In the year of "oh Lord".

It was 2001. Shit was kicking ass. Just sayin..
Sevenate9 and the FIB were set to play a show in erwin at the music store outside. It was to start around 3:30 in the afternoon. So, Eric wes and brian caravan from Elizabethton to erwin exceeding speeds of 100 mph. They made the trip in less than 30 minutes. By this time skinhead zach had met some other skins in the area, he was still around, but he was a little more scarce. Before we played he pulled up in a new camaro, with this one punk that we knew who worked construction, and was loaded. Anyway. He says, My crew back in nashville wants me to come home, i have a job there waiting for me, and a house... Fuck this place. I love you man. He flipped me off, and left. I haven't seen, nor heard from him since. I heard a story that he got into some shit with another crew in nashville, and he ended up shooting someone. I can't verify. Its probably hearsay. So we started playing the show. 5 minutes in it gets shut down. Bummer

Within the next few months, Brian and Wes would join sevenate9 and we would change our name to IROM. We also started practicing in elizabethton, and telling people that was where the band was based. Then in happened. We had a band that we were friends with from kentucky. They booked us our first out of town show at the Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY. I honestly couldn't tell you who else was on the show. It was a ton of fun tho. We played horribly, and i think we may have covered a jimmy eat world song. I used to have a video tape of the show somewhere around here. I had my hair slicked back, I did a guitar sling, rocked out, and fell.
hahaha.

That summer after Post Eve quit playing together, Travis, Josh(2540), Eric (post eve), and I started a band called The Heros Text. It was an indie band with fun sing alongs. We gained alot of momentum really fast. I felt like i was in a huge band whenever i played in that band. Eric and Travis were such better songwriters than i was, So, unlike irom, this stuff was really technical (for me) and Different. We played out of town a handfull of times over the course of the year, and recorded 3 demos. Nothing much came of it. Its still one of my favorite bands I have played in. Http://www.myspace.com/theherostext

By the end of the summer in 2001 IROM had changed our sound a little bit. In part, because of wes and brian writing stuff, which was alot better, and newer. In another part because of hopesfall's first cd, and the No wings to speak of E.P. That Fall we continued to write new stuff, nothing really exciting happened. We had a ton of friends through playing shows. The herostext was playing alot, and Travis had this house on Sunset called the "safety sheep" where they put on house shows regularly. This place had some KILLER shows. Some notables were Mock orange, Brandtson, AnBerlin, Copeland, The Backup Plan, Rifles At Recess, etc.

It was my senior year in highschool. I was going to a show every single weekend. I played most of the shows i went to. I felt like hot shit. We were booked on the applefestival in erwin that year. The applefestival is a town festival where the entire downtown is blocked off, so people can sell woodwinds, sleeve hangars, pottery, and other assorted crafts. We were set up to play on the stage in front of the post office. I loaded everything up and went and got wes (brian's parents would let him take out of school) And set up to play the big show. We played the show, and it seemed like there were a million kids there. Nick barnes was there, his hair looked great, Dave bunton was there, and he sang "Super smelly sewer flies from a horror movie" with us. It was awesome. After we were done we packed up and went home. The Douchey sound guy called me on my cellphone (zach morris phone it was 2001) and told me i needed to bring him 250, because i broke one of his microphones. I hadn't broke anything of this guys, so i told him iwasn't going to give him any money. He pulled some "I'll take you to court" shit with me, so i told him that i was 17 years old, and that was a Sure 57 mic, at the most was worth $75 and if he wanted to be embarassed by a little kid in court, to serve the papers otherwise stay out of my face or there will be a problem. That was the first time i was confrontational with anybody. It ended up going my way.

Its weird how mature alot of these kids are now that are still that young. I guess at the time, i felt that i was super mature and cool. These kids now would have chewed me up and spit me out back then. What can you do.

I'm going to leave you with the words to another Sevenate9 song

Super Smelly Sewer Flies. From a Horror Movie!:
super smelly sewer flies
you pile up in my brain
super smelly sewer flies
From a horror movie.
You know how much i loved her
incognito, undercover.
the best thing that i've ever heard.
From a dumpster in a while
and you love to see me smile.
When i haven't showered in a week.
You are the only ones around.
Super smelly sewer flies.
you pile up in my brain.
super smelly sewer flies
from a horror movie
(insert shitty screeching weasel-esque guitar solo)


The most senseless song in history.
.out