THE RIPPERS 2000-2003
I decided to finish this now instead of waiting...
When Stanton crumbled I was already in the midst of my junior year at Cal State Dominguez Hills. I had already stopped hanging out with the whole Whittier/Stanton circle of friends. For the next 4 years, my social life (for the most part) was my classmates from D'Hills. During the Spring semester, I began putting out ads for a drummer available. One of the first bands that I auditioned for was a band called Chocolate. They were a Weezer-type alterna-rock band. I actually enjoyed the music. Too bad they didn't call me back after the audition. Another band that I auditioned for was a band called Artichoke. It was a pretty indie influenced type band. Different from Stanton in the sense that they weren't as noisy. After a couple of jam sessions I was asked to join the band. We had been booked to play a house party in the Valley. And that very same week, I had broken my pinky finger! I woke up on Monday morning to go outside and get on the stationary bike (ha!) and ended up accidentally slamming my fist into the side view mirror of my brother's car. I thought I had merely sprained it but after going to the county hospital, it turned out I had a hairline fracture on my pinky and had to get a full cast. We're talking one of those plaster casts that went up to my forearm just below my elbow. Sooooo, the guys in Artichoke ended up getting their temporary drummer to play one more show with them. The guys told me that they'd wait for me to get my cast off and we'd start rehearsing together again. The week that I got my cast off, I got a call from Timothy and he said that they were going to keep their temp drummer and that I'd been sacked. Nifty...
So out went the drummers ads once again. Sometime in the summer of 2000, I got a call from a guy called Edgar. He said he saw my ad and was attracted to it because I said that my influences were garage rock, The Devil Dogs, Teengenerate, The Saints, and The New Bomb Turks. So we set up a jam session at a studio in Burbank. There, I met Noel and Jon for the first time. That first jam, we played The Mighty Caesars' I Was Led To Believe as well as Shot Me Down and Not Again. After the jam, I remember saying to the guys, "So what's the verdict?" And Ed said, "Well, we have a gig set up at Spaceland this September. You wanna play it?" I said, "Sure!" That was the beginning of 4 year rock and roll ride with Edgar, Noel, and Jon. The Rippers were born.
That first gig was a shambles. We were in over our heads. During this time, my stage "act" was to be the drummer with Tourette's Syndrome. For all these early shows, I would insult the audience because I thought I was punk rock. I stopped doing this when I saw myself on video during our third (I think) show and realized how much of a complete and utter dickhead I looked like.
In the 4 years we were together, we probably accumulated a back catalog of 40 or so songs. Not much but some of those songs were fucking amazing. I have crap recordings of most of those songs somewhere. We played a ton of shows because Edgar knew a lot of people in the scene, including a ton of promoters. Noel also made it a point to go to a lot of local gigs and made some connections that way. My only regret is that there is only one video documentation of the band and that was that third show. It's a damn shame that we weren't able to get any video of our later shows.
This was the best musical experience I've ever had. I had the best times playing in a band with those guys. I have ton of memories from this time. (Mostly because those memories are fresh)
As the website says, we broke up because we, as a band, lost interest in playing. It's a damn shame. But things don't last forever I suppose. Ed and Noel are now in The Guilty Hearts and Jon recently moved back to Michigan. I'll miss them.
Funny side note-I was chilling at home yesterday and Ed called me. He and Noel were heading down to the bar for some drinks. He called to tell me that Noel was ready for his first man sex experience. Cheeky bastards. Ha ha ha. I love those guys.
More memories here
When Stanton crumbled I was already in the midst of my junior year at Cal State Dominguez Hills. I had already stopped hanging out with the whole Whittier/Stanton circle of friends. For the next 4 years, my social life (for the most part) was my classmates from D'Hills. During the Spring semester, I began putting out ads for a drummer available. One of the first bands that I auditioned for was a band called Chocolate. They were a Weezer-type alterna-rock band. I actually enjoyed the music. Too bad they didn't call me back after the audition. Another band that I auditioned for was a band called Artichoke. It was a pretty indie influenced type band. Different from Stanton in the sense that they weren't as noisy. After a couple of jam sessions I was asked to join the band. We had been booked to play a house party in the Valley. And that very same week, I had broken my pinky finger! I woke up on Monday morning to go outside and get on the stationary bike (ha!) and ended up accidentally slamming my fist into the side view mirror of my brother's car. I thought I had merely sprained it but after going to the county hospital, it turned out I had a hairline fracture on my pinky and had to get a full cast. We're talking one of those plaster casts that went up to my forearm just below my elbow. Sooooo, the guys in Artichoke ended up getting their temporary drummer to play one more show with them. The guys told me that they'd wait for me to get my cast off and we'd start rehearsing together again. The week that I got my cast off, I got a call from Timothy and he said that they were going to keep their temp drummer and that I'd been sacked. Nifty...
