Auto-Biography
by Glenn Black, drummer
So, it's come to this. The drummer doing a Luxury blog. I've never blogged before, or even taken opportunity to read a blog. But here we are. Lee asked if I would be interested in taking over this thing, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to talk about my memories and experiences from my time with Luxury. This may or may not be of interest to anyone.
Anyway, here is the beginning such as it is: The first thing that is worth noting is that I knew Jamey and Lee from youth group when they were probably junior high age. I was older and had been playing the drums since I was seven and had been trying to form or play in bands just as long. Jamey and Lee at that point were non-musical, and were not even allowed to listen to rock and roll, Christian or otherwise. Their dad was my pastor after I became a believer and was the one who baptized me.
TFC
I landed at Toccoa Falls College (Toccoa, GA) in the fall of 1986. I had no drums with me. Only an old hollow body guitar and a small practice amp that I kept hidden in my closet (amps,etc. were not allowed in the dorms). I used an old set that the school had locked up for some time. At that time, there had been no genuine attempts at starting a band. I met a guitar player named Dave. We hit it off and began playing and writing together. We found a bass player and singer, but quickly determined that it was going nowhere. There was another bass player on campus who was a much better player. Dave and Phil and I began working together. Nothing much came of it, but it was a good and enjoyable combination. Gradually, Dave started to stop showing up to rehearsals. By the end of the semester we were looking to fill his spot. Over the summer, I was back in MI. I was taking guitar lessons. Jamey got his first guitar for his birthday. A white Fender Squire Strat. I showed him some of the things I had been learning. He was going to be coming to TFC, and I began to talk with Phil about having Jamey play with us.
When I was a kid I had an album by Boston. On the back, there was a paragraph that had a short bio of the band. Sort of a "this guy knew that guy, wo knew that guy, who played with this guy" etc. I guess that is what I am trying to establish here. Luxury didn't just appear out of nowhere. It was certainly a process.
Jamey, Phil and I played together for awhile, but that gradually fell apart for a variety of reasons. During that process, that semester, Chris Foley and Lee Bozeman came to visit TFC for Campus Preview. Chris was a bass player/skater/artist from Atlanta who was interested in missions-hence his interest in TFC. One evening over that weekend, Jamey and I did our best to convince Chris that for his interests, save the missions, that Toccoa Falls was not the place for him to be. The school was not friendly to music or art in particular, that was not of their particular taste.
During the course of that semester, I was doing session work for a local studio, playing in an acoustic duo, and generally trying to play with anyone that would have me. By the next Fall semester, I was married and my friend Dave came back and we began to play together. It was a struggle with just the 2 of us. We continued on, as I discovered that Lee and Chris had come to Toccoa and had started a band with Jamey and another drummer named Todd. They were called Flag Day and then Colour Box, or the other way around. I would see Lee and Chris (surprisingly) around campus, and occasionally talk about the band.
Then everything changed. Flag Day/Colour Box were going to play at the TFC talent contest. My wife and I attended to see them. They were the last to play, as I recall. They had the lights turned of in the gym and used the spotlight. All my life, I wanted to be in a band with a great front man. A singer with charisma and style. Suddenly, it turned out to be this kid that I knew from youth group playing a cool song with a good band in a college gym. I really, really, really wanted to be in that band.
I started hanging out when I could, showing up at rehearsals, impromptu gigs on campus and so on. During this time two instances stand out. The first was at the old Recital Hall on TFC campus. The guys were set up for rehearsal, drums and all, but their drummer was late and I was asked to play a bit until he arrived. I promise you that for me it was immediately like magic. This may sound goofy or corny, but it was like this sense of home. Like I had always belonged their. Of course, their drummer showed up and I eventually wandered out thinking that somehow this should work out. I prayed that it would.
I was also at that point in my academic career, such as it was, doing a youth intermship at my church. The youth group was small and I was trying to come up with ways to make it grow. I naturally turned to music. I asked Flag Day/Colour Box to play. I don't think that they were interested really but agreed to do it because it was me that was asking. The evening of the performance, they were wet up outside and wanted to do a soundcheck. The drums were set up but again there was no drummer. I was asked to play for the soundcheck. That same feeling came back, but I didn't feel that it would have been right for me to impose myself on them. As well, I was still struggling with my own project with Dave. It was a frustrating time. Fortunately, for me it did not last for long.
The Mystery of the Shroud
I don't know a lot about what went on during the next section of the FlagDay/ColourBox scenario. I know that some shows were played in Atlanta. I seemed to recall the Violet Burning coming through Toccoa and attending, but I don't remember if they played or not. I remember that I did not enjoy the Violet Burning particularly. Nevertheless, apparently a rift began to grow in the band. I have no idea what the root of the problem was. The only thing I know is that it ran was between the brothers and the rhythm section.
