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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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.
Twenty Years – Part 5
Sometime after Rise Again, when things were at their peak for us (“peak” meaning at least a dozen people were coming to shows and we’d break even on gas money) we had an unfortunate falling out with Jim. In retrospect, the reasoning was pretty dumb, but sometimes it’s hard to see the forest through the trees. We pressed forward. We played a bunch of shows with our friend Dan and eventually we found a permanent drummer named Dustin, who was hungry to play. He’d drive an hour from Longview for practice twice a week, which showed amazing dedication. He was rock solid, had great timing and wouldn’t settle for boring. With Dustin behind the drums we were progressing musically, making new fans and getting to play some amazing shows. The highlight of them all was definitely opening for Tiger Army at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. Playing that stage was a spectacular moment. Dues = Paid.
The lead up to Requiem took a long time. We got rid of our practice space in Portland and started practicing at Dave’s garage out in Scappoose. Because it was now an hour long drive for everyone except Dave, the frequency of practice dropped and songwriting slowed. The last two albums had only taken 1-2 years to write. When we finally recorded Requiem we were going on 3-4 years. In 2008 we finally had enough songs for an album, so we went back to Egg Studios and knocked out the whole batch of them. Tracking went really well and we finished our entire wish list of songs. In the past we aimed for 14 or 15 tracks and settled on 12 or 13. This go round we recorded 20 and put 19 of them on the album. The biggest problem was we couldn’t decide what songs to cut, so we just included almost everything. Personally, I think the album is a bit unfocused because of it, but like most decisions, it seemed like the right call at the time. It was nice to have that period documented and most importantly, it was nice to have Dustin, who had been in the band 3 years at that point, finally on an album.
Right after we recorded, real life started to happen. Dave was already married and soon had two kids and a full household. He was also busy with a job where he traveled almost weekly, often internationally. Justin also got married during this time and decided to pursue a 4 year degree and a career change. Dustin was keeping busy with music and playing in 2-3 other active bands, most of which with their own shows, recording and other things happening. I too got married, had kids and kept busy with work. With all this stuff going on, practice was proving difficult to coordinate. Shows were even harder to pull together and one year we actually cancelled more shows than we played. Thankfully, we were still playing really well, despite being considerably older than many of the bands we played with. When we did play it was still a blast and we’d sit around and wonder how come we don’t do this more often.
So, where are we at now?
Well, it’s complicated. Justin has graduated, Dave now has a non-traveling job and all of our kids are getting to a place that allows for more freedom. We’re getting the itch to play more regularly, especially with the 20 year milestone at hand. Unfortunately, after 9 years Dustin quit the band in July. If your goal is to play music full time, you’d be wise to stick with the bands that are actually playing as much as possible. A few shows and practices a year wasn’t cutting it for him. It’s a bummer, but we get it. We’ve discussed calling it quits, but it always comes down to one question… “why?” We have fun playing music and when we do get to play live it still seems to leave a mark on a few people.
At this point who knows if we’ll find another drummer. If it does work out we’ll see you around. If not, then maybe that’s a sign to call it a day. I don’t know what’s going to happen. In either case I certainly didn’t think writing songs at that crappy garage in Boone all those years ago would have turned into 5 albums, hundreds of shows, seeing the country, meeting many of our favorite bands and making so many good friends along the way. We’ve known lots of bands that have gotten much farther and burned much brighter, but few have had the luxury of longevity. It’s been an amazing experience so far and something we’re very grateful for.
I hope we can keep it going, but only time will tell.
-Eric
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