Interview with Travis of Inkwell conducted 4/27/06 via e-mail.
official site | myspace
Inkwell plays live with Feabel Weiner, Inkwell, and Memoranda at the Melbourne Jaycees on May 10th! More info at littlereggies.com!
Listen to the audio version of this interview!
Nick: How did you get together with Feable Weiner and Cruiserweight for this tour?
Travis: They called us up and were like “Hi!
Interview with Feable Weiner conducted 4/25/06 via e-mail.
official site | myspace
Feable Weiner plays live with Cruiserweight, Inkwell, and Memoranda at the Melbourne Jaycees on May 10th! More info at littlereggies.com!
Nick: What is your writing process like? Are the songs written primarily together as a band or do you separately work on tracks and then bring them to the table?
Atom and Josh: It just depends. There’s no one way we write all of our songs. Most of the time though it’s the two of us writing the hits and then bringing them to the band to make even better.
N: How would you compare playing for American audiences compared to European audiences? Is there a significant difference in crowd interaction and response?
A and J: We have incredible fans everywhere that travel unbelievable distances to see us, and for those fans we’re extremely grateful. And there are many, especially in the UK. There is no difference in Europe and the US except the volume of our fans. We have the ability to sell out a tour in the UK, whereas here in our home country we have to understand that that is less likely to happen, which is fine by us. Only a matter of time now.
N: Do you keep a fairly consistent touring schedule?
A and J: We were recording a record for half a year and we’re just now done with mixing. We’re now turning our focus to reminding everyone in the states that we’re still a band since our touring as of late has been overseas. (more…)
Interview with The Heathens
http://www.myspace.com/weareheathens
Nick: You are Chris Rae, what do you play in the band Chris?
Chris: I play the bass guitar and sing a little backup.
N: Why the name The Heathens?
C: I don’t know, I think The Heathens kind of came up from bible belt and the south thing. It was going to be Matt and The Heathens, but Matt wanted to be a heathen too so we went with that.
N: In my research I came across another band called The Heathens. Their website had fuzzy dice and a diamond plating background, it looks pretty serious. Are you afraid of any kind of lawsuits?
C: I’m not too threatened by the fuzzy dice guys. I’ve checked them out. They are kind of older and not touring around too much. Hopefully we’ll have enough people backing us. Otherwise we’ll just do the whole Hot Water thing and become The Heathens Music Band.
N: Ok Chris, the banjo and the fiddle. Is this just a gimmick? Why such cheap parlor tricks?
C: (laughs) Well cheap parlor tricks would have been a barber shop quartet. Literally speaking.
N: I know, it just sounded cool when I wrote it down. (more…)
Interview with Building The State
www.myspace.com/buildingthestate
www.myspace.com/cinemechanica
See them live at The Vero Beach Jaycees on 3/17/06!
I just got off the phone with Building The State’s Justin Tzuanos and Peter W. Wadsworth. We didn’t have time to conduct a full interview but I was able to get a few questions in. As their MySpace states, the band formed in late 2002 and their influences include such bands as The Appleseed Cast, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Sonic Youth. As Peter told me, “Pretty much mid 90’s emo bands.” I have no complaints with that! Building The State is a refreshing sound compared to the formulaic rut most bands of the same genre have fallen into these days. Hooking up this time with Athens’ Cinemechanica, Building The State embarks on their third tour since July of 2005. While they have already traversed the Southeast thoroughly, recent tours found the band in the Northeast and Midwest as well. According to Peter, the Midwest has had the warmest reception for the group so far. Of course I had to ask the boys to break their band down into percentages. This time I let them invent whatever attributes they wanted. They returned a statistic of 80% sonic intensity and 20% raw sexuality. To be honest I have no idea what the means, but Peter mentioned something about rock.live.love. Take that for what it is worth, but make sure you come out to the March 17th show at the Vero Beach Jaycees with Building The State, Cinemechanica, and some great Vero locals.
Conducted by Nick Martinolich via telephone on 3/13/06.
Interview with Mosey
www.myspace.com/mosey
See them live at Caver Park on 3/10/06!
Nick: Please introduce yourself and what you do in the band.
Mosey: Slate - Guitar/Vocals, Smith - Bass, Reid - Synth/Piano, AJ - Drums
Nick: Mosey, why the name? It seems quite suitable for the music.
Mosey: It’s a name that Smith and Slate kicked around for years and finally when we started writing songs for this band, it seemed really appropriate.
