Dear Uncle Creepy

Ty Smith RIP 1969-2011

2011-09-27T13:23:00.002-04:00

Brett Fugate just informed me that my good friend and musickal cohort from years past, Ty Smith, has just passed away a few days ago. I have no idea what happened, but Ty and I were close for a few years, he was an awesome person, and my thoughts go to his family and friends.

I haven't been in touch with Ty for many, many years. I first met Ty when LEVIATHAN (he was their drummer at the time) played the infamous outdoor park show in Decatur, IL with SGT. ROCK back in 1987. He was a skinny kid with super-long and mega-thick hair who was a monster behind the kit.

A short time later, Ty started "Poison Planet" zine and, among other things, was a founding and instrumental part of the legendary NAMLAND with members of IMPULSE MANSLAUGHTER, through whom I met my great friend John Tolczyck (later of EYE-GOUGER). Ty and I corresponded profusely and traded tapes exhaustively, whenever I went to Peoria I regularly visited him at his folks' house (if we were in Peoria right now, I could still take you there). When I lived at 1602 Circle Ave in Bloomington (circa 1990) Ty visited often and for a short time, we were both in a crust-core band called DETESTATION (how many of you remember that?!?). He eventually moved to Bloomington for a bit, and worked for me at the gas station I managed.

Then he moved to Portland, where he became a member of the crushing RESIST...we swapped letters occasionally and then I lost track of him altogether. Now he's gone, and I have no idea what happened. If anyone knows anything, please reach out to me...you know how to do that.

RIP, bro...

Interview with STEVO for Headbangers Panama

2011-09-20T13:29:00.000-04:00

New interview with me up on Headbangers Panama today. Yes, it's in English.

Mega thanks to my old friend Mechelus for reaching out, if you remember from "the gool ol' days," Mechelus was one half of one of my favorite bands Jefe de la Morgue...Mechelus was always a great and true friend, I distributed their demo "Esclava de la Perversion" for a while and fully supported their sickening craft. Hails, brother! Onward to RED DOG!!

TOMBSTONES - we have ARRIVED!!!

2010-07-23T13:10:00.000-04:00

The debut CD from TOMBSTONES "Not For The Squeamish" has been released by RAZORBACK!!

For more details, go HERE!!

Also, our page is up on Metal Archives!

Support our habit for making twisted fun metal musick, as well as RAZORBACK's efforts to deliver the kind of noise you WANT and NEED, devoid of evil bullshit and corporate greed, by purchasing this CD today!

Personally, this is probably my favorite vocal performance ever...very 3 dimensional and even surprising me at times after hearing the final cut. You may or may not disagree...check it out and see for yourself!

Kudos to Wayne and Patrick for their fantastic work, and thanks of corpse to Billy for his support!

Buy it now, let us know what you think...or are you afraid to peek inside the ghastly tomb of TERROR?!?

Interview with Stevo: DARKSIDE webzine January 2010

2010-04-02T16:13:00.000-04:00

Hey SICKOS...while you're waiting for more chunks of vomit, I thought I'd post this interview I completed earlier this year...my good friends at DARKSIDE webzine (fantastic site with loads of info) reached out to me late last year and were patient enough to wait for my dinosaur-like response.

It's quite a massive interview, and since the majority of the website is in RUSSIAN, I thought I'd post my interview en masse so that the rest of us can read what I'm saying in ENGLISH.

1. Greetings, Stevo! Thanks that you’ve agreed to answer our questions. It is great to find a reason to speak about IMPETIGO again – after all, this band is one of the most charismatic examples of early grindcore style. Your material sounds powerful and solid and stands apart from noisy jokes, which were being released by most of your contemporaries. We apologize, if some of our questions you have already heard a thousand times before. We want to make maybe not too long, but profound interview. We’d like to ask you not to perceive this conversation too seriously – that’s not an interrogation. If you don’t like the question, forget about it. If you want to change a subject and start writing some free thoughts, go ahead! Are you ready (we’ll accept the only answer, «yes!»)?

I think I am ready, you knew I’d say YES…it warms my black heart just to know that 16 years after we disbanded, people still think about us in a way I could have never imagined.

2. The weather is fine in Moscow, as well as in Minsk. How do you do? By the way, it’s been a long time since the official IMPETIGO page and your own blog were updated…

I’m doing fine, but not very happy about the weather – as summer slips away, the air gets colder and the sunshine slowly disappears. Winter’s doom is imminent! Time for the vampires to rise and take control of the night! The official IMPETIGO page isn’t really owned by us, but by the folks at Brain-Dead zine. I haven’t been in contact with them in a while, maybe Mark has. Yes, I kinda let the “Lesions” blog sit dormant for a while, but I have a few posts ready to update the story I was telling and once my PC/internet capabilities see better days, I will certainly return to that forum.

3. I think, we should start from going back in history for those who are not involved in grind too much. For us, IMPETIGO ‘90 – it’s, first of all, mid-tempo music, impressive sound and lazy gore material. Whose idea was to «condense» the sound like that? Most of other bands just wanted to be faster and more aggressive. How did you find your own sound?

It’s hard to say; ‘grind’ was really in its infancy when we first started making our noise, and soon after our beginning, we began to adopt the ‘grinding’ sound of the day, of which you described very well in your question. The idea really goes to Mark for craftily exposing me to the ways and means of this sound, I enjoyed NAPALM DEATH and CARCASS early on but he really turned me into a freak over bands like this; so at first it was a ghastly hybrid of the thrash-core and early grind, and then our growing death metal influence permeated that essence, which resulted in our eventual death-grind formula. We felt like we were fast enough and aggressive enough, we wanted to be HEAVIER and I think that really made all of the difference.

4. Your second full-length album «Horror of the Zombies»… I have noticed that Russian listeners do not understand it at all, but they idolize «Ultimo Mondo Cannibale». In America, as we know, the situation is opposite. Why did your change your style from amazing gore-grind to less vigorous, but more adult death/grind?

As I said in the previous answer, it was all about a HEAVIER sound…I don’t think we really moved away from anything we had before, we just made it heavier and we became better at playing the material, more creative in writing, and a great deal of improvement in our execution, from performance to studio work. With the first album, there was no ‘cohesiveness,’ it was a miasma of early material and current material. When preparing for the second album, we had a chance to write a distinct suite of material, within a rather concise timeframe, and worked on it all within the course of a year, and always as a confined ‘group’ of songs. We took some of the ‘loose and random’ mayhem in our work up to and including 1990 and applied it in a different area in a very unique way. The mayhem is still there, but its pulse is stronger and more lethal by comparison.

5. After this album you did not find enough time to devote it to your group anymore, and you didn’t want IMPETIGO to become a job. What was after IMPETIGO’s split-up? We do not know anything about what happened with Mark, Dan and Scott. You in your turn have started a few side-projects. For example, CONVULSIONS. Please, tell us about it. The only information one can find in the Internet is that you were planning to release some promo material… but still no news or songs. When will we have a chance to listen to some fresh old-school stuff?

