Okay, I started making music back in 1999. I was in a "metalcore" band, heavily influenced by Dillinger Escape Plan and Drowningman and Nora and whathaveyou. We had two guitarists, bassist, a drummer, and me on keyboards and vocals. In theory. We KNEW we had these people who played their instruments, but.. let's just say we only practiced once. Anyway, it originally started out as PoRn, which was just me writing lyrics about people I knew. Early highlight: "zach is a f.a.g (funny awesome guy)". That became The Hair On Your Ass. And then CEMEN (which stands for "Chris Eric Mike Adam Nathan"). Then, FINALLY, the actual band was Social Overdose, which had a web page and some songs and a ton of lyrics and whathaveyou. Since I was the only one really into Dillinger (all the other members were into KoRn and ICP), it never did anything. However, there was a very fruitful time in which I decided, "Hey, this band thing is gonna happen!" That's when I decided to record a vocals-only demo.
And post it on mp3.com.
I posted it there and forgot about it. I only posted it there to serve as a reference point afterall. One day, there will be a full band doing songs!...Or so I thought. After a few months, I realized that that dream was dead, so I got on the page to delete it until I found out that it had become a really popular song. Before noise and merzbow and screamo and such became popular, here was a 13-year-old screaming his lungs out into an overdistorted mic. So, I kept making more songs and more songs and more songs. Just me screaming into a mic. Nothing more, nothing less. Okay, so EVENTUALLY I experimented and made songs where I drummed on coffee cans or songs where I just recorded whistles. But whatever: it was amazingly underproduced and LOUD and lo-fi and EXTREMELY... uh... popular.
Mp3.com had this promotion for a while entitled "payback for playback". Every song that was downloaded would eventually turn into money for you. A few cents for every song play in fact. I had the brilliant idea that posting a bunch of offensively-titled songs would lead me to a lot of money, and I was right. "Britney Spears' Tampon Stash", "Buttfucking: Fun for the Whole Family", and other assorted songs got a TON of plays, and I ended up making about $330 through that site. Not bad. Soon, Mp3.com got pissed because my offensive songs were becoming more popular than the "non-offensive" songs (that were actually offensive to my ears -- I mean, tod? What a crap band), so they moved me to the adults-only area of the site, which was extremely hard to find. Soon, time@mp3.com emailed me and said my song "Knife Fuck Tori Amos" was extremely offensive, and he threatened a lawsuit and shut down the Social Overdose Mp3.com page. What's weird is, I had never heard of Tori Amos back then, and I certainly never had a song called that. So, yeah, it was a conspiracy, obviously. But who's laughing now, Mp3.com? Remember when you were the only free Mp3 site on the internet besides iuma? And now Soundclick owns your ass? Yep.
Anyway, I soon did a bunch of other projects. Mike and I did Break, which made funny acoustic songs. Chris (different Chris than who I mentioned earlier), Luis, and I recorded a demo under the name Crack Ho, which was terrible but funny. I started Locker Room Suicide, which was me screaming over ultra-fast metal guitar solos and little else. That was an awesome little album, and I have a copy of it somewhere. I have no idea where though. I then did some stuff with Play Loud and Kill Yourself, then Buzzkill (grindcore), then Overkill (grindcore), then back to Locker Room Suicide, then Suicice Noise Solution (noise!), then Pinball Fantasies (drone). Most of the bands I just listed only recorded a song or two and then I usually scrapped them.
Then, I started Mp3.com Sucks and signed up to Mp3.com again and made another $60 of their money. Then, my friend Andy decided to mix Fruity Loops songs with my vocals, and so there was Terra Fabrilis, which ended up becoming pretty popular on IRC. Then, Jules and I did some stuff together, which is evident in the 4 or 5 songs we recorded as Cracker Factory. I really enjoy those songs, though they never get heard enough. They were sorta like Bisquick Bitch-ish stuff, except for one song which is just me beating on plates.
