Yes, I am playing with and Chris VanEtten (Flak-Scrampe Tramauntra, Endless Nightmare, Carbonas, Customers, G.G. King) and Josh Fauver (Diet Cola, Deerhunter, S.I.D.S., etc.) in a band called Devoiders. We will play out when we play out. Stop asking.

Retconned Cover Band (Josh Fauver, James Joyce) Live at The Drunken Unicorn (Atlanta). 01.25.08.
Photo by Leuwam Tesfai.

1. Opposed Thumb
2. The Crusades
3. Boxcar
4. The Interview
5. The Cars That Go Boom
6. Savior

38 mb zip file of the entire set

Recorded Live at The Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta on January 25 2008.

The Retconned cover band featured Josh Fauver (Diet Cola, Deerhunter, S.I.D.S.) on guitar, James Joyce (Sonn Av Krusher, Noot d’ Noot) on drums, Benjamin Lukens (The Forever War) on bass, and Jon Lukens (me, Retconned) on vocals. Josh, James and Ben were kind enough to learn 5 songs from Unhappenings as well as Savior, an Inkwell cover (Joe Myers, Marty Rioux, Mark Lowe, Phillip Dwyer ca. 1995 — That’s Joe Myers from Inkwell stealing the mic at the end of Savior). Fur Elise and Treecreature played as well. The most fun I’ve ever had playing a show.

There is some more information on the show, as well as a photo of me at a bowling alley that I have no recollection of on James Joyce’s website.

Designed by some blind person Travis knows.

1. Pupal (Retconned remix)

Remix (with addition of vocals) of Pupal, from the Re Com Pas CD Definition.

Ret Con Pas

Please note: These average about 30 minutes / 30mb.

1. live 03.14.2004
2. live 03.16.2004 pt.1
3. live 03.16.2004 pt.2
4. live 03.16.2004 pt.3
5. live 03.16.2004 pt.4
6. live 03.23.2004
7. live in Hollywood Florida 03.25.2005

Ret Con Pas = Retconned and Re Com Pas. Live sets from our 2004 tour of New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Florida. Yes, really; We went on tour of New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Florida. We are booking gurus.

We had some stenciled sleeves for our first demo, but I can’t fine one. This is the cover of a DVD that Ray somehow got a version of Fronterland featured in. It accompanies someone skateboarding.

Know All The Right People

1. The Amverts Know All The Right People
2. Fronteirland
3. Soul On Consignment
4. Zombies

31 mb zip file of the songs above

Recorded by J. Ellis in his Basement. J was in a band called Spirit World. They were good.

The First Demo

1. Satellite
2. The Party

8.2 mb zip file of the songs above

Recorded at our practice space in Brooklyn by the guy who lived downstairs from Ben and Kat. Remixed by J. Ellis.

NYC 2001 – 2004: Ray Sullivan (Walt Lariat, The Swift and Terrible Race, Racine, Lower 48) played drums. Sean Greathead (wheeljack, The Mascara Aesthetic, Nights) played guitar. Benjamin Lukens (Ultivac, hal al Shedad, Forever War) played bass and sang. I played (some software synthesizers before switching to a Roland JP8000 and finally settling on) an Alesis A6 and sang.

Getting to and from shows in NYC sucks.

Maybe someday a narrative, a chain of anecdotes, live recordings.

1. Earth One, Earth Two
2. Crush And Gate
3. Impossible
4. Trash
5. Remix
6. No Results
7. Ecliptic
8. Unloaded
9. Last Minute

100 mb zip file of the entire cd

Released by The Buddy System in 2000. Recorded by Ed Rawls at Red Lab in Atlanta. Mastered by I forget at I can’t remember.

Uncomplete and Infinished (practice tapes).

1. 2X2
2. Track 01
3. Track 02
4. Track 03
5. Track 04
6. Track 05
7. Track 06
8. Track 07
9. Track 08
10. Track 09
11. Track 10
12. Track 11
13. Track 12
14. Track 13
15. Track 14
16. Track 15
17. Track 16
18. Track 17
19. Unloaded demo

147 mb zip file of the songs above

Track one, “2X2,” was recorded by Alex LaRoche at Under The Couch (GA Tech, Atlanta). It was supposed to be included on a compilation to benefit Human Rights Watch that was going to be put out by some hardcore label (burning something?) in New Orleans (No Toxin III, though) but was never released. Call me crazy but I think Human Rights Watch would benefit more if you just gave them all of the money it takes to print a thousand CDs than the profits from the 300 CDs that actually sold. I like comps though.

Tracks 2 – 17 recorded live to minidisc 1999 and 2000. I prefer this version of Unloaded to the album version.

Ultivac was James Joyce (Sonn Av Krusher, Noot d’ Noot) on drums, Benjamin Lukens (The Forever War) on bass, and Jon Lukens (me, Retconned) on vocals and electronics. We were together from 1999 until about 2001. I was living in NYC and James and Ben were in ATL, so band practice, etc. was difficult. We played two shows: one at the old Eyedrum and one at MJQ.

Given some of the (over) reactions to the lyrics of Unhappenings, I shudder to think what sort of nonsense we’d find in our record reviews if the Ultivac cd were released today.

Ultivac at C12 12.30.01. Photo by Nick LaRoche (I think).

This discography CD was released a few years after we broke up.

.wheeljack. / Year Zero split seven inch cover. Designed by Ben Lukens.
The Year Zero side featured the songs “Raised By Flies,” and “Burn Unlimited.”

