NEON CULPA IS...

A little History on NEON CULPA…it all started as the Antibiotics as sophomores in high school, in a small Oregon town called Sandy, east of Portland,  Our very first gig was at the Sandy Community Center (where the geezers play cards during daylight), opening a show for some guys who were actually old enough to purchase beer without asking someone else (for that reason alone, we were awe struck).  About 300 people showed up, and we played some popular punk and rock covers   We started practicing constantly, and the name quickly changed to Blacklist 40, at then-bassist Chris’ suggestion (he’s now off to study in China).

Charlie began to get his first few songs on paper and arranging parts that could be played by a band. Tyler was on the drum throne at the start, later replaced with Eric.  Hank was rhythm guitar. The first album was recorded, and we contacted Gene Wilder to ask his permission to call it The Wilder Side. 

We played outdoors at the new Sandy Skatepark (and got unplugged for using one (two?) of the seven evil prohibited words. The Sandy Mountain Festival, then Rose Festival, and at the Portland International Raceway, then bigger venues like Roseland and the Aladdin in Portland.  Along the way, we played everywhere from The Ratskeller at Mt. Hood to the always gracious and excellent sound system Ash Street Saloon.  Just as CCR said, we played as people sat there drunk, ignored us and played pool, or patiently sometimes even listened, but waited for us to end so they could hear the headliner.  On the other hand, when a girl was singing along to with the lyrics at the Roxy & knew all the lyrics to all Charlie’s originals, we knew something good was afoot.

We won the ASCAP Northwest Battle of the Bands as high school juniors, and were taken down for a private party to Gibson HQ in Beverly Hills, and the next night played the Key Club on Sunset Strip.  Eric & Benji locked themselves outside the balcony on the 7^th floor at 3 a.m., and the hotel management had to hacksaw off the locks – we set a standard early on for our future hotel behavior.

Backstage at the 2007 Portland Guns ‘n Roses show, Charlie was asked to open the national tour for Everclear, and, before we knew it, we were getting interviewed, front page news coverage (alright, it was just the Sandy Post, but Rolling Stone might have been jealous they were upstaged); we were on the road in a near brand-new van generously donated by Suburban Chevrolet in Sandy.  17,500 miles on some scary ice-covered roads, and countless incredible venues later, we returned home, exhausted, but ecstatic as we were so fortunate to play to so many thousands of people nationwide, and received such a wonderful reception, and, yeah, girls chasing us (remember San Francisco?).  I believe that is the pivotal moment.

Charlie then got very serious about writing music and lyrics, arranging compositions, and producing the songs; trying different instruments, to attain a balance of originality and depth. He spent a month in March ’09 playing gigs and recording in Hawai’i, tracking most of an album for his solo alter-ego Don Geisel, and getting much work done on Neon Culpa’s soon-to-be-complete “true” first album, “The Future in Retrospect”  in early 2010. He continued to become more skilled about recording, software usage, effects, mics/placement, recording techniques, learning from some masters.  The studio was rebuilt, with ProTools, BlueTube, Behringer, Shure and AKG, and became a hotbed of music activity. IN the summer of 2010, he works night & day in the Hawthorne studio, doing recordings for both projects, as well as other musicians’ work. 

In late 2009, after finding out that to be a musician was a more complex prospect than anyone ever said, the band lineup was rounded out with three new talented guys:  Chris, Gordon and Aaron. We now got the lineup introduced live, opening a fantastic night January 29 at Dante’s for The Motels; Martha was so gracious and complimentary, it was an honor to open for her!. And Stephanie of Kleveland you are off-the-hook outrageous!  We love you both. They played together through the spring and early summer, and in late July, it was clear that the focus must be devoted to Charlie spending full time on writing, arranging, bringing in guest musicians to get the recording sound he was seeking, so the band disbanded, and will not perfomlive except for solo appearances by Charlie, untihe will reform the backing lineup in late Fall 2010.