ILLUMINATING DRINK

Friday, 14 March 2008

100 MP3's Volumes One And Two

These two data discs are a treasure trove of unreleased tracks that were for sale via the bugstore last year for a short while. A very limited edition there is supposidly an eight disc version called The Archive circulating only amoungst the inner circle of bugdom.

Friday, 7 March 2008

happy birthday release party

Here's some pictures Jammi took at the gig

Sunday, 2 March 2008

MARK MIKEL-POPSTAR

The Buzz For Aldrin poster cover

"This is the prototype of the Buzz For Aldrin poster that was intended originally to accompany the Buzz For Aldrin CD release. Unfortunately it proved to be a problem in production because of the size and the number of folds involved. It evolved this way in order to accommodate all the band's lyrics and at a reasonable size that could be read easily. The way I had worked out the folds to arrive with the back of the folded poster showing the credits page opposite the cover, meant that the text would be printed upside-down (but would appear correctly upon folding). You can judge the size of the poster from these photos I took with it unfurled upon my coffee table at home. I believe that it was originally intended that the poster front, the codex created by Mark Roland, would be made available (at a small charge) directly from him. This would be supplied unfolded for framing by the purchaser. Since I created the poster back collage, I made some text amendments to the lyrics and then re- formatted the whole job to appear in booklet form as it is today. The back is still available full size minus lyrics. As you can imagine the front, codex and back collage has much more impact to the eye at this size." Bob Tibbitts 2-03-08.

Saturday, 16 February 2008

International Pop Overthrow Vol. 5

Track 3 disc 1.The Pillbugs -Delicious

3 CD set on Not Lame. This set was released in July 2002 .

Friday, 8 February 2008

POP CULTURE PRESS

CD Sampler #27. Issue #65: Fall/Winter 2007

3. The Pillbugs, “Faceless Wonder,” from Monclovia (Rainbow Quartz). This band needs no introduction to the PCP faithful, as their glorious string of albums, singles, and harmony-psych gems attest. We at PCP are so excited to feature a superb Buzz for Aldrin outtake, "Faceless Wonder," on this issue's sampler, a song that appears on the Pillbugs' long-overdue RQ best-of.

Monday, 4 February 2008

pillbugs photoshopped

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Hanging out with the stars

Davey and Mickey

Mark and Tom

Monday, 14 January 2008

Blue Kazoo AAA Festival 2006

Dave Murnen

Davey Murnen. "This is the Blue Kazoo performing at the AAA(Auto Club) festival in the fall/summer of 2005..Mark Mikel seated with beard and guitar was sitting in for Callie...who was on maternity leave at this point. The infamous John Pickle pictured standing with guitar...the cat singing with us in black cut off is Don Hiner(DJ) a former member of the original Kazoo line up when i was fourteen...we were known as Shenaniganz then( I nixed the name and changed it when we re-formed..always hated Shenaniganz). DJ can be credited with teachng me how to pick out harmonies. an incredable musicia and well known for his barbershop vocal abilities world wide...seriously.

Mark Mikel

I called Mark a couple weeks prior to this and asked him to sit in. Mark is always great at being told what key a song is in and by the second bar you'd have thought he wrote the freaking thing...always good to jam with me Milk Droog...its like putting on an old jean jacket...just seems to fit."

John Pickle

Photos by Jammi and Jeff Pickle

Thursday, 10 January 2008

Toledo City Paper July 2003.

Click on pages to enlarge and read.

Thanks to Steve Mumford for the scans.