This came to my attention as I spent time with both Lee and Jamey. While I never planned to interfere with what they were doing, I tried to make clear that I would have no problem with having them start up with Dave and I. I always had this idea of Jamey and Dave playing together. Their styles were so different, but I imagined it working in the same way that Keith Richards and Ron Wood from did. The intertwining of rhythms that I love in that band.
The decision for us to begin playing together is lost to me. However, I can picture clearly the time that intially Jamey played bass, Dave on guitar, Lee and myself. Lee had written this song called "Perfect Orange Day". It was brilliant. A simple chord progression with a melody that was insistent. We played on - improvising and working on very basic arrangements. It was ridiculous how easy it came. I'm sure that I had some goofy grin.
So, Dave, Lee, Jamey and I continued to rehearse and work on new songs. At one point, Dave came in and was very excited about the band. He decided to bail on rehearsal so that he could go down to Athens to buy an 8 track recorder. That evening, I played Lee a chord progression that I had been working on. It was never properly recorded, but Lee made it a classic.
After a few rehearsals, Jamey became weary of playing bass. It was not really what he wanted to do. After some discussion, he said that he would talk with Chris about playing and that he would stick around to help Chris learn the songs. We carried on in this fashion, for a very short time, during which I tried to convince Jamey to come on as another guitar player. Not second guitar or rhythm, but just another part of the puzzle. We soon became a five piece.
Sad Dreams
Before Jamey came on as another guitar player, we had determined to start on a demo. We had three songs: Perfect Orange Day, Wonderful Lies (?) and Sad Dreams. Initially, we were going to record at Dave's house. It turned out that his neighbors were not hospitable to a rock band in their vicinity. That, plus the limitations of our recording equipment, led to an interesting conclusion. Jamey owned a drum machine with 4 programmable pads. It was determined that we would record the 3 songs with the intent of recording live drums later. This never transpired, but the recording provided a tangible representation of our creativity at the time. Perfect Orange Day and Sad Dreams later became part of our early shows.
That summer, Chris and I both went on Mission Trips. We both went with the same organization - Operation Mobilization. Chris went to Moscow and I played in a band that traveled through Austria and Czechoslovakia. I carried a walkman and listened to our recording often and was filled with hope for our band and what the future would hold.
One of the best things that can be experienced, in my opinion, is being young and in a new band. There is an excitement and a belief that you can be the biggest band in the world. I tend to be very cynical in nature, but as the new Fall semester at TFC started I was excited. School was still a drag, but rock and roll was not. I think that as the Luxury mythology has grown, the idea that we were just a loud rock band has been lost. Too bad.
Anyway, we started the new semester rehearsing in what was then the Recital Hall. Increasingly, roadblocks were put up to prevent that from happening. The building would be locked as it had not been before, then there was a sign up list posted to use the building, then you could only do so if you were a part of the School of Music. We moved into the old science building. A flat steel building. It was old because the school had unceremoniously dropped a new building in the middle of student parking. At this point we were still a five piece. Dave and Jamey on guitar. Chris and myself, and Lee desparately trying to be heard over the top of the white noise we created. It wasn't until many years later that I realized why we played so loudly. It was because the drummer had absolutley no restraint and everyone had to turn up just to be heard. I loved it then. I miss it now. The ringing in my ears is a little annoying on occasion.
There was one problem. We were not really "gelling" (for lack of a better term) as a band. Jamey and Dave's styles did not jive in the manner that I had envisioned. It was sort of a strange time as we worked through this. Working on new songs became difficult, we had a handful that were developing. I hate to admit it but we did play Bullet The Blue Sky. I loved the drum riff. We were never a great cover band though.
Jamey was becoming disenfranchised with the whole thing. It was not immediately apparent to me. It probably should have been. I have this picture of Jamey during a rehearsal in that steel building - leaning against the wall with his guitar, just sort of hanging his head. It is a sad thing for me to think that I did not pick up on this. However . . .
We were asked to play at the school's talent show. I don't think that any of us were certain about doing it, but we were sort of coaxed into doing it. Dave was unable to make it. So, we found ourselves in the gym (gymnatorium? what a great hybrid of words) performing for those brave or generally bored souls sitting in the bleachers. We were introduced as the Shroud - no big story; we couldn't come up w/ anything better at the time and it stuck - we had this sort of quiet opening before going into the same song that I watched Flag Day perform. The response was very positive and an encore was called for. We had few songs to choose from that were really tight and we had already pretty much rocked - so we launched in to a song called "sleeper". This was our big rock song. Loud, noisy, raucous - all the good ingredients. I loved playing it. Apparently, not everyone enjoyed hearing it. I looked up and noticed the campus pastor rapidly heading for the door w/ a look of disgust on his face. The person who had asked us to play had suddenly become very nervous and was concerned about getting into trouble.
