About the Site

I love telling this story because of how it reflects so well on the Internet as a medium for information sharing, and on the one-time members of The Duckhills as wonderful people!

The Mangy Moose:

Everything started with my brother, Matt, who was working in Yellowstone National Park back in 1991. He and some friends decided to catch a Poi Dog Pondering show at the Mangy Moose in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. What they saw first was a band that left an indelible mark on Matt -- The Duckhills. Immediatlely following the show, he bought Remembering Spongecake and his friend bought Kayak. When he returned to Waukegan, he began playing the tape for everyone. Eventually I came back from college to find everyone sitting around listening to this hilarious album! Spongecake became a mainstay of our music collection that summer.

The years went by, and copies of Spongecake were circulated and recirculated, and the tapes we had got in worse and worse shape. Copies disappeared and more duplicates were made, but the collection of tapes kept getting smaller. But over the years, we never managed to have a good plan for getting any othe Duckhills music.

THE Tape -- this is the only remaining copy of Spongecake that we have, and was the copy
we digitized for fear of it being damaged and us never having Duckhills music again!

Enter Internet:

In the mid 90s, the Internet became more and more of a common information vehicle. I remembering being in law school from '93-'96, and for the first year and a half, I didn't take advantage of our UNLIMITED AND FREE internet access! Looking back, I can barely believe I just ignored it for so long. My only surfing activity was on modem connected BBSs (anyone remember those??). But as it grew, and as we became more savvy, we realized we could go Duck(hill) hunting on the web. Alas, all we could find were scattered references about them on the Poi Dog site (and my messages to Poi Dog never seemed to get a response).

As we closed in on the late 90s, our joke-band decided that we should have a website, and that we should digitize the mountain of tapes Matt had been collecting of our "recordings." So there's Matt, with his pile of tapes, and there's the Internet. So we made a website, and decided that since we had to endure this noise that we made and called "music" for nigh on 13 years so should everyone else! So I started digitizing tapes.

Internet + Duckhills = um...InterDuck?

Then, the hamster got up to full speed in the wheel and we realized we should digitize Spongecake and make a CD out of it. Which we did. But then I realized -- "hey, I have mp3s of Spongecake, and webspace...why not make a DH fansite?" And that's what I did. The original DH site was VERY campy -- all I had was Spongecake...I didn't even know anything about the band. So I made up silly bios, detailed our adventures, etc.

Now, a quick word on how the Internet works: when you put a site up, eventually search engines (like Yahoo and Alta Vista) will find it. They follow links to links to links and try to get everything they can. So eventually the engines found our Duckhills site and for once, searching Yahoo for "duckhills" yielded an actual site about the band!! And then in November of 2001 it all started to happen...

Inter-Net-Working!

I had actually spoken to Ben once early in the month. Through Chocolate Records I found out he worked at Waterloo Records, and called hoping to get his email. Instead I got to talk to him! It was very cool -- he was really nice to chat with, and seemed amused by the concept. I didn't hear from him for some time afterwards, but htat was ok because of what happened almost immediately thereafter... The parent site that had the Duckhills site had a hosted guestbook and message board (on cgispy.com, which is a really nice service). We (the parent site's crew) used it mostly to crack jokes on each other. Then one day I was perusing it and noticed someone asking about the Duckhills! I was THRILLED! And then another, and another...it was VERY cool! We got in touch with these fans and started working out plans to exchange the best copies of Spongecake, Kayak and Litter that any of us had. It was all very cool, and then the message that changed everything arrived: former high school/Other Version drummer Chad wrote in, and jokingly asked if this was serious:

"Are you all really looking for more Duckhills info, or is this a joke. I thought we (band and friends) died off years ago. I was the original drummer from the high school days when we were called "The Other Version". I have all the tapes and CDs plus live performances from all the years before the move to Austin in the summer of 88/89. I you are serious, email me and I can try and upload mp3 some where. I can load the cd immediately if you would like."

