Dear Uncle Creepy

It occurred to me, after I posted the story of SGT. ROCK, that I really didn’t focus much on CONVULSIONS other than to touch on it’s place in the story of what was happening at the time, and its importance as it related to the future of IMPETIGO. What I didn’t go into detail about was the significance of the ‘video rental’ craze, its influence upon CONVULSIONS (and, subsequently, IMPETIGO), what the true concept of CONVULSIONS involved, and last but not least, my obsession with making audio tapes of myself (and others) hurling their guts into oblivion…an obsession that eventually evolved into a fantastic stage act!

It all figures in one way or another to the overall IMPETIGO story, so here are the details…

This isn’t intended to be a high-brow dissertation on the ‘video rental’ craze (that might be a topic for my other blog!)…indeed, many of us now take for granted that before the early 80s, the only way we could watch our favorite horror films (the ones that didn’t make it to television or, later, HBO and Cinemax) was to order and swap cheezy 8mm reels without sound. When I was a kid, I bought scores of these (mostly from Famous Monsters magazine ads; you know…the multi-page ads in the back) and in many instances, they were the only exposure to several horror cinema gems I was ever able to experience. When my family acquired a Betamax machine, I squealed with joy when we started subscribing to HBO and I was able to tape several films for repeated digestion. I paid homage to HBO by including their themesong in the IMPETIGO setlist. I remember renting Beta tapes at Fotomat (near my house in Freeport, IL) but true horror titles were scarce beyond imagination.

When I moved to Decatur, IL in 1983 was when the ‘video rental’ boom occurred in Central Illinois. I believe it was a Curtis Mathes store that first offered titles for rent as well as VHS and Beta Machines (our Betamax wasn’t ours, and we had to return it when we moved) for rental. Yeah, that was a memorable weekend…I walked in with my dad and spotted several tasty titles on their shelf. Out of about 150 tapes, they had lots of great, old and new horror films for rental. I must have grabbed 5 or 6, plus a machine. It wasn’t too long before the money I earned and didn’t spend on records was going towards weekend dubbing parties, where I would rent two machines (or rent one and borrow a friend’s machine), a handful of tapes, and have a group of pals over to dupe tapes, drink beer, and peruse the klassics. My family didn’t own a VHS machine until I moved out of the house; I lugged a box of tapes with me when I left for college in 1985, where I continued my practice of renting, dubbing, and drinking. I was still an ‘avid dubber’ and video trader all the way up to the mid-90s, giving up about the same time I gave up tape-trading.

It was this manic obsession with horror videos that was truly the co-inspiration for my band CONVULSIONS. This, coupled with my burning desire to form and play in a death metal band, was the main thrust. As I had mentioned previously, all the horrible lyrics were about and inspired by horror movies. However, the concept of CONVULSIONS expanded into a new realm once I had bailed out of college and returned to Decatur…CONVULSIONS wasn’t only a band, it was a movie…yes, that’s right, a movie of the same name that was about…what else? Zombies, vampires, sex, nudity, blood, gore, fighting, witchcraft, bizarre science, and total violence. Right before the advent of SGT. ROCK I was working on a storyboard/screenplay (in comic book format) where I began to flesh out the story of a strange satanic chemical experiment that rendered some very unlucky individuals into death, only to return as zombies to consume (and have sex with) the living!! The vampires fit in as a group hired by the government to try to control the zombie threat. I didn’t get very far before SGT. ROCK happened, and I lost my focus on the project. But, in a nutshell, that was it.

It was during this time (and while I was also working on “Splatter Zine”) that my goofy pals Brian Lehfeldt (WEHRMACHT) and Chris Merrow started sending me audio cassettes of them vomiting. I was so freaked out by this, and hysterically drawn towards this art, that I started taping myself, then others, and sending these out also (usually at the end of tapes I made for my trading pen-pals). I would bring a small hand-held tape recorder with me to parties and other gatherings, and pounce upon unsuspecting individuals when they least expected it and were completely hammered. Sometimes, I had to get them started (and help them get over their ‘stage fright’) by vomiting myself, whether I felt like it or not. I suppose this is when I began to perfect the art of ‘vomiting upon command,’ without using my fingers…anytime, anywhere. I continued this practice of taping vomit-sessions when I moved back to Bloomington-Normal to live (instead of study). It was then that my own vomiting evolved into performance art! I have dozens of pictures of myself puking ‘at command’ during various parties; I had stopped taping them and just started bringing pukes into the public domain, if you will. This evolved further into a private joke; those of you who remember IMPETIGO from the “All We Need is Cheez” days may remember that NAKED HIPPY used to play a joke-song entitled “Puke” and I would usually run onstage with a big sign that had “PUKE” in big letters written on it. Many years later, I had the notion to vomit at the end of “Red Wigglers” onstage, and that worked out great.

To this day (in fact, right now!) I can still work up my bile and send it in any direction I feel like anytime I choose to do so. It looks better if I’ve been eating chili dogs, but I can still do it!

# posted by Stevo : 1:33 PM