Shortly after this debacle, I was calling around for rehearsal. Jamey said that he was thinking about starting something else. He wanted to have more of a role in the band. He wanted to be the main guitar player, I think. Not an ego thing, just a preference (?). I talked w/ him a while and managed to get him to hang around a bit longer. When I called Dave, the first thing he said was, "I want out". Problem solved.
The next steps were sort of the natural evolution of things. A show was put together at the theatre in Toccoa, the Schaefer Center. A Christian band from Atlanta came up - The Matter. We took the opportunity to try to record during the time that we had the theatre. It didn’t come out well - drums too loud and echoey. The drums were great, but we were unable to put together a good sound for everyone.
The show went reasonably well. Somewhere I have a recording of it. My wife was in the balcony with one of those old cassette players. The tape had Echo and the Bunnymen on the other side. When you listen to the recording of the show there is some bleed over of Echo for some reason. Kind of funny. Anyway, we played our originals and 2 covers - Bullet the Blue Sky and London by the Smiths - neither of which were particularly good, but it was good experience. I don’t honestly remember if the show was well attended or not. It was a start.
Back to the recording. We chose to record in the old science building where we had been rehearsing. Dave did the recording. Considering the acoustics of the room, it’s remarkable that it came out as well as it did. The main thing I remember about doing the recording was the bad smell in that building. It smelled like science experiments - disecting,etc. It was a Saturday morning, not a great time for laying down rock tracks, dim and there were a mess of cords around. We began hawking the finished version at shows. The intial reaction was not generally positive and did not help us to get shows. Nevertheless, it contains one of my all time favorite songs - called "Throwing An Engine". It was the beginning of Lee’s songwriting skills. It’s a wonderful song.
Around the time that we were rehearsing in the old science building, we met up with some high school guys who also had a band. The lead singer/guitar player was a guy named Andy LeMaster. I've not seen him in years. He's the force behind Now It's Overhead, worked w/ Conor Oberst, etc. At the time, he was a young kid in a high school cover band. At the time the were called The Remedy. Good band. Played songs like "Fly Me Courageous" by Drivin' and Cryin'. We played a show with them - opening the show, but everyone was there to see them. High school guys who wanted to rock out. It was not long before the Shroud was banned from playing on the TFC campus altogether - abandoned buildings or otherwise. We moved in to a room that was part of some office space above a men's clothing store on the mall in town. Rehearsals were frequent and intense.
Before I forget and let this go by, during the Christmas break before we were booted off campus. Jamey and I spent some time playing and talking about the direction of the band. Much of what had been recorded and was in our show was from the days that Dave was the guitar player. Jamey had some ideas. We played and it was rock and roll. Chris and Lee were gone for the break. When they returned, we started on the songs that would become our next demo release "Tinsel" recorded with Andy at the helm.
Tinsel
Tinsel was the second demo release from the Shroud. I listened to it a few weeks ago. My expectations were set pretty low. It has been a long time since i'd given it a listen. The beauty of it is how young we were. There is a certain idealistic quality to the songs. Certainly simple, and to my mind ,pretty catchy songs.
It was recorded in the upper room on the mall in Toccoa with Andy LeMaster. I remember feeling excited as we put down the tracks. It was a progression from the first demo. A step closer to what we would become. Demos and first albums tend to be a reflection in a very direct fashion of where the band is at that moment in time. Tinsel does that for me. It is by no means the best thing ever, but it is a nice step forward. Something to look back on fondly.
It was around this time that we transitioned to starting a coffee house. Actually, this was Chris's idea. We found a place that double for us as a rehearsal space. It was the basement of a store called Jimmy Rogers House of Music. This was a tremendous boost for us. Suddenly, there was the beginning of a music scene in Toccoa. We were able to bring in bands from Clemson as well as Atlanta. of course, it didn't hurt that we were able to play frequently and hone our skills as a live band and generate a following.
Biography
Lies generated by Trendy and Alt
Personal facts
- Lee's favorite Luxury song is "To Those Who Gave Me Hope and Were My Light." It's written to his son. (Source: Lee - on the Lux Board and a 7 Ball interview.)
- Lee taught high school English for a year at a school in Northeast Georgia.
Lee's favorite colors are Pink and Grey. (decapolis.com) Lee also sleep walks and sleep vomits (Jamey - on the board.)
- Jason Martin's (Starflyer 59) favorite song is "Solid Gold." How do we know? One day, Ronnie Martin called Jamey and asked him what the chords were to it. Jamey started out with some casual conversation and as it progressed Jamey found out that Ronnie wanted the song because he was going to perform it at a wedding.
