All posts by Cheer Accident

Song of the Month

Star Vehicle

Star Vehicle (4 Flats)

Dante Kester- bass
Jeff Libersher- guitar
Thymme Jones- drums, vocals, synthesizers, trumpet
Cory Bengtsen- bari sax
Carmen Armillas- b-vox

Mastered by Todd Rittmann

Your outfit matches your purpose
Your purpose matches your sound
Your dancing matches your climate
Your climate matches your crown
Your housing matches your tempo
Your tempo matches your frown

Wild Card

Mr. Companionship

Mr Companionship from CHEER-ACCIDENT on Vimeo.

In 1998 and 1999, Thymme worked as a security guard at the Presbyterian (Retirement) Homes
in Evanston, IL. It was a vast complex, with many residents and workers, but the only employee
Thymme made a real connection with was a Jamaican custodian named “Martin,” who would come
to be known as “Mr. Companionship” (long story). A few months after Thymme quit that job (to resume
his true calling as a pizza driver), he and his friend Jamie (who was about to become a member of
CHEER-ACCIDENT) decided to pay Mr. Companionship a surprise visit at his home in North Chicago.
As it turns out, this visit just so happened to land right on Mr. C’s 71st birthday.

Wild Card

Kurtains For Kurt

In the late summer of ’03, while rehearsing for the Introducing Lemon
release show and subsequent east coast tour, Kurt Johnson (new
CHEER-AX bassist, wrested from the highly complex, avant-skronk,
recently defunct Lozenge) witnessed his companion of twenty years,
a Peavey Centurion amplifier, take its final breath. In typical CHEER-AX
fashion, this sorrowful event immediately metabolized as catharsis via
some sort of improvisatory folk/noise/blues ritual. What you hear in this
18-minute document are three stages:

I. Optimistic beginning of “Notary Public” (a song from Gumballhead The Cat,
which was only ever performed in ’03).

II. Occurrence of the offending sustained note, signaling the end of Kurt’s
Peavey, followed by discussion and commiseration.

III. Song: Kurtains For Kurt

it’s curtains for Kurt
his Peavey was very unkind
it went “fried, fried, fried”
and now he’s left to contemplate his new life

If memory serves, there were thirty or so undocumented minutes that occurred
between Part II and Part III, for Kurt had taken a walk around the block (to
contemplate his new life) as Jeff came up with most, if not all, of the words
that Thymme would eventually sing. As you can hear, Kurt was present for
all of the documented portion of the jam: His trademark recorder screeches
can be heard throughout.

Jamie Fillmore- guitar
Jeff Libersher- guitar
Kurt Johnson- bass, dying amp, recorder
Thymme Jones- drums, vocals, casio, feedback