As I look towards the future in this new year, I found a relic from my past and thought I'd share. From the Autumn of 1999 to late 2005/early 2006 ( I can't remember the exact date when we officially called it a day), I was the guitarist and one of the vocalists for a band called Pitch Black. We started off as what I guess could be classified as a horror-punk band and ended up as a post-punk band. We always just claimed to play "The Modern Sound", which was a nod to the mod culture I am enamored with. Being in Pitch Black was one of the best times of my life! The band break-up was even amicable & we are all still friends. Something I've found to be rare in other bands I've been in. By the end of our run, we had recorded a split EP with The Enemies for Lookout! Records, 2 LPs for Revelation Records, and a 7" EP for Cheetah's Records. We also did a bunch of touring with a lot of great bands throughout North America.
This video is from a track off our self-titled debut LP on Revelation Records called "The Bride". This song also made it to a couple skateboard videos and clips of it were played on a couple skate contests that ran on ESPN at the time. The video was produced by a friend of mine, Mark Yang, in the motion picture department while we were both attending the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. This video was part of a class project for him. I think that's why there are so many techniques used and why some of them come off as a bit silly, but I think he needed to show the teacher he had learned everything that was taught. Mark was a super rad guy who was as enthusiastic about Rock-n-Roll as I am. After we graduated, he had to go back to his native Tawain and I am sorry to say that we lost contact after that. I hope he's doing well! Lastly, I hope you all dig the video and maybe even get a chuckle out of what I used to do before becoming a cartoonist.
My friend Melissa just sent me this photo taken about 9 years ago. That's my old band, Pitch Black, playing a show on my old stomping grounds at 924 Gilman Street Project in Berkeley, CA.
