Van Halen

Albums:

Return to the 36 Chambers ( 2013, Orange section )

The Big Lebowski ( 2013, Orange section )

Info:

After the drama from Rated R died down, I was living in New Paltz NY, which is a little hippy town nearby some cool mountains and rivers, with a college, and it was also a popular stop for train hoppers. Dan (Rated R guitar player) was in Baltimore and had become kind of famous, getting videos on MTV and stuff. Keith (Rated R drummer) moved out of the city to stay with his mom in a town nearby and we starting hangin' out again. We put together Van Halen, adding my friend (and later frequent collaborator) Dennis Ryan on the electric ukulele. I was actually dating Dennis' sister and we bought him the ukulele for his birthday. The concept for the band was similar to Rated R: no practicing, just live shows playing fast, but more about making noise than starting fights. We really only played a few shows, maybe 6 all together, all in New York state, some in the city. It did inspire a bunch of other bands to steal names from pre-existing famous bands though. I had convinced some friends to call their noise band The Beatles, and later on there was an Iron Maiden, and a Jon Bon Jovi, and I think another one. There was a plan for all of these bands to do a show in Brooklyn and make a flier like it was the real version of those bands, but I think I'd had another breakdown and was hospitalized before that could happen. It's kind of a blur really.