OpIvy

Lint
January 1987, at a party in Berkeley I was walking from the keg with another beer when Crimpshrine started playing their set. The song was "Another Day". I didn't know the title or the lyrics at the time, just the attack and the melody and the way Jeff sang "you learned a lesson" put chills up my spine. The whole spirit of Crimpshrine and the new scene in Berkeley hit me that night. I thought it was cool that a band could play anywhere, anytime at a moments notice. Crimpshrine became my favorite band.
Op Ivy
Within a few months Matt, Jesse, Dave and I formed Operation Ivy. We joined Crimpshrine on the lame gig contest. If someone was having a party the first question would be "can our band play?" It didn't matter if it was a living room, basement, laundromat, garage, backyard, Billy Jam's radio show, or a barn with sheep, we did it all. We loved to play together. As time went on our shows were starting to get more and more high energy. We jumped all over the place like lunatics, and sometimes equipment would go flying. First it was just our friends dancing and getting up on the mike to sing our lyrics with us, but as time went on people we didn't even know or seen before started showing up. That was a big deal to us.
Op Ivy
This was all new for us because our garage band was being taken seriously. Speaking for myself it was a good and a scary feeling all rolled into one. We were punx in a punk band playing punk rock. We also played ska songs and because of it some punks hated and gave us shit for them. Fuk 'em. Our ska songs weren't the standard horn/organ pretty sounding ska. We were pissed and hard edged about it. I love ska and we were doing it our own way, and OPIV was about creating your own style. Fuck being safe. Take the crazy risk and ride it till you fall off.
Op Ivy
When Eric started throwing the whole record idea around we were pretty supportive. It was basically his project and we went along with him in any direction he wanted to go. The four songs are Punk Rock and picked by Eric. Sometimes when life crashes down on my shoulders and every thing looks like fuck, I turn to music. I use it to realize my anger and unknown energy inside me. After I write a song or play in front of people I feel better.
Op Ivy
OPIV had a solid two year run. Not only were those good times, but I did a lot of growing up and learning. It's cool that people are still interested in what we were doing back then.