Doktor Ross Sewage

European Bluntkrieg 4

2013/02/152013/07/16 Doktor Ross Sewage2 Comments

The Bavarian pigs sure had thrown us for a loop. On our way to Tilburg in the Netherlands, they’d made us leave our back line and our Scott behind. What bungling! We showed up for a show I’d booked just four days previous with no back line. Because I only have Skype on my phone and no international plan, I had to wait until we found a McDonald’s with free wifi one hour outside of Tilburg to inform the staff at Little Devil of our predicament. Need I have worried? To paraphrase my friend Luuk running the whole thing, “Hey man, you’re in the Netherlands. It’s all taken care of.”

In one hour, give or take, Luuk and friends at the Little Devil had organized an entire back line, including a five piece drum set, cymbals (which we stupidly left behind), two Marshall cabs, a Marshall 2000 TSL, some Line 6 guitar head, and a decent Trace-Elliot bass combo. This show was going to happen.

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European Bluntkrieg 3

2013/02/082013/07/16 Doktor Ross SewageLeave a comment

Our adventure continued as we left Deutschland on a reverse-viking raid into Scandinavia. We we took to the sea like savage warriors of old, bringing death and destruction. Except, our death was only of rubber monsters and our boat was a big ass ferry that had an expensive breakfast menu.

Copenhagen awaited us with just the merest of shakedowns by German police preceding at the border. We lucked out that we only got a warning for two people being up in the loft, a 70€ fine each that they waived. And somebody ate something they forgot they had, and that’s all I’m saying about that.

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European Bluntkrieg 2

2013/02/012013/07/16 Doktor Ross SewageLeave a comment

Those fucking Hall brothers. They were right. The Chunnel was pretty lame. Ya don’t even get ta see the train. But the hall we drove in looked pretty cool after we had watched Alien.

Escape from the U.K. 20 minutes later we were on French soil pointed towards Belgium. For me, things get more interesting once the language changes from English. Or American, as you prefer.
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European Bluntkrieg 1

2013/01/242013/07/16 Doktor Ross Sewage1 Comment

So far, so good, so butt.

I can’t lie, having a half empty, non-stop flight to Europe put me in a great mood. Lying across an entire row of seats is the best way to travel… Besides not being in “economy” aka poor fuckers class.

That and a bunch of movies set this nerd well on his way to stop stressin’ and start enjoyin’.

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Dead Alive: Ludicra 1998-2011

2013/01/042013/07/16 Doktor Ross Sewage3 Comments

From 1999 to 2011, I was in a band called Ludicra. It was a good run with four amazingly talented people. There were a lot of good times. The ending of the band wasn’t one of those good times. The feelings left behind could make one want to forget the whole endeavor. But all good things must come to an end, timely or otherwise… except the memories. Those can live on, and with music, they can live on loudly. This is what I intended.

In this age of information, a picture is worth a thousand lines of code. So what’s a song worth? I spent the last few months compiling all the recordings I had packed away. With the help of some websites, some free programs, and some D.I.Y. production work, I completed the total archive of Ludicra’s output over it’s 13 year existence, downloadable and free to all.

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Gross Anatomy: High on Fire poster

2012/12/282015/02/08 Doktor Ross SewageLeave a comment

Back in August / September, Yob was coming through town. I love Yob. They were playing on my birthday and I wanted to do a poster for them. I talked with the band and they were down. A week before the event, after just starting the inks, it was pointed out to me the promoter already had a poster. Shit. I didn’t talk to the promoter. I cancelled my job and enjoyed the show anyway. A month later, my friends at Secret Serpents offered me a spot in their High on Fire tour series. Well, why fucking let that art go to waste? I requested the date for the end of the world, December 21, 2012. This is what came of it.

Like all posters I’ve worked on, I don’t make a cent… unless I sell my own copies. This is the topsy turvy economy of the gig poster world. 35 of these bad boys went down to Santa Ana, gratis, for the band to sell. My copies are on sale on my website now. The process to get from there to here took longer than expected, but I was pleased with the results.

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Choice Cuts: Building a Lazer-saw

2012/12/212015/01/31 Doktor Ross Sewage

After taking a beating for the last four or five years, Killbot wasn’t looking so hot. Getting smooshed into a trailer night after night didn’t help. While on the last tour, we talked about a making a new one. Maestro Sean McGrath took the lead on this one and cobbled together a leaner, more aggressive looking, and tougher version of the costume. When he wants to write a blog detailing how he did that, he’s welcome to. In the meantime, I threw in the LEDs and lit the bitch up, and that’s what I’m gonna talk about here.

The previous Killbot had lighting done to its head. I detailed that in a previous entry last year. When I finally saw the lazer-saw that Sean had built, my mind started whirling with ideas. Originally, he’d planned to have electroluminescent wire wrapped around it. He tried that for one show, but it wouldn’t illuminate very well. I tried working with it, and I’ve decided I hate EL wire. It’s definitely not bright enough for a lit stage and it’s a bitch to work with. I wanted to go another route.

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Resurrectionist: Ampeg SVT-810E

2012/12/142015/01/16 Doktor Ross Sewage10 Comments

Somewhere in the ’90s, everything became disposable and cheap. NAFTA made lives disposable and cheap. Reality shows made art disposable and cheap. Music companies made their gear disposable and cheap. I have not the inclination to make the philosophical leap as to why. What I do have is a good example of this. SLM Music, who owned the Ampeg name in the ’90s, put out the worst version of an Ampeg 8×10, the “Classic” 810E cabinet. It has eight 10″ speakers and is based on the original winning design from the ’70s. They are made so poorly with shit wood, however, they are often left to rot rather than fix. Well, I said fuck that. One of these fell into my hands, crumbling and falling apart. I brought it back to life.

When I dragged this out of the apartment from the folks who bestowed it on me, it was missing the bottom entirely. It had the prerequisite tolex rips of every punk rocker’s cab. The baffle board rocked back and forth and could bust your fingers. It was missing a speaker. I rebuilt the bottom, replaced the speaker, and the cab served me well on a few tours. When I sold my Ampeg SVT-2Pro to my bud Brian from Merdoso and formerly of Stormcrow, I offered the cab as part of the deal so long as he covered the expense of a heavy-duty restoration so I could have some fun making the monstrosity punk-proof. And fun I had.

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