B.A.I.L.

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Photo still needed
Years Active 1994-1996
Members - Donnie Stanley (guitar)
- Dirt (aka Clay Porter) (bass)
- Matt Wong (drums)
- Jason Ader (vocals)

B.A.I.L. was formed in late 1994 by four 15 year olds, three from the North Side and one from the Valley.

One day at school, Dirt told Jason that he had started a band and they were looking for a vocalist. Who knows why Dirt thought Jason would make a good vocalist. Jason was notoriously shy and quiet and was known by the nickname, "Mute." By the time Jason showed up to his first practice, the band had one horrible 3-note song written.

B.A.I.L. was the very first band for all of the members involved. And, with the exception of Matt (who, by the age of 15, was some kind of drumming phenom or savant), no one knew how to play their instruments. The band had no gear or money to buy any. So they borrowed an ancient little Gretch practice-amp from a friend. The amp had 3 input jacks, so naturally, they plugged the Bass, Guitar, and Vocal Mic into it at the same time; this is how they played for many months. The amp would get hot and smell bad.

The first 6 to 8 months were an extremely rough period for B.A.I.L., and they quickly earned the reputation for being the worst band in Rapid City (but with an amazing drummer). That was the band's bad era and they probably shouldn't have been playing shows at that time. It was utter crap.

But they were fueled by an inexplicable collective determination, and practiced constantly -- at least 4 or 5 times a week. Then, one day, something clicked and they discovered their sound. Realizing this, they immediately dropped all of their old "songs" and began honing this new sound. They wrote 7 or 8 new songs and started playing shows again. People were completely shocked that not only did B.A.I.L not suck anymore, but that they were actually a good band now. Oh, and they had better equipment at this point too (it was still crappy, but better than what they had before). Needless to say, this was the band's good era. It lasted about a year and a half -- up until they broke up.

During the later, good period, the music of B.A.I.L. was heavily influenced by (and somewhere in the vein of) bands like Angel Hair, Moss Icon, Patterns Make Sunrise, Universal Order Of Armageddon, and Iconoclast. But the attitude and aesthetic of B.A.I.L. always existed somewhere between Crimpshrine's Duct Taped Soup, and the Filth/Blatz split LP.

At one time, "B.A.I.L." was spray-painted all over the downtown alleys and roof-tops. Rumor had it that this led the RCPD into believing that B.A.I.L. was a local gang. Maybe in some ways it was.

B.A.I.L. shows were almost always punctuated by Matt stopping midway through one of the later songs in the set, picking up and throwing his drums across the room, and loudly proclaiming to everyone that he was, "Quitting B.A.I.L. and this was the last show!" The final time he did that, he really meant it.

The band recorded a couple of demos, but they've been lost. No known audio recordings exist.

The name, B.A.I.L., was an ever-changing acronym. It stood for various things at various times, depending on the mood of the people in the band.

After B.A.I.L. broke up, Jason and Donnie went on to form, 400 Miles Of Shit. Dirt moved to Denver, and Matt went into Hibernation, emerging much later in Disorderly.


Releases


Live Recordings


Photos


Links


See Also

  • 400 Miles of Shit
  • American Heavy Metal Weekend
  • Corundum
  • Ealdath
  • Fall of the Bastards
  • Fuckgodintheface
  • Human Certainty
  • Oakhelm
  • Quest for Fire
  • Yoknapatawpha

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