dimbulb originally began at Wild Wilburs Storage Units where many bands managed to seek refuge and play LOUD! Mike Gerwin and I had been trying to get our bearings after drummer, Dawson Roark, left to pursue other avenues. Luckily, Mike Pflieger had just moved to Albuquerque from Madison Wi, and answered our feeble little newspaper ad touting free beer. Things were fun, and felt good right off the bat. A few years down the line we managed to record a 10 song Cassette with Mike Whitten bringing his 8 Track into my living room. It was recorded quickly and somewhat drunkenly, but it definitely captured that raw grit characterizing dimbulb.
We continued until mid 1996 when Mike Gerwin decided to volume was having detrimental effects on his ears and sorta fell into a general funk, not wanting to play. Jeff Bracey, previously in the fine band Splinterfish, stepped right into the Bass slot with zest and zeal! Jeff’s refined playing sent us in a slightly different direction. It really wasn’t quite the same furious punk, rarely did my strings break and even less often did my picking hand get torn to bloody shreds pounding out the power chords. It is unfortunate that we never got a chance to record because we had managed to work out a few really good tunes before career search’s and children closed that chapter.
In 1998 Jeff moved to Canada in search of employment as well as getting married. Soon after, Mike took a job in the mid-west and my second child, Bailey, was born. Just before Mike moved away, we did manage to book some studio time and capture two of the better Bracey era tunes to tape. Dave Gutierrez and Linus Carver were recruited to help with Guitar and Bass duties and studio time was booked. Dubbed “Justus Traut”, we got Bottle Rocket and Geologic worked out in a couple of practices and recorded in one night with Quincy at the helm.
Early in 1999 I managed to get out on the house one weekend and saw the Pittsburgh band Don Caballero at a local venue. I was immediately impressed by their massive complex sound and noticed both Guitar and Bass players were augmenting their sound with Akai Headrush pedals. While I had previously listened to a lot of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno and was aware of their use of loops in music, it was these guys that really drove home the point. I ordered a Headrush not long after and so began my decent into the world of looping.
Soon after discovering the Loopers Delight webpage and poking around following various links, I found some audio clips of David Torn off the What Means Solid, Traveler? album. It would be a understatement to that his guitar playing blew my socks off. In the years since I began listening to Torn (and others in that ballpark) my playing has taken on new found inspiration.
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