Nick: How many members are in the band and how did you all come together?
Mosey: 4 members, we knew each other from just playing in different bands in the Tallahassee scene. All of our bands broke up around the same time. AJ asked to try out and he was in. We really wanted a good keyboard player so we went to Reid. The four of us had a really good chemistry, so we decided to just keep it the four of us.
Nick: I have picked up some country tinges in your music, care to comment on that and your other influences.
Mosey: We are all southern kids that grew up playing music. Slate and Smith imparticular grew up listening to all kinds of things, mostly blues, jazz, old country, and old soul music. Roots music was very influential growing up and then we got into old emo and indie music. We just try to write completely honest songs and the south is just apart of us.
Nick: Can you explain your writing process? Is it a group effort or the work of a few individuals?
Mosey: Slate usually writes the song on acoustic guitar and then the whole band comes in to arrange the song and change certain things to make it work as a band and really flesh it out.
Nick: Picture your band as a pie chart, what portion of the pie is synthesizer and piano?
Mosey: I don’t know if I can put it into a percentage, but I will say we love the way synth and piano fills up a song and that we are really proud of what Reid does in this band, he’s a very versatile musician.
Nick: What percentage would be passion, and what percentage would be teamwork?
Mosey: It’s definitely 50/50. The passion drives the teamwork I think.
Nick: How is the Tallahassee scene in general and in regards to your band?
Mosey: We are very well accepted and respected here. But besides a handful of people, Tallahassee is a beer drinking town with a football problem. We love our friends that support us here, but besides big shows we are just as likely to get a good turnout out of town.
Nick: How has your reception been while on tour? Any locations in particular that you would like to visit again?
Mosey: Melbourne and Orlando have both been really nice to us. I’ve heard great things about Brandon and Naples. We hope to get there soon.
Nick: Is this March 10th date a one time deal or one stop on a current tour?
Mosey: We are playing March 11th in Tampa and then back in Tallahassee March 13th with Lucero. It’s basically a weekend thing at this point.
Nick: Are you fans of facial hair? I am, but have the hair genes of a 15 year old.
Mosey: Haha, you are like our keyboard player. However, I think the rest of us started shaving around 15. We are all fans of facial hair, but it may be out of laziness more than a fashion statement. Shaving just sucks.
Nick: If your band was really a pie chart, but not a chart at all…. more like a desert pie, what flavor would it be?
Mosey: It would probably have lots of chocolate.
Nick: I noticed a photo of the Lincoln assassination on your MySpace. Any thoughts?
Mosey: I just liked that picture for some reason. When you look at it you might at first think, “they are racist southern idiots,” when in reality we are the exact opposite. Instead of being James Wilkes Booth we are really the other guy pointing and yelling, trying to stop it from happening. I think some people look at southern America in that same light, when in reality the majority of us are against racism and gay hate and things that the south has the reputation of endorsing.
Conducted by Nick Martinolich via e-mail with Slate and Smith on 3/6/06.
Nick: Right off the bat, let me ask a question that I am sure everyone wonders at some point. Why the two i’s?
Jared: Richard?
Richard: I guess it was my idea. It was mainly to avoid confusion with another band, but we ended up just liking it better. It’s kind of exotic, with my love of Swedish psychedelic music.
N: One reviewer has already compared Morning Kills The Dark to Pet Sounds, and your piecing together of multiple recordings is reminiscent of Brian Wilson’s method during the Smile sessions. Is this coincidence, an homage perhaps?
J: I think there are definitely parallels there in the spirit of both records. I think how we came to record in so many locations came more by default - out of necessity.
N: You’ve Got Darkness progresses from dark and complex, to light and whimsical, with a stop at a dub bar somewhere in the middle. Does the song’s unique structure have the six different recording sessions to thank, or was it arranged in its current order from the beginning?
R: That is one that wasn’t as pieced together actually. Jared and I played it in a room together and over dubbed later. The dub thing, I guess I sort of masterminded that. We were trying to figure out a way to segue in the middle. It was just something fun to do.
Kala: That song really came together in the studio.
J: And went through many different phases I think.
N: I noticed the arrangement of the song was quite different tonight, as was the rest of your set. Is that something you typically do live?
J: I think the album version is one version, and with the live show there are no boundaries. We can just do whatever we want to the tune.
N: The album is continually referred to as a bouillabaisse, and understandably so. Was it your intention going into MKTD to produce such a diverse mix of styles?
