Primary Genre(s): Metal, Experimental, Cross-Genre
Band Members: Michael Bowser (vocals), Brett Garbutt (guitars), Justin Coleman (bass), Steve Wills (drums)
Main Influences: Anything and everything! Preferably all at the same time. (Though especially metal, Mr. Bungle/other Mike Patton, and Frank Zappa.)
The Dahmers - as they soon came to be known among friends and acquaintances - were an altogether different proposition to No Love Lost and Hell in a Handbasket. If NLL was an "homage" to my love of all things post-punk-y, and "The Handbaskets" an homage to all things just plain punk-y, then the Dalai Dahmers (small "t", like silverchair's initially small "s") reflected my love of "metal" music: the "straight" stuff, sure, but more so the genre-mauling likes of Mr Bungle, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and most things Mike Patton.
It certainly stretched my vocal capabilities to places that my throat refuses to go nowadays, given how ill-practiced I've become. Great fun, though, and I think plenty of people got the "joke"...even if many of our shows were met with open mouths and closed minds. (We considered all reactions to be "positive" ones, as long as no one was yawning!)
Again, I'll let your ears and eyes be the judge, via a Bandcamp link, some images, and a small smattering of lyrical content from this most eclectic of all my musical projects. (A brief-but-ironic note: despite this being the most defiantly non-mainstream of all my "band" projects, it somehow produced the closest thing I ever had to a would-be "hit single", in the form of the alarmingly crowd-pleasing Lollypop Lady! Don't ask us how it happened; we had it pegged, in our utter ignorance, as a b-side at best.)
Oh, and credit where credit's due. The Dahmers were, and always will be: Yours Truly (vocals; occasional keys, kazoo and percussion), Brett Garbutt (guitars), Steve Wills (drums, percussion, backing vocals), and the sadly deceased Justin Coleman, aka "NïTSüJ" or "Baron Blood" (bass).
APPOINTMENT WITH DESTINY
(Lyrics Copyright © 2006 Michael Bowser)
They say that the good die young
But them bad boys, sometimes they go early too
And in the big, bad world of Rock ‘n’ Roll
You know that crash ‘n’ burn is nothin’ new
He’s got an appointment with Destiny
Just forty feet below
Ain’t nobody watchin’ him right now
But pretty soon, everybody’s gonna know
They’re gonna know, yeah
Sniffin’ white powder off’a silicon breasts
When the pilot announces that they’re goin’ down
And he didn’t mean in some ”sexual” kind of way
But in the sense of headin’ straight for the ground
He’s got an appointment with Destiny
Just forty feet below
Ain’t nobody watchin’ him right now
But pretty soon, everybody’s gonna know
They’re gonna know, yeah
‘Course, planes ain’t the only way to go
Some dudes, well they prefer the gutter
Some have a preference for two barrels o’ steel
As long as they’re immortal, one way or another
They’ve got an appointment with Destiny
Deep down in the ground below
Pretty soon, pitchforks and pits of flame
Are all these bad boys are gonna know
They’re gonna know, yeah
Yeah, there’s a special place in Hell
For folks who play Rock ‘n’ Roll
No buddy, don’t you go wastin’ your time
Prayin’ for their immortal soul
Because they’re all doomed
Yeah, they’re all doomed
I said, they’re all doomed
That’s right, they’re all doomed
DOOMED
GOIN' NOWHERE FAST
(Lyrics Copyright © 2006 Michael Bowser)
The car’s engine is runnin’
But you’re not goin’ nowhere
Carbon monoxide poisonin’
Your life was too bear much to bear
The air inside your lungs
Is replaced with lethal fumes
You’re climbing those last few rungs
On your stairway to Doom
You gasp your last breath away
Your body slumps and expires
Now you’re gonna spend the rest of your days
Burnin’ away in Satan’s fires
SEA NO EVIL
(Lyrics Copyright © 2005 Michael Bowser)
When I’m out on my boat, well…I’m at peace
‘Cause there ain’t no better way for me to get release
Than to go back to where we all came from
And it’s there and only there that I feel I belong, ‘cause…
The sea, she ain’t a fussy bitch
She’ll take sailors or suicides, she don’t care which
Yeah, she’s wide open to possibility
An' she ain’t one to judge, our friend the sea
Our friend, the sea
Our friend, the sea
That watery wench, she don’t make no calls
It ain’t her place to close doors or build walls
Everyone is welcome to her embrace
She ain’t elitist like that bastard, Outer Space
Sea no evil, sea no evil, sea no evil, sea no evil
Sea no evil, sea no evil, sea no evil, sea no evil
(Photography by persons unconfirmed; EP and album artwork designed by Michael Bowser and Brett Garbutt and realised by A.P. Hobson, with classic artwork by Walter Molino, Henri Lanos, and persons unconfirmed.)