As most of you know, I was involved with CHURCH OF MISERY (later INSOMNIA) at the time of IMPETIGO’s demise. I also tried to start a band called ZOMBIE with COM guitarist Neil and MASTERFISTER drummer Chad that never really happened. I made some guest appearances with MASTERFISTER as a bass player, and also did guest vocals for a few bands recordings. Mark wasn’t in any bands, Scott played in a couple of local bands (notably, 13 FRIGHTENED GIRLS who released a few EPs) and Dan focused on his new project BADGER BOYS, having recorded some material that was never released. When INSOMNIA split up, I was completely done with music before my attempt to resurrect ZOMBIE a few years ago; ZOMBIE would eventually become CONVULSIONS, which was the name of a band I tried to start before SGT ROCK/IMPETIGO. The original concept of CONVULSIONS changed when Gregg (ex-LINCOLN LOVE LOG) and Tom (CARDIAC ARREST, SEVERED, ex-DOGOD) became members of the band, and to make a long story short: the next time the 3 of us can get together for the weekend, we will work out some stuff and try to record a few tracks. Nothing more than homage of the kind of stuff that got us into death metal, and nothing more. On the other hand, I am also embroiled in an active plot to return to death metal in a band called TOMBSTONES – this band started as BEWARE with me, Patrick Bruss (CRYPTICUS), Wayne (DECREPITAPH), and Kam Lee (MASSACRE). When Kam left to focus on BONE-GNAWR, we became TOMBSTONES and are slowly but surely working on our debut CD. Check out our myspace page: myspace.com/tombstonesdeath. There are some great advance tracks on there that are guaranteed to make your blood turn BLACK!!

6. And what about INSOMNIA? All right, we all know that IMPETIGO was inspired by horror movies. What was the inspiration behind playing doom metal? Desire to play mid-tempo, slow grind leads you to this style?

More or less, it was my life-long obsession with BLACK SABBATH that was the primary key in developing what started as CHURCH OF MISERY, then INSOMNIA. In the late 80s/early 90s when 4 of my favorite bands were CANDLEMASS, ST.VITUS, AUTOPSY and PENTAGRAM/DEATHROW, and also inspired by newer bands such as CATHEDRAL, COUNT RAVEN, SOLITUDE AETURNUS, PAUL CHAIN, etc, I formed the band with my long-time friend Neil Hardesty as a side-project…we were just going to record one demo tape and be done with it, as we had no hopes of finding a drummer or other band members, and I was very busy with IMPETIGO as the main focus of my musickal life. When we met Brett Fugate, who booked the infamous IMPETIGO show at the Italian-American hall in Peoria, he was the drummer for local death/thrash band COMA, who were very unique and very good. Brett was a big IMPETIGO fan, and while we were working out the details for the IMPETIGO show Brett and I talked about CHURCH OF MISERY and he was very much into the same material we were working on, and wanted to join the band. Since I had studio time already booked, and no time to get him acquainted with the 2 songs we had worked out, Neil and I recorded all the instruments (I played guitar, drums, and bass in addition to growling) for the demo and introduced Brett as our full-time drummer with the release of the demo. Almost immediately we started playing a few shows locally (mostly in the Peoria area), as nobody knew somebody from IMPETIGO was in the band so that band’s reputation never came up! CHURCH OF MISERY was really still ‘side-band status’ until IMPETIGO split up, at which point I focused on C.O.M. A few months later, we scrapped most of our early material, changed the name of the band to INSOMNIA and moved away from the ‘death/doom’ style to the ‘traditional doom’ style. This was fun, and some of the best stuff I’ve written outside of IMPETIGO, but my failure as a vocalist and as a bandleader resulted in our only studio work as C.O.M. (the demo plus unreleased LP), and the only INSOMNIA material ever recorded was live shows. Again, regardless of what you may have heard back then, it was my fault and my fault alone that INSOMNIA dissolved. I said some things about my relationship with Brett and Neil that weren’t true – they were better glue in that group than I was, and were both the best thing EVER about that band. I let them down and I will never fully get over that.

7. What has changed in your life after such a famous project as IMPETIGO split-up? What were you feelings during the first months after that?

My feelings at first were filled with regret – I was unsure if we’d made the right move, considering the newest material (only a few songs) we had been working on and some of our ‘future concepts’ that Mark and I were developing. That regret was negated by the almost immediately-realized scope of our legacy a few years later with the MORBID reissues and the surprisingly growing level of our popularity, even after disbanding. When Razorback did the “Wizards of Gore” tribute album, that was when I fully realized the importance of us splitting up when we did. It’s hard to explain, but as I’ve said time and time again, it was the right thing to do at precisely the right time. All the way up to “HOTZ,” the world truly got the very best of what we had to offer.

8. Great! Now we should pass to present time. Fifteen years after the split-up IMPETIGO prepares a present for fans and makes a comeback only for one show. This performance was unexpected thing for us. How did the idea to make that show come to you? Was it something unusual to rehearse again after long silence period? And what can you say about the guests on that show?

What a lot of folks don’t know is that we had pondered a mini-reunion to do a one-shot EP nearly 5 years ago or so. Mark and I had discussed our unrealized material (a loosely concept-oriented suite about Asian Horror Films) and felt like maybe returning to that for a recording session and subsequent release. It didn’t take long before we realized that with me being in Kentucky and the rest in Illinois how difficult this would have been to achieve – add to that our personal lives and financial burdens and it was very ‘undoable’ in more ways than one. Fast forward to the fall of 2006, when Mark contacted me with a proposal to reunite to play the upcoming CIM 2007 festival in Urbana, Illinois. He had been talking with the organizer Matt Bishop a few times about this from a ‘what if’ standpoint, and this time around the way he presented it appealed to me – especially when I realized that 2007 would have been the 20th anniversary of our inception as a band, and the event itself would take place almost precisely on the date of our very first live appearance. So, the stars seemed to be in alignment, he worked on enlisting the cooperation of the rest of the band, and we committed to this. It was my stipulation that the reunion would be a ‘one time only’ affair. Matt was behind the event 100% and was fantastic to work with. It was unusual getting back together for the first time – I had to travel several hours to practice, which we did as a group 3 or 4 times (the rest of the guys did get together a few times on their own, without me). Most of the lyrics came back to me, but I did need to use lyric sheets as prompts during rehearsal – I had them available at the show itself, but I didn’t use them. Revisiting playing the songs wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be; it’s true I hadn’t even touched the material since we disbanded (or much of ANY material, really – you may as well consider me ‘out of practice’ completely) but everything came right back to me very quickly, as though it had only been 15 days and not 15 years. What was also very different is the amount of friends and fiends who joined us for practice; when we were together years ago, practice was always CLOSED and I never allowed other to watch us work out. This time around, it was a very comfortable experience, still efficient, and during breaks we shared a lot of stories and caught up with each other after so many years of silence. The guest appearances live was pretty much worked out very early during our planning: we knew Kam would be at the show, and Matt (of course) being the show’s organizer we couldn’t resist giving him a shot to scream with us (when he was in LIVIDITY, they covered “Bloody Pit…”). Guest vocals on ‘Defiling the Grave” was a regular event for us when we played in the 90s; we had a friend helping out on the album recording session, and usually live someone would join us (most memorable was Jeff from VITAL REMAINS, he owned the stage when he appeared with us in Milwaukee!!) and I think Rob (our guest for this song in the reunion) did it with us in the 90s at least once. I was also chuffed when Dave K of LIVIDITY jumped up and did a stage-dive – great pal, longtime friend and fan of the group, it was great!!!

9. For how long haven’t you been on stage? Many musicians admit that it’s an amazing feeling – to know that all these people are here only for you, to be in the focus of attention. Maybe you were nervous and used some mantra while preparing for the show?

