In early 1995, FUCKFACE embarked on a nine week North American tour that we booked when we still called ourselves MULTIPLE CHOICE. We put a "drummer wanted" ad in the SF Weekly and found Joey a couple of weeks before we were scheduled to leave, had a few practices, packaged up our MULTIPLE CHOICE records in FUCKFACE sleeves Matt scammed from his job, Joey took us up to Santa Rosa so Gavin could build us a sketchy loft and....and we were on our way. I'll save the stories for my memoir, but at our show in Austin (which was, if memory serves, uncharacteristically good) we met a chap named August who was, also uncharictaristically, on our wavelength. He sang for CROWN ROAST, who I knew of because they featured members of RIG (whose Warthole EP is an underappreciated essential dose of '90s US DIY punk), but mostly he was a freak in the same way that we were freaks and we all just clicked. Fast forward to the next evening in San Antonio and the show just felt dismal - it was cold, attendance was sparse (teetering on the brink of non existent), we didn't have a place to stay that night and then...August rolled up. He had convinced a friend to drive him to the show so now we had TWO attendees. I don't remember if anyone else came, but I do remember that August sang a couple songs with us (songs he'd learned from the record he bought the night before) and he gave me an INITIAL STATE tape that we played to death on the rest of the tour. We all hung out, were paid a sixer of Coors Light, we may or may not have had a weird night staying with folks from NOT MY SON, and we solidified a friendship that continues today - which is ultimately what the shit is all about. A few years later, August sent me this tape of his then-new band NEGATIVE STEP of songs would later appear on their blistering 10" and the split with PLF. It's gnarly, weird hardcore...which seems appropriate. August has spent the next 25 years blowing minds (SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, LORDS OF LIGHT, VX GAS ATTACK, BIG HORNY HUSTLER, PLEASURE CROSS...and some brilliant home recordings) and I mailed him a tape yesterday. NEGATIVE STEP rules.
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