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#57. Plankeye
The Spark
Release Date: March 10, 1995
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I remember watching G-Rock in the mid-90s. Remember G-Rock? It stood for God Rock, I think. As a young kid, my parents allowed me to take over our TV room one night a week to watch skateboarding videos with interviews and music videos mixed in from Christian punk and rock bands. The 90s were weird, man. Good weird most of the time, but weird nonetheless. During one episode, a video came on for a song called "Epidermis Girl" by a band called Bleach. I was intrigued from the get-go. Little did I know this band would be a huge part of my life and little over a decade later. More specifically, the oven mit-wearing singer (go watch the "Epidermis Girl" video) would become one of my closest friends. That singer (as if you don't know his name) is Davy Baysinger. During many late nights and long drives, Davy and I chatted about life, love, God, and music. A result of these chats pointed me in the direction of this legend of a frontman to talk about Plankeye's The Spark. He shared the following thoughts with me.
Davy: Plankeye is probably the most underrated melodic indie rock band of the late 90s, early 2000s. For me, The Spark was the beginning of something really, really good! From there, they just continued to write and release music that captivated me.
I forget which Plankeye song I heard first, or where I heard it. It was probably the song "B.C." and it was probably a compilation like Seltzer or Songs from the Penalty Box, but I agree with Davy. Plankeye was a band that consistently surprised me. They never seemed to get the credit they deserved, but maybe being on this list and garnering the attention of you and others for the last couple of decades is a start. Davy also had this personal story to share:
Davy: It's funny to think back - I can remember during the Spark era, going to a Plankeye show and giving Luis, their bass player, a copy of the first Bleach record on cassette. I was just hoping that they would take us on tour. We did end up touring together...it was just five years later.
So many cassettes, CDs, vinyls, and emails with links full of no-name bands' music and demos went unopened or ended up on Curbside Records, but be careful, because one of those artists may be a great band that you tour with. One late night, I asked Davy, "What was with that oven mitt?" Davy said it wasn't an oven mitt, it was a mitten. A small thing like that kept my attention, so I could meet my friend ten years before we'd meet physically. Davy would later sign Ravenhill to Slospeak Records and fulfill a dream of ours. I'm thankful for him, Bleach, and bands like Plankeye that inspired and paved the way for us and bands like us.
- Joshua Clifton of the band Ravenhill and Davy Baysinger of the band Bleach
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Visit our Plankeye page for more information about them...
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