I hadn’t been on stage (per se) since the final IMPETIGO live appearance at the Milwaukee Metal Fest in 1993. That was a very rough show and under the circumstances, we should have played better but didn’t. As I recall, I ended the show by throwing my bass into the air and screaming “KILL! KILL!” for whatever reason…being on stage again was truly exhilarating, it was our first show EVER where we had stage monitors that actually worked (Matt’s crew at CIM had better sound equipment, design, and setup than even Jack Koshick’s legendary Milwaukee Metal Fest(s), this is the TRUTH) and the crowd was completely engaged in the performance. I think on the DVD release of the performance you will see how being so happy resulted in my being distracted from time to time – on the other hand, you’ll probably never notice. It was our ‘dream’ stage set-up, more or less an accomplishment we never realized during out existence – props, soundbytes in between songs, proper equipment, etc. I wasn’t as nervous as you’d think; as Ron Salden says I’m a ‘born entertainer’ and I’m not really agreeing with him but such a performance (including the ranting ad-libs I generate to introduce songs) and all that goes with it really comes natural to me. Never had ‘stage fright,’ ever. I am usually more concerned about accidentally swallowing rubber worms! Many were disappointed that I wasn’t able to vomit freely during the final song (something I did regularly during our shows) – for the record, I did try but I think I was too ‘distracted’ by all the fun I was having!!

10. Why this truly historical event wasn’t released on DVD? I believe that it would have made a nuclear explosion effect for every die-hard IMPETIGO fan. Or maybe you want to depict some details, a few episodes from this show right now?

Actually it is coming out on DVD very, very soon! Also on the DVD will be some of our ‘kvlt’ early videos and live shows. The DVD is being released by our friends at DEATHGASM, it went to press a few weeks ago and should be out in February 2010. Keep your eyes peeled for news on this release – in the meantime you can hear it on CD courtesy of Epitomite Productions!

11. To be honest, I still can’t understand, what do you find in albums of Massacre or Master, what is their zest (maybe, I’m just not of that generation?). Please, give your opinion about this old-school material. It will be interesting to talk about your musical preferences. Which bands do you prefer, and which do not. Just a small digression.

I think maybe in part it is generational, and maybe not. As it is for all music, it is always a ‘personal experience’ that gauges your tastes. For me, it started off in actually being friends with these folks during the time in which they were making the music. We all started making our own noise because we were dissatisfied with what was available for us to buy back then; that’s the true origin of the underground. From the very beginning, I would get a crappy quality cassette of a MASSACRE demo and I knew I was in for something special. Personally, it’s the attitude behind the music in most cases that gives it the flavor that appeals to me. I also appreciate the structure of the sounds, as I was part of the ‘group’ that was making and enjoying this music as it evolved from an attempt to create what kind of sound ‘we’ like to a bona-fide document of the true underground sound. As for what I’m listening to now, it’s pretty much the same as what I enjoyed back then, plus a generous helping of Japanese music (of ANY kind). For me, the best thing is that it’s got to be HEAVY. We consider metal to be HEAVY, but this applies to punk, new wave, rock, and even pop sometimes. Early on, besides the masters (MASSACRE, MASTER, SLAUGHTER, DEATH, REPULSION, CELTIC FROST, VOIVOD, etc) I also enjoyed stuff like SEPTIC DEATH, JIM JONES & THE KOOL AIDE KIDS, CASBAH, etc. As grindcore emerged, bands like MORTICIAN, CARCASS, NAPALM DEATH, and BLOOD were among my favorites. Way too many to mention, I always stop somewhere on these listings and after I respond, it never fails…I think “oh krap I didn’t mention those guys”!!!

12. When listening to these bands, do you feel the same as when you’ve heard those bands for the first time? I just get some albums, from which I started to listen to extreme music, and after all this time I have only one question: «Where is their former magic?!!»

Nowadays, nostalgia plays a part but still I hear MASTER and their 86 demo and that same feeling arises…the notes and their depth shoot straight to my nervous system (as they did when I first heard it) and I hear the same chords of death that I liked to hear back then and that helped form my own musical identity. For me, the magic is STILL THERE, and that’s what is beautiful about it. Again, it’s all about ‘personal experience’ and the things that go through your mind…listening to MACABRE’s “Grim Reality” EP still evokes memories of seeing them on the street outside of a VOIVOD concert, selling their records; and of the damage I caused in my bedroom when I listened to it for the first time.

13. Tell me, what have you listened to the last time (last minute, last day)? Or maybe you prefer live shows? Btw, recently one of us had a good luck to visit CARCASS concert. What do you think about their present activity and have you seen them live after their re-union?

I just listened to an old radio broadcast of THE VANDALS from 1983 on KPFK – their singer was named “Stevo” also. I also listened to “RRROOOAAARRR!!!” by VOIVOD in the car with the kids last night, they had no idea what was going on!!!!! Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of MARILLION and JUDAS PRIEST, no real connection, but I just thought of it and felt like it was bizarre enough to mention. Also, I always enjoy a healthy dose of ONMYOUZA and MACABRE, not a week doesn’t go by where I haven’t listened to at least one of their albums. MERCYFUL FATE used to be my ‘favorite’ metal band, but when I first heard ONMYOUZA about 8 years ago, they took their place – highly recommended band, so fantastic!!! The last live show I saw was QUEENSRYCHE last week, one of my favorite bands EVER. A friend of mine here has known the band since 1982, and introduced me to them several years ago – it’s always a treat to see them when they are in the area and then get to spend some ‘quality time’ with them backstage after the show and catch up with what they are up to now…very nice folks, good friends, and the best thing about them is still, after all these years, if it’s not important, they don’t waste time on it. I’ve always loved CARCASS (well…except for “BlackStar,” that was disappointing to me) but I haven’t seen or heard anything of them since those days. Bill was a good friend of ours, I enjoy his side-projects since CARCASS ended but I doubt they will play around here.

14. How did the guys from GRUESOME STUFF RELISH get you for guest appearance on their album? What can you say about possibility of guest appearance in any other project in future?

I’ve been a huge fan of the band since I heard their stuff on RAZORBACK years ago…a lot of people praise them as CARCASS worship, but I consider them to be much more than that, and I think their new material really justifies that. They are true ‘original grind underground worship’ really, and I’ve been in touch with them a few times over the years. Anyway, I was experimenting with ‘extra vocals’ recording them at home on my PC, and Pablo contacted me about the possibility of doing some vocals for their upcoming album. I was difficult for me to work out technically at first, but it turned out to be simpler on my end than I originally thought. The end result turned out EXCELLENT (it sounds like I was really there!) and this event led up to not only more ‘guest appearances’ but also to my involvement with BEWARE and, subsequently, TOMBSTONES! I appear on the new BONE GNAWR CD (Kam Lee and Rogga’s band), and also the new FONDLECORPSE CD “Creaturegore”! I haven’t heard the BONE GNAWR yet, but “Feast of Flesh” sounds great, and “Creaturegore” is one of the best albums released this year! Sly is a damn GENIUS and I just love their stuff!!!

15. I think you had some offers to record new material in studio after your one-show reunion? Impetigo – it’s just history now, or you had some temptation to answer “Yes, we shall do it!”

Not really…I’m sure RAZORBACK would have loved to do a release of new material from us, but Billy also understands the ‘one time only’ stipulation of our reunion. We’ve had several offers from others to play shows worldwide, and yes the temptation certainly does take me by the throat (Germany, Czech Republic, Japan, etc)…I really don’t know how I could say “no” but I really have to – my life just isn’t set up for anything like that!!

