I put together this page to show some of the bands I've been in over the past 20 years.
To hear what I was doing most recently, go check out:
www.myspace.com/brainpanmusic
Anhow...history:
In 1985, my parents, sisters, and grandparents pooled their money and gave me a bass for Christmas.
The next year, I joined my first band and played my first gig.
The band was called DRESS BLUES and the gig was my high school talent show. I was so stressed in the weeks leading up to the show that I got migraines..but I was hooked.
Dress Blues "officially" ended in July of 1988 when our drummer, John TenBroeke, went off to join the Marines. But we've managed to stay in touch. Rob McConkey (guitar) ended up marrying my sister. I guess every family needs a black sheep - HA!After Dress Blues, I just did a lot of casual jamming with friends working on an improv punk project we called RUMPLE FORESKIN AND THE RODS--it's some of the funniest shit you will never hear. The "hidden" track on BRAINPAN'S "The Reckoning" was an old Rumple tune that I reworked. No, it is NOT based on a true event. I have never puked on ANYONE...In 1990, I headed off to the Air Force Academy. Now, admittedly, military schools are seldom bastions of rock and roll catharsis, but I found some kindred spirits and formed a couple cool bands; POINT BLANK and A HABIT OF DENIAL.After graduation in 1994, I was stationed in Southern Illinois, just a few miles from St. Louis. I look at the St. Louis years as when I really got serious about being a musician. My first band there was a cover band called VOODOO LILY. We played some fun shows and I learned quickly how much WORK it can be to entertain a bar for 4-5 hours.After that, I joined a band called CORE, who described themselves as "Sade meets Alice in Chains". It was great music with a lot of on-stage improv and creative/personal tension that funneled a lot of passion into the music. That passion bled over into a post-gig argument one night, leading to a lineup shift and another incarnation of the band; NEGATIVE EIGHT. I still keep in touch with Mike Brinkman, the drummer from CORE/NEGATIVE EIGHT--he breaks drumsticks for Absent Society nowIn 1997, however, the Air Force moved me on to California. Suprisingly, it took me a while to find a band, but I ended up in M.D.S.O. The tapes I have of that band always raise eyebrows--there were some personality conflicts but I think the music was fuckin' brilliant...and funny...and heavy.When M.D.S.O. collapsed, I found a great bunch of guys playing post-Seattle grunge. After struggling with names, we settled on SMEAR. We put out a couple CDs, did some tours up to the headwaters (Seattle) and drank a LOT of beer. Whenever I need to brush up on my sarcasm, I get in touch with the SMEAR guys...2001, however, was the end of my time in the Air Force. Somehow, I wound up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Early on, I hooked up with a VERY heavy project called CELLBLOCK 12.When that band fractured, I found a kickass band called CLUTCHDIVINE, recorded a CD and played a bunch of cool shows. But once again, creative fatigue set in. So, Bob Powers (currently singer of Cornfed Bruiser) and I tried to get something new going on, but it never really took off. In the meantime, I played a couple shows with EMT, featuring a couple of my fellow CELLBLOCK 12 alumni. Iowa is a very difficult place to cultivate any kind of a scene...
Then my daughter was born, and priorities shifted...In 2004, I found my way out of Iowa and moved here, to Denver. The first band I found was a return to my long-ago days of high-school; a punk band called SUBURBAN HOSTAGE. But, I felt a bit like an old fake, playing in a band with guys who were 20 & 21, and (MTV aside) you just can NOT fake punk. So I started looking again...Then I found BRAINPAN. The 2.5 years that BRAINPAN was together made it my longest continual musical relationship. It lasted because we refused to pigeonhole ourselves into any specific genre--it died because some of us were content staying local and playing for the joy of making music, and some of us weren't.Regardless, music is an inextricable part of who I am, and I will continue to look for great music and great people to play it with.
Johnny Law
