for the 2nd part of the story, we go back in time a couple of years. 4 years ago i got the urge to put a band together to perform my (our) songs, as well as my own compositions. (instigator, tarot, kryst, etc...) the unit should be called erno. i put an add in the ny press and village voice. most of the callers were literally BUMS. young smelly grunge kids responding to the sonic youth influence in my list of influences. they sucked as musicians too, in my mind. then i got a call from a blaise delbianco. he was one of the only callers to call referencing the fripp/eno/talking heads influences. blaise is over 40 years old. we met, and jammed w/a drum machine. we sounded great together. he had some songs as well. you see pope, compromise #1 just peeked in it's head. 2 songwriters in a band means we'll be playing songs from both. my songs at the time were novelty or weird. his were sexual and egyptian. as you could imagine, we sounded like 2 bands. compromise #2, the band ended up being called blaise's name, jaws of life. bye bye erno. blaise knew a drummer and bass player. rehearsals went well. we played some gigs, and went over really well.

we never had a problem getting gigs. getting people to come was the problem, i would soon learn. compromise #3, the band really had no dynamic. everyone played ALL of the time. #4, my songs got weeded out one by one, until tree was about the only song in the set of mine. when i would perform tree, women would always come on to me after the show. they loved what i did up there. blaise, who sang almost all of the songs, got none of that attention. blaise is italian, and you know how that must have made him feel. i moved in w/blaise to lend some solidity to the unit. blaise got a girlfriend, and things started to go downhill from there. bkg vocalists and a percussionist were introduced. rehearsals became inconsistent. 1 bkg vocalist at one. no percussionist at another. out of 10 shows w/this line-up, 2 at the continental stand out. up until this point, i've been bullied by blaise. he told me my voice was weak, and couldn't survive w/ny audiences. he was an effects-maniac who over-used his whammy, so his gtr was out of tune after every song, leaving "dead air". to conclude, there was a straw that broke this camel's back.

we landed a slot at cbgb's. (in my opinion, very overrated) our drummer couldn't make the gig, and my suggestion to blaise was either cancel the gig, or re-arrange the music w/o drums. maybe an acoustic set. his idea was ass. he gave a tape to a novice drummer 2 days b4 the show. we had no rehearsal w/him. when i say we tanked at the show, i mean it. i vowed, w/sherry carr, one of the singers, that this would be the last show. i did do 1 more at the new music cafe, w/laws of jive (we changed for legal reasons). it was tighter, but a little heartless. i met jodi, fell in love, and she moved in......