16. I guess you must have listened to «Tribute To Boneyard». How do you like it? As for me, the idea is pretty good but non-stop listening to 33 versions of one song was a bit hard to bear (even if it’s Boneyard).

I do have it, and yes I think it’s great!! It always goes to show, the basic approach is the best! It’s out most ‘infamous’ song and it took me no longer to write it than the length of the song itself – the words and music burst upon me while I was driving somewhere (quite a bit of this era’s material began in my mind while driving, isn’t that bizarre?) and I jotted everything down on scrap paper I kept in my truck. As most of you know, it’s our most-covered song and even before this CD came out, we had an internal compilation of nearly 40 minutes of “Boneyard” cover versions by other bands. It’s easier for me to listen to 33 versions by others than it is for me to sit through one of our own albums, but the first listen was the best.

17. Back to your favorite bands. As we know, IMPETIGO and BLOOD were big friends. Your Moscow interviewer is crazy about BLOOD. Do you know something about present BLOOD? What do you think about their albums (I think, «Dysangelium» is brilliant)? Are you still friends?

A few years ago Eisen reached out to me, but I was having communication issues and never responded (hey bro, you STILL rule!)…Eisen was one of my greatest friends and a TRUE BROTHER, we had a very intense friendship. I’m glad to know they are still active; for many of us who were involved in the underground during that time, BLOOD were really one of the TRUE death metal D.I.Y. bands, they were ‘kvlt’ before ‘kvlt’ was ‘kvlt’ and all of us were usually watching their next move. Their early demos were true fashion self-promo projects, no expensive studio or production: “here’s who we are, here’s what we sound like, here’s how we do it – if you can’t listen through the limitations of this tape and tell anything about us, then you aren’t listening with your heart.” I still consider “Impulse to Destroy” one of the most important albums EVER. With that session, they defined what brutal grinding death metal was all about, and it was a massive influence of mine.

18. All IMPETIGO artwork became real gore classics. Do you still enjoy drawing such sick pictures? If I create my own grindcore band, can I expect getting one of your images for cover art? Hehe.

I officially gave up artwork a long time ago; there was always a ‘curse’ with art pieces I did for other bands…and really, even for IMPETIGO art there were always curse-like challenges (consider our original artwork for “Ultimo” and all of its craziness and you will see what I mean). I returned from retirement only briefly to submit a rather poor ‘sketch’ for LINCOLN LOVE LOG – and for the record, this is the only time my artwork for another band wasn’t jinxed somehow. It was fun to draw again, but my life is so much different now and it was difficult for me to produce this art in a timely manner. I’d like to say ‘sure, I’ll help you out’ but really it will take me 2 years, ha ha!! I still sketch once in a while, but I’m not happy with what I come up with.

19. Please, tell me, what has inspired you to create any of your songs? Have some unusual story about it?

There’s a lot of this kind of info in the liner notes for the RAZORBACK reissues; one of the most popular stories about the inspiration for our songs revolves around “The Revenge of the Scabby Man” and its real-life inspiration, an old friend of mine named Joey (who was the lead singer of my old band DEAD TRENDIES). He collected his phlegm in a glass under his bed. “I Work For The Streetcleaner” was inspired by the couple in the movie Nekromantik; “Boneyard” was inspired by Henry Lee Lucas and John Wayne Gacy; “Staph Terrorist” was primarily inspired by a real event when I was in high school, where a fellow who worked at Hardee’s had wiped his ass with hamburger buns and served them to a group of summer stock actors. For the most part, I would take a true-life or film-inspired topic and always try to personalize it, and/or extend the concept beyond what it really is. For example, the basic principle of “Staph Terrorist” begins with grotesque tales of food tampering, but what’s really going on is its expose of the hate war raged by some twisted folks who walk among us, completely undetected and invisible – we feel safe, they are always out there, striking when it’s least expected.

20. A little simple and naïve question: your favorite IMPETIGO album, song and lyrics?

Easily, hands down “Horror of the Zombies” is my favorite album. My personal favorite song is either “Staph Terrorist” or “Defiling The Grave.” My favorite lyrics are those for “I Work For The Streetcleaner,” I think.

21. Your lyrics are full of splatter, violence, zombies etc. and usually these topics are hardly accepted by normal people. Can you imagine lyrics, which even you will consider outrageous and disgraceful?

I sure can. I despise Facist and Nazi propaganda material. Most horror/occult/etc types of lyrics are truly in jest, with no harm intended. Even the most obscene gore or satanic material is always tongue-in-cheek; Nazis are real and Facism is real and I have no tolerance for it, out of respect for those whose lives are affected by this type of hatred. However, I cross this line occasionally with ‘true crime’ material – one could argue with me that this kind of subject matter is also ‘real’ and it is – and the victims are ‘real’ as well, so in that respect I am a hypocrite, just like most of us.

22. Do your kids like what their dad was making 20 years ago? Or you don’t allow them to hear this horrifying musick?

They have no idea; they know I was in a band and some of my family members have ‘accidentally’ found out some of my music, lyrics and artwork…fortunately, with no ill effects. I suppose when they are old enough, they will know more but right now I have 2 girls and I don’t think it would be nice to show them the cover for “Buio Omega.”

23. Once I read in one interview of yours, that you collect beer-related t-shirts. Probably we can find for you something in Russia or Belarus…

Yes, I collect beer anything. And if you have a baseball team, I would love to own a ball cap.

24. In the end, please, give an answer, which you wanted to give for a long time, then we will think up a question for it in our turn :)

Ah, now you stump Stevo the great!! Here is the answer, I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with:

“It only matters if your heart is 200% invested in what you are doing, for the greater good, and not for what personal or monetary gain you will receive. What you do today will seal your reputation 20 years from now, and into eternity. The only gain that matters is FRIENDSHIP and RESPECT, everything else is trivial and will never last. Loyalty NEVER dies!”

Thanks for the opportunity for the interview, and for your extreme patience. Check out TOMBSTONES at: http://www.myspace.com/tombstonesdeath, and be on the lookout for our debut album “Not For The Squeamish” out this year on RAZORBACK RECORDS!!

UPDATE: The RETURN of STEVO!

2010-03-10T11:35:00.000-05:00

After a round of life-changing events (beginning with my new job and career in early 2007 and rounding all the way up to my recent move to a new house), and also in light of the many exciting new things that are happening RIGHT NOW, I felt like this would be a better time than any to update all of Fiend-dom as to ‘what’s new with STEVO’…so here we go! But FIRST, let’s recap what’s been happening since my last post…January 11, 2007…oh my…

2007

As everybody who is reading this probably knows, in July IMPETIGO reunited for a one-time only appearance at the famed CIM fest in Champaign-Urbana, IL to commemorate the 20th anniversary (nearly to the day) of the birth of IMPETIGO…which occurred only an hour or so down the road. It was a fantastic event that allowed all of us to get back in touch with some old friends and meet lots of new ones. This magical weekend has been documented with the release in 2009 of a Live CD by Epitomite Productions, released in Summer 2008, and early this year on a special DVD release by DEATHGASM. Special thanks again to Matt Bishop of CIM for working with us and for not only being a great host, but for also keeping this tradition alive throughout the years.

