1. I Flame You
(B-side is the etching shown above)
Perfect Sound Records 1995
2:46, 5MB, 256k MP3
I am an unabashed John Reis/Speedo fanboy. I'll get that out of the way right now. If the man is in any way involved with a record, I will buy it. Nearly 20 years ago, I wore out a dubbed cassette of RFTC's Circa: Now! while delivering pizzas. I would pull up to houses and wait until the best parts of the songs would play through before exiting my car and dropping off the pies, such was the man's hold on me. I mean, look at this list: Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Pitchfork, Sultans, Hot Snakes, Night Marchers, Back Off Cupids, Staccato Reeds... Okay, Staccato Reeds was pretty weak, but seriously? The dude's discography is a monster. His ruling to stinker ratio is off the scale, and half of his projects are seminal cornerstones in their respective genres.
I got to meet him once. The Get Up Kids recorded 4 Minute Mile in Chicago and stayed at my place while doing so. I got to hang out at CRC and accidentally drink all of Bob Weston's orange juice (sorry, Bob) and while I loved that band, I had no idea how huge they'd blow up after that. Fast forward a few months and The Get Up Kids were playing a sold out show with RFTC at the Metro. My fool ass had failed to get a ticket, and went to talk to the GUK crew at the merch table. While a menacing security guard looked on, I told them what happened and they said that they'd already filled all of their guest spots and that I was unfortunately out of luck. As soon as the security guard turned away, 2 of them stopped talking mid-sentence, yelled, "NOW", grabbed my shirt and forcibly pulled me over the merch table into the backstage area, told me to hurry back there and hide. T'was bad ass. I thanked them and wandered around backstage with a shit-eating-grin on my face, stoked that I was able to see the show. I ducked into one of the rooms and there was Speedo more or less holding court with other guys from the Get Up Kids telling him that he enjoyed their music and giving little pointers about being in a band. He offered me a beer, I took it, said hello and drank it all while my inner dialogue kept screaming, "HