Freakout? No doubt!
The gift of recognition somewhere in Kingston…
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and, per usual, I’m not sure how we got here so fast. The end of the year is like the end of the week on steroids. There’s always that moment on Sunday when I look around and ask What did I get done this week?
This is that times 52.
Don’t misunderstand: I’m not one who goes on about how busy I am in an effort to seem productive or meaningful or important. At my age I’m not about to feel guilty if I kick up my feet and read or listen to music or watch TV. I no longer feel the need to be going every minute. This ability to – as the wretched Eagles sang – take it easy runs up smack up against an ongoing desire to get things done. Time is a terrible taskmaster and in an effort to prove to myself I didn’t waste it, I’m tallying what I have and haven’t accomplished this year for next week’s NIHILISTIC. Right now I want to talk about how my decision to pick up the guitar when I was 12 or 13 continues to reverberate 50 years later.
This weekend we had another great visit with our dear friends Bob and Melissa up in the Catskills. Our arrival was around 2 pm after a stop in Rosendale at The Big Cheese for lunch. We did our usual hanging around the kitchen table catching up before we had a few drinks and exchanged presents. Around 5:15 we set off for midtown Kingston where something extraordinary happened. In Freakout Spot Records at 580 Broadway I found a copy of the Missing Foundation record 1933 Your House Is Mine. That wasn’t extraordinary. It’s what happened when I brought it to the counter, asking the mustachioed hipster-looking dude behind it to spin track 2, Burn Trees. As he dropped the needle on the record I mentioned “I’m on this.” Maybe it was the gummy I’d taken 30 minutes prior but I was feeling chatty, so I elaborated. “That’s my riff. This is the most viewed Missing Foundation track on YouTube.” Melissa, Bob, Raphael and Sweet T. all took notice as the mustachioed dude perked up, saying Wait. That’s YOU?! YOU were in MISSING FOUNDATION?! Dude, REALLY?!
I was not expecting that. I thought he’d be all ho-hum but he looked at me squarely and asked Are you CHRIS?!
“Yes. And you are?”?
Rob.
We shook hands. Rob went on.
Holy shit, man! This day just keeps getting better and better. Of all the people to walk in here, it’s someone from Missing Foundation! But you know I can’t sell you this record now, right? You HAVE to sign it and it’s going up on the wall. Man, I was so jealous of this friend in Brooklyn who has a record store and put a Pete Missing signed Missing Foundation record on the wall...
“Is it Fabio at Earwax Records? He’s a friend of mine.”
No. I know who he is. From WFMU, right?
“Yep.”
Rob went and found a black Sharpie and Bob – who’d bought a copy of Freak Out! by The Mothers of Invention – hovered behind me, ribbing me with over-the-top shit like Wow. This is very impressive. A real celebrity in our midst! Who knew you were so FAMOUS?! as I signed the LP’s cover. I couldn’t think of what to write, having signed perhaps one other record of mine in my life, but eventually inscribed it No longer missing – Chris T.
Rob insisted we take a picture, handing his phone over Melissa. Bob also took a picture with his phone, then mine (see below). Then Rob began pumping me for info on how I ended up on a Missing Foundation record.
“Well... I was in a band called the Nihilistics.”
Wait. You were in the Nihilistics TOO? Man, get out of here. I just remember all those trips into the city to hunt those records down. Look around you... that’s exactly the shit I’m into. I sold the repress of the first album a few weeks ago.
“The one on Mad at the World? I did, too.”
You got any of the original pressings? I would buy them...”
“Yes. I have a few copies still. On Braineater Records. I have the test pressing, too.”
Oh man. You wanna sell it?!
“Yeah. I’m in a culling phase. Do you have a card?”
While Rob hunted for a card, eventually handing me a bumper sticker that reads MY OTHER CAR IS A TECHNICS SL-1200 instead, I elaborated on how I ended up in a notorious Industrial Rock band.
“So after I left the Nihilistics and moved to New Jersey I was roommates with this guy Jeff Nagle – now dead – who played guitar in the band Drunk Driving with Pete Missing. He’s the one who told me Pete was looking for a guitarist. Or maybe it was my friend Kaz’s brother Vince who asked me. Shit. Anyway, I ended up getting together with them and I’m on the first three albums.”
Dude, that is CRAZY.
“Didn’t get paid for any of them. Years ago, when the first two or three albums were rereleased I had to send a nasty letter to the record company asserting my rights. They eventually sent me a check for, like, eighty-eight dollars.”
Rob wanted more info.
So what was Pete Missing like? I heard he was kind of an asshole.
“Well, he certainly didn’t believe in paying anyone. He’s in Europe now.”
Oh. I thought he was in Brooklyn.
“Maybe. Last time I checked he was somewhere in Europe. Berlin or something.”
So did you play those live shows, too? I heard they were CRAZY.
“Yes. They would always descend into chaos. You never knew what was gonna happen. I always thought someone was gonna die.”
Holy shit.
“Listen, I’ll see what I can dig up at home and maybe we can work something out. I also have a bunch for records from the last record fair I did. You might be interested.”
Sure! You want to bring them in, absolutely.
“OK. I’ll find you on Facebook or Instagram.”
Before our crew filed out of The Freakout Spot I bought the rerelease of the third Miracles album, The Fabulous Miracles, and thanked Rob.
“Have a good holiday, man.”
Yeah, you too.
Out the door we turned right toward Tubby’s and Bob continued his hosannas while Sweet T., Melissa and Raphael took turns lauding me.
I felt like a fucking hero. What a gift.
Merry Christmas, everyone. May you all find the peace, happiness and joy you seek. Failing that, please enjoy these two ultra-rare videos of Missing Foundation performing live at WFMU’s original location in the basement of Upsala College’s Froeberg Hall on October 12, 1986. Stay to the end of the second video to see me eating Vienna Fingers out of the can while Kaz mocks me.