The situation with CONVULSIONS changed quite a bit as 2007 crawled along; first Greg was unable to commit to the project, and later Neil had to step aside – both due to personal issues, both amicably. Towards the end of the year, I decided to include Gregg (ex-LINCOLN LOVE LOG) and Tom K (CARDIAC ARREST, SEVERED, ex-DOGOD) as part of the ‘band.’

Meanwhile, something happened in late 2007 that would change my current level of involvement in the underground (as it is today) for the next few years. Paolo of GRUESOME STUFF RELISH approached me to contribute guest vocals on their upcoming album on RAZORBACK RECORDS ...I was honored but nearly turned down the opportunity, as I had no disposable income to contribute to a studio session locally to record anything. On a lark, I borrowed a basic el cheapo PC microphone from a friend, and recorded straight vocal tracks only while listening to an mp3 copy of the basic tracks for the song. The result was better than I could have ever hoped for, Paolo’s posse made “The Dead Will Walk The Earth” sound like I was really there – the end product was phenomenal!! GSR’s “Horror Rises From the Tomb” debuted in early 2008 and the wheels started turning as soon as Billy Nocera heard the rough mix of my contribution.

2008

This year started out in a very mayhemic fashion; primarily with the birth of BEWARE – this was a new project jump-started by Billy after some discussions with myself and the legendary Kam Lee, and inspired by the possibility of my being able to participate via the same process by which I contributed vocals to the GSR album. Besides the two of us, Patrick Bruss (CRYPTICUS) and Wayne (DECREPITAPH) stepped in to provide the musick for our dual-vocal assault. We recorded a rough-mix demo track “Elixir of Evil” (with lyrics by Sly of FONDLECORPSE) and launched this malicious track via myspace with outstanding response. A second track “A Bone To Pick” was in process when Kam left the project amicably to focus on other work and out of respect, the band was restructured in September to become TOMBSTONES. Immediately, the basic tracks for “Shriek Well Before Dying” were recorded and unleashed (again) via myspace (you can visit the page here (http://www.myspace.com/tombstonesdeath)) to continued outrageously welcome response and enthusiasm. By the end of the year 2 more songs were released in demo format; “Meet The Reaper” and “Grave Undertakings.” Momentum was formidable, and it seemed as if 2009 was going to see the birth of our first full-length CD for sure.

In the Spring of 2008, I had the privilege and honour to join Chicago death metal gods CARDIAC ARREST on stage at the annual “Mayhem in May” festival in Louisville, KY. Gregg showed up as well, and we had a great time…I sang extra vocals on my favorite CARDIAC song “Make Them Die Slowly” and although I felt a little odd without an instrument (insert your poor joke here), it was a euphoric blast to share this space with these guys, one of my favorite bands ever. Once again, another great opportunity to hang out with old friends and meet a few new ones.

CONVULSIONS still continued planning and plotting our activity for the future, pledging to only record and write in a “live” situation (that is, with all 3 of us in the same room, almost real-time in writing, rehearsing and recording) with our only operational challenge being finding a good time to get together for a weekend or so and work things out.

During the summer of 2008, my family decides after nearly 10 years in the same house, it’s time to sell and move to a different area of town (for school district reasons). This activity comprises a 2-month long effort to move 50% of our belongings into a storage facility as well as spending hundreds of hours fixing things around the house and getting everything ready to sell. We (finally) list our house in July, the official starting point of a process that will ultimately serve to choke a great deal of my personal activity.

2009

This is the year when things started getting weird…I personally want to consider 2009 as ‘old news and out the door’ and updating this blog after 2 years of inactivity seems like a good way to formally push this year behind me.

Things started out very well, with yet another TOMBSTONES demo track “Horrific Howlings” released and also 2 new opportunities for guest vocal appearances.

Sly of FONDLECORPSE asked me to participate on “Hideous” from their forthcoming “Creaturegore” album. This was an unbelievable request, first of all coming from another of my favorite bands. I had to pinch myself! “Hideous” is a great track, and the album was released in the Summer of 2009.

Almost simultaneously, Kam Lee approached me to appear with him on the debut release of his project with Rogga of PAGANIZER entitled BONE GNAWER ...the result was “Feast of Flesh,” also released in 2009. My contribution aside, this is a most fantastic album, with guest appearances by myself, Dopi (MACHETAZO) and Killjoy (NECROPHAGIA). Kam’s performance on “Anthropophagus Beast” is his best ever!!

I began contributing vocals and lyrics to another project (of which you will hear more about in 2010, I think) that’s still kind of ‘under wraps’ until some of the logistics are worked out.

With only a few tracks left to finish the debut TOMBSTONES album, and after nearly a year of mixed activity on our house sale, we change realtors, reduce our selling price (again) and start to get a few bites.

The good news: we finally sell our house in June/July. The other news: this means the remaining 50% of our belongings join their predecessors in storage and my family and I move in with my in-laws until we find a place.

In December, the ‘buyer’s market’ finally emerges and our patience pays off when we find a house we like in the area we are hoping to relocate to.

2010 – current!

In early January, we finally close on our new place and start moving in. As I write this, we are still unpacking (and setting up, hooking up, etc) but now I can start ‘blowing the dust off’ of my stuff, and start to get my bearings on where I left off, with TOMBSTONES and the rest of my personal activity.

That brings us up to date, I believe…so what’s next?

TOMBSTONES: My priority is to finish the 3-4 tracks that require my attention so that the project can begin to move forward again. This is job number one for me. The lyrics are all done now, and I’m currently planning on submitting my tracks over the next two weeks.

IMPETIGO: With Mark’s typical exhaustive efforts, the DVD is finally out on DEATHGASM. I plan to pick up the ‘story’ of IMPETIGO (again, right where I left off) as soon as job number one (see above) is completed. I also think it would be kvlt to post some interviews (old and new) that I’ve stumbled across recently.

OTHER BANDS OF THE PAST: In conjunction with my efforts to convert selected pieces of my tape-trading and record-collecting past into a digital format for some of my other personal activity (and a part thereof), I intend to bring forth and share musical examples and other bits and pieces of my other work in the underground. This would include, but not be limited to, CHURCH OF MISERY/INSOMNIA, SGT. ROCK, DEAD TRENDIES, MORE HEAD, ACT OF GOD, and other guest vocal appearances from years past.

That’s all I have to report for now. STAY SICK and hopefully you’ll be hearing more from me soon…AFTER I get job number one completed, and no sooner!!!

CONVULSIONS: Diary of a MADMAN - Entry 1

2007-01-11T06:38:00.000-05:00

While I'm covered up working on the liner notes for HOTZ (and other personal things), I thought it would be nifty to start a 'diary' of the goings-on of my newest project CONVULSIONS...this thought just came to me a few minutes ago, ha ha...

If you aren't aware of CONVULSIONS, click on the link I've got here in the previous post, announcing our intentions to produce some heinous noise for an indefinite period of time.

Since we've made the announcement, I've got a few songs worked out already, music and lyrics, that will be featured on our promo demo, now officially entitled "Total Head Removal." The title is also the name of a song that will appear on the demo, a song that was resurrected from my never-realized ZOMBIE project of the 90s. Of corpse, "Total Head Removal" is something that Chris Reifert (AUTOPSY, RAVENOUS, ABCESS, etc) always used to say!!

