Bill Alletzhauser - Guitar, Slide, Banjo, Backing Vocals Randy Cheek - Bass, Backing Vocals Chuck Cleaver - Words, Vocals, Guitar Dave Morrison - Drums, Percussion, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
We started as best I can remember in October, 1988 from the remnants of two defunct Cincinnati, Ohio bands: The Libertines & Gomez (not the British guys). Randy (Cheek) had played bass in The Libertines & Dan (Kleingers) & I had been in Gomez on drums & guitar/vocals respectively. Dan knew this guy John (Erhardt) who could play just about any stringed instrument but had never been in a band. We got together in John's apartment a couple of times & thereafter were Ass Ponys, a shitty name that Dan had written on the end of an old possible band names list. We figured we'd change it later & never have.
Ass Ponys played for the first time live on the radio (WAIF) in late November of '88 & for the first time in front of people in January, 1989 at a club in Newport, KY called The Top Hat, opening for My Dad Is Dead, who didn't show. My friend, Dan Dow, from Columbus, Ohio had just started Okra Records. I told him I had a band together & asked if we could be on his label. He said yes, so we started making up more songs. John Curley (Afghan Whigs...did I hear a name drop?) had just started Ultrasuede Studios in his house in Northside, so we booked a few nights when we could afford it over the next few months & with John & our friend Jimmy D. at the helm recorded what was to become our 1st album "Mr. Superlove". Okra released it in the spring of 1990 in all three formats (album, cassette & CD...still the only release EVER on all three). It was distributed by Rough Trade, got some decent reviews & was subsequently re-released by our friend Bela at Anyway Records, Columbus, Ohio. I recall playing a bit with a few b ands, most notably Yo La Tengo, who at the time thought we stunk (our drummer had to work so we played without him). Flash forward to mid 1991. We had been recording more songs on & off with John Curley and/or Gary Shell at the new (then, anyway) Ultrasuede location when our drummer, Dan, decided to quit. At the time he said it was to pursue a career in blowing glass (I shit you not), but I think he was just tired of us to tell the truth. John knew this guy, Dave Morrison, who hadn't played in awhile but maybe would want to, so he asked & Dave came & kicked our butts so we begged him to join & he said yes.
We then recorded a few more songs with Dave on drums & the resulting mess became "Grim", our second album. It just barely came out on Okra in 1992 when Rough Trade went belly-up, sending it into distribution limbo. Safe House Records came to the rescue (so we thought) & re-released it fairly quickly (to their credit) but, well...the less said the better. We're still walking funny from that deal. Okay, a lot probably happened between "Grim" & 1993-94, but I'll be damned if I can encapsulate it. I remember playing with Pavement a few times to be a highlight, but that's about it. Mostly I think it was spent getting used to a new drummer & recording when we could with J.C. at Ultrasuede (see a pattern here?).
We eventually got twelve songs together some time in early '94 & were gonna start our own label & put it out ourselves when a radio pal of ours, Mark Keefe, asked us if he could send the tape to a few "guys at labels" that he knew. We said okay & he did. We'd pretty much forgotten about it when one day the phone rang & it was this guy Jeff Suhy who said he was from A&M Records in California. I figured it was Mark or someone that he put up to it playing a joke, but I went along. He said the tape had arrived a month or so earlier & had pretty much just sat on his desk (something about lack of cover/press kit/etc.) until he was bored one day & put it on. Said he'd listened to it for a solid week or so since & wanted to know if we wanted to be on A&M, could he come talk with us, blah, blah, blah. Thinking that it still may be a joke I said sure, why not? So, a few weeks later this guy Jeff comes & we meet at LaRosa's Pizzaria (big spender). He's genuine & likes it the way it is & we agree to sign. We're taken on a whirlwind adventure (or something like that) over the next few weeks, until finally in the fall of '94 "Electric Rock Music" is released & is actually pretty well received...good reviews, moderate to heavy airplay, etc. The first single was "Little Bastard", a song that, although it got us in stores & sold records, haunts us like a ghost. Some stations couldn't play it, let alone say our name, but somehow it survived & grew.
We made a couple videos, got on MTV, played on the John Stewart Show & did shows thru early '95 with a bunch of bands. Actually, it was the first time we'd ever been able to afford to tour so we did it as much as possible. Twice across the country in our Chevy Beauville from Portland, ME to Vancouver, BC. Life seemed full if not stuffed. Then John quit. The phone rang right after we got home from a 12 week tour with Throwing Muses (wonderful people). It was John & he needed to talk. I knew he was a goner before he'd said another word. He had his reasons & stated them clearly & that was that. A&M freaked but we promised them we'd find someone else & record another record on schedule. As it turned out, it didn't make any difference.
We found Bill (Alletzhauser) thru the torturous process of audition. He was at least 7 or 8 years younger than the youngest of us, but he had an old soul & played guitar really well. We then practiced & recorded in the late summer/early fall of 1995 (yup...John C. & Ultrasuede) & this time we had a whole month & could afford to actually pay the producer. The result was "The Known Universe", a rather sad set of songs that A&M saw fit to release & forget. We tried to tour & make the best of it but with no support it came to a grinding halt (tho we did meet & tour with Possum Dixon who were gracious & amazing). Mr. Suhy gave us the chance & I'll always be obliged but by the late summer of 1996 it was dead in the water. R.I.P. So, here we are, three, close to four years later. In our considerable down time Randy & Dave got married, Bill lost his milk teeth & I've gained a conjoined twin. We've also managed to record another record. I remember I was sitting around a year or two ago when the phone rang & it was thi s guy Brad Jones (Marshall Crenshaw /Steve Forbert/Jill Sobule...thud) from Nashville. He had been one of the producer considerations for our never realized third A&M album. He hadn't heard from us in awhile & was wondering what was going on. I suppose I probably said something like "We're stewing in our own juices" so he says why don't we come down & make a record. I tell him we're basically broke & he says it doesn't matter, bring what you can raise.
So, within a month or two, we're at Alex the Great Studios with Brad behind the wheel & in a marathon 5 day session we've finished 12 songs. All the way back home we listen to it, proclaiming Brad a master at the knobs & ourselves the shit. Now...it's fall 1999, we're approaching our 11th year mark & we've signed to this label Checkered Past Records. The record we did with Brad is finally seeing the light of day. Title: "Some Stupid With A Flare Gun" (do we know how to pick 'em or what?). This new label has a solid roster & seem like nice guys. I suppose we fit in here as well as we ever have anywhere else. Poor, old sons of bitches. We'll see, I guess.
Chuck Cleaver/Ass Ponys
