Monday, September 1, 2008

mc Ben and Decade of Error

Some patches from mc Ben's super-awesome collection!







I first met mc Ben when he was just fourteen, a freshman at Sallies and not yet the mc. He played bass in my kid brother's aggro-punk outfit Decade of Error, a clever pun on a BMX trick, which the boys from D.O.E. were all very versed on. The band was Paddy Robinson on lead vocals and guitar, John Danko on lead guitar and vocals, Benny Kuleska (my personal spelling) on the bass, and Matt Volk on drums. Originally, Pat was in a band with Kevin Prouty and Rory Caldas, who said that kid Matt was too nice to be in a punk band. Rory was close... you can be really nice and be in a punk band, see Sean Rule, but it helps to be a punk!





Anyway, D.O.E. played alot with my band Power of IV, along with Super Hi-Five, Midiron Blast Shaft, Dutchland Diesel, and Excite Bike, and they would practice at my parents' or Matt's parents' and then sleep over. While Pat and John and Matt would pass out like scrubs, Benny and me would stay up and play Gran Tourismo. When Danko went off to become a doctor, D.O.E. was absorbed by Billy Frolic of Science For Kids and Mike Garcia of Excite Bike to form the weirdest band going at the time: Signal/Static. Then professionalism struck again and Garcia went off to become a CPA, leaving Signal without a frontman, so I joined and we wrote all new songs to become the Endless Mike Jambox, in which Benny switched to lead guitar and became the mc, because mc Ben is a bird who's gotta fly, gotta let a playa play!

The Jambox was a sick twist, fueled by Stroh's and frustration, wild and mean, but I grew increasingly upset with Volk's world-view (conservative Christie, republican, asshole, John Mayer fan) and he grew increasingly upset with my then self-destructive/prickish behaviour towards him, and he quit before the 2005 Punk Rock Prom, only to play it, his last show with the Jambox, and leave promptly. The night before there was a lame-ass party at his crib at which I made quite a scene and got my nose broke by some no-name palooka (and Paddy prolly saved my life by ganking my keys. Thanks Pat, love ya!). Anyhoo, we tried but couldn't find a suitable replacement drummer. Matt couldn't think, but he could drum, and the JB sorta folded... not me of course. I play in three fully functioning bands that explore different regions of rock and roll and punk rock, including the Wastoids with the incomparable, occasionally moody, always shredtastic, mc Ben.

Here's s'more from mc's collection.














A recent CvC t-shirt... they come in girl sizes!

Some mc Ben icons... known as as big a Phils fan as me, and a Baker Jeep All-Star as well (along with Bobby Campbell and Timmy "MM" Toner.












Two classic Destroy t-shirts. Back in the day a little bit my brother and this hipster Adam did Destroy Clothing. These are from when it was cool. For the real goods these days hit up http://www.fightorflightclothing.com/, definitely not Destroy, they suck now.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Very cool !! Keep up the good work. BTW, thanks for not mentioning that on the current RBI sheets you've got me 6-0... I'm not even going to look at the totals.

Dan said...

I figured not mentioning it would be the classy thing to do!