The demo will be released on cassette only (yes, that's right...how "old skool" is that?!?), and is planned to feature an intro, "Total Head Removal" (a total gore/violence worship tune, in the same way that "Unadulterated Brutality" was), "Post-Carnage Mishap" (a nice song about a murderer who has buried his victims in his crawlspace and backyard...only to find one evening, that they are returning to life and coming to get him...), "Kichiku dai enkai (Banquet of the Beasts)" (a song with many lyrics in Japanese, inspired by the film of the same name), and a 'surprise' cover song -hopefully!- that Greg and I discussed a few weeks ago. I don't think even Neil and Billy know about it yet, ha ha! Of corpse, all this is subject to change, but for now, that's what we're shooting for.

All the lyrics are done, with the exception of the "Kichiku" Japanese lyrics; I'm getting those translated now. I played some of the material for Greg right before Christmas, and he seemed to enjoy what he heard. He's working on goofing around with the bass again, since it's been a while (I'm doing the same thing with the guitar...aieeee...). He's identified a local 'studio guy' who is inexpensive and pretty versatile. Soon, we'll be able to get together and work some of this material out, and get the recording session set and rolling.

I've already had a couple of requests for interviews, kick ass!! I'm working on one now (sorry it's taking so long, Ben...still recovering from the holidays!!)...the word seems to be spreading!

Check this blog for updates, and also visit the RAZORBACK site frequently. STAY SICK!!

Yes it's TRUE!! CONVULSIONS!!!

2006-12-12T08:43:00.000-05:00

kool logo by PUTRID!! putridgoreart.com

After a nearly 12 year hiatus from the metal underground, Stevo (IMPETIGO) announces his newest project…CONVULSIONS!!

What can you expect from this outfit? Think of the big three…MASTER, AUTOPSY, and REPULSION…sprinkle in some MANTAS, MASSACRE, SLAUGHTER, MACABRE, and CELTIC FROST, and you’ve got a pretty good idea. The band aspires to write and perform musick that honors these giants (very much in the same way that IMPETIGO did)…if you are hoping to hear “original” or “innovative” material, consider your hopes dashed.

In the words of Stevo himself: “There is, nor should there be, anything ‘original’ in musick that maintains respect for the true underground…it was a special time in history, a time where my black heart still dwells. As in IMPETIGO, our mission is tribute and homage; by incorporating specific and mandatory elements of these bands we hope to offer a new interpretation in arrangement and presentation only, NOT in style or execution! You won’t hear ‘carbon copies’ of this klassic stuff, what you will hear is a group of honest individuals continuing to carry this torch beyond the era in which these magnificent sounds flourished. Why try to reinvent the wheel? These bands changed my life, and to this day all paths lead to them, ultimately. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. We are not the first combo to espouse this philosophy, and we certainly won’t be the last. I strongly feel that it is important to continue the tradition of homage that inspired my work in IMPETIGO; more so now than ever before, with the saturation of ‘nu-metal’ and other hybrid forms of what I would rather call ‘alternative’ music in the market. The market is UNIMPORTANT to us, what is important is the TRUE UNDERGROUND…saying that, what we play is, essentially, TRUE DEATH METAL, in its purest form…no noodling, no complexity, no special effects, no riff-cramming. 200% raw, pure, and vicious DEATH METAL.” Lyrically, one can expect the same type of tongue-in-cheek, manic prose that Stevo exercised successfully in IMPETIGO…more klassic horror and true crime inspired anecdotes of violence, brutality, and other kreepy goings-on.

The evolution of the band is simple, yet unusual. It’s known by some that in the mid-80s, prior to meeting Mark and eventually forming IMPETIGO, Stevo had attempted to form a ‘death metal’ band called CONVULSIONS. Where this attempt failed, IMPETIGO was the subsequent result; a much different band altogether. Many years later, after the breakup of IMPETIGO and during his tenure in INSOMNIA, Stevo tried to manifest the concept of a “no bullshit, bare bones” death/grind outfit known as ZOMBIE with Neil Hardesty (guitarist of INSOMNIA) and former MASTERFISTER drummer Chad Merrit. Due to Stevo’s busy schedule upon returning to college and preparing to start a family, ZOMBIE never came to light other than a handful of never-finished songs.

Fast forward to the late Summer of 2006…Stevo began to contemplate ‘resurrecting’ some unheard, unfinished material from both IMPETIGO and ZOMBIE for a new project. Just a pipe dream at first, he found a great deal of support and some fresh ideas from Billy Nocera of RAZORBACK RECORDS. While the name ZOMBIE had been used by another band since the inception of the original ZOMBIE by Stevo back in 1994, the band name CONVULSIONS popped up in conversation between the two, and after over 20 years it stuck. While Stevo was convinced that he could handle the vocals, bass, and guitar chores for this studio-only project, he was less than convinced he would be capable of performing the drums. Billy suggested Maniac Neil (FRIGHTMARE, LORD GORE, BLOOD FREAK), of whom Stevo refers to as “the most talented individual in the underground.” Neil accepted the invitation to participate, and things started rolling from that point. Besides Neil’s well-known musical prowess, Neil also possesses the talent and know-how to provide crucial assistance in utilizing today’s technology to ‘wrap up the loose ends’ involved in the proper recording and mastering of the material written and performed by a band whose members are separated by thousands of miles. Stevo developed a list of potential songs (titles and concepts), some of which were partially developed, and began writing the material.

Enter Greg Mattingly!! Stevo and Greg have been solid pals since the tape trading/pen pal days of the mid to late 80s, when Greg was in FORSAKEN (US), then NOTHING and SON OF DOG. When Stevo relocated his family to Louisville in the late 90s, the two touched base on a couple of occasions but due to restrictions in their personal lives, we never able to nail down work on a project together. When Greg contacted Stevo again in the fall of 2006, it became apparent that the time was right, and that Greg should take his rightful place in CONVULSIONS. Stevo and Greg share many of the same interests, including but not limited to their unwavering support and dedication of the TRUE UNDERGROUND…

The band is wrapping up preliminary material for a 2-3 track promo demo in early 2007, followed by a legitimate full-length release on RAZORBACK RECORDS!! Prepare to DIE…the body count continues…

CONVULSIONS is:
Stevo do Caxiao: verbal torture, six strings of sadism
greGORY Mattingly: hellish crossfire on noodle packages
Maniac Neil: terminal skinslaughter

IMPETIGO Press Release - IMPORTANT NEWS!!

2006-11-27T09:52:00.000-05:00

November 27, 2006

…From the bowels of the unruly graveyard of the Underground of Years Past, the fetid foursome announce after 13 years of dormancy, that IMPETIGO, with the klassic lineup of Stevo, Mark, Dan, and Scotty shall reunite for a one-time only performance during the Central Illinois Metalfest occurring in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois July 20-21, 2007.

This date and performance commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the band’s first ever live appearance on July 31st, 1987, as well as celebrates the release of IMPETIGO's prime recordings in their 'ultimate' editions on CD from RAZORBACK RECORDS and LP editions from HELL’S HEADBANGERS.

The set list shall feature many fan and band favorites culled from IMPETIGO’s Six Years of Sickness.

This is NOT a hoax.

We now return control of your information device to you.

in the BEGINNING…[addendum: a few words about videos, CONVULSIONS, and vomiting!]

2006-09-26T13:33:00.000-04:00

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!

in the BEGINNING...[Part Two...the story of SGT. ROCK!]

