history 1
Following is an almost exact account of the rise and the fall of the Stand Ins...
the beginning
Gary, composer, guitarist, founding member of the Swanki Falcons (that's him second from left), started it.
In his apartment one day staring at his Telecaster gathering dust in the corner, he jumped up and shouted, “Eureka! I'll form a band!” Or words to that effect.
He called and said he needed a bass player. I'd only played clarinet thirty years ago, but he said, no problemo. Next thing I know he borrows a Music Man Stingray with a Pocket Rocket and sez I'm going to learn it pronto.
I practiced like a man possessed and soon played a mean version of Who Hit Annie in the Fanny with a Flounder. Good enough for Gary. Two people down, two to go.
mike's garage
We needed a drummer and a place to practice, so Gary called an old buddy, Mike. We met in his garage in De Pere and plugged in the amps.
This photo shows the original setup with the only snare drum Mike could find. The rest of the drums were somewhere, but he couldn't remember where. Possibly buried under the thousands of CDs and cassettes randomly scattered around his house.
Assorted plastic buckets became drums.
Strangely, it sounded cool as hell. Maybe it was the acoustics or the particular polyvinyl makeup of the buckets. Whatever, we rocked.
A wee problem developed in that Mike had the best voice (or maybe Gary didn't feel like singing), but he couldn't sing and play at the same time. The search for another drummer began.
mike's livingroom
Gary called Jody, another pal desperate to make music. Living in the relative isolation of Suamico he was ready for a different form of excitement.
Profuse quantities of sweat flew off a warmed-up Jody and caused some electrical anxiety, but it was well worth the risk since he was a great drummer. The Stand Ins were complete!
Soon the boys moved from the garage to the roomier first floor corner livingroom of Mike's house. He threw everything(chairs, plants, tables, Penthouses, etc.) into an extra room except that which was required to make music.
We soon had that nineteenth-century shack shakin' with good vibes and tunes.
Go on to the next page for continuing exciting episodes!
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