LOUIE LOUIE

matt & ian 1986?

GLASS SNORTING METAL CLICHES

Argus "Louie Louie" MP3

This cassette is dated April 14, 1986 and I believe it's the first time I ever jammed with classmates. I'm playing guitar, the drummer I believe was named Jason, the singer might've been Matt and I forget who could've been playing bass. I think Matt played bass all the time & all the rest of the day but maybe his brother or neighbor suddenly appeared in the garage once we started making all that noise? We used the lyric sheet from my Motorhead "No Remorse" album for the words.

Check out my pre CC Deville over the top guitar solo. Holy cow.

I don't think I jammed with Matt again. He later joined the Penguins. I think I tried to jam with Jason again at his house, but his parents went ballistic after like half a song or something. I don't know if he even played drums after that. I was actually kind of surprised that he played in the first place.

The band name Argus was given by me well after the fact. As will soon become apparent, I lived in a fantasy world when it came to jamming with other kids, picking band names and drawing logos.

Which, in the mid 1980s, your logo was possibly the most important thing about your band.

I think the fantasy realm is a common thing when people are first learning their instruments & how they interact with each other. Even though this 'Argus' band struggled for over an hour to string together the three chords of "Louie Louie" you can hear me on the tape trying to induce the others into playing a riff of mine. I think we might've discussed other songs to cover. I probably wanted to do stuff like W.A.S.P. and Frank Zappa. I remember Matt forcing us all to listen to "Bungle in the Jungle" by Jethro Tull, so that's what he wanted to cover. The good thing was, during that forced listening session I was introduced to several life changing pieces of music, namely "War Head" by Venom (still one of my favorite Venom songs), "Satan's Fall" by Mercyful Fate and "Hell Awaits" by Slayer. Dude, in 1986, no one knew any of this stuff. It was beyond revelatory!

Anyway after hearing some friends & spouses of friends recently struggling with the quandary of which songs to cover in their new band, I don't feel so bad. It's just part of the deal. "Living After Midnight" by Judas Priest, that's a good song for a beginner band. "Two Minutes to Midnight" by Iron Maiden, not so much.