Blame Someone Else

Their name might not ring a bell but that's probably because they've changed it four times. The DIY group comprised of a former member of the Johnny Holm Band and current members of Shoveldance and PB and the Jam have been traveling around the midwest for a few years, and now the local quintet is prepped to release their first CD under their brand new moniker.

On the latest episode of Radio Noir I sat down with Blame Someone Else to swap a few road stories and discuss their eponymous EP.

You guys have had what, 62 different names?

Stacy: Yeah, about 63 probably.

How did you get to the point where name "Pogmatone" was out and you became Blame Someone Else?

Beau: I just had a hard time with it for various reasons. I personally never really liked it. It's always one of those things where it's a band name some people are going to like it some people aren't. I was on boat where I didn't so I went with it.

Trent: It's hard to say

Stacy: Yeah, I actually recall we were talking about releasing our first EP. I gave Beau a call talking about web stuff or whatever it was and he just said to me, "Stacy, you know, we should really consider changing it one last time" and I just thought, "Oh God!"

So I think it was a series of us having conversations with people that would see us being unable to pronounce the name...

Trent: So we changed our name again. Now it's Blame Someone Else and it's better.

Beau: New and improved.

Stacy: It almost in a way, if anyone has followed us from the beginning, there's been a core of the band that has stuck together from when we first started, and there's been a series of names throughout.

Stacy K and the Groove Stains.

Stacy: Yep, kinda started there. Then it went to Franki Lee and we had a different drummer. John was not in the band or Jay yet, and then it progressed to Blame Someone Else.

What's your craziest road story?

Beau: Billy Bob.

John: Yeah! There was a time. We all travelled back to my hometown, Marinette, Wisconsin, and we played at a bar called, at the time it was called Stampedes, now it's called Loopy's 2, and I think it's under new management. I don't know it changes hands constantly and changes names constantly. When I lived there it was called Good Times but anyways. It's a decent establishment. They have, ya know.

Trent: Beer.

John: Yes lots of beer. The thing is in Wisconsin the band always -- well at least in my hometown -- always no matter what drinks free.

Trent: As much as we want.

John: So we were having fun the whole night. It was a good turn out, but there was two people there especially.

Stacy: Special people.

John: There was a guy who was a self-proclaimed member of the Minneconnie River Rats. He was a river rat. He looked like a river rat. He was a tall lanky guy, went by the name of Billy Bob. Actual name was William Robert. Anyways, he had a girlfriend there with him, and as the night progressed the crowd started loosening up and these two were especially loving what we were doing, and they had no problem telling us that in their own little special way, so his wife, come to find out, was one-legged.

Beau: No that was his girlfriend. He had left his wife.

Stacy: Oh yeah, he had left his wife for the girlfriend, that's true!

John: So he left his wife for this one-legged girl.

Was her name Peg?

John: I can only hope.

Stacy: Eileen maybe?

John: I didn't catch her name, but she's going around the bar flashing everybody. Getting whose ever attention she could get, and she was not a good looking person.

Stacy: She looked fine.

John: I mean she looked like she...

Stacy: Elaborate forward.

John: She looked like she had seen better days.

Beau: She looked like she was from Marinette, Wisconsin.

John: Yeah pretty much, pretty much. Yeah that's pretty much the case, so later on in the night we're to towards the end of our last set, and we see her hopping around the bar. She has her leg off and it's full of beer.

Nice! I thought that's where it was going.

John: Just sitting there drinking beer out of her prosthetic leg.

Beau: Hopping around on one leg on the dance floor.

John: So yeah, that whole night was just one ridiculous thing after another.

So you guys have a CD release coming up.

Beau: Tuesday, May 19.

Stacy: Thursday.

Beau: Or Thursday.

Stacy: It's ok.

Beau: Thursday, May 19 at the Nomad World Pub.

Trent: We are releasing our five-track self-titled EP.

Where'd you record it?

Stacy: A variety of places actually

John: We started in Columbia Heights in a garage that was once called Ghostnote, and that no longer exists.

Stacy: Yeah, speaking of murder.

Beau: Wait murder?! laughs

Stacy: Every time I used the bathroom in the house

Somebody Got Killed?

Stacy: There was a little bit of a weird vibe there. They didn't have a door they had a curtain, so you just put the curtain across the door, and this older w - City Pages