in the fall of 1996, jake and josh h.(now with 'dead end') began writing weird, experimental guitar music in their rooms like most teenagers. they soon incorporated plastic bucket drums and dreamed of one day having a full band. recordings from this era were called 'beppo and the supermonkeys'. they found drummer matt quay and jammed in the band room at school. they also had blues guitarist mark brand (of '12 larrys'). this lineup was known as 'pills bury buddhas'. matt and mark were older, and were going off to school, so josh and jake started from scratch again. then one day, jake met garrett, and josh eventually started playing bass. garrett had been in other bands, and had a real amp, and a garage to jam in. many trash can/bucket drum kit hybrids were played in garrett's garage in the summer of 1997. garrett had walked by someone's house and heard a snare drum. low and behold, bob c., a classmate of jake's, played guitar-and had a snare drum. jake and bob started talking about having a band, and in the fall of '97, they all jammed in garrett's garage with the snare/cymbal/bucket kit and a few practice amps. a few originals were written and recorded on a karaoke machine. that christmas, jake got a TKO drum kit and the band began practicing the day after christmas. they were really loud and really not very good for awhile.
an old time friend, and former drummer (or miscellaneous member) of groups such as 'the meatless grillers, biscuits for brisbane' and 'stress on mine', scott m., began playing drums for the guys, but was busy enough, and lived far enough away to be defined as wishy-washy. (sorry, scott). jake was the back-up drummer. somewhere around this time, garrett heard some kid yell 'alkutezio', and it became the name of the band. many shows were played in garages, post office buildings, bars, school auditoriums, and parties, and a four track demo called the 'or is he?' EP was recorded and released in late '98 sometime. all 10 copies or so. Alot of songs about girls were written. Then on april 9th, 1999, josh h. left the band because of musical and personal differences with the others, and they took a break for awhile. scott became the permanent drummer, and they wrote more songs about girls. In the summer of '99, they went to pulaski to record with larry g., a friend of the 'magic man' (carl), who had gotten the band a few breaks as far as a gig or two, and some radio play. larry's recording would be called 'nothing lasts forever'. shortly after they recorded, bob left for the army, jake left for school, and they all took a break to organize their lives.
In the spring of 2000, they struggled to start where they left off, but without scott, who had basically been kicked out. a couple drummers were tried out, but when mike d., a friend of a friend, came along, they knew they had something. josh h. had started a new band, 'dead end', and was hanging out with the guys again. the two bands began planning and putting on shows together, and recording four-track stuff. lots of songs about lots of stuff besides girls were written for once, and the guys all had good equipment for once, too. They heard of a guy in antwerp, russ, who had a home studio, and went to record their new material, but ended up with basically 'nothing lasts forever' with a few new tracks. not satisfied with their performance, and the constraints they had to record in, the guys came down to auburn to record at the college with jake.
they set off all the alarms one morning, and out came 'there they are, arrest them all' from the janitors mouth. that's basically it. now they've got stacks and a good kit, and some good tunes, and a few websites, and six or seven fans, and no gigs.