Jamey: Oh, cool, whose wedding?
Ronnie: My brother's.
Jamey: JASON'S GETTING MARRIED !!!!????!!!!??!!?!?!?
- Glenn worked in the Electronic's department at the Toccoa Wal-Mart.
New/Old Band Facts
- Before there was Canary, there was N I C E. I believe they only played one or two shows before becoming Canary Islands and eventually Canary. The lyrics to one of their songs: "yeah, are you N-I-C-E? are you N-I-C-E?" (from Chris Dentel, who saw N I C E at the Mainstream and the only thing he could remember about the show was that line.)
- Before Luxury, there was the Shroud. Before the Shroud, there was Various Artists. Various Artists was the band Jamey was in before starting the Shroud. It was composed of Toccoa Falls college students. Upon Lee's arrival to TFC, Jamey quit the band and started the the band with Lee and Chris.
- Lee's gold Epiphone guitar is currently playing as the lead guitar in "The Shots of Perspective." Lee sold it to Shots lead man, Michial Farmer. (Michial Farmer)
- Lee recorded the original All Things songs in his laundry room. (Lee on Somewhere Cold.com)
Luxury Music Facts
- Lee did not know how to play guitar when the band was formed.
- "Glenn says "Death's Head"" was originally a Canary song but Luxury needed another track for that album so Jamey "donated" it.
- Christian bookstores RETURNED Luxury cd's to distribution because so many people said the cd's were morally reprehensible. This was in large part to the word "crotch" in the song "Euphrates."
- In addition, the Live at the Strand cd was sent back by many Christian bookstores due to the band Metropolitan covering AcDc's "Back in Black." Metropolitan was a side project of Lee, however he did not play on the Live at the Strand cd. According to Jamey, the performance of "Back in Black" was performed at a benefit for the Luxury and Piltdown Man after the accident, by the members of the bands that could stand and play an instrument. The group, which was called "Havanna Cabana" and/or "Sputem Cup," and they played a variety of covers including "Metal Guru" by T. Rex, "Please, Please, Please" by the smiths, and of course AC/DC's "back in black". Jamey and Chris were the members of Luxury that were in the band. (Jamey on NorthernRecords board)
- In "Stories Over the Sea" on the self-titled album, the train sounds were recorded by the railroad tracks outside the L'ectric Company Recording Studio, in the sprawling downtown Toccoa mall. Jamey went on to include train samples in every release that was recorded at L'ectric Company, until recently, when he has began to slack. Also, the train does not appear on any of Lee's recordings. Jamey's comment was something to the effect of "No, he didn't want anything to do with that. He didn't like to play my little game"
- "Stories Over the Sea" is originally a poem written by Lee. The words were originally going to be printed behind the cd cover, but for whatever reason wasn't. They were going to record it, but Lee didn't want to read it. Glen laid down the original track, but then Lee decided to read it. Lee read it, however Glen's voice was still on the track and they decided it sounded cool overlapping.
- The lyrics at the end of Flaming Youth, Flame On go "I'm a little you know... I'm a little you know..." The original lyrics for that line are "I'm a little bastard... I'm a little bastard..." Tooth and Nail made the lyric change.
- Luxury originally recorded two songs as B-sides for a single in the Latest and Greatest sessions. One was the "Goody Two Shoes" cover. The other was a song written by Jamey, and remains mysteriously missing. (Source: Glenn - on the Luxury board)
- Luxury was featured on the original Austin Power's soundtrack. Fortunately, it was not this Luxury. Many web sites, such as the UBL and CD Now list the track as part of Luxury's catalog, but it isn't. As far as I know the song "These Days" was the only song put out by the other Luxury, and you can't find anything else out about them.
- Jamey cites his biggest guitar influences as The Edge and Eddie Van Halen.
A sticker that read the following was attached to all copies of the self-titled 1999 release:
- "They're the real deal. They've written one of my top ten favorite songs of all time." > Jason Martin (Starflyer 59)
- "One of the great ones." > Steve Hindalong (The Choir)
- "Luxury is in my top 3 most important bands of the last 5 years in this scene." > Ronnie Martin (Joy Electric)
- "Finest Pop Band in Christian Music." > Jeff Cloud (Velvet Blue, Starflyer)
- "Love and Serve Me." > Mr. Roboto
Old Band Names
The following is a list of band names that have encompassed any of the members of Luxury:
Flag Day
Colour Box
The Shroud
Luxury
Fae Rae
Piltdown Man
Metropolitan
All Things Bright and Beautiful
Orient in His Name
N.I.C.E.
Canary Islands
Canary
They Sang as They Slew
The Barbie Stickers
Champion Leader
