PureVolume

Members: Jimmy Lugosi, Chris VonKarloff, Grim Jim Crowley, Anthony Munster

Insomnia's a bitch. Nothing to do so gather 'round kids and Ill tell you a story. A story of how this abomination we've come to know as the DropDeadBeats was given life. Well, at least this guitar slinger's side of the story.
I've played the guitar for years. Longer than than I haven't. I've also known Grimm Jim and Anthony Munster for about the same amount of time. We played together off and on since the days before real jobs, bills, and responsibility, but we never really did anything of note.
A few years ago I met Jimmy Lugosi. We had a few mutual acquaintances and he needed some help with his 1950 Buick (which is in my driveway now, thanks Jimmy). So I hopped in my trusty Ford truck and flew on over to his pad one afternoon. That afternoon we didn't really get a damn thing done on the car, but we did get to talking about music.
Jimmy told me about how he wanted to start a band and I told him I could play a song or two on the guitar so he said, 'hey, let's start a band.'
Sure. I'll get rite on that. You see Ive been playing guitar a long time and a lot of people say they want to start a band, but there's a long way between wanting to start a band and actually climbing up on the stage of your local dive. So I agreed to his plans and went on my way not expecting anything. I'd heard many fools talk of big plans but never was there any follow thru.
But not so with Jimmy Lugosi.
Lugosi had an idea.
Jimmy showed up at my place not too long after that with a guitar in one hand and a stack of songs he had written in the other.
Hmmm, that's weird. This guy actually came thru and already has some songs written.
Lugosi had a talent.
We sat and played thru his songs. Most of which none of you will ever hear, but they were good songs none the less. Brutally honest songs of desperation and self destruction that can only be written by those who have truly experienced life and the pain it can bring. These were damn good songs. But what to do with them?
Lugosi had a plan.
Now Jimmy brought with him a true appreciation for the roots of all things rock and roll, from Robert Johnson to Johnny Cash, and while I had and still have a great fondness for these geniuses of days gone by I was more influenced by the later styling of punk and metal. I had however been introduced to the brilliance of one Jim Heath (a man with his own talent for blending genres) a few years prior to this and all of this together made sense. Johnny Cash was the blue collar, working man's punk rock of his day. Robert Johnson knew what hard times were about. It all worked together perfectly. The sound of the DropDeadBeats was beginning to take shape. But where would it go?
Lugosi had a vision.
All too often people want to make music for the wrong reasons. They want to be famous, to be a rock star. We had no delusions of grandeur. The needs and desires of Mr. Lugosi were far more practical. As has been previously noted, after the death of the Legendary Johnny Cash Jimmy Lugosi began the arduous task of drinking himself to death. However, for those of you who may not know, this can be an expensive undertaking, but when you're in a band, you don't pay for drinks. Necessity is the mother of invention. We settled on three goals for this project:
Get free drinks
Pick up chicks
And most importantly, have a damn good time.
No fooling ourselves here. We weren't out to sign a big record contract. We weren't looking to crowd the walls of our homes with gold records. And while our scope may have broadened as time went on the bottom line is that we still play because its fun. Its so fun in fact its almost narcotic. Refer to Jimmy Lugosi's post. Playing is a high, and the lack of playing is a comedown you don't want to know. I'm getting off topic, but the point is we continue playing because we're addicted to the fun..
So now we had some songs, we had a singer, and we had a lead guitar player. I believe by this point we had even settled on the name (mite be wrong on that one, its late and my memory doesn't serve me well these days).
The DropDeadBeats had a foundation.
One could begin to see the monster forming. But pieces were still missing. So like Igor and the good doctor, we set off to find the parts needed to give this creation life...Part 2 to follow.

-Chris VonKarloff