Look what I got in the mail!… A remastered version of Rat Bastard's first two demos, Don't You Boys Know Any Nice Songs?! and That Not So Fresh Feeling. I think remastered is the correct term here, maybe not. Joe Kollar took the original DAT tapes to My Low Studio and transferred them with the help of Steve Johnson. You can download the original "tape > CD" version here and compare it to the "DAT > CD" version below.
For your Halloween pleasure… I uploaded Nude and Dismembered in it's entirety to my Vimeo account. They don't have the stupid 10 minute rule like YouTube does.
Here's a Spacemaker/Sugarbush show from July '97 that Christine Lembo shot. Unfortunately, there's only two Sugarbush songs and the second one gets cut up and ends early.
First up is Spacemaker...
Spacemaker - "Prognosis Negative"
Spacemaker - "Ride"
Spacemaker - "Human Consumption"
For their last song, Mike invites Joe on stage (and me but I didn't accept the invite) to sing "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" by the Ramones. And for some reason Matt takes over on drums...
Spacemaker - "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" (Ramones cover)
Here's a review of Spacemaker's2 Song Demo from the L.I.E. (Long Island Entertainment). The two songs – "Ride" and "Prognosis Negative" – were taken from the No Roger, No Rerun, No Rent sessions (here).
In May of '97 John Hoffman hosted a second party (see here for the 1st) at his house with musical performances by Spacemaker and Sugarbush (there may have been others...not sure).
Here's Spacemaker's performance...
[DOWNLOAD] Spacemaker @ The Hoffman Estate 5/24/97
01- Prognosis Negative
02- >talking<
03- Wrong With Me
04- >talking<
05- Human Consumption
06- >talking<
07- Rerun
08- >talking<
09- In My Life
10- >talking<
11- Ride
12- >talking<
13- Shadowbox
14- Bonzo Goes To Bitburg (with Joe Kollar)
15- Ride (alt.)
Spacemaker got a little bit of a bad rap in Bellmore: The Unscene, mainly because Daveman was entertainingly vocal about the subject. Of course there's another side to the story...there always is. Someone "anonymously" posted a comment to a Rat Bastard post (here) with a different view...
Anonymous said...
The end of RB Mach 1 wasn't as abrupt as it reads here. After the "Avianca" show, the entire band, which included Dave, Kev, John and Matt had discussed whether or not to continue, as well changing the band's name. There seemed little interest in continuing. Four full months after said show, Mike Maher asked us if we wanted to jam, which eventually led to the formation of Spacemaker. Whether it was official or not, RB Mach 1 was done. So let's get this straight, no one was deceived here. It all seemed to work out for everyone, anyway....except for Hoffman.
One thing's for sure...you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce who Anonymous is.
So let's get to Spacemaker... Their songs were pretty catchy. You can definitely hear the influence of The Descendents and All (and some of the pop-punk fad that what was going on at the time). Matt Storms, dusting himself off after the Rat Bastard fiasco, proved to be a talented guitar player. And who knew Mike Maher could play guitar? He used to hang out at Barking Spider and Stretch Arm Strong practices all the time and never showed signs. All of a sudden he could play a mean lefty guitar.
Spacemaker went on to play a bunch of the local clubs around Long Island and even double-billed with Rat Bastard mach III...all water under the bridge. At some point John decided to leave the band, for John reasons, and was replaced by Paul McAniff on drums – a friend of a friend kind of thing. Paul wound up quitting after 3 or 4 months and Matt took over on drums leaving all guitar duties to Mike. Spacemaker remained a three-piece until they broke up in May 1998.
In September of '96 John Hoffman hosted a party at his house with musical performances by Adrenachrome, Rat Bastard and Zombula 451˚ (there may have been others...not sure). The only photo I have from the day is of Adrenachrome – which also happens to be the onlyAdrenachrome photo I have. I also have recordings from Adrenachrome and Zombula that Brian Gressler taped (vocals are a little hot) – nothing from Rat Bastard.
*Still don't know the titles of Adrenachrome's songs. I reached out to Mike...or Mert...through the 'ol Facebook but he never responded. >expletive here< [DOWNLOAD] Zombula 451˚ @ The Hoffman Estate 9/2/96
01- I Killed Ghandi
02- No Fear
03- Love Affair
04- The New Way
05- Gotta Go
06- End Of The World
In the last post, Robbie Woliver from NEWSDAY crowned Sugarbush"Best Rock Band of '96". In his next article (above), he added 22 + bands to the list...including Rat Bastard.
Rat Bastard's third show was opening for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones at Malibu – and this was at the height of The Bosstones career. Daveman had connections from when he used to work at radio station WDRE so he managed to get the band on the bill. Rat Bastard had a shaky start (see the video below) but pulled through and delivered the goods. They polished off The Bosstones' keg back stage and sold all their Don't You Boys Know Any Nice Songs?! demo tapes in the parking lot.
In this video (found on the Bellmore: The Unscene "Extras" DVD), Jim Conaboy, Daveman, Joe Kollar and Mike Walsh reflect on the show...
