Let’s start a war
If you are looking for 800 Octane merchandise check out ColdWar Industries. The business and site may or may not be owned by a member of our band.
Requiem
Last weekend there was a memorial service for Dustin, attended by a large room full of friends and family. The walls were adorned with flyers and set lists from his many bands, and attendees were given drum sticks, as it really was his favorite thing in life. The service was about an hours worth of stories, some serious, and many not. This was followed by an excellent and very touching photo montage. Afterwards, several friends and bands came up to play songs. The three of us did attempt to perform a song written about Dustin, which was hastily finalized that morning. It sounded thin and hollow without drums, which I suppose was how we all feel without him. The whole event was an excellent send off, and although we wouldn’t have missed it individually, am still glad we participated as a band.
We played with Dustin about 8 1/2 years, and if the math is correct, we played (ironically) 138 shows. We’re thinking the number of practices would have to be well over 500 and I can’t even imagine the number of hours in the van. We had a lot of time with him, but given how many other bands he had played in over the years, he really did make music his life. It’s a shame it ended when it did, as he’s the only one among my circle that truly lived and breathed music every day.
Throughout the past two weeks, we’ve told lots of stories, and reminisced on lots of things, some funny, some sad. I suspect “do you remember that time Dustin…” will remain part of our conversations for a long time to come.
Much love to Dustins’ friends and family. You are missed Dustin. RIP.
-Eric
Dustin Wheeler RIP
We got word yesterday that Dustin was gone and our heads are still reeling from it. The details of what happened are unclear, and to be honest I don’t want to know more than I already do.
We’ve been discussing memories of Dustin throughout the night, and most of these moments bring a laugh or feelings of joy. Despite having plenty of stories, we are not the right people to eulogize Dustin. He has closer friends, and closer family, that can better handle that job. We are lucky in that our time with Dustin is well documented. We have many things to look at, touch, feel, read, listen to, and reminisce upon that will bring good memories for years to come. Not everyone gets that luxury, so I’m glad it’s there for us, and also for those of you that knew Dustin.
Rest in peace Dustin Wheeler. You are missed, and will continue to be missed, for as long as I am around.
-Eric
“Punk Rock Halloween – Loud, Fast & Scary” is out now!
The “Punk Rock Halloween – Loud, Fast & Scary” compilation CD is out now. If you are curious what our song is about, here’s the insider scoop. Since we were asked to record a song for a Halloween comp, Dave chose to write a song about other Halloween songs. Pretty clever. Anyway, you can pick it up from a number of online retailers, including Amazon, iTunes, and many more.
Here’s the full track list:
1. Reel Big Fish – Evil Approaches
2. The Adolescents – Black Kiss
3. 999 – Everyday’s Like Halloween
4. The Riverboat Gamblers – Cheap Masks
5. Ghoultown – By The Lantern Light
6. Anti-Nowhere League – Dance Of The Dead
7. Calabrese – Voices Of The Dead
8. Dwarves – Devil’s Level
9. One Eyed Doll – Things Of Darkness
10. Buck-O-Nine – Don’t Be Afraid
11. The Members – Jack The Ripper
12. Guttermouth – Ain’t Life A Bitch
13. UK Subs – I Walked With A Zombie
14. Down By Law – Rip It Off
15. JFA – From The Neck Up
16. Sylvain Sylvain – There’s Something Wrong
17. The Coffin Daggers – Wake Up Screaming
18. Walter Lure – Black Cat Woman
19. The Freeze – Among The Missing
20. The Vibrators – Creatures Of The Night
21. The Independents – Isabella
22. Super Heroines – The Beast
23. Peligro – Halloween
24. Naked Aggression – Trending In Blood
25. Dead Cat Lounge – Candy Kills
26. Bankrupt – Endless Halloween
27. 800 Octane – Heart Of The Dark
Halloween comp available for pre-order
The compilation with our one off song for Cleopatra has a release date. This compilation is looking pretty solid, and we’ve played with at least 4 of the bands on the comp as well. The album will be released on Oct 13, and is available for pre-order now at Amazon and a few other online retailers.
So… this happened.
So, we got an offer to be on an upcoming compilation album. The requirement? Write and record an original Halloween themed song, so that is just what we did. More details to be announced later.
Does anyone still buy CDs?
If so, all CD prices are now $5, which includes postage. Our ordering process is pretty low tech (send money via PayPal) but it does work. Also, for the old school among you, we did uncover some more copies of The Return. See our merch page for more.
Technical difficulties
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Show Journal 2015-10-13
This show was a long time coming. Looking back, it had been two years since our last show and one year since Dustin wandered off to pursue a steady paycheck playing music in Nashville. After his departure I wrote a 5-part blog post outlining our time as a band. Towards the end of that post I mentioned we wanted to play a 20th anniversary show, but were afraid that we may have missed the chance. A few weeks after the story went online, we got an unexpected e-mail from Jim, who played drums with us from 1999-2005. He said he’d gladly play a show. There was one catch. Jim currently lives in Germany. He promised he would make it over regularly enough, so we agreed and patiently waited. Sure enough in the Spring, he appeared. We practiced and it sounded pretty good. He came back in the Summer. We played again and it was still pretty good. He came back in the Fall, we booked a show and next thing you know here we are. Although we had seen Jim numerous times over the years we certainly did not expect to be playing music together. In fact, it had been 10 years since his drums and our instruments made that all too familiar racket. The whole practice experience leading up to this show was surreal. We were the same people doing the same thing and with the same sensibilities, but at a totally different point in our lives. Our jokes and references hadn’t changed a bit, but the reasons for missing or rescheduling practices were totally different. In those 10 years, four marriages and five children have happened. Everything is the same, but everything is different. The songs we practice and ultimately played were a slow evolution. Jim diligently learned a bunch of songs from Requiem, but in the end I think Dave, Justin and I wanted to hear the stuff we hadn’t played in a while. So, did the show live up to all this hype? Yeah, for us it did. All in all, the show was pretty good. Black Karma Social Club played first and sounded pretty solid. Any band that covers ‘Bodies’ by the Sex Pistols will do ok in my book. Burn The Stage was next and they were great. We’ve known Ike and Nathaniel for a long time, so we shouldn’t have been at all surprised by how solid they were. Trivia time: back in 1996, 800 Octane played with Nathaniel’s band, The Drapes, in North Carolina. They were on tour from Portland, and we opened for them. Who would have known we’d cross paths so many times since then? I was pretty nervous and even a bit shaky for our set. Not as shaky as Jim, who stood on his drum stool to wave and promptly fell sideways onto my amp spilling his beer everywhere. It’s true, we are rock royalty. The set was great. Lots of old stuff. Lots of singing along. People seemed to have a great time and the word I kept hearing afterwards was “positive”. I’ll accept that. The show was a great experience. Although it wasn’t a formal “20th” affair it did the job. Thanks to Ike for making it happen, those who have seen recently, and those we hadn’t seen in upwards of 5, 10 and 15 years.
Time to shake the rust off
It’s been two years since our last show and almost a year since adding the ‘twenty years’ blog posts. Drummers have come. Drummers have gone. Practices have happened. Live shows have not.
It’s time to address that last item.
Random Photos