Self Grat started in Omaha Nebraska around '82 or so after I got "asked to leave" the air force and the original line up included Joe Groller on bass (now Milwaukee local) and Mark Blackman on drums and i forget who our guitar player was.Then I moved back to Milwaukee and Joe and Mark eventually followed (who wouldn't want an excuse to leave Omaha) and we enlisted John "Icky" Gross on guitar and that was a pretty rockin' line up, but it wasnt meant to last.
Eventually I reformed Self Grat with my long time surf/skate/moto friend Shay Tannert on bass who suggested Jimmy Kressin on guitar and we got also lucky with Mike Shanahan on drums.It was this last line up that took us to the late '80s and what a smokin' line up it was!!!
We had a blast playing shows at everywhere from 'Yanos' to 'The Landing' and 'The Underground' to 'Lake Park Pavillion' and even one at 'Echo Bowl'. Seems alot of people recall the lake park show because in recent years I have had several people (who were only kids then) reminding me of what I did on stage, thinking i was hidden by Jimmy's Marshal Stack.
With this last line up we recorded an 8 song tape, which Barry Gardner converted to digital a few years ago and I re-released it on CD. I also have a video tape with some practice footage on it and Beer City wants to convert it to digital and help me put together a dvd... so I am also looking for additional still or video footage to pad it out if any one has any from back then.
If anyone is interested in a copy of our CD ($8 postage paid) or if you have any old pics of Self Grat laying around you can email me at: [email protected]
Just recently Peter Flessas gave me a really nice digital copy of our 8 song tape. He also gave me a live set we did at 'Yano's' back in FEB of 1985. We took both these things and remastered them with the help of of friend Marty Defatte. January 12th 2010 we will be releasing a brand new remastered version of our tape called ' Hangin It Out To Dry'. It will contain the original 8 songs plus 4 live ones that we never got to record in a studio.
As far as a reunion goes there is always banter of it , but there is nothing solid to confirm as of yet.
Kevin Stoeveken
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