So out went the drummers ads once again. Sometime in the summer of 2000, I got a call from a guy called Edgar. He said he saw my ad and was attracted to it because I said that my influences were garage rock, The Devil Dogs, Teengenerate, The Saints, and The New Bomb Turks. So we set up a jam session at a studio in Burbank. There, I met Noel and Jon for the first time. That first jam, we played The Mighty Caesars' I Was Led To Believe as well as Shot Me Down and Not Again. After the jam, I remember saying to the guys, "So what's the verdict?" And Ed said, "Well, we have a gig set up at Spaceland this September. You wanna play it?" I said, "Sure!" That was the beginning of 4 year rock and roll ride with Edgar, Noel, and Jon. The Rippers were born.
That first gig was a shambles. We were in over our heads. During this time, my stage "act" was to be the drummer with Tourette's Syndrome. For all these early shows, I would insult the audience because I thought I was punk rock. I stopped doing this when I saw myself on video during our third (I think) show and realized how much of a complete and utter dickhead I looked like.
In the 4 years we were together, we probably accumulated a back catalog of 40 or so songs. Not much but some of those songs were fucking amazing. I have crap recordings of most of those songs somewhere. We played a ton of shows because Edgar knew a lot of people in the scene, including a ton of promoters. Noel also made it a point to go to a lot of local gigs and made some connections that way. My only regret is that there is only one video documentation of the band and that was that third show. It's a damn shame that we weren't able to get any video of our later shows.
This was the best musical experience I've ever had. I had the best times playing in a band with those guys. I have ton of memories from this time. (Mostly because those memories are fresh)
- writing Jet Set Life at Holloway Studios
- recording Jet Set and Be Your Man at TRU Recording Studios-summer 2001
- rehearsing at Swinghouse with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the next room-summer 2001
- supporting The Dragons at The Anarchy Library-February 2003
- playing the Los Angeles Shakedown (with Guitar Wolf, The Dragons, Andy G (ex-Devil Dogs) & The Roller Kings, and Nashville Pussy) in February 2003
- being featured on the Los Angeles Shakedown compilation
- supporting with The Dirtbombs at The Troubadour in February 2003
- playing with the New Bomb Turks at Alex's Bar in October 2002
- going completely mental when the NBT's did their set and did a cover of Radio Beat by The Devil Dogs
- playing a shitload of shows at The Anarchy Library 2002 and having the audience actually appreciate us
- playing one of our worst shows at some crap bad in the City Of Commerce
- playing those early shows wearing a Krispy Kremes hat
- playing only ONE house party in the whole 4 years as a band (and that was our last ever gig!)
- recording early demos during all night sessions at CSUDH
- turning in those demos for my recording projects for the next 4 semesters using a different band name each time
- recording the last few demos at the studio at Ed's house
- doing some really fucked up seemingly never-ending jams at D'Hills and at Ed's house (both different times)
- covering Wire's 12XU, NBT's take on (Christmas) Baby Please Come Home, and The Saints' take on River Deep Mountain High
- trying to sabatoge the D4 show because we thought the Revolvers got the slot (even though it was a completely different band!)
- rocking out at the D4 show at The Troubadour because they played North Shore Bitch (by The Devil Dogs)
As the website says, we broke up because we, as a band, lost interest in playing. It's a damn shame. But things don't last forever I suppose. Ed and Noel are now in The Guilty Hearts and Jon recently moved back to Michigan. I'll miss them.
Funny side note-I was chilling at home yesterday and Ed called me. He and Noel were heading down to the bar for some drinks. He called to tell me that Noel was ready for his first man sex experience. Cheeky bastards. Ha ha ha. I love those guys.
More memories here