One day, I was was tinkering around with some Suicide Noise Solution and classic Social Overdose songs and I mixed them together and I heard some beautiful techno hardcore noise-type stuff. And it got me thinking, "What if I make my next band into Dillinger Escape Plan MEETS Mindless Self Indulgence?" So, I sorta did. I recorded a demo, sampling Atari sounds and some old guitars and keyboards and screamed arhythmically overtop. It was 6 songs that I didn't think much of until I sent it to people and they LOVED it, and Stagedive Suicide was born. Stagedive was embraced by techno people and grindcore people and whatever. This was back before digigrind, egrind, and whatever existed. The early scene was just Stagedive Suicide, Libido Airbag, and SMES.
To anyone who hasn't heard what Stagedive Suicide ended up becoming, it sounds like this: lo-fi techno with me screaming over top. I didn't really know too much about production at the time, and -- in retrospect -- that was a good thing. I think the songs would sound ridiculous to me now if they had hi-fi production with both speakers pounding out rave-worthy songs. Honestly, if I would just go back to that material and remaster it or something, I could probably be a millionaire. Whatever. I recorded exactly 100 Stagedive songs, which are still amazingly popular and I STILL get people emailing me to BUY a cd. Pretty cool. It amazes me that people actually own official copies of Stagedive Suicide albums. But, anyway, I ended Stagedive at the probable peak of its popularity out of one reason: Boredom! It got EXTREMELY boring doing that type of stuff.
I didn't announce Stagedive's death... uh... ever. People always ask me about it, and I guess they figure it's still happening, because how often do one-man bands break up? I started a bunch of other bands after Stagedive, including THE RAPIST THERAPIST which was a lot like Stagedive except way noisier, with pitch shifted vocals. "The 23,549,087,159,729,520,581-Song Tape" was our masterpiece album that not enough people have heard, and I consider it in my top 5 musical achievements. We then went on to record a 500-song album (5 songs per track, with a hidden track) but that never got finished. We recorded "Guide to Cock Rock", which was just really short noise blasts. Of all my bands I've done, I think I'd definitely go back to doing The Rapist Therapist stuff one day. I hope.
Other bands I did: Acid Cowboys, which was me messing with toy instruments (before Self did it, I think), trying to make a party record where every song sounds different than the last. It was okay. Me and this dude I didn't even like started a drum machine, keyboard, and SUPER DOWNTUNED GUITAR grindcore band called Cunts of Death. We had 3 songs. Jesus Penis recorded a demo, and.. that was okay. It was just CoD with a different person playing guitar. I worked with Retards on Crack, which was a lot of fan since they were extremely professional. Babies in Microwaves practiced a time or two, as did Astrofilth, but those never turned out to be anything but long noodling sessions.
I was bored with music, and I just ended up messing around for a few weekends and recorded Ranger Raccoon - The Great American Race Trade, the best album I've ever done. 47 songs, all of them sounding different. I don't just scream all the time throughout it, and you can actually hear my bizarre lyrics. I think it's a good album, and it kinda reminds me of the Left-Rights before they existed. I did about 90 songs with Ranger and got bored with it, and -- let's face it here -- Blood Surf wasn't that good of an album anyway.
Somewhere around Ranger time, Lyrch and I and Brandon did RUINHORSE, and you all know that band. It died like 3 times and I think it's officially dead now. Out of RUINHORSE came new bands with Seeley and Lyrch. Dracula Does Calculus was me and Brandon doing the exact same thing as RUINHORSE but without Lyrch. Skeleton Driver was me and him and we did one song, and I forget how it sounds but it was cool. Freeway Avengers was us doing DHR rockabilly. It's not as cool as it sounds. Lyrch and I did Death Adder, which was Coathanger 84 meets Scissor Shock I guess.
Scissor Shock started a little after RUINHORSE's time, and I guess I cover everything about Scissor Shock elsewhere, but it was just supposed to be me doing rock songs with a few time changes. It was me, a $50 guitar, a computer mic, and Hammerhead drum machine. It eventually became this huge techno noise mess. For the first time with a band, I feel really free doing music with Scissor Shock... instead of starting a new band, I just remember that Scissor Shock is just really arty and experimental, so it's okay that I can do grindcore songs one minute and then do a 10 minute ambient song the next. Whatever.