2006-09-19T08:20:00.000-04:00

When I returned to Decatur in January of 1987, I was a wreck. Mark was the koolest guy I had ever met, and we were both on the same page on so many things…there was never another individual whom I had met that would have made a better bandmate, but my situation was what it was; I was broke, flunked out of college, and I was (still) desperate. Bloomington/Normal was only an hour away, but that hour seemed like a million miles at the time.

After being branded and exiled, I turned my creative energy back on what I had unsuccessfully attempted while at ISU, and in Decatur, the worst of places. As I mentioned, my attempt at reviving DEAD TRENDIES was a bust, as was my campaign to form a ‘death metal’ band called CONVULSIONS…this was a band I tried to start with Shayson Clay (later in NAKED HIPPY, MASTERFISTER, and an INSOMNIA member for a while; Shayson was also my roommate later on), all we needed was a drummer. While at ISU, I peppered the campus with flyers and spread the word around as best as I could, but it was no use. Back in Decatur, I continued my attempt to jumpstart CONVULSIONS by writing a handful of terrible, S.O.D./DEATH/MASSACRE/C.O.C. influenced material; generic 4-note ‘homage’ riffs (‘homage’ means I stole them from other songs), really bad lyrics (simple, 5 or 6 line DISCHARGE-style) about horror movies and inside jokes. Typical of my ‘band fantasy world,’ I had artwork, flyers, lyrics sheets, and all faithfully drawn out and ready to go. Decatur was worse than Normal was; there was NOBODY around who wanted to play this stuff (or had even HEARD OF the bands I was imitating) and since Mark and Shayson were way out of the picture, it was destined to fail. The rest of my energy went towards publishing my own fanzine, “Splatter” (influenced by Mark’s “Uni-Force” zine), and in tape-trading and doing free-lance artwork for several bands. Mark and I still kept in touch through the mail and phone calls.

Other than recording some bass tracks of the songs I had written on my home stereo, CONVULSIONS was dead before it was born. I still had a ‘bad reputation’ in Decatur amongst the small handful of people who were either into or played hardcore/punk music, and I knew of nobody who was into death or speed metal. My ‘bad reputation’ stemmed from the DEAD TRENDIES days, where I was frustrated with the ever-rotating lineup of this band from back in 1985 and their lack of dedication. It’s a long story (and too silly to tell here), but basically, the remainders of DEAD TRENDIES had teamed up with a guitarist fellow named Jymi and a vocalist named Jim to become “Necrophilia” (the other members of DEAD TRENDIES wanted to call themselves this, and I had refused) and had been working on originals and covers while I was at college. Jymi had been around for years, and was an original member of Decatur’s first punk band, ILL NOIZE…as a person, he was nothing more than an asshole, but because of his work with ILL NOIZE, I had a deep amount of respect for him. Jymi had ‘discovered’ speed metal while I was at college (interesting historical note: Jymi had traded me his copy of Venom’s “Black Metal” some years earlier, as he ‘hated it’ and thought it was ‘awful’) and upon my return to Decatur, Jymi had re-named his band ILL NOIZE. Jim, the punk vocalist, was replaced by Geo, a ‘metal’ vocalist. Jymi’s new influence of POSSESSED, ANTHRAX, S.O.D., etc had moved into his songwriting, and the band was sounding pretty damn good.

Jymi’s brother Jeff had always been a great friend of mine, was the drummer of DEAD TRENDIES and was in the new ILL NOIZE. After some revolutions in my battered brain, I started to think that there might be a possibility of getting CONVULSIONS going with Jymi on guitar and Jeff on drums, as long as I could handle Jymi’s ego and his aloof nature (Jymi was one of those guys who was always your ‘best friend’ when he needed you for something, and he was nobody’s friend when he didn’t need them for anything). One evening, I was at Jymi’s house with a dozen others…there was always a crowd in his room most evenings, as all the punks in town would bring their beer to his house and sit in the room, junk and band instruments all over (ILL NOIZE practiced there), and we’d drink and listen to music; sometimes the band would practice also. Jymi and I were talking and I was trying to introduce my idea about CONVULSIONS to him, when he introduced his idea about an S.O.D.-like band to ‘warm up’ at ILL NOIZE shows (there weren’t many, trust me!)…he was a big comic reader (like myself) and a huge S.O.D. fan, one thing led to another and I had my bass over, his friend Mike from work got behind the drum kit, and we blasted out about 6 or 7 real quick S.O.D. type short crossover songs, and SGT. ROCK was born. Jymi’s concept was to make all the lyrics humorous snippets all military-related. I was also a SGT. ROCK fan, and it was the closest thing to a band I had been involved with since DEAD TRENDIES, and I was so obsessed with playing in a band, I was genuinely chuffed. A couple of days later, Jymi had all the lyrics written, we had added a few more songs (some of them riffs that I had written), and during a ‘practice’ he taped the whole 20 minutes or so of material and we had a demo.

I think it’s important to mention right here, right now, that none of these guys had any notion of tape-trading or the underground at that time. Jymi (and the others) only knew of what he could buy at Camelot music or what they could read about in Hit Parader. I remember bringing over DEATH demos (like, “Death by Metal”), playing them, and hearing snickers all around. The SGT. ROCK demo didn’t come from a need to promote ourselves in the underground…well, to ME it did, but to Jymi, he must have thought ‘if those guys can do it, so can I’ and we recorded the tape, the rest was entirely up to me. I made a cover, printed out a shitload of flyers for my mail, and the rest…as they say…is history. That summer, ILL NOIZE played a handful of gigs, and everytime SGT. ROCK was their ‘warm up’ act. Again, I took SGT. ROCK much more seriously than the rest. Our very first show in St. Louis with MEAN GUYS FROM HELL was my first actual live performance EVER. If it weren’t for the SGT. ROCK experience, IMPETIGO would never have been what it was. The initial concept was Jymi’s, but from that point on, the band was driven by me. I took the reigns of introducing songs and between-song banter, and I sold demos in the mail for cheap (I gave away more than I sold). I broke the cardinal rule of fanzine editors and featured an interview with SGT. ROCK in my own fanzine (Jim, the ex-ILL NOIZE vocalist) did the interview for me. During this interview, Jymi exposed his true intentions for the band, “drink beer and play stupid songs.”

Our performance at the outdoor Decatur Band Jam was the high point in the summer for me…Mark made the trip to see us play, and his presence there was stellar; it was as if Monte Conner himself had made it to the gig. Mark liked SGT. ROCK (and had done his own ‘project,’ the legendary P.G.L.S., which is a “lost demo” as we both taped over our copies in the early IMPETIGO days) and was very enthusiastic in his support of my ‘first official band.’ Also playing with us that day was LEVIATHAN, a great speed metal band from Peoria, featuring a young Ty Smith on drums. Ty would become one of my greatest pals; he later became involved in NAMLAND with guys from IMPULSE MANSLAUGHTER, moved to the Pacific Northwest and became a member of RESIST, among others.