Turn Me Upside Down... Baby! Toledo City Paper CD 2003
Purpose For Useless Cause - Headed The Wrong Way-Johnny Reed and the Houserockers - That's the Blues-The Knobs - What Do You Want Me To Say?-Junkanoo Brother s- One More Day-MC Habitat - Festival-Glinda's Bubble - Kryptonite-Gregg Aranda - 2 Dollar Bottle of Wine-Dr. Kilpatient - 9 o'Clock-The Pillbugs - If You Can't Remain-Driftwood Whale - Dumptruck Love-Jami Lynn Michelle -Quillen - Cry Like Memphis-Luckey Nite (feat. B TIzzle) - It's Alright-Clint Fox - Life Goes On-E.J. Wells - HearsedriverFive -Horse Johnson - Cherry Red-Nick Motil - Wishes (For Emily)-Three Trio Three - Better Days-Brian Bocian - Sunny-The Griswolds - Boogie In the Dark-Jim Gibson - Up My Sleeve

Welcome to the multicoloured world of The Pillbugs

Official Bio. The origin of The Pillbugs can be traced back to January of 1991. That's when Mark Kelley first called Mark Mikel up and asked him to form a new band. Kelley brought in drummer Dan Chalmers and Mikel brought in vocalist Dave Murnen and a guitarist who would eventually be replaced 4 times until they found the perfect fit with Scott Tabner (a mutual friend of Kelley and Mikel's).
They became The Mark Mikel Hallucination and started performing shows around Toledo. In 1996 after a respectable amount of local recognition and radio airplay, Mikel wanted to create a new identity for the group. "They deserved to be seen as equals and not just my backing band," Mikel said, "I came up with the idea of The Pillbugs and that we'd go WAY deeper into psychedelia. We released our first album on CD in 1998 on our own label (Omniphonic). I believe it was the first debut release to contain a double CD's worth of new and never-before-released music. Until someone proves me wrong - that's what I believe. The point is we wanted to make something people had to notice." This first release took off very slowly but eventually (with the help of the internet) became a somewhat sought after CD.
The second Pillbugs CD "The 3-Dimensional In-Popcycle Dream" (originally another double set) was completed in early 2001. With no real money to put behind it, it sat on the shelf until 2003 until later when they signed with indie label (Proverus). "Proverus had us strip down the album to 1 CD (a brilliant move actually) and then we inserted a 3D Viewmaster reel to make it really crazy," Mikel reveals.
That album was released during the summer of 2003. Proverus helped the group get a lot of notoriety (especially on the web) and also helped to book and manage gigs. 3D sold out of the first run in a matter of 2 months (most of them going to Japan). That was successful enough for Proverus to want a follow-up. The next summer they released their 3rd CD "Happy Birthday" though dark times were looming.
Mark Kelley had been diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer in 1999. By the time "Happy Birthday" was released in August of 2004, Kelley had lost his voice completely and could hardly stand on his own two legs.
Knowing their wasn't much time left, the 5 friends took to recording one last album together. "Buzz for Aldrin" sessions began in Sept. 2004, just as Mark Kelley took another down turn and was admitted to the hospital. Recording continued with The Pillbugs not knowing if Kelley would ever return.
He eventually did return and was able to contribute the bass guitar to most of the album from his wheelchair- with a permanent breathing machine surgically attached to his throat. Then the studio recording equipment broke down and it was in repair for over seven months. "By the time the guy got around to fixing it," adds Mikel, "Mark Kelley was past the point of being able to record with us. It took me a long time to get back into the groove and finish the album."
"But we eventually finished it though the recording sessions seemed jinxed from start to finish."
To provide the right grandeur for the release, The Pillbugs employed renowned California artist Mark Roland* to supply the CD art.
The new Pillbugs double disc set "Buzz for Aldrin" was released by Proverus on June 19, 2007.
The Pillbugs signed with Rainbow Quartz and their first CD with RQ, "Monclovia" was released on Oct. 30, 2007.
Everybody Wants A Way Out their second rainbow Quartz album was released Nov. 10th, 2008.
In March 2011 Mark formed two new combos, The Mark Mikel Band and Dark Ocean Colors with Scott Hunt, with two albums by the latter coming soon on Rainbow Quartz

*Mark Roland is indeed a very talented artist look here for a few more examples of his art
http://www.orycon.org/orycon26/markroland.html

update...and his new website is here
The Art Of Mark Roland
http://www.rolandscapes.com/