Photo: ghosts from the past

We were selling CDs through Cafepress (no link for them), but they quit doing CDs on demand, so we were looking for another source when Cafepress dropped all our stores. So, we’ve moved to Zazzle and are doing OK but we sold a lot more in the ’00s and ’10s than we are in the ’20s.  However, we will press on as long as there is interest.

We had a company interested in re-releasing our back  catalog but it didn’t pan out, which is why we suspended selling CDs to begin with.

Actuallly, it didn’t pan out because the company decided to only release a ‘greatest hits’, as in greatest hits decided by them picking through the albums for what they felt were the best songs, notwithstanding we already had a ‘greatest hits’ named Riding in the Saddle of the Beast, with songs based on those we released as singles as well as live crowd favorites. Not only that, the guy in charge wanted to change the cover and all the graphics to generic bullshit. The more I looked at it the more it looked like a bullshit deal with a “company” that had limited funds and zero distribution and would be a waste of time, so we passed. A number of local bands did not, this guy was so desperate he was taking bands that only existed for a 4 song demo (recorded in my old 8-track studio) and played one gig (opening for us). Sometimes integrity trumps narcissism. It did in our case, anyway.

While I’m on the subject, a couple of these bands reformed and played some local gigs at shit-hole pubs and even flew to Germany to play some shithole pubs over there. Playing the same music they had played 30 years before, and it wasn’t all that back then. None of these guys had done shit since then, so this was all they could do. Unlike our band, which switched gears two times, first play some very advanced covers (Extreme, Queen, Queensryche, Aerosmith, G&R, Crue, Coverdale/Page,etc.) with full 3 part harmony and double guitar solos like Highway Star.

After even hard rock/metal gigs disappeared locally, we switched again to Alternative/Classic rock like Beatles/Eagles/Tom Petty and Matchbox20/Goo Goo Dolls/Gin Blossums/Foo Figbhters/Panic at the Disco/Counting Crows. We couldn’t continue as Vengeance Incorporated with this format, so we switched to Screamin’ Weasel, but got tired denying being a punk band so we later changed it to Doc Weasel and it became known as docweaselband. We played all over Ybor, Hyde Park, University, St. Pete Beach and finally ended up as a Buc’s Gameday band. None of these bands could ever have done that, given the limited musicianship and poor vocal skills of all these bands. Once Brandon was a ‘hot bed’ of original metal, and those guys are still stuck in the mid-80s. I preferred to move on and still prefer looking ahead.

Someone had the bad sense to invite me to one of these pitiful gigs and I posted basically this sentiment so all my old metal buddies (only a few were really friends, anyway) are angry and disappointed with me. I am taking it surprisingly well. I can look back on our work with pride, but I would never revisit it, but that’s because I don’t have to, I’m not so limited. I never had any respect for anything any of our peers did and I won’t pretend I do now, decades removed.

I’m old enough I don’t need to care, I have no dealings with any of them, I have my family and friends so I can be honest. Hey, they always knew I was an asshole, in that I spoke up. I didn’t pretent.