Pete’s Intro

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And away we go – on to Do Not Eat!

Ingus – We sold out of the original EP pretty quickly, and squandered the profits from it, but we still wanted something to sell at shows. Recording another release was out, though, as Ratza quit the band moments after our performance at Omnium Gatherum II to join a goth-ish band called Williams Bench, and eventually found Army of Juan and a long and pretty damn cool solo career.

Louis and I were obviously a little down. Mike Boyd from Lapeer County Rockers filled in for us for a show at the Capitol Theater opening for Dead Eye Dick, but we had to cancel three other shows. To keep his momentum up, Louis made a mix tape for himself of selected songs from the ep, random outtakes and junk, and audio tracks from cam-corded live shows to listen to in his car. I loved it, and suggested we copy up a bunch of em.

Meanwhile, I was teaching Gymnastics (for real) at a club in Flint, and one of my co-workers played guitar (note: not bass). Despite having a VERY different personality than me or Louis, Jay Brooks was roped in and became our second bass player.

Now that we had a line-up again, it was time to fire up the four track, and we managed to lay down six demos with Jay before he left the band, on stage, at the Capitol Cafe.

We combined those six demos and Louis’ drive-around tape, plus some clips from Burnt Toast, The Movie (which was really just Louis, Ratza and I goofing around Davison with a cam-corder being idiots) and made Do Not Eat, which I believe ended up selling more copies than the ep.

Pete’s intro comes from a VHS camcording of a show at the Capitol Cafe. It was a packed house, and to my mind, the absolute most fun show we played in the Ratza years.

Louis – The Dead Eye Dick show was definitely with Brooks.  I remember very clearly how popular he was with the ladies (not that I was jealous or anything…).  Ingus probably doesn’t remember all that well because he was suffering from a fever that night (no “cowbell” jokes, please), and was a bit worse for wear.  It also was the only time (to my memory, which admittedly isn’t all that great) we got to play with the Rugby Mothers, something we had been wanting to do for a very long time (they were awesome, by the way).  I would also guess that it was towards the end of Brooks’ run (I’m not as sure about that one).

The show with Boyd was at the Theatre, but it was something like a Flintfest type of thing.  Ratza played the same show with his new band (possibly with the previously mentioned Williams Bench).

I didn’t know Ratza had quit at Omnium Gatherum, to me it just seemed like he had simply disappeared…possibly alien abduction?…walkabout?…perhaps they took him to the farm my parents took Spot to when I was a kid?…hell, maybe even that three month old cheeseburger that he found in his trunk of his car (…and promptly ate without a second thought) poisoned him.  All I knew was he wasn’t there, and we had a show to play.