"STEP UP, BITCH."

Jay Scott - drums, vocals, poster child for wasted potential

JAY SAYS:

Bert has been after me for literally minutes to finally compose the text for my page.  Firstly, I should point out that I've never created any kind of html document for any reason, let alone to be posted for the few dozen of you who visit by accident to ever see.  That could account for the lack of aesthetic creativity and crudeness of the graphics.  Secondly, I make no apologies for the crudeness of language.  I come from hill people and by God, I can swear like a....well, like something that swears a lot.  Thirdly, I have no third point.  But one can't state "firstly" and "secondly" without at least having a "thirdly"...that's just rude.  So, welcome to my nightmare.  I hope I didn't scare you.

Now then, on to what this is all about.  The Skeptical Cats (Creed, for short) are a locally-based rock band.  And by local, I mean Nick's basement.  We just learned to play musical instruments and were previously involved in various combinations of skilled trades such as shipbuilding, goat herding, porn "film" director, and underwear inspector...it's up to you, the loyal web surfer who came in here thinking Skeptical Cats was code for "cynical pussy" to decide who did what...and to whom.  

If it's seriousness you're after, I don't know dick about this band.  I joined a scant year and a half ago and since then, we've lost not only our integrity but our loyal fan base as well.  Good times, good times.  Well, that's not entirely true...mostly, but not entirely.  The other three core members have been playing with one another...er, playing together for way too long...and they still haven't gotten it right.  Along comes Jay.  I played my first gig with them after a brief, drunken rehearsal that was more drunken than rehearsal.  The show went well enough (and they were drunk enough) that they asked me to stay on full-time (read:  full-time = two gigs a year).  After that, I left behind my wife and my girlfriend too, my skyrocketing career as a sloth, and my ability to smile for the bright lights of the town.  Oh yeah, and for fame and fortune, blah blah blah.

Ah hell, I really did join a year and a half ago and really did play my first gig after one brief, drunken rehearsal.  It really set the tone for what this band is all about for me.............................(silence)............................(beer can opening.......ssssszzzzzzzzzzz)...........................(gulp gulp gulp)........................(aaaaaaahhhhh).........................(more silence)..........................what was I talking about?  Oh, that's right - life gets in the way...fall breaks and back to winter...not as much time or effort to put into the band, so changes occur and mostly original band takes on new life as a cover band.  Yes, we are currently primarily a cover band.  And yes, there are lots of them out there...too many.  But we are not the garden variety, average, generic type.  The difference with us is that we play a wide variety of mostly underexposed, neglected classic rock, along with some diverse surprises...things you typically might not expect from a cover band.  The other difference - we do it well.  We don't simply go through the motions of dumbing down more complex arrangements and playing with no emotion.  We play with conviction and soul.  (For instance, unlike some other drummers I've seen in cover bands - hell, even original bands - when I hit my snare, you know it...no dull cardboard sound played by a limp-wristed poofter.)  We're not perfect, but we're a hell of a lot of fun - we keep people on their feet (and toes) and, perhaps most importantly to bar owners, we keep them drinking.  ;)

Let's not forget about the originals, however.  The Skep Cats had an album of 14 original tunes ("Record Record") out in the '90s, long before I came along.  (You can read about it in extreme detail and hear clips from it elsewhere on the site.)  It was quite a smash locally and in locales as exotic and distant as Italy...and probably Belgium and Toad Suck, Arkansas, for that matter.  We still do a few numbers from it and from the second, initially unreleased record ("Child's Play"), as well as a handful of newer, unrecorded tracks which tend to rock a bit more...those are my favorites.  In all seriousness, they're quite good tracks and we hope to have them recorded soon for the sake of posterity and/or ego and/or because they need to be heard.  We still write and occasionally record, despite the fact we've adopted the slogan "too proud to practice" as our mantra.      

Contrary to certain of my brethren in this band, I don't really give a shit about what kind of equipment I play or how it looks...I am not a gear homo.  Never have been, never will be.  All I really care about is if I can make it sound good.  I have disappointed many a fellow drummer who wished to strike up a conversation about the latest set of unreasonably expensive Tama's or whatever he recently purchased by replying, "Yeah, yeah, that's great.  Hey, look at the cans on that bimbo!"

I listen to and collect tons of tunes.  I am easily the most avid record collector in the bunch and still a huge proponent of vinyl.  Sure, you can throw the second half of "Abbey Road" into your CD player anytime.  But there's nothing like the romance of gently laying that pristine slab of wax on the turntable, positioning the tonearm, gracefully letting the stylus swim into the dark grooves, and watching the half-Apple logo spin around and round as you become enveloped in the warm tones of "Here Comes the Sun".  It's an experience that has no equal in the digital age.  I'll listen to anything old-school and/or heartfelt, soulful, and tuneful...i.e. anything with integrity:  rock, rhythm and blues, country...it doesn't matter.  Some recent and all-time favorites (in no particular order):  Faces, Otis Redding, XTC, Cheap Trick, Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Young, Paul Weller, Warren Zevon, Ben Folds, Marvin Gaye, Richard Thompson, Crowded House, Michael Penn, Guided by Voices, Guess Who, Sam Cooke, Adrian Belew, Big Star, Jason Falkner, Buddy Holly, Dramarama, Monkees (that's right...I said it), Elvis Costello, Jeff Buckley, Jayhawks, Zombies, Psychodots, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Byrds, Iron Maiden (ah...youth), Police, Buck Owens, Eagles, Beach Boys, Beatles (of course), etc.  The only new music I listen to is modern rock...not 'alternative'...'alternative' is an oxymoron these days.  When Linkin Park, Creed, Hoobastank, et puke al are considered to be alternative, the word and particularly the art has lost all meaning and credibility.  When I say modern rock, I refer to the music and bands heard on 97X (www.woxy.com), to which you can listen online and which still supports local music, although they're heard globally.

So there, now I've joined the seemingly endless ranks of self-deluded individuals who believe their lives are interesting enough to chronicle 24/7 online...woo hoo!!!  I couldn't be more thrilled to be a member of the tribe, as it were.  More to come soon, I'm almost sure.  Perhaps one day we'll have a webmaster as obsessed...er, caring as the one from the Tenacious D episode.  Bye for now.  George Carlin reminds you to plant during the March equinox.