Histories of Other Bands Associated With RAG

With the band named, and the members ready to start rocking, now they needed some material. Obviously, RAG could have sold out like all the other bands on campus, and simply played cover songs. But that wasn't very exciting, and suppressed their creativity. They would play their own songs, original songs. The lyrics would promote things like death and carnage, drugs and alcohol, and, of course, beer. Like any productive song writer knows, the best place for inspiration and creativity is a place where you can concentrate on the song itself and ignore everything else around you. So, of course, the first few RAG songs were written in the classroom. In a boring history class taught by Dr. DeAngelis, Steve penned "Annihilation", the first ever RAG tune. The song was presented to the rest of the band, and it was accepted. Now they needed music for it. Jon had the acoustic guitar and took up the challenge of coming up with an intro and riff to match the lyrics. It didn't take long to come up with something catchy.  A short and calming acoustic introduction started the song off, and then gave way to a barrage of loud noise from Steve's electric guitar. Lacking an actual amplifier at first, the guitar had to be wired from the battery-powered headphone amp device through Jon's stereo using the AUX input. The main riff was not all that complex, but it fit perfectly. Now they had the guitar all set, they didn't know anybody with a bass, but fuck it, who needs a bass. They did, however, need drums. Mike had some experience drumming, but he did not have his drum set at school. Being ever resourceful, the band managed to find some temporary drums. Empty tupperware and rubbermaid containers of different shapes and sizes gave a decent assortment of sounds when thumped on. An empty coffee can added a metallic sound something akin to a symbol crashing (well, not really, but sheesh, we worked with what we had). It wasn't quite a drumset, but it was enough for Mike to keep the beat with.

The band was now ready to record their first song. They set up their highly sophisticated recording equipment (well, okay, maybe it was just a boombox with a pinhole-sized microphone and a record button), and tuned their instruments. Rich was handed the lyric sheet to look over, and prepare to "sing". He had no microphone, so he'd have to be loud enough to be heard over the instruments. Record was pressed, and, in some fucked up voice nobody had ever heard before, Rich gave a little introduction of what to expect: "This is the Rabid Anarchist Goatfuckers, take one, muhaha!" Jon went into the intro, and after a few seconds, it was finished. Rich shouted "Mosh it up!" and Steve and Mike entered with the guitar and "drums". The song rocked along through the first verse and chorus, and when it came time in the song to shout "Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!", everybody chimed in exactly in synch. The song continued and came to its dramatic conclusion. Someone stopped the recording, and the band anxiously played it back. It sounded decent. The first ever RAG song was now recorded and would be kept alive forever. 

Next Chapter: More Songs & The Battle Of The Bands