K: I think it kind of just happened that way, because we are all into different things.
R: We are all into different music. Everybody got to produce their own little sections of songs.
N: Jared, you have said that out of all the albums you have been involved in, MKTD is your proudest. Would you mind elaborating on that?
J: I sincerely believe it is the finest record to date that I have been a part of. A lot of that has to do with the people that helped record it. We just had a really good time, but it was not an easy time. We spent most of the year working on it. And that was east coast stuff, west coast stuff. Friends flying in and flying out. But I think as far as my song writing, I am most proud of it.
N: At the time of this interview, Morning Kills The Dark is four days away from official release. Considering the time, love, and self that have gone into this album, what are you feeling right now? Excitement, anxiety, a little of both?
R: We hope people like it.
J: I would just hope that we can get as many people to take a listen as possible. To come out and say hello at the shows, and see what were going to do to the tunes live.
*At this point Jared turns to Keith, who has been keeping quite*
J: I just wanted to introduce Keith. He has been out with us and really helps take the show up a notch. And were just getting going. I can’t wait to see where the show goes 3 months from now, 6 months from now, a year, by the time we get to the next record. Which we could probably approach by that point, as a band.
N: So the album wasn’t recorded as a band. You played multiple instruments, and the spots were filled in later?
J: Yeah sure, I think it came together, record first and then band.
N: MKTD has received outstanding reviews both online and in print publications. How has the audience response been, to both your live set and the album?
J: Really, all we can go on now are letters. We haven’t really toured the record at all. This is one of the first of few shows. We have got a ton of dates coming up.
K: It has been an overwhelmingly positive response, I think.
N: I have to admit that I listened to the album 4 times through a few days ago at work, and then again during the car ride home.
J: Yeah, we heard. We have to learn it again!
R: We haven’t even tackled all the songs.
N: The friendship the four of you share obviously shines through on MKTD, with band member names being mentioned numerously through out. Where do you plan to be in the next few months, and even years, as a band and friends?
J: I would love to pay tribute to the Rolling Thunder Review Tour, and get everybody out on the road.
R: I think with the friend thing, ideally we would love to take it even further. Have a posse with us.
N: An entourage?
R: Totally.
K: Lots of people up on stage singing.
R: It’s a big task to undertake.
N: Now, you said the next album could be done relatively soon?
J: There is definitely plenty of material, as far as songs to choose from. But I think we should get out and support this record first. Since no one has really heard it.
R: Plus it helps to play all those new ones live. You find out ways to approach them and they will evolve too. When we go to record them, it will be so much easier. Rather than having to figure out arrangement on the spot in the studio. But that has its fun too, you have got to keep a little bit up to chance. It’s great to live with the material for a long time.
J: Which is different from how we made MKTD, where we just went in with skeletal version of the tunes, and really worked them out on the spot.
N: Would you say there are portions of the songs, dropped in the studio, which will never see the light of day?
J: There are definitely parts of songs that we did drop, and different mixes. Some of the songs have gone through half a dozen mixes before getting to that final version that is on the record. And as we’re working songs from the record into the set I think a fair starting ground would be what’s on the record, and go from there.
*Jared turns to consult Richard*
J: I think we may use that as a foundation. You start with, “we know it went like this at one point…”
R: I mean, were not precious about anything.
J: That’s what makes it most interesting, I feel.
N: How long has the band been together?
J: 6 weeks.
N: That’s as a full band. As the concept Biirdie, how long?
K: Maybe like a year.
J: A little more than a year. Soon after the three of us came together and met for the first time.
N: How did you meet our buddy Keith here?
K: I knew Jared. We actually went to Kindergarten together. We were in a band the last year of high school and the freshmen year of college. I have always respected Jared’s songwriting, and he’s somebody I have wanted to work with again. He asked me if I wanted to be a part of the band and I was more than happy to come down and join these guys. I think there is a great camaraderie, being that we are all pretty tight.
J: And Keith can play anything you put in front of him. So he is not a bad guy to have around. And he sings like a bird.
R: … and runs like a bird.
J: I didn’t mean that to be a pun though.
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www.flyawaybiirdie.com
Purchase Morning Kills The Dark at Lumberjack Distribution
My brother and I had recently been noting the popularity of helicopter art on band shirts and other clothing items of our current thrift store generation. So when the two of us saw the independent film, Napoleon Dynamite, the presence of such an item was not a surprise. Research into the t-shirt that actor John Heder wore lead me to noridershirts.com and its owner, Randall Sowa.
