A close friend of the band runs this page for The Screamin' Mee-Mees from St. Louis, Missouri.
Bruce Cole and Jon Ashline first got together as young teenagers in the late 1960s while growing up in the middleclass St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, MO. The duo, who never played live together (not even once!) have long kept a low profile amongst the local St. Louis media and punk music scene. Yet they have amassed a sort of cult following amongst record collector geeks all around the world thanks to a few scattered singles and the inclusion of one of their songs ("Hot Sody") on the punk comp, "Killed by Death" 3. Their inclusion on that one compilation LP probably helped catapult them more than anything into this "cult status" (which, incidentally, is rumored to include the likes of Thurston Moore, Mudhoney, and Beck, amongst others) despite the fact that their self-released (on their own Dog Face Records label) debut 7", Live from the Basement, was released back in 1977 and is itself quite a collector's item. Or that they followed that release with a succession of more singles and two phenomenal LPs in the 1990s and a succession of posthumous CDs in the '00s on the Gulcher label.
Bruce Cole, now in his mid-50s, still lives in St. Louis. In fact, he still lives in the very same house where all of the Screamin' Mee-Mees music was recorded. His mother's dead, he's lonely, and spends too much of his time down at the local tavern. Jon Ashline lives in Topeka, KS where he has a family.
Discography:
Live From the Basement 7"
(Dog Face Records, 1977/reissued on Bag of Hammers, 1996)
Clutching Hand Monster Mitt LP
(Dog Face Records, 1992)
"Pull My Finger" b/w "Family Tree" 7"
(Electric Records, 1992)
"Life Never Stops" b/w "Oscillations" 7"
(Dog Meat Records, 1994)
Home Movies 7"
(Bag of Hammers Records, 1996)
Nude Invisible Foot Phenomenon LP
(Bag of Hammers, 1996)
"Answer Me" b/w "Arthritis Today" 7"
(Brinkman Records, 1996)
The Screamin' Mee-Mees & Hot Scott Fischer - Warp Sessions 1973 CDR
(Slippy Town, 2001)
The Screamin' Mee-Mees & Hot Scott Fischer - You're Now in Our World: Warp Sessions 1972 CDR
(Slippy Town, 2001)
Live From the Basement CD
(Gulcher Records, 2004)
Garbage Collage CD
(Gulcher Records, 2004)
Plastic Hong Kong Door Bell Finger CD
(Gulcher Records, 2007)
Compilations:
"Hot Sody" was included on "Killed by Death" Vol. 3
(Redrum, 1989)
"Cartoonland" on a tribute to The Twinkeyz split 7" with Mike Rep & The Quotas
(New World of Sound Records, 1996)
"Squawk Squawk Squawk" on a compilation double 7" EP that came out in Whump 1 (fanzine, 1996)
"Mesmerizing Donut Glaze" on "Dropped on the Head" Vol. 2
(Illbilly Records, 2002)