Cory and I did Sushi Smash in order to record a FLCL tribute album. I hope we do more one day. I recorded some solo albums as tributes to people. Melatonin recently recorded and distributed one copy of an album for Steev. Rob and I did Knife, Big which... well, Rob doesn't like that kind of music anymore. But the whole point of the band was to get signed to Robotic Empire. Maybe we will one day. Also, Steev and I started Drowse, but that's not gonna happen till I get guitar strings. Also, Steev, Chris, and I do Solder Teenage Daughter, which is just really intense and awesome noise.
So, that's about it. At times, I think that music has perhaps become too "thought of" and contextualized to be really enjoyed. But either way, the bottom line is that you make whatever music you find enjoyable and listen to whatever music you find enjoyble, so it's not like intellectual thought is killing music. So, I hope that I'm not contributing to some lame way of pigeonholing my fans. I mean, I guess you have to "get it" to like it, but I just want to say right now that I just want my music to make people happy. So, to the people who I've made smile with my work, thanks. I've just always tried to do something interesting.
A.C. Discography... collect 'em all! (sorted by approximate date of band's formation; also note that this is incomplete)
SOCIAL OVERDOSE
Y2Gay
Y2Gay Compliant
Jacking Off Hurts (100 Songs to Splurge Blood To)
The Stained Dress
Fagfinger
BREAK
Demo
CRACK HO
The Ho Show EP
TERRA FABRILIS
Demo
Synthetic Revolutions
The End of the World
LOCKER ROOM SUICIDE
Cheerleader Abortion
CRACKER FACTORY
3-Song Demo
STAGEDIVE SUICIDE
Super Ultra Killer Demo Turbo Edition!!
Alpha Omega Double Supreme Ejackulater Machine Demo: Part Deux
Homicide Censor
Destruction of Technology
God in Action [never finished]
THE|RAPIST THERAPIST
The 23,549,087,159,729,520,581-Song EP
Guide to Cock Rock
ACID COWBOYS
Posterboys, Dance Tonight!!!
CUNTS OF DEATH
Cunt Power!
JESUS PENIS
Shit Crucifix (Jesus Baptized in Diarhea)
RANGER RACCOON
The Great American Race Trade
Blood Surf
Unreleaseable, Unfuckable
RUINHORSE
ROBOT EP
Live in Columbus
A Race I Can't Erase
[Unknown/Nothing/Whatever/Who Knows]
SCISSOR SHOCK
Demo
Split with Red Cloud of Lakota Nation
The Kids Were Filled with Candy Delicious, So We Ate Them!
Split with Kindergarten Hazing Ritual
Versus Athenian Mercury
Steev's Funeral EP
Super Yum Surgeon Boy
Gag Factory Single
DRACULA DOES CALCULUS
Demo
KNIFE, BIG
Lazy Lazer EP
Knife, Big is to the Scene what Mad Cow Disease is to Beef [???]
DEATH ADDER
How We Lost Our Tails [never finished!]
FREEWAY AVENGERS
Freeway Avengers EP
SUSHI SMASH
FLCL Tribute
Miko Lee Tribute [coming one day!]
ABRA CADAVER
Ambient Cooley
SOLDER TEENAGE DAUGHTER
s.t.d. e.p.
MELATONIN
Blue Skied Liars
ADAM COOLEY SOLO
Torgo! Torgo! Torgance!
Return to Murder Park
Albums I've produced
The Sunshine Kids - The Sunshine Kids!!!!!!!
Bands I've worked with
Coathanger '84
DJ Z'dar
Athenian Mercury
Retards on Crack
Bands I've remixed
Coathanger '84
Oatmeal Jockstrap
DJ Rotting Corpse
Athenian Mercury
Kindergarten Hazing Ritual
Mindless Self Indulgence