STAR VALLEY ‘82
By: Randall Sowa
In 1981, Sowa and a fellow employee of Air Service International began work on Norider Helicopter shirts. Screened at a friend’s house, and dried in his mother’s back yard, these shirts were soon being sold independently in Star Valley, Wyoming just in time for the summer seismic contract season of 1982. It was modern folk art, and the young changing culture of the Eighties snapped it up as their own. In part one, Sowa recalls the origin of the Juggies and what exactly it took to be one of America’s pioneers.
In the oil and gas exploration business, aka “seismic”, the prospectors are known as Juggies. This name deriving from the geophones, or “Jugs”, that they spike into the earth with. “Portable” jobs can not be accessed by four wheel drive vehicles so the helicopter industry becomes the prospector’s pack mule. With that connection, a difficult earth-bound job is given a high octane shot of fun. Let the hovering begin.
Being a Juggie in Star Valley, Wyoming during the 1980’s was nothing less than knowing, without a doubt, that you were working in the belly of the seismic beast, sharing in a historic time and place with dozens of other crews and hundreds upon hundreds of hard-core, uphill lugging, dynamite sniffing, half crazed nature freaks with a passion for most things loud, dangerous, and beyond convention. These guys rode helicopters to work each day. In the mountains, the LZ’s are not plentiful. The winds forever changing and blowing up your ass when you could honestly use a little headwind, and the odds of cheating death are definitely in the favor of the dealer.
The thrill of the Juggies dangerous choice of summer employment was notarized by the fact that they were getting paid to work outdoors in some of the most inhospitable terrain along the Western Overthrust. Where they neck-rolled 90 pound cable on 60 degree slopes, enduring the elements from dark-thirty to dark-thirty every day that was suitable for flying. They played with explosives and prima-cord, challenging the afternoon thunderstorms. They boarded helicopters by leaping from boulders in river canyons to the skid, a maneuver called a “toe-in”. They slept on the rocks, waiting on temperamental computer malfunctions in the Doghouse. In the course of a few weeks each would either bond an adventurous respect for their pilot’s abilities, or be placed with a driver who didn’t jive with the chemistry of the day and spend the contract being more scared than thrilled. The characters came from all walks of American life.
Maggot John
Maggot John lived in a converted post office delivery truck, complete with the steering wheel on the English side. He took his name from a notorious Missoula, Montana rugby team of which he was a lifetime member. He generally slept in the National Forest down along the Snake, a few miles outside of town.
Myc
The ex-marine helicopter mechanic slept with his dog, Bogart, in the back of a 1972 Chevy Blazer, calling it the mobile doghouse. Bogart was born in Iran and had traveled in the Blazer from New England, to Central America, and all the way North into Canada, with stints on the West Coast of California and the desert of Arizona. He was a road dog and the ex-marine driver was a road scholar.
Ed The Surveyor
Ed the surveyor, and his four man crew, were from Conrad, Montana. A lively, good-natured, and hard partying group who knew each other well. Hell, they knew each other’s parents, grandparents, and entire history all the way back to the days of covered wagons and pioneers. Needless to say, Conrad is a small place. They were comfortable with one another, their habits, their predictabilities, and the simple fact that each day’s adventure usually delivered them to a local town bar shortly after dark. They seemed to be on a perpetual post-high school field trip. It was the days of cassette tapes and Ed always had tunes in his 1970 Mercury Marquis. Due to the Marquis’ weight (nearly that of the Seventh Fleet), and her well-worn shock absorbers, the car was known by all whom she transported as “Scrape”. Scrape had a great selection of tunes that spread a non-traditional music culture across the High Plains of John Wayne’s wild west. Due to an unfortunate alcohol addiction from a young age, Ed would often be late for 7 AM “office call”. But his buddies didn’t mind, this was a part of knowing Ed. Fortunately, everyone lived in the same old hotel along the main drag and pulling Ed from his warm covers was what buddies did.
Mike
Mike was a large, young, and happy Irishman who had an addictive smile and a deep love for his cocker spaniel puppy. He liked rum with a splash of Coca Cola as well, but not nearly as much as his dog. One particular morning the cocker spaniel jumped from the first floor roof of a hotel because she saw Mike walking towards town without her. The love was reciprocal. The two were like Burns and Allen.
