Four Eyes, The

I first met the FOUR EYES in albuquerque, NM. They were on tour with the BANANAS. I was on tour with my band, OPERATION: CLIFF CLAVIN. They all wore glasses, even the guy that didn't need them. They played with one of the smallest drum sets i had ever seen. it was just a snare, kick, hi-hat and ride. i thought it was great and i thought they were great.

There are plenty of bands out there who try to be clever, satirical, or somehow try to turn the cliche's of pop punk on their heads. That's all will and fine especially if the music is good. But it isn't always fun per se, and it doesn't make me laugh. Enter the Four Eyes. Not only are they fun, but they are funny.

The Start - A HISTORY OF THE FOUR EYES
(as told by the 4-eyes)

We were sitting around having an acoustic Lint Farmers reunion in joels basement room. Skip had to go give some chick a ride. So we figured we'd learn some Ramones songs so skip would be happy when he came back. Skip ditched us for that chick and we started our own band to become famous just to spite him for ditching us. We had to figure out a name so we (atleast joel and i) thought we should be called 'ducktales 2: the movie' just so we could have the dumbest and most confusing band name ever. Then we came up with The Four Eyes and figured we have all songs about nerds. We practiced in jays parents garage on weekends. Came up with out first song 'compucore' and other early songs like video games, comics, can buy me love, nerds in space, riptide robot and nerdy girl. Actuallly we didn't practice much, must have been over xmas break because joel lived in Goleta and went to UCSB. So we must have just practice like 2 or 3 times in jays garage. I just rember using the dart board to figure out chords to use for the scott miller song and i remember recording lost in space for the secret center tape. Jay and i would also visit joel down south his second year at UCSB when he lived in an apartment with nate, rob and tom. We record our 'rock and roll with' tape in the UCSB chemisty lecture room on a weekend night. We would also play at georges driveway on the main party street so drunks would come by and laugh. When joel quit UCSB and moved back to santa cruz must have been when we started practicing in jays garage (i'm obsessed with trying to figure out when we practiced in jays garage). I cant remember very many places we played in santa cruz. We played with NAR at a apartment by the boardwalk, played UCSC with the BANANAS, but that was in like 95. Played two sets at the redroom once. Played atleast one Pepepolooza.


The Four Eyes: Pre-History

In the begining. Santa Cruz, CA, early 90's (like 90 or 91)
Burning the Big Jacket:
So the first band was Burning the Big Jacket. It was Dave Ninja on slide whistle, Jay hitting an empty crisco can with a marking pen and zack singing. We also had a keyboard playing casio chords and a
guitar that wasnt tuned and didnt have all the strings (it was electric but not plugged in). There is a tape of this. It contains songs about the
letter F (F is the chord i want to be, i dont want to have water on the knee...) and the guitar was played holding an F chord but it wasnt in tune
so that didnt matter. There later on was a 'jam' in Zacks garage with an amp of two, it was basically feedback and a two 'note' song called "Pog".
du-du-du-du-du-DU-du-du-du-du-du-(POG). Cris Mark was there for Pog.

Brotherhood of the Flyers:
Dave Ninja, Joel and Skip. Joel played guitar, Dave played bass and skip sang as hit hit a floor tom. Probably the worst band. There was a tape of the only time we did anything (born, recorded and died all in the same night). I rember we made people listen to the tape in their car that night. Story behind the band: Skip and I (Dave) were at joel's house (joel lived with his mom, step dad and i think his uncle rob was staying there) and joel's uncle was telling us he'd pay us a bunch of money to drive up to Bay Meadows horse track and put flyers on car windows. We got all excited and talked about what crappy music equipment we would buy with the money. When then recorded a couple songs. Joel uncle never mentioned the flyer thing again.

Lint Farmers:
Skip, Joel, Dave Ninja and Jay. Skip came up with the name and wanted to start a band for him to sing in. He got joel for guitar because he owned one. Then he gave and invitation for Jay and I to join the band since I owned a bass and amp and jay owned drums. This was during the senior year of high school. We practiced every week and for hours in Jay's parents garage. Lots of crazyness. Like once a bum came by and came inside and started dancing and saying we were great and he said "here the bass coming out of that machine!" which was a phrase we wouldnt ever forget. Then there was Rocky, a skater kid that was probably older than us who would come by and talk to us just because he just moved there and didnt have any friends. Jay's neighbor across the street would complain about the noise. We were bad, most of the songs didnt have parts that went together. We didnt know stuff about music. There are way too many Lint Farmers recordings. Songs like: Kentucky fried holocaust, ohio well disaster, bite me die, cameras. Places played: Harbor High quad at lunch time, Domiana's gradutation party, harbor high little theater for some tallet show, Nathen Figone's backyard party (our 1st show), some
pepepoloozas. We recorded "switchblade baby" in like 95 and it was on a secret center comp. I'll have to make a seperate Lint Farmers page sometime because there is just too much dumb stuff.

Tard:
Dillon(guitar), Adam Dam-Bad(guitar), Dave Ninja(bass, 2nd singer), Jay(drums) and Joel(1st singer, 2nd bass). Dillon and Adam had had guitar
lessons and knew that music should go together from instrument to instrument. So the songs only had one 'riff' that was played over and over but at least the instruments were playing the same notes at about the same time. Songs like: Rob(about joels uncle), Power and Glory(about hte
wrestling tag team of Paul Roma and Hercules), Cats ass, loving machine, super punch(worst bass line ever, didn't even go along with the song, it
still embarrasses me today). Played zacks room and a pepepolooza(annual new years show).

Mote:
Dillon(guitar), Jay(drums), Dave Ninja(Bass) and Zack(singing). First realish band. Some songs on mp3.com (Mote on mp3.com). Got one song on an LP comp. Made two tapes, both had the same picture on the cover (joel with mohawk looking retarded) one was on white paper (called 'the white tape') other was on orange paper and called "Hotter than cone 10"(or the orange
tape). We would run a classied add in MRR saying 'send up two stamps and we'll send you a tape'. We got rid of about 200 tapes. At first all the
songs were about dumb stuff (macgyver, life is nintendo, barney the skater, mr burns, ernest goes to the pit) later they because about
nothing. Played all around, we're together for a few years. I eventually quit because i wasn't having fun anymore, it sounds dumb now but i didn't like the idea of being in a band that didnt sing about TV, video games, movies and inside jokes. Music was becoming different as well because people were into hardcore emo stuff like Unwound and Antioche Arrow as well as bands like the Wedding Present. Jack took my place, but i think
they only played like one or two shows with him. You know, i don't think i ever saw either of those shows. Before I was out of Mote, Jay, Joel and I
had started The Four Eyes. I bet no one thought that we would still be around today.

Ben, Franklyn and the Electric Keys:
Joel (as ben, played guitar and sang), Dave Ninja (as franklyn, played bass and sang) and keyboard (as electric keys, played drums and
keyboard). Lots of dumb songs, only shows have been pepepoloozas.

Joel Tongue and Hot Lick:
Joel and a keyboard and maybe 4 track. On secret center CD comp with Ents. Good stuff. Check out the mp3.com on our web-site.

John Candyman and the Suckas:
Dumb band with joel on guitar and singing, and zack, jay, dave ninja, skip singing. Sing along type songs like Skeleton Horde and electrocution.