Joy was a trio of kids from Rockford, IL. C.Kerns - Guitar, vocals
Kelly Kliebe - Bass
Joel Peterson - Drums
We were a band for about a year and a half starting in 1992.
Despite the short duration, this was easily the best band I've ever been in - I don't mind saying that I think we rocked quite mightily when we put our minds to it.
Joy formed sometime in 1992 after the drummer of a previous band, The Morning Glories, left. Remaining were myself (C.Kerns) on guitars and Kelly Kliebe on bass. We then conned young Joel Peterson into playing drums with us, and arbitrarily decided to call it Joy. We parted ways around a year and a half later as I went to Madison and Kelly and Joel came up to Minneapolis. This music was recorded Christmas, 1993 in Rockford, IL when we were all home for Christmas.
We did a lot. Best show was a 5 band bill at the Alumni House in Beloit, WI - it was so hot you couldn't stay drunk. That or any show at Rotation Station (also a skate park) - nothing better than playing punk rock insanely loudly while a bunch of kids are skateboarding all around you.
We were all over the map, from DC Punk (Minor Threat, Fugazi, Dag Nasty, Scream) to stuff like Helmet, Danzig, The Melvins, of course Nirvana, The Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum. We all liked loud fast stuff, which is why we played loud fast stuff.
I played a Gibson SG and an Ibanez Firebird copy into a Fender M-80 100 Watt solid state amp head and out through a Peavey 4X12 cab. I didn't use effects, just switched from clean to dirty channels on the amp.
Kelly played a Gibson Ripper bass into an Ampeg SVT head through an Ampeg SVT 8X10 cab.
Joel played Big Drums of some variety. They were very large (the drums themselves - he played a 4-piece kit, but the drums were huge). We liked it.
This music was recorded over about 4 days Christmas, 1993 at a home studio owned and operated by Don Chorak, who CO-produced it with us. We (the band) took great liberties and Don generally went along with us. Any dificiencies in production or mix decisions are largely due to us, not Don. It sounds like WE wanted it to sound back then. I like it.
