Bete Noire
(Aka Red Headed Stepchild)
<>Here's the story: these are examples of songs I wrote and performed with my punk band in NYC.
Band members: me and four knucklehead guys from the Bronx. They weren't really musicians, but they were my friends, and we had a good time for a while.
HIGH POINTS: making a record on a Neve 8088 in the pro studio I was managing; playing CBGB's; having 17-year-old Westchester "punks" sneak into the Black Thorn to see us play and toss a blow-up doll all over the club ( which we got on video.); finding an open tap in the back room of a bar while we were waiting to gig one night and getting drunk as fuck for free. (The set was terrible, though.)
LOW POINTS: Bass player's new girlfriend getting shitfaced and giving his old girlfriend a black eye in the bathroom at our very first gig; never having a permanent drummer who could keep decent time; the studio owner I worked for telling me in front of several famous jazz players that I was the only one in my band that had any talent; living in an illegal, rat-and-roach-infested basement apartment that was wallpapered in cancer-causing asbestos, with no heat and little hot water...while my relationship with the lead guitar player slowly and violently fell apart; recording to expensive 2" and then letting the engineer transfer the recording into ProTools using...XLR cables...
GOD, we were morons; living at the studio for a month without leaving so I could make a recording and still work 60 hours a week for the psycho studio owner; the passive-aggressive in-fighting between an alcoholic bass player and an asshole drummer who did not even want to be in the same room together; and after all this bullshit and more, having the recording come out sounding so awful that it was truly embarrassing. Needless to say, I pulled the plug the minute the sessions were over, and we never even pressed CD's - let alone tried to shop ourselves.
We didn't even gig again. These days I look back and laugh. I'm glad I got to have the experience.
Harvest.mp3
Clean.mp3
Travesty.mp3
Suggestion.mp3
Prick.mp3
Something
for the
Pain.mp3
Breathe.mp3
Tantrum.mp3
Track
9.mp3
The Other Side:
I then talked to Lauri saying that if she was for real that I would call an old friend of ours ( Kyle Eaddy, Guitar) and ask if him if he would want to join the project.
This was the beginning.
After a year or so & at least a half dozen drummers, Bete Noire
took off. The response from the audience's was fairly good (this being
N.Y.C. where everyone thinks they know what Rock is about. Well, think
again assholes!)
If you ask me, it's a shame. I spent alot of time helping to develop this band & even though I wasn't there at the end, it was a great disappiontment to see it end right when they were beginning to generate some interest around N.Y.. But, that's life.
Travesty
Astoria
Demo.mp3
Somethong
for the Pain
Astoria
Demo.mp3
Prick
Astoria Demo.mp3
Breathe
Astoria Demo.mp3