or hear SPODIE in the 90’s,
Dave was absolutely fantastic in his band. A phenomenal singer,
guitarist, and frontman in his own right; we were hoping he would
provide a spark for us. We had seen him live, playing shows in
basements in and around Cincy; watching him sneer at the
punkers—pogoing up and down while strumming his guitar and belting out
his tunes…yeah, he was the guy.
When I contacted Dave, lucky
for us—he was interested!!! I was over the moon. We agreed on a list
of tunes for him to learn and we set up a weekend for him to come down,
crash at my place, and rehearse and hang out.
The first
practice with Dave was on Saturday, April 17th, 1999. I remember I was
watching the Cleveland Browns draft Tim Couch as their number one pic in
the NFL draft as Brandon arrived at the Griffith Compound for that
first rehearsal.
Rob had been with us so long—it was weird to
have someone else in the practice space with us. We plugged in, Chris
counted the song off, and we launched into “I Wanna Be Locked Up” for
our first album. As soon as Dave’s voice sang along with Brandon’s, I
could not stop smiling. I knew he was in. We played a few more tunes,
had a smoke break, excused ourselves from Dave and the three of us
agreed he was the dude we needed in the band.
We went back in
and told Dave he had the gig if he wanted it and he went absolutely
crazy…not really—he just nodded his head and said, “Cool”…Typical
Dave!