About Me
NOW, THE REAL STORY:Bob met Jo Anne back in 1965. They knew right away there were sparks, and set out to marry almost immediately. Bob's family was Italian and Cuban/Spanish/Mexican. Jo's family were Austrian-Russian Jews. Their love stirred up classic "my side of the world" hatred between both sides of the family, leaving no one speaking to one another for at least 10 years. Bob and Jo Anne had 3 children in 1967 (RTM, jr), 1968 (TAI...), and in 1970 (Billy), all of which hadn't met the rest of the family till 1977, when tempers finally cooled. Bob spent all of his time working 3 jobs to better afford his love for material objects, and then for his family. Bob was a very angry person, and targetted his anger at the middle child, or just completely disappeared. TAI..., at 3, discovered Bob's guitar, and Jo Anne's rock and roll records. Both were big Beatles fans. Jo Anne also liked the lesser popular groups like Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Beau Brummels, etc. TAI... wore down the B Brummels records, and one compilation which included "Psychotic Reaction", and he remembers "zoning out" when that song came on, which followed "Little GTO" by Ronnie and the Daytonas. How can a wee 5 year old "zone out" to psychedelic? The need for heavy drugs were never his. Bob and Joanne travelled quite a lot, and had moved, at average, once a year. Bob was not in the military, but a tax evader. Many speculate the rush decision of marriage was due to a card that said "Don't burn it!" on it. He enlisted in college as a deterrent. TAI... saw a lot growing up, but still ended up quite naive, even at the age of 36. Bob had nothing to do with his upbringing. TAI... would be found sometimes hiding in the closet (in fear of Bob), or in those table compartments where they kept clothing overstock in like Macy*s, Sears, et al, or by the police for trying to run away. It was the early 70's, so cops were still buying ice cream for kids, and not locking them up for running crack at that point. TAI... felt quite alone in his childhood, and only when he was, did he find peace anyway. Best friends would crowd, but disperse too soon, and no one stuck around for too long. But this gave TAI... an edge. Play, play, play, play, play, whatever instrument was around. They were his best friends. Music was his best friend. And books, books, books, books, books surrounded him. In the late 70's, TAI... and Billy, who were still kinda tight back then, were brought to a second cousin's house (Madeline X), where they were introduced to The Sex Pistols, Bowie, Pop, NY Dolls, Clash, Ramones, Buzzcocks, Ian Hunter/Mott The Hoople, Lou Weed, Adam Ant, and a radio station called WLIR, and this really attracted the two brothers. It was 1981, and the logistics of how a musician and a studio works were lost on TAI...'s 13 year old mind, but he discovered that if you record one track of guitar, you can play over it and practice... but if you had two recorders, you can keep recording overdubs, and TAI...'s first song "Death On The Road" (a really trashy, distortion/feedback laced ditty that had nothing to do with anything), and thus, prehistoric multi-tracking was made. In 1983, TAI... was heavily into a new group called REM, and he got mercilessly made fun of for just listening to them. In his teens in early 84, TAI... befriended a teen from Arizona, named Pete Geddon, who introduced him to harsher punk (JFA, DK's, etc), and who once shaved TAI...'s head into a mohawk just to see the scared passer's by. That happened back in 1984. People were scared of punks. Billy got into it, and we were all hanging out, and TAI... decided to start a hardcore punk group with his bro, and so Angry Youth came to be. TAI... soon was left alone again, but had the best once in a while friends who seemed to all be into heavy thrash, like (at that time) Metallica, Venom, Motorhead, Slayer, Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, SOD, and they were also into TAI...'s music he would bring to school, like Agnostic Front, AOD, The Dayglo Abortions, The Crucifucks, 76% uncertain, Vatican Commandos, and just about anything NY/NJ/ConnHC. TAI... had been, during this time, in many, many hardcore punk, thrash metal bands, up until 1988, when he was listening heavily to college rock like REM, Guadacanal Diary, Big Time Records bands, like The Lime Spiders, The Huxton Creepers, The Spikes, Love and Rockets, etc, etc. This segued into what was to be "Prehistoric" Think About It?! (the elipses would come later). From 1988-1990, TAI... found a hangout called "Paris, NY", and became well aquainted with whom would later all become a big family. Just as things were going strong, "Paris, NY" had to close down, and that scene just died as a result. TAI..., during this time, had a lot of help from one other solo musician, but found too many problems with relying on others, and forced himself to learn bass, drums, percussions, how to sing with no voice, down to how to record oneself. In the earaly 1990's TAI... discovered 60's garage music (the 1st comp he found was in Rhino Records in New Paltz, NY, called Texas Flashback Vol 3, and a month later, Vol 4). This began the longest musical obsession for 60's garage and psychedelic. In 1993, Billy gave TAI... his old Fostex 4 track cassette recorder, and things morphed slowly, but TAI... suddenly found himself recording more music than he ever thought he would, just from becoming obsessed with being able to record many instruments and blend them into a song that sounded just the way he wanted music to sound. Throughout the years, he found himself in and out of volatile love affairs, and some which were beautiful, even one which would have him travel all throughout Europe, esp London, Scotland, France, and Italy. TAI... learned a lot about life from this experience. But the biggest turning point was his travels back and forth to Atlanta, one such experience had him living in a motel turned efficienette turned crack project in midtown, fearing for his life at times - but no bigger turning point would be when he lost the most important person in his life. He took many years to get over it, and lost a lot of friends in the process. But gained a lot too. This was a 2 year moment of torment he felt he could confide in no one about. He felt isolated, abandonned, used, etc. There were a lot of self-extinguishing attempts, tho none were successful. Had TAI... been in the boy scouts, he would've known how to tie a noose. The raging storm ended, the sun came out, and TAI... is now ready for a new life, a new band, and this season's friends! There is peace up ahead.TAI... 2008...
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