We had added a couple more songs to our playlist, one of which was a song that I wrote 100%, “My Lai.” It followed the SGT. ROCK pattern, a silly song with a military theme. It was one of my earliest fulfilled attempts at writing a song seriously for this genre, and I think most of you can probably tell that it was entirely influenced by SACRIFICE…I even got to sing it, Rob Urbanati-style!! It was a short summer, but we were very busy with this. Interest in the band via my pen pals and tape-trading buddies was lukewarm, but enthusiastic…there were dozens of other joke bands, inspired by S.O.D. and SPAZZTIC BLURR, and we were far from taken seriously. Jymi started to get worn out (actually, bored) with the whole thing…ILL NOIZE was working on a studio demo tape, and it wasn’t going that well. We had a 4^th of July party gig coming up, when I was contacted about playing in Peoria at the end of July. Our contact was the guys from LEVIATHAN (I think), and at first both bands were going to play, but for some reason, only SGT. ROCK was going to play…I don’t think this sat well with Jymi; he had no reason to be jealous of one of his bands over another, but ILL NOIZE was his priority and if they didn’t play, neither was SGT. ROCK. In response, Jymi bailed out of the 4^th of July gig (his excuse: to help with a ‘fireworks program’ and drink beer), so I went from two shows in one month to nothing.

On the fly, and on a lark, I made a decision…without even blinking…to call Mark and get him involved immediately. I wanted to play the Peoria show so bad I could taste it, and there was only one way I was going to do this…usurp Jymi’s role in the band somehow, get Mark in as guitarist, and make the show…and I didn’t even have an entire month to get this going…and Mark was still an hour away, in Bloomington/Normal!!

Things move pretty damn quick from this point, but we were young and felt no pain whatsoever…hang on, the story continues and gets weirder from here!!!

in the BEGINNING...[Part One]

2006-08-14T06:02:00.000-04:00

Since the topic of discussion focuses on "the OLD days" I only thought it would be appropriate to post the first part of the "unpublished" full-blown story of IMPETIGO. What follows starting with the words "In the beginning..." has never been published before, and is only the first part of many that detail our history, in essence, from my passionate point-of-view. The format was intended to illustrate and define our incept, early days, and all events leading up to "Ultimo Mondo Cannibale," which is detailed in the liner notes for the upcoming Razorback Records ultimate edition re-issue. Enjoy; I'll post more when I can...

In the beginning, there was Mark and myself…the story of IMPETIGO begins with the story of how Mark and I first met, and the events leading up to SGT. ROCK and, eventually IMPETIGO. This is an entirely personal perspective on how things fell into place, and the events are in the best manner that I can recall. Some things may not have happened as chronologically as I depict them here, and some people may remember certain events differently than I. In some cases, I may truncate details so as to not hurt a person’s feelings, and in some cases…I won’t. These are abridged excerpts from a much larger document that may or may not ever see the light of day. Either way, you can thank your lucky stars that it is what it is.

When I was attending Illinois State University during the 1985/1986 school year, I had become very adept at skipping classes and goofing around for the majority of the time I spent there. One of my favorite goof activities was writing…I loved to write, even if it was nothing but bullshit. I would sit at the typewriter for hours, making shit up. I even earned cash on the side, typing papers for grad students…typing other peoples’ bullshit. Other than that, I was drinking and listening to records and feeling sorry for myself.

Naturally, my love for music was the most important thing in my life. For years, my attempts at playing in bands with other people had never worked out. No matter what…always the wrong mix. My ego was enough to drive a group of people apart in a matter of minutes, and my enthusiastic idealism was enough to lose the ones who could stand my ego. I had tried several times to resurrect my high school punk band, DEAD TRENDIES, while attending ISU and it never happened. During the late winter of 1985, I began to write record reviews for the dorm newsletter, a tiny, Xeroxed piece of crap that was produced only to fulfill the University’s goal of “enriching student life.” Since shock value was the only way to express my ideals without a band to play with, I wrote reviews of ONLY the most extreme, terrifying, anti-social music that I listened to at the time…HEAVY METAL.

It would have been enough to focus on punk/hardcore…it certainly was “in vogue” at the time, and hair metal was still very much “in.” You have to consider the “audience” of this newsletter…all people who either knew me or had seen me psychotically stalking the hallways of my dorm. NOBODY else read this, and those who did…DID NOT care. The newsletter consisted of 5% “pertinent info” for dorm residents (such as, we’re trying to buy a popcorn popper, don’t use the laundry after midnight, etc.) and 95% bullshit. Besides my record reviews, there were interesting and bizarre cartoons drawn by my pals on the first floor, an advice column (also written by me), and useless articles and gripes about everything from cafeteria food to new movies and crazy campus events. For distribution within our dorm only…or so I thought.

The “dorm control alliance” was a ruling body at the university that combined the efforts of representatives from each dorm on campus to improve life in these sad concrete boxes. They were called something different (and did NOT like the word “dorm” as an operating parameter) but all you need to know is that a representative from MY dorm presented a copy of the newsletter as a “sample” of how our dorm was improving life for its dwellers at a meeting of the “dorm control alliance.” On the other side of campus, a fellow by the name Mark "Stoid" Arrigo was his own dorm’s representative, and he gave the newsletter to his pal, an individual by the name of Mark Sawickis, a generally normal guy who was very involved in the underground at the time, and had a few local things going on, not the least of which was helping a local fanzine get some interviews of some ‘extreme’ bands from across the country. Scott showed this newsletter to Mark, who immediately contacted me and introduced himself. I got his note in my mailbox and wasted no time calling the guy…he asked me if I liked CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER and stuff like that and I nearly fell over dead.

Mark and I became fast friends. He had contacts in the underground I could never dream of, while I was interested in getting more involved (especially in tape-trading) but had not contacts and not much to start off with. Mark changed all that, generously offering copies of anything he had that I was interested in and then some. His success in maintaining lasting friendships via pen pals was mostly due to his serious, organized attitude and I did everything I could to emulate his prosperity to this end. We both enjoyed the same kind of music, movies, and more. We spent many afternoons together fawning over demos by Chicago’s DEVASTATION and DEATH (remember MANTAS?!?) and poring thru EXCEL flyers. Unlike many of the other friends I had made at the same level, he was a bit closer to my age and just as manic about detail as I was. We both felt like the underground existed to save the world for guys like us; this was true then and is still true today. Besides that, Mark was genuine and sincere and not interested in taking advantage of myself or of my ideas. If anything, he should have been wary of me doing this to him, but the thought never crossed his mind.

Mark was also a better student than I was. In early 1987, after months of drinking and partying my way through school, I finally gave up. I quit ISU after being placed on academic probation and given an ultimatum by my father that I could not work my way around. Reluctantly, I packaged my college life up into hurried boxes and returned to Decatur, IL to try and repair my ‘good standing’ at home and also to try to do something about all these ideas in my head…but first I had to have a leg (or two) to stand on…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chunks of VOMIT!!!

2006-08-12T11:56:00.000-04:00

Morbid Greetingz to y'all...this is STEVO!!

Welcome to my twisted space!! After posting actively in many t*rrent forums and working on the extensive liner notes for the upcoming IMPETIGO re-issues on Razorback Records, I thought I would get going on a project I've been wanting to do for a looooong time (and have been lazily preparing for)...a blog in which I can share with you, friends, fiends, and fans of the TRUE UNDERGROUND, the tales, stories, and recollections of mylife in the underground...with many of my bands (IMPETIGO, of course, and all the rest), my tape-trading and zine-editing experiences, and above all, remember and recall all the kool people I've met, known, and worked with over the years.

The TRUE UNDERGROUND will never die, friends...there are plenty of us who are keeping it ALIVE by doing things just like this...

If you were THERE, then HAILS...you may show up in one of these tales from the Chamber of Ages!

If you WEREN'T...pull up a chair, and get a taste of what it was like...BACK IN THE DAY!

Thanks to EVERYONE for their support over the years...

and, as always...

STAY SICK!!!