1. Codename
2. Choking
3. Raised By Flies
4. Burn Unlimited
5. The Dustoff
6. Insurance
7. No Second Place Winner
8. Fittest
9. Last Name First
10. Set The Clock
11. Czolgosc
12. Fuck Vending
13. D As In Dead
14. Don’t Ask
15. A.O.V.
16. Police_The_Hydra
17. Pornosec

100 mb zip file of everything

Tracks 1 through 6 recorded by Ed Burdell at Furies Studios. Tracks 7 though 10 recorded live at WREK. Tracks 11 through 17 recorded by Issa Diao at Sleepless Nights.

Year Zero was around from 1994 until 1996. James Dunn played the guitar. Brandon McDearis played the drums. Heather McIntosh played the bass on tracks 1 through 10. Matt Ciccarelli played the bass on 11 through 17. I “sang.”

We attempted to tour once and half of our shows fell through. We ended up playing at: A club in Richmond (I forget which, but the guy who set up the show was nice); Eric Wareheim’s (Elements of Need, I Am Heaven, etc.) apt. in Philly (Some guy kept talking on his cel phone while we were playing); Georgetown U with Make-Up and Meltdown; Knoxville at Landspeed Records (We played our first song to about ten teenage kids that I deliberately mislead by telling them we sounded like Pantera. They walked out after the first song and we played the rest of our set to the other band).

Live July 16, 1996.

Some footage of our last show. Courtesy of D. Ahuja.

[See post to watch Flash video]Choking

[See post to watch Flash video]Set The Clock

[See post to watch Flash video]Burn Unlimited

This show was at a place called BLT’s which closed up a few months later. I had negotiated a certain cut of the door for the touring bands, The Warmers, and Make-Up, with someone who claimed to represent the place. That night, some douchebag who looked like a coked up Kenny Rogers showed up. Allegedly, he was the owner. He took almost all the money. His employees and the bands were arguing with him.

I remember a serene combination of anger and poise on Steve Gamboa’s face while he argued with the guy. It was like even when dealing with a total fuck he accepted the transaction as part of some larger chess game that anyone could play. I just felt weak and embarrassed that this guy was ripping the bands off. I didn’t really know what to do. I swore never to book another band’s show after that. I still haven’t. I don’t want to feel like a powerless intermediary with no recourse.

The Warmers were amazing.

More videos, including videos by other Atlanta bands, are available here.

You can blame Jennifer and I for this cover.

1. The Expatriot
2. Holy Um
3. Dancing Wound

14 mb zip file of the songs above

Recorded by Issa Diao at Sleepless Nights, Atlanta.

The poorly named Astrosmash was together from 1994 until, uh, 1994. Benjamin Lukens played bass. Zach Hollbach played the drums. I sang. Jennifer Kraft played guitar and wrote a song better than most of these that we neglected to record. As far as I can recall, we played five or six shows. Ben went on to the hal al Shedad. Zach went on to Tenth To The Moon. Jennifer joined the rather predictably named Catfight.

I avoided posting this before because the guitar is entirely too low in the mix.

Cassette cover designed by Ben or Matt or something.

1. 10 lb. Flashlight
2. L Teen
3. Vapor Action
4. Fingers

20 mb zip file of the entire tape

Recorded By Ed Burdell at Furies Studios in Atlanta

Cough Syrup was together from appox. 1992 until sometime in 1994. These four songs constitute our last recording session. At that time I think that we had about 10 songs (excluding songs we had retired). The final line-up was Jon Lukens, Benjamin Lukens (The Forever War) on bass, Matt Ciccarelli on guitar and Zach Hollbach on drums. Patrick Borezo played bass before Ben Joined. Jonathan Kenny was our original drummer, and played on two prior recording sessions before moving out of town. We had a drummer named Daryl for one gig between losing Jonathan and finding Zach.

I’m not especially fond of my Bob Schick wannabe vocals here, but I think the songs are worth making available. Our other studio material is too shitty to post.

Live July 2nd, 1994

Everything below was taken from a VHS tape of the last Cough Syrup show: July 2nd, 94. The show was at the Somber Reptile Lizard Lounge, which was a second, smaller show space beneath a club called the Somber Reptile in Atlanta. We were supposed to play with Las Mordidas (Chris Thomson and ex-Fidelity Jones folks), but they never showed up.

Aside from the recording above, this is the best example available of what we sounded like starting around the Fall of 93. I put a tiny bit of compression on these and EQed them a little bit. I also edited out string-breaking between song banter. There wasn’t too much I could do with the video. There just wasn’t enough light.

1. 10 lb. Flashlight
2. Skinnerboxing
3. Vapor_Action
4. Apple
5. Chang vs. Eng
6. Conflag
7. Fingers
8. Henry XXI
9. 49
10. L Teen

44 mb zip file of the entire show

[See post to watch Flash video]Skinnerboxing

[See post to watch Flash video]Chang vs. Eng

[See post to watch Flash video]Fingers

Camera person unknown.

More videos, including videos by other Atlanta bands, are available here.

Cough Syrup is perhaps the worst band name ever after .wheeljack., Battlecat, Astrosmash, The Fun Boy Three and Fast Pink Dracula. I wanted to name the band Plastique.

Ben Lukens, Zach Hollbach and I went on to start a band called Astrosmash with Jennifer Kraft from Bite.