"you can't take no pictures with that camera. if i see a flash from that, you're out of here!" said the guy at the door. i usually don't use flash when on gigs, so that wasn't a problem.

anyways. i finally got to see strapping young lad live on sunday. back in '95, on my webpage, i had a list of names of some of the bands i wanted to know more about, but were not yet present on the web. canadian strapping was one of them. their manager saw my list and contacted me. one thing led to another and for a couple of years, i ran their official website and mailinglist. in '96, devin finalized the city album in uppsala where i lived. so, on the last night of mixing the album, me and a friend went to the studio, hooking up with devin and some other guys. a game was on. the rules; you're not allowed to play an instrument you're good at, you've got five minutes to write a piece of lyrics, riffs, whatever, and you've got one, i say one, attempt at nailing it in the studio. add to this a tremendeous amount of alcohol of the sort that comes in plastic bottles (no, you wont find it in a store), and a very, very nasty toilet (another one of devin's side projects; see inlay of the first zimmers hole album for details). the rest is in a bit of a haze, and i've never heard the final result (apparently bits and pieces of it are available on various recordings). but i do remember one thing; after i sang my piece, i found devin lying on the floor, laughing his ass off, saying "dude, i'm going to do the worst album in the world, and you're perfect for the job!". luckily, i never really wanted to be a singer anyway...

so, go check out strapping young lad!

"we've got fifty combined inches of..."