About Me
Mr Epp was a math teacher at Bellevue Christian High School where Darren, Mark and Smitty attended in the late 70s/early 80s. One day Smitty was not paying attention in math class and was somehow transported out of Bellevue into a better world and so exclamed aloud, "Mr Epp and the Calculations --what a great name for a rock band!". Thus the legend of Mr Epp was born.Their first "live show" was singing Marvin Gaye’s "Got to give it up" on a donut crazed Junior Bible teacher’s desk, using rolled up maps as guitars. Mark McLaughlin and Paul Zech of the Zucchini brothers augmented Peter Wick and Smitty (and later Darren Morey).June was the first time they got together in Darren’s basement to make a racket with real instruments and a two-track cassette recorder (known as "The Pigeon in the Fountain Bed" sessions). Mainly it was Peter reading his short story of the same name over Smitty and Tom Wolf playing slide guitars together, Mark drumming, and others sitting in, making assorted background noises (and, among them, Todd Morey, later Why?).Two major turning points in Epp history were seeing Devo at the Showbox in August, 1980 and A Film about Jimi Hendrix.
That year, when Mark was home on college break, he got together with Tom Wolf and Smitty in my parent’s basement with a very cheap blue guitar, a cardboard box in lieu of drums, and lyrics extolling the publicc to prevent the demise of low rated radio station KZAM-AM, home of wacky DJ Stephen Rabow, who had aired an excerpt of the "Pigeon" session introducing it with the line "Mr Epp - the worst band in the world".In the summer they all got jobs and went more than a little crazy, well beyond the call of the duty, spending a lot more time in the basement on a makeshift stage, with boxes of cocktail straw, pretending to be a punk rock band, miming to the Sex Pistols, Undertones, Clash etc. and breaking dumpsters worth of what would now be chic thrift store plates and glasses in a rage against the war machine or more likely just because they were young, stupid, destructive, and from the suburbs with nothing better to do and it felt good.They also expended a huge amount of their time and youthful energy plastering the city with a variety of posters based on the basic "Mr Epp is coming soon!" theme.Epp finally played their debut show, after many cancelled dates (at least twice due to Todd being grounded) in October, 1981 at Queen Anne’s UCT Hall. opening for Student Nurse.Student Nurse’s drummer John Rubato produced their early 1982 debut 7", "Of course I’m happy, why?", which came out after they’d just played three live shows, on Dennis White and Maire Masco’s short lived Pravda Records.KROQ’s Rodney Bingenheimer hyped "Mohawk Man" a lot on his LA based Rodney on the Rocks show where it actually made it to 1, beating out Toni Basel’s "Mickey" which later made it to national 1, unlike their song. (Maybe they should have made a video).In late ’82 Mr Epp opened, to an extremely hostile crowd, for new wave star Nina Hagen. New Years ’82/’83 saw Epp playing with Dirk Kahler on second guitar, in Verna Dohrety’s basement, A lot of this show appears on side two of the Live as all get out! tape releaseDan Blossom (Feast) played guitar on a epic live version of The Velvet Underground’s "The gift" as Darren read his six page transcription. Steve and Smitty jammed with Verna as Doggs with Dreddloxx. Mark and Todd played with her, and Dana and Greg from The Limp Richerds, as Jack Klugman & the Ice Picks, a punk rock parody band that did at least one show, the highlight of which was "I hate cops because they killed my dog".In June 1983 Steve Turner joined on second lead guitar and Epp praticed a lot in Darren’s tiny bedroom. Jo recalls, "I don’t know why we only played 2 or 3 times with Steve and I can’t really remember why Darren wanted us to break up but I remember him and Todd telling me about it at some goofy ice cream joint in Bellevue. Steve says he and Mark begged us to record but that we wouldn’t do it. I don’t recall this but if it’s true, we were pretty stupid. I do remember Mark - in mid-Green River days - saying ’We should have done an album’. Actually it’s amazing we were any good at all given that it was the ’80s and Reagan was in, we took both politics and Art seriously (before the last show i carefully spread pale blue paint on one hand and white on the other) and we were from a brain dead suburb".Epp played their final show at the Metropolis on Feb 3, 1984, with Malfunkshun, opening for Fang, whose guitarist Tom Flynn now runs Boner Records, past home of the Melvins and Steel Pole Bath Tub. The final show was brought to a close with an epic, half hour rendition of "Flogging" featuring twenty people on stage, smoke bombs, and an Hefty bag of hair and dirt dumped on the audience.That’s it.It was all over in less than three years.Mark and Steve recruited ex Derranged Diction bassist Jeff Ament and ex Spluii Numa drummer Alex Shumway and were soon playing out as Green River.Mark and Steve played in the last version of The Limp Richerds, as well as The Thrown Ups, who lasted into the early ’90s.The River ran dry in ’87.All five menbers of Epp sat on the steps of Ground Zero Art Gallery as Whitehouse played in 1985. "It’s an Epp reunion --give us money!" someone yelps.
In 1988 Arm and Turner reunited in Mudhoney and later the Monkeywrench. Smitty and Darren got back together with Peter and Liz Schmoe (of Western Family) to form the short lived band with one of the longest names ever, Lapses in Grammar Afforded to Avoid Sexism, a free improv blues based noise band whose songs tended to go for half an hour.Smith and Darren also played in the all-star cover band, The World’s Greatest Funk Band which included Al Merati (ex Snowman Hospital) & Russ Leonard (ex Strenght through Joy).Todd quit music until 1986’s even shorter lived, Dead in Baltimore, which was 3/4 of Epp as it featured Smitty and Darren. Todd formed Fred’s Crashshop (whose lone cassette release Wired up goddamn tight today, came out on Dog Tapes in 1988) with Trevor Lutzenhizer, who later played with him in Atomic 61.Darren started playing with Steel Pole Bath Tub, who’d recently moved to Seattle from Denver, and soon left for San Francisco.Todd and Trevor formed Atomic 61 with Elizabeth Davis (7 Year Bitch) and Lisa Smith (Dickless / Teen Angels) comprising an early lineup which cut a 10" and a single with Smitty producing. A new Smitty (and sometimes Darren) band Dosed Bernie (lead by Paul Uusitalo) opened a few west coast dates with Steel Pole and Atomic 61.In late ’91 Smitty and Todd joined Steel Pole for a rousing encore of "Come together" at Rock Candy with Darren asking, "Is Mark Arm here?". He wasn’t or it would have been an Epp reunion.Steel Pole Bath Tub toured Europe with Smitty singing in a number of cities, including a 40-minute version of "Mohawk Man" in Lyon, France with members of Neurosis and some French guy that could easily pass for Steve who just wandered up on stage.In 1996 Epp turns down a $200 offer to back Lou Reed at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame show, offering the gig to a grateful Soul Asylum.Ridiculing the Apocalypse, the definitive Mr Epp CD anthology, is released by Super Electro in association with Dog Tapes.
Only the magic bear knows what the future holds...By, Craig Joyce