Packy
Packy was a Visalia, California native. A second generation misplaced Okie thanks to the great depression of 1929. Packy had seen a lot of seismic action and had worked for a basketful of companies but mostly enjoyed screwing with the minds of the French who had a sizeable presence in the oil exploration business. He generally slept in a tent and carried all of his worldly possessions in a 1968 Ford Falcon known as The High Plains Drifter. Like everyone else, Packy enjoyed his music. In his opinion there was nothing better than Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane” full tilt on headphones, under a star infested Wyoming sky, with his feet near the fire and wrapped in a hard-worn dirty orange down parka. Or Van Morrison nailing “Wild Night”. Pleasures are easy when you live a simple life.
Vic
Vic slept in an empty U-Haul box truck behind the Conoco, where the helicopters roosted each night. He’d lay cable all day, party with buddies at night, then finish the day cooking on a backpacking stove, listening to music the whole way through. The U-Haul was a comfortable home, compared to the often unfavorable Wyoming weather just outside the truck’s aluminum skin. Each morning Vic would roll up the back door of that great orange container, breath in the pre-dawn chill, and try to make the only cafe in town before the first-light rush would hit. The rush at the cafe often depended on the success of the previous night’s partying.
America needed oil and the big boys had government money to go looking for it. Star Valley was one of the hot spots with competing crews ’shooting’ line upon overlapping line, summer after summer, with guarded data dissected and scrutinized by geologists as though it were a National Security Confidential file. Expensive numbers. Seismic companies were of all flavors. Huge outfits like the French CGG, and SPX, all the way down to smaller mom and pop companies like Rocky Mountain Geophysical, which was run by an energetic, sawed off dynamo co-owner named Shorty.
The whole industry was in motion at all times. Forever moving to the end of the line. Moving base camp, new LZ’s each day, new motels, new campgrounds. Living in the city park, behind the bar, or in the motel parking lot. A day off to wash clothes and party in the sunshine was a rare luxury. We worked dawn to dusk. Miss morning call and you are down the road. One strike and you’re out. Guys would show up for morning assignments in all states of ill repair. It seemed, if you were half-cocked, could walk, and see relatively straight then there was never a problem. Notorious Juggie bars like Jeeps in Alpine Junction, Wyoming; Pioneer in Choteau, Montana; Railhead in Montpelier, Idaho; The Mint in Townsend, Montana; or The Rusty Nail in Red Lodge, Montana all had a tolerance for the rowdy and predictably wild nights that summer seismic seasons provided. Every night was a Saturday, and the only trouble was knowing when to realize last call.
A twenty-two man jug crew was average for a portable job. They were tough individuals, mostly in their early twenties, often wiry, industrious, and self sufficient. Since the largest part of their days required dealing with an out-of control production quota, time was of the essence. Sensitive equipment had to be repaired with elk shit and a Swiss Army Knife. The crews faced elements of nature that were forever inventive. Snow, rain, and 80 degree heat all in the same afternoon. Not to mention the wind, and the dangers of crossing the rivers. Or having a chopper pilot dispatch a cable bag from the carousel at the end of a hundred foot longline and watching the orange weighted bastard slide 400 feet down slope, knowing that the next half hour would be hell as you had to mule the bag back to where it started its journey.
At daybreak, if it wasn’t raining or windy, the lucky minority got to fly to the ‘line’. Few things are as breathtaking as lifting off from the morning staging area, whether it be in downtown Afton, Wyoming or from the ‘office’ motel parking lot on the edge of town next to the Raven Drive Inn. All sense of the prior night’s alcohol and sleep abuse were now vaguely recalled as the helicopter rose like a yo-yo on a magical string to the top of the first ridge for a view as unbelievable as yesterday’s unbelievable view. The feeling of being in those canyons, cheating the ever changing winds, and hovering on a thread day in and day out enforced a bond on each seismic crew that surpassed anything an employer could ever mandate.
Crews that were comfortable with their pilot often requested, and were given, some of the best rotor rides that Shell or Texaco money could buy. A hard driven crew never lacked testosterone, opinion, or attitudes, but an able mountain longline pilot could hush a load of passengers, so that humility and respect of the fearful edge is all that could be heard in anyone’s headset. Silence swallowed in gasps. Silence being the whine from the transmission, the whop from the main blades, the insidious roar of a turbine, and the constant motion of the lateral vibration. Their hearts were alive and pounding blood from toe to temple. And then someone would break squelch over the intercom and say, “Bitchin’, righteously bitchin’.”
