3. Let Us Pray...

Sometime in 1985 with the band fully formed, Kurt and Chris on vocals, Jim V on guitar, J on bass, Dave drums and me on cymbals, we released a cassette tape titled "Lettuce Prey." (Which was also the title of our first CD released 5 years later). The recordings were made in Kurt's basement onto an over-worked Technics reel-to-reel that Kurt's dad used to enjoy his classical collection. Though I don't recall the full list of songs here's what I do remember:

I'll Kill You
Hamburger Hairdo
I've Got a Bomb and I Want to Use It
Mister Roger's Neighborhood
Kicked In the Head
Green Beret
My House Is Haunted
College Applications
Golf

In between nearly each song were samples borrowed from comedy and sound effects albums. There were also, if I recall, some homegrown sound effects as well. In the mid-1970's, Kurt, Dave and I attended the same oppressive parochial grammar school. Among the many things we did to whittle away the time, we used to create mixed tapes of music that quickly evolved into homegrown sound effects. Kurt and Dave took it to extremes. Kurt's father's 1/4" reel-to-reel was not only used to listen to Beatles and Zeppelin albums backwards, but also to create eerie and sometimes hilarious audio soundscapes. Dave, using sound effects devices like fuzz and reverb boxes recorded belches, screams, and body slaps to hilarious effect. A number of these sounds also made it to the CD Lettuce Prey.

Looking back Dave and Kurt were kindred spirits both getting drunk on sound particularly those inarticulate sounds we make to express horror, disgust, and fear. They were fascinated by natural sound but also by what equipment can do to alter it.

Over 25 years on is it any surprise that Dave has a state of the art recording studio in his home and Kurt plays electronic music with a couple bands?

We all share a similar sense of humor. I don't think it's hereditary. I think humor is developed during a small window of time in childhood. Like the New York accent for instance. I think it's learned not over a long period of time but within a window. I grew up in New York but don't have a New York accent. Why? The same goes for Kurt. Humor is developed similarly - at least that's my theory.

For us I think our window was open at the same time and shining in were Monty Python, the Marx Brothers, the humor of movies like "Airplane" and "Police Squad," puns and site gags. Then again perhaps that humor is uniquely male. But within a pun or for that matter in a song lyric, one could make a point that much more poignant with irony, with a pun, or a double entendre. Then again... "I'm pulling out my putter, I'm gonna get a hole in one!"

"Lettuce Prey," the cassette, sold like Kool-Aid. Our audience comprised mostly of our high school classmates who willingly shelled out 5 bucks (I think it was) per cassette. If I recall both Dave and Kurt had the tape to tape decks and were churning them out as fast as they could. The cover art was done by Kurt in what would be - for me at least - the branded Six and Violence look.

That look hinted at the medieval with skulls, skeletons and a typeface that Kurt devised influenced by Celtic runes. His very distinctive skeletons and skulls evoked an eerie sense of glee. They were always smiling as skulls typically do - but in a kind of deer in the headlights way and hardly violent. They wielded golf clubs - how violent could that be?

The name of the band was pulled from a long list of potential names that I think either Kurt or Dave still have. I don't recall any of them except one, "Spock and the Exploding Microwaves." I assumed Spock was Dave.

The phrase "Let Us Pray" reminds me of the aforementioned parochial school and in particular the pastor who I will refer to here as "Pastor Flood." Every Thursday, donning clip-on ties (and looking forward to an attempt at looking up or down Lisa F's dress), the entire school went to chapel. I don't recall much from those mornings except the way the sunlight would stream through the stained glass, how uncomfortable the pews were, how the pews would shake when Habs would laugh (typically at Kurt), and how wide a wingspan Pastor Flood had.

During mass he always wore a long white robe and towered above us on the rostrum and when an important point was to be made, he made it with arms outstretched, his pock-marked rotund face almost beaming, his beady eyes glinting almost sinisterly... he scared us and made us laugh at the same time. When he was not pontificating, he seemed aloof. Even in the halls in school or when he'd visit the classrooms, he kept a distance. He seemed to demand reverence.

He embodied hypocrisy.

We eventually heard about the illicit affair; as 7th and 8th graders, that was our first experience with adultery. We wondered about the Mercedes and the big house a couple miles away; an experience with greed. He came to PROVE in our young minds that the adults in our lives who were meant to impress and teach us values had none or little themselves. He was fallibly human. He was Santa - he didn't exist. And later on we felt bad for him.

I still hear his voice though... "Let us pray..." Lettuce Prey.