Happy New Year! I hope you are all as well as can be after all that we have all been through in the last couple of trying years (really, five, if you count the Trumpocalypse - and I do - that just keeps going and going like an authoritarian Energizer Bunny, or maybe a cockroach is a better metaphor, except, that would be a major insult to cockroaches, who are actually crucial to the environmental health of our planet). I am hanging in there after some trials in addition to what we have all have experienced, more on that in the next entry; speaking of which, I am working on that now (entries going forward will take me longer because, as I have mentioned, I am writing of the mid '90s, when my music career was very busy, as were my jobs that actually paid the bills, and then, you know, there were also self-created personal trials - it's all part of the music, ya know!).
Enough of that. Here is some good news; State of Confusion will be reuniting at the next Treefort Music Festival this coming March (exact dates/times TBA, watch this space and social media, but the fest is March 23rd - March 27th). 34 years since State of Confusion disbanded & reformed as Treepeople, 11 years since SOC last reunited in Boise, 23 years since Pat Schmaljohn left Earth. We honor him by reforming at Treefort, 2022. What the world needs now is super fast, skull ripping punk with something to say.
This go ‘round, we are excited to add Troy Wright to the ranks, who played drums for SOC a short time & came back to play bass on Treepeople reunion tours (2018-2019). Troy follows Pat’s roles in both bands; now singing in SOC & playing bass in Treepeople. Pat would approve. See you there!
In other news, from here on, we are putting the 'SOC' in social media! Spread the word!
(Instagram coming soon!)
State of Confusion LP 'A' Street
We hope you had a great New Years and that you are ready to do some (respectful, nonviolent and observant of social distancing) thrashing!
"Tammy's clappin', where's all your taste, in your ASS?...God, we'll send 'em home with Tammy, an' all their equipment too...Yeah, their goin' home with you tonight, and play for you all night long..." ~ Martha, co-owner of The Crazy Horse Salooon (where SOC cut our teeth) to her cocktail waitress Tammy as we were about to play a song, covertly recorded and lovingly used as the intro to the SOC song, 'Creeps'
"...I have tried to understand the nature of your war/But it gets darker and darker, as I see more and more..." ~ Pat Schmaljohn, from his lyrics to the State of Confusion song, 'Decency.'
Pat 'Brown' Schmaljohn doing his thang in SOC, Boise, Idaho, 1985 ~ Photo by Brian Bothwell
Your blog author as young man (and a whole other being, really), when he played bass in State of Confusion and lived on Schmidt beer and ramen, too poor to afford a shirt, apparently ~Photo by Brian Bothwell
The State of Confusion is a pro-vaccination band. Get vaccinated! For yourself, your family, your community, and so we can END THIS FUCKING THING ALREADY!
Yours, with Love, Wayne Ray 'Rhino' Flower II
