wells tower
back in my days at miami there was a great to-do about the anchor book of new american fiction. a teacher was using it as a text in a class and many of the students were unhappy with the stories. but there was one story that everyone seemed to like. that story was called, everything ravaged, everything burned by a writer named wells tower. the story is great. you just need to read it to understand. i can only say it is about vikings and features a method of killing called the blood eagle. need i say more? since then, i've seen wells' name pop up here and there and i've been looking forward to a complete story collection. he released his first not too long ago. i think i might buy it today.
now...here is where things get interesting.
flash back to a 16 year old me as a regular customer at chris' warped records in lakewood, ohio. this was a place that, unlike any other, shaped the music i love and cherish. the staff was great, the other customers became friends through mutual shopping/show going, and there was a genuine community centered around the place. back then, i bought a 7inch by a band called 'hellbender' on the recommendation of a clerk there named jason. (same dude would also clue me in to modest mouse, the locust, and tristeza. dude knew his stuff. i remember when he gave me the lonesome crowded west he was like; 'its good, i guess they are going to be the next big thing or something.' rad stuff.) anyways, hellbender were amazing. fierce punk/indie rock whatever you want to call it. al burian of burn collector/milemarker fame was part of the band.
flash forward to this morning when im online for no reason looking for hellbender records to download and having no luck. i find a few ancient web pages concerning the band. a lone myspace fan page with one song on it. check the song, shit's great, raw but wonderful;
http://www.myspace.com/hellbenderband
through all this fruitless surfing i come across info concerning the band and, low and behold, their guitarist/vocalist is named, wait for it, wells tower.
now, i ask you, how many wells towers can their be? i did a bit of research and came up with a few interesting things: wells tower the writer was born in vancouver in 1973, making him 20 when hellbender released their first full album. problem, wikipedia also says he went to wesleyan for undergrad making him at least a part time resident of connecticut NOT north carolina where the band was formed. BUT, a hellbender page says the first record was recorded in august and december of 93 in virginia. august and december, total school break times. you guys see where im going here? And while that might seem like a stretch, the macmillan books website says wells splits his time between brooklyn and chapel hill, nc.
can this be a coincidence? i'll be honest, if wells tower the guitarist for hellbender is wells tower the writer, my mind will be blown. this means that 17 year old steve was jamming out to hellbender's 'footprint of the american chicken' with mike grabski only to, 8 years later, jam out to wells tower's 'everything ravaged, everything burned' with tom, blade and joe as a g-damn grad-student.
i hope at least one person is as intrigued by this as i am. so what do you think, same guy?
change that hair color and add 16 years...
and, of course, all that is to say this, if you're looking for some interesting fiction to read, try out wells towers' book. and if you're looking for some good tunes from 15 years ago, listen to some hellbender. in the end it doesn't matter if these are the same dudes. both of them have created some wonderful things that touched my life. so i owe them some thanks.
and if i might reduce that a bit more; read lots, listen to music lots
now...here is where things get interesting.
flash back to a 16 year old me as a regular customer at chris' warped records in lakewood, ohio. this was a place that, unlike any other, shaped the music i love and cherish. the staff was great, the other customers became friends through mutual shopping/show going, and there was a genuine community centered around the place. back then, i bought a 7inch by a band called 'hellbender' on the recommendation of a clerk there named jason. (same dude would also clue me in to modest mouse, the locust, and tristeza. dude knew his stuff. i remember when he gave me the lonesome crowded west he was like; 'its good, i guess they are going to be the next big thing or something.' rad stuff.) anyways, hellbender were amazing. fierce punk/indie rock whatever you want to call it. al burian of burn collector/milemarker fame was part of the band.
flash forward to this morning when im online for no reason looking for hellbender records to download and having no luck. i find a few ancient web pages concerning the band. a lone myspace fan page with one song on it. check the song, shit's great, raw but wonderful;
http://www.myspace.com/hellbenderband
through all this fruitless surfing i come across info concerning the band and, low and behold, their guitarist/vocalist is named, wait for it, wells tower.
now, i ask you, how many wells towers can their be? i did a bit of research and came up with a few interesting things: wells tower the writer was born in vancouver in 1973, making him 20 when hellbender released their first full album. problem, wikipedia also says he went to wesleyan for undergrad making him at least a part time resident of connecticut NOT north carolina where the band was formed. BUT, a hellbender page says the first record was recorded in august and december of 93 in virginia. august and december, total school break times. you guys see where im going here? And while that might seem like a stretch, the macmillan books website says wells splits his time between brooklyn and chapel hill, nc.
can this be a coincidence? i'll be honest, if wells tower the guitarist for hellbender is wells tower the writer, my mind will be blown. this means that 17 year old steve was jamming out to hellbender's 'footprint of the american chicken' with mike grabski only to, 8 years later, jam out to wells tower's 'everything ravaged, everything burned' with tom, blade and joe as a g-damn grad-student.
i hope at least one person is as intrigued by this as i am. so what do you think, same guy?
change that hair color and add 16 years...
and, of course, all that is to say this, if you're looking for some interesting fiction to read, try out wells towers' book. and if you're looking for some good tunes from 15 years ago, listen to some hellbender. in the end it doesn't matter if these are the same dudes. both of them have created some wonderful things that touched my life. so i owe them some thanks.
and if i might reduce that a bit more; read lots, listen to music lots