December 16, 2004
Bugs reviewed; Lost Trailers screwed
Bugs Eat Books dropped one local label (Pitch-A-Tent) in favor of another (Happy Happy Birthday To Me) and if these critical evaluations persist, we'll see who does the dropping down the line. The group's latest release, "Ghosts of Leaves," gets the harsh treatment here.
The Lost Trailers bio says they're from Atlanta -- but bassist Andrew Nielson attended UGA and played in local (defunct) jamgrass outfit Shank before joining his brother Stokes and the Trailers. The band name stems from the unfortunate experience of having ALL their gear and instruments stolen -- twice. Well, make that three times! From the band's Tour Journal: ...
"Last Thursday, Ryder walked out of his house in downtown Atlanta to find that our trailer of equipment was gone. $80,000 worth of musical instruments and band merchandise. To say that we are decimated would be an understatement. As of right now, we don't have anything other than a few guitars. No drums to hit, no keys to strike, no microphones to sing through. Yet we will be at Gilley's on Friday night in Dallas ; on Thursday, we will be performing acoustically with Lyle Lovett at a cancer benefit in New York City , on Saturday we will play the River Road Ice House in New Braunfels, TX , and so on and so forth. We will be playing on borrowed equipment, on old guitars, on pieced together amplifiers and stitched-up keyboards. We will play every single date on the books in December as people continue to leave messages on our cell phones like “I guess this is it, then…”, “Well, after a hit like that of course no one would blame you if you hung it up...”, “Holy shit, a third time. Don't you think that's a sign?”
We will do this until there are no more songs to write and no more melodies to sing, until the dough from the door no longer allows us even the meager living that we have right now, and if it comes to that point, we will release music even if we are employed by a pig farmer or a bank. We won't stop because we are musicians, and that's why we were put on God's green earth. The annals of music are strewn with thefts and deceit and loss, and if you want to stay in the game you have to believe in what you are doing, and almost more than that, you must truly and wholeheartedly accept that there is one over-riding reason why Rick Allen walked away from Snake Pass with one good arm. He was meant to play. And no matter what way you look at it, a stolen trailer is pretty devastating, but it ain't a left arm. It's just a streak in the wall.
The Trailers wish all of you a great December and hope to see you soon."
By the way readers, Rick Allen is the one-armed drummer for Def Leppard.