LURKING FEAR: ARE THESE THE SCARIEST MEN IN AMERICA?" "LURKING FEAR: UNDEAD ROCK FROM THE MIDWEST. A joining of forces: TIM AYNARDI of THREE LEGGED DOG, CRAIG DALRYMPLE, editor of SCREAM MAGAZINE, and DAN ROSS, artist of NAZI PUNKS FROM HELL, have come together for a tribute to such classic and contemporary horror authors the likes of AMBROSE BIERCE, H.P. LOVECRAFT, EDGAR ALLEN POE, and ALAN MOORE. LURKING FEAR slips into the darker side of dreams, where reality slurs, and things of darkness make your skin crawl." Dan Ross "The Lurking Fear": an intense, terrifying short story about deadly primate mutant monsters written in 1925 by legendary American horror author H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft's bizarre, nightmarish tales of terror combined supernatural gothic horror and modern science fiction inspired the name of the band and much of our music. Lurking Fear was born in a house where strangers wandered through the back yard late at night and terrible things happened on the street out front on a regular basis. Cops, dogs, crooks, shelters for bums, runaways and beaten wives... that was our neighborhood." "The house itself was cheap and riddled with problems such as the ever-present mold growing on everything in the basement. I left an amp down there for three days and it was covered in a sheen of green-white powder. Floorboards in the bathroom rotted to the point where mushrooms would spawn around the bathtub basin from our frightening basement below." "This is where I first read H. P. Lovecraft's 'The Shunned House' about a moldy vampiric presence that sucked the life from all who lived within the rotten house's confines. It was the inspiration for Lurking Fear's flagship song 'Something In the Basement.' "Our house was a practice space for several bands and all of us who lived there were in bands. I played electric violin in First Bank of Christ, Tim played bass in Three Legged Dog. In our spare time we got together to talk about Lovecraft and other eldritch things such as our freaky neighborhood and also about music. We thought it was a good idea to start a Lovecraftian punk band, seeing as how we shared many common interests and of course were constantly inspired by our own horrifying basement." "It's grey outside, cold, windy. Fall has arrived in the Midwest. 1985 is almost gone, trees now show their skeletons, death lingers outside the browned leaves and spindling branches. Inside one of the desolate houses on Wilkes Blvd., a guitar moans several major and minor chords, reflecting the mood to the season; death and despair." "Tim is in his room reading, listening in the back of his mind to the constant electric moaning. It's been happening like this on and off for weeks now. Certain beats drift through his mind as the melody grows --- swells the beat faster. But ouch! It's slightly off. After two weeks of this, Tim's had enough. It's time to take action! After talking for awhile with Dan, it's settled: Tim and Dan shall join forces and become a band!" "To test themselves, they start in immediately on a song. The energy of Dan's guitar and Tim's driving drum beat is very impressive.†"Now there are two problems: a name for the band and a singer. Both Tim and Dan are into the gothic horror of H.P. Lovecraft. What better name than "Lurking Fear" for a band dedicated to this type of subject matter?" "For about a week they're both stumped by just who the hell would be a good singer for this type of music. When one day, while sitting at the bar of a cafe [Ernie's], they were talking about just that problem and Craig enters the scene. Dan and Tim look at each other and then Craig and smile widely." "Hey, Craig, what's up? Uh...would you like to sing for us?" "‘Uh . . . Sure . . . Why not?" "Lurking Fear Played its first show live on KOPN that next week. And so it goes: We're not death rock, we're undead rock. Lurking Fear formed in Columbia, Missouri in the fall of 1985 when the days were getting shorter, colder, and darker and the macabre magic of Halloween was in the air. October, 1985: I walked over to my friend Dan Ross's decaying, old house on my lunch break from work and he showed me a bunch of his scary drawings and paintings of monsters that he said were inspired by horror author H.P. Lovecraft. As much as I admired Dan's art, it gave me the creeps! Then Dan played a few strangely haunting original songs with similar themes and I was so impressed that I told him, "Man, you oughta get a band together!" The following is an excerpt from Dan's liner notes from the 1998 Lurking Fear CD, Songs From The Key of Lovecraft: "We had lyrics but no one to sing them. We saw Craig at Ernie's Coffee Shop one day and asked him. Later there was John Yarbrough who took up bass during the live gigs and when Craig left for San Francisco, Mike Basey braved the microphone. But before Craig left we made a recording so that we would not forget the terrors of that bygone age. This recording was made over three weekends at Ed Herrman's studio in July 1987. Tim played both bass and drums for the recording. I did guitar and vocals, and Craig sang like a madman. This CD archive was created at Olde West Studios in San Francisco." Daniel Alan Ross, San Francisco 1998. Years later, Dan designed the Official Lurking Fear website, which is filled with our songs, lyrics, photos, art, and band information. Our horror story began to come full circle in October 2007, over 20 years after the release of our studio tape, when Tim asked me to create a Lurking Fear myspace page. Creating the Lurking Fear myspace page has been a lot of fun. A new generation of young punk, horror punk, death rock, goth, psychobilly, garage, indie rock, and alternative rock fans have discovered Lurking Fear along with many legendary bands and solo artists who inspired and influenced us. My very special thanks to my Lurking Fear bandmates, Dan Ross and Tim "Bristle" Aynardi. Thank you DC Comics, Arkham House, Columbia, MO community radio station KOPN, DJ Badguy for giving us our first gig, the live radio broadcast on KOPN, Ed Herrmann for being such a brilliant music producer and giving our music the best sound quality ever (including the scary, psychotic studio sound), University of Missouri radio station KCOU, for interviewing Lurking Fear on the air and playing songs from our studio cassette, John Yarbrough, Mike Basey, Olde West Studios in San Francisco. Special thanks to my friend Dave Shapiro for recording additional copies of the Lurking fear CD, Songs in the Key of Lovecraft, Three Legged Dog (Deva, Bobby & Tim), Like A Horse (Notley, Kevin, Bobby, and Tim). Special thanks to Richard Salinas, Brian Jones, Elka, Wren and Randy McCleary for taking vintage photographs. Thanks Dan for your "scary monsters" illustrations and graphic design that appear in this lyric book. Lurking Fear thanks everyone (living, dead, and undead) who came to our shows, called radio stations to request our songs, bought our cassettes, and enjoyed our music. Special thanks to all of the singers, songwriters, musicians, movies, television shows, and the literature that influenced and inspired us, especially writer H.P. Lovecraft. Special thanks to the bands from Columbia's underground music scene that inspired us with their bold, innovative, do-it-yourself spirit, including The Causes of Tragedy, First Bank of Christ, Like A Horse, Three Legged Dog, Zuzu's Petals, the Art Sluts, the Dharma Bums/the Scarbroughs, Bone Deep, East Ash, and Untamed Youth. Craig Dalrymple, Lurking Fear "Gonna eat your brains and gain your knowledge!" Zombie Doctor in the movie Planet Terror, 2007 "Why do you eat people?" "Not people --- BRAINS!" The Return of the Living Dead, 1985 "Listen to them --- the children of the night. What music they make!" Dracula novel by Bram Stoker
Layout by CoolChaser