Chad turned out to be a really friendly guy, and a HUGE help in getting all this rolling. He sent me tapes, CDs, photocopies of press materials, etc. etc. It was SO AWESOME! And that's when things started trucking. Word got around, and soon we had heard from all the band members, and friends of theirs, who were all too willing to help out. Gary (Gilliam) is still a constant source of assistance, source materials, pictures, stories, essays...you name it -- without his help, this whole endeavor would not have progressed as well as it has! (Gary can be found serving as the Rent-a-Goat Action Squad on Spongecake, and makes and appearance on Plastastic...Check out Gary's site!).

Success!

And so here we are. Tapes are still exchanging hands as we try to digitize as much music as our server can handle. We're getting our hands on solo projects -- and all the Duckhills folks have 'em! -- and new content about the days in Duckhill Stonhenge, and the future looks exciting! If, one day, this site is considered "complete," then I'll be happy knowing we finished erecting a temple in honor of one of the most fun bands I've ever had the pleasure to listen to!!

About The Site Authors

Matt and Jeff are brothers, born in a Chicago suburb in '69 and '71 (respectively). Matt was the one more interested in music, and was responsible for exposing Jeff to virtually all of his (Jeff's) eventual favorite bands. In the mid-80s, Jeff began playing classical guitar, and eventually got his first electric guitar on his birthday in 1988 (he'd actually get an amp a year later). In the summer of 1989, Matt's singing interest, Jeff's guitar interest, and everyone's goofiness got churned up together in a bowl filled with Milwaukee's Best, and rock was born. In 1991, Matt spent the first of two summers working at Yellowstone National Park, and saw The Duckhills perform at the Mangy Moose (Jackson Hole, WY). When he brought that back, he got Jeff hooked on it, as usual, and so began the saga of The Duckhills Revival Project (tm). Today the two continue to get together to make music, and still find themselves dreaming of a Duckhills Reunion Tour at The Metro in Chicago (we can dream can't we??)...

And now an update -- We got to see the Heroes live!!

Matt and I actually made the trip down to Austin, I think in April of 2003, and saw The Real Heroes LIVE!! They rocked, needless to say! It was a bit of a crazy trip -- we departed on a Thursday evening, somewhere around 8pm. We originally planned to just to Austin, but then realized that, with family in Corpus Christi, if we didn't drive the extra 4 hours to see them, we'd be berated and razzed for the failure for many moons. So we trucked straight on down to Corpus...it took us almost precisely 24 hours eating all our meals in the car, and stopping only for fuel and stretching. We arrived Friday night and our Aunt and Uncle, the family we were visiting, took us out drinking until the wee hours. In the morning, and by 'morning' I mean noon, we got breakfast and started planning the trip back to Austin. Since our Aunt and Uncle were coming with (which was very cool of them!!) we were able to stay with friends of theirs, so no worries about a hotel! We got to the bar around 8 or 9 (I think), and were in time to catch the opening act. There were some cool bands that night, and one that was curious -- a ultra right wing yuppie band that thought they rocked...that was annoying. Another band, Opposite Day, was pretty impressive -- amazing jazz musicians playing They Might Be Giant's style pop-rock...very fun and very good stuff -- and I like the fact that the bassist makes his own basses! I highly recommend giving them a listen if you have the time! But then The Heroes came on and rocked the club to hell and back! Damn, it was a blast!! Over the course of the night we met the guys, hung out with Gary of the Athenaeum, and just generally had a great time...and then we made sure to be good and fan-goofy and get all their autographs (see at right, click to enlarge)!! They were every bit as cool and nice in person as everything I've learned about this musical community over the years suggested they would be! The next morning, bright and early (too early actually) we hauled over to Gary's place and he loaned us some tapes and videos (which I STILL have to finish digitizing!), and then back on the road. 24 more hours later, and we strolled in just in time to get some sleep, clean up and get in to work Monday morning. Trust me -- it was well worth the trip!