TVP: FIrst Gigs and Recordings

The first handful of shows that The Verve Pipe played were not booked as The Verve Pipe. Johnny With An Eye had a few gigs already booked, as did Water For The Pool. So we played each gig that was already booked, under the name of the band for which it was booked. We traveled north to Mackinaw Island to a place called The Water's Meet, a popular tourist's hotel. They had booked Johnny With An Eye for a repeat performance, despite the fact that the manager physically grabbed a drumstick out of Brad's hand to stop his banging, which apparently was disturbing the hotel residents above the club. The Verve Pipe played that weekend booked as Johnny With An Eye. No one seemed to notice, or cared really. Most of the people there for the first set were dining.

Other early gigs included Parrot's in Holland, MI and The Hidden Shamrock in Chicago. Parrot's was a Hope College bar, with no stage. The first gig there was a good one, although I almost got into a fistfight with a couple of Water For The Pool fans who were upset that I was singing on Brian Stout's song. Donny almost fought that night as well with 2 students who had laid a plastic ketchup bottle on it's side and squirted him during the set. The Hidden Shamrock was an MSU alumni bar. We were booked as the MSU-based Water For The Pool. I played the harmonica on a few songs, at the insistence of Donny. I didn't like the harmonica, and played terribly, but the crowd always seems to like to see something different happening on the stage. The "stage" by the way, had holes in it, and even worse, held the juke box, which a woman actually put a dollar in and chose 4 songs to play during our set. It was in the middle of one of our original songs. Donny reached down and unplugged it, before the first chorus of "Don't Stop Believin'" kicked in.

We were making a little bit of money, enough to finish the first Verve Pipe album, already entitled "I've Suffered A Head Injury". For the most part, this was a Johnny With An Eye record. Donny merely replayed the drums, and we added Brian Stout's guitars to it. We re-recorded "Oceanside", Donny's lone track, and Brian Stout's "Monterey" and "Brian's Song". We tagged the original version of "The Freshmen" on the end, although the song was recorded at a different studio, long before.

I remember a few moments during the recording of the first album that may have been red flags. Donny spent hours on mixes, having Jon Frazer, our engineer, "ride" the drum fills at different points. "Boost the low tom here, and lower the snare here" he'd say. Making moves in the mix that no one would really notice, other than himself. Brian Stout was always sleeping on the couch. He would wake up on occasion, sleep still in his eyes, and say something like 'Yeah, that sounds like poop, there. We need to figure that bit out..." and then he would lay his head back down for a well deserved rest.

My shortcomings in the studio at that time included apathy towards songs that I had grown tired of. I wanted the album to be done as fast as possible, so I could get to writing some new material. These songs were old to me, at least a year old, and that made the recording of them tedious. Rush, rush, rush. "Who's up next? Where's Brad? Jesus, let's go. Donny's still in there? What the bleep?" etc...

Though there were these moments, for the most part, I look back at these recordings fondly. Because the songs were already written before the band had taken shape, there was no arguing over which instrumentation would be best, or which songs were best to record, for that matter. We recorded I've Suffered A Head Injury out of necessity. We were a weekend warrior band, working day jobs during the week, and taking gigs where we could on the weekends. The extra income that this debut album would bring in would be beneficial in recording the band's true debut album, Pop Smear. That was the album where we all took the influences that we had grown up with, and created something organic. Brian Stout would be replaced by AJ Dunning, and Doug Corella, a percussionist and keyboardist, would be asked to join. Donny and I would collaborate on the songwriting for the first time, and the band would soon go on to gain national and international attention.

Two Bands Meeting

On the night of July 27, 1992, I sat with Donny Brown and Brian Stout, both musicians from a very popular band called Water For The Pool, at a Wendy's in East Lansing, Michigan, and formed The Verve Pipe.

Both of our bands had just played a double bill at the Music On The Mall concert in Kalamazoo a few days earlier. We had flipped a coin that night to see who's band was to go on first. We had lost the toss, meaning Water For The Pool would get to pose as the headliner for the evening. My band, Johnny With An Eye, rocked the crowd for 45 minutes. We pulled out all the stops that night, at one point inviting a mop-headed Rastafarian local hero named Zuke come up and rap The Beastie Boys "Whatcha Want".

The crowd went crazy for us. Water For The Pool followed our set with some medium tempo-ed songs that weren't quite going over. There was an argument on stage at one point. I remember my brother Brad, our bass player, and I sharing a laugh over this unfortunate set. But Donny Brown was a great drummer, and ours was not. I remember listening to their set, and making the decision to call him the next day to combine forces. Both of our bands were at the top of the local ladder,and fighting for the best nights at the best clubs. Combining the two bands made sense.

So here it is a couple of days later and we're sitting across from each other, over our baked potatoes loaded with butter and sour cream, sipping on the straws of our huge fountain Diet Cokes, going over what songs we will play. Donny and I had both brought a notebook with our current set-lists written on it. Brian Stout was not one for taking notes. He was a lead guitarist, and "felt" his way through life, like guitarists "feel" the guitar solo before they play it. (This sounded good to me at the time, but soon I realized that Brian tries to "feel" his way out of most circumstances that may involve work outside of making music. No dead legendary guitarist was using him as a medium for hanging posters for the gig, or getting to a rehearsal on time.)

Both of our bands were cover bands, each performing only a handful of original songs. Mostly, we played songs that were favorites among the college students at Michigan State University. Songs by The Violent Femmes, REM and U2 all made regular appearances in our playlists. We sat there for about two hours, voting on which songs would make it into this new, yet to be named, super group's set list. In the end, we had a pretty good mix of originals that each band had written, and a handful of crowd pleasing cover tunes.

I was determined to make it to the top of the regional level, nothing more. I had already made a commitment to quitting the whole music thing by the time I was 30. I had two years left on the that promise to myself. I was deep in debt, having funded this hobby of mine for the last 5 years. I worked a few retail jobs. At this time, I was working for a sporting goods chain called MC Sports. I was stringing tennis rackets, mostly, to avoid having to deal with customers. I would string a racket, and sing melodies to myself, occasionally dipping into the back room to write a lyric or two.

So, this was going to be it for me. These were to be the last two years that I would pursue it.