The long low angles of morning sun would strafe from ridge to ridge, leaving the dark green shadows of deep canyons cold and damp until the mid-day sun would force steam from the mossy deadfall. The view from those heights seemed to stretch all the way into Colorado. Then the machine would drop down into the forest to a hover hole where the dream portion of the day would end.
Front crew laying out new cable, phones and sticks; head linesman troubleshooting two miles of evolving cables; powdermen stringing prima-cord and placing dynamite; shooters making the shot ‘hot’ and then violating the earthly quiet with a 90 pound blast that would thunder through the backcountry, ricocheting from ridge to ridge, trying to find a way out of the canyon and down some river valley to finally dissipate in a fifth generation farmers alfalfa field. There’s the backcrew picking up the equipment, loading it in bags while the runner carries them all to one location. He would then call the chopper in to fly it all forward on a 12 hook carousel. And then there’s the trashman, cleaning up the un-natural debris of destruction as the observer orchestrates the production from the recorder or “doghouse”.
The small western towns were bristling. Rock City, Wyoming became Rocket City and was forever changed by the onslaught of oil and gas. Its traditional valued lifestyle busted at the seams as the wild west came alive within its streets. There were interminable fistfights, shootings, lack of housing, lack of water, dirty politics, topless clubs, abundant drug trafficking and lots of money rolling in. I must not forget to mention Gillette, Wyoming; or the tiny town of Kemmerer, Wyoming, with its two motels and 30 knot constant winds; Big Pine; Pinedale; and Smoot with its sole campground at the base of an awesome mountain over-run for the entire summer by young men and a few women all working on seismic crews. There were mostly tents but, not uncommonly, there were a few individuals who would dump a camper off the back of a pickup and plug in a power cord, a water hose and build a fire ring in front of the door for when company came to party. Which was fairly constant and always after dark and being in Wyoming there would generally be fireworks involved.
There was one individual, in fact, who was mentioned in a Rolling Stone article of the day. He bought an entire bedroom and living room of furnishings in Rock City, hauled it out to the prairie near the rig on which he was employed and set it around on the open ground and lived there until it was time in the Fall for the snow to blow and college to begin. He drove off and left the wretched mess to the prairie dogs and antelope, never thinking twice that the whole idea might be just a little odd.
A young man, hard-working as a basic bust-ass laborer, could easily clear 50 thousand 1980 dollars a season. That is if drugs didn’t complicated the equation. Juggies themselves were a basic cross section of young post-Disco America who didn’t work on rigs and, therefore, generally made minimum wage. The Seattle Grunge era had begun, English Punk was on the charts and ‘alternative’ was the young non-status quo. The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Misfits, The Clash, Iggy Pop and similar groups came out of the basements and into a quasi-mainstream listening audience. Stevie Ray Vaughn was re-defining East Texas Blues to a generation that didn’t listen to John Mayal or Eric Clapton.
And these guys, hauling dynamite from the Moab desert mesas and canyons up the spine of the Rocky Mountains all the way to Pole Bridge, Montana were a microcosm of this change in societal attitudes. A mix of individuals as diverse as the layers of the Grand Canyon, joined in a non-organized brotherhood of impossible living and working conditions, coaxed by a few incentives in the form of ’shot bonus’, per diem, and the radical fact that they were active and equal participants in some of the least regulated and most thrilling helicopter operations that have ever existed on the North American Continent. A time and place where a soaking wet bone tired ex-city dweller from Minneapolis could end the day’s work with a hammerhead stall over the A&W Root Beer Stand. Or a pair of Bell Long Ranger Helicopters could blow out of Townsend, Montana in tandem formation just above the deck of the main drag, as the local Highway Patrolman jots down their tail numbers. The guys flying always got the loudest last laugh.
Randall Sowa is the founder of NoRiderShirts.com and a former Juggie. This is what he has to say about his online store:
“Throughout the 1980’s NORIDER Shirts serviced helicopters on various seismic campaigns up and down the Rocky Mountains, and in 1982 began selling original limited helicopter silkscreen shirts from the back of a 1500 gallon, F-600 Jet-A fuel tanker. This collection of shirt-art was an instant hit with the Juggies, especially on payday. And by a stroke of inconceivable fate with the instant popularity of the movie, Napoleon Dynamite, this screen collection of vintage art has been pulled from obscurity and onto the backs of helicopter aficionados and young movie junkies from New York to San Diego. The address is noridershirts.com. The Internet has replaced the F-600 tanker. Go figure.”