And just for the record... Joe responded to a Barking Spiderpost that Conaboy didn't have his facts quite right. Here's what Joe wrote...
"RB playing with the Bosstones was not a "Pay to Play" show. We were selling tickets so we could get paid but even if we sold none, we were still on the bill. There's just no way, I would ever pay to play a gig. I'm way too cheap."
...Now you know.
RAT BASTARD Dave Jemmott - vocals Joe Kollar - guitar Kevin Purcell - bass John Hoffman - drums
Rat Bastard's first show was at The Right Track Inn, in December of '94. The first thing you'll notice is that Daveman's performance is a little stiff – a far cry from the Daveman to come. Wait...that's not true...the first thing you'll notice is how crappy the sound quality is on this VHS video. The second thing you'll notice is that Daveman's performance is a little stiff (sorry Dave...I kid).
For all you Intellectuals fans out there, you may remember this first song as "Cheated"...
Rat Bastard - "I Don't Wanna"
Rat Bastard - "Blind In One Eye"
And here's a little treat... :30 seconds of Zombula 451˚ performing "End Of The World", and another song I can't make out. Unfortunately, that's all there is. At this point Zombula had added a second guitarist, John Orgera, to the mix...
Zombula 451˚ - "End Of The World"
*I don't know who shot this footage, but if you'd like credit, just leave a comment.
I can't begin to talk about Rat Bastard before I mention Thaine...the short-lived band that led to Rat Bastard. Apparently, Kevin and John didn't have the miserable experience I did towards the end of Stretch Arm Strong because the two of them teamed up with Dean Mastrantoni again, forming Thaine – Kevin even roomed with him in his studio. One day Kevin met up with Dave "Daveman" Jemmott – after years without contact – and soon enough Dave was Thaine's singer – Dean was playing lead guitar. After four months and three songs, Joe Kollar was asked to join the band as a second guitarist, but he quit after two practices when Dean's brother asked everyone to sign a contract. The rest soon followed. R.I.P. Thaine (April 1994 - August 1994).
And from the ashes of Thaine rose Rat Bastard (mach 1)... Joe, Daveman, Kevin and John decided to have a go at it on their own as Rat Bastard and quickly made a name for themselves – their third show was opening for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (which I'll get to at a later date). After about a month together, Rat Bastard recorded their first 6 song demo, Don't You Boys Know Any Nice Songs?! A year later they recorded their second 6 song demo, That Not So Fresh Feeling. Joe has since combined the two demos into a single CD, Don't You Boys Know I've Got That Not So Fresh Feeling?
(From here on out, the rest of this story can be seen in a clip from Bellmore: The Unscene. So if you'd rather hear it from the horses mouths, check out the video down below – with commentary by Daveman, Joe, Kevin, John, Deluca, Stamberg, Ron Bianco, Matt Bianco, Jim Conaboy, Jim Burns, Mike Walch, Mike Maher, and Tammie Cohen. Otherwise, you can continue reading my paraphrasing...or both...it's really up to you.)
Rat Bastard mach II (a.k.a. Matt Bastard)
In 1996 Rat Bastard was approached by a dude who offered to manage their band. He talked a good talk and the guys were interested in pursuing this venture...all but Joe, that is. Joe just didn't trust this guy so he offered to leave the band...at least that's one side of the story. The band put an ad in a local paper and Matt Storms answered. He was the only one to audition. But his stay – at least with Rat Bastard – was short-lived...about four months. After a disastrous show at The Spiral in NYC – dubbed the Avianca gig – the band planned to kick Matt out of the band. In a rather strange turn of events, Daveman was instead kicked out of the band and Kevin, John and Matt started a new band with Bellmore's Mike Maher – forming Spacemaker (which I'll get to at a later date). Rat Bastard mach III
Sometime in '97, Joe and Daveman got to talking and realized they still wanted to continue Rat Bastard so they put the word out for a rhythm section. Tammie Cohen suggested her co-worker/drummer Mike Stamberg and he got the gig. Dave Deluca had recently left Sugarbush and without a band, so he offered to fill in on bass temporarily...which turned out to be permanent. This line-up of Rat Bastard would prove to be the best and most popular combination of Rat Bastard, all the way up until their very last show (which I will also get to at a later date...plus more in between...including Colonel Bastard's Horny Left But Band).
But seriously, it's much more interesting and funny hearing it from them so watch this clip...
RAT BASTARD
Dave Jemmott - vocals
Joe Kollar - guitar
Kevin Purcell - bass ('94-'97)
John Hoffman - drums ('94-'97)
Dave deluca - bass ('97-'00)
Mike Stamberg - drums ('97-'00)
Back in 2003 I finished a documentary on the music scene from my hometown of Bellmore, Long Island. But Bellmore: The Unscene only scratched the surface of the Bellmore scene. My intentions with this blog is to dive deeper into the music and people of Bellmore. I also don't expect people outside of Bellmore to care about this blog but just in case they're interested, they're welcome to browse and learn. This will largely be the place for the people of Bellmore to replace the copy of Colonel Bastard's Horny Left Nut Band they lost or to relive an old Intellectuals show at La Serayña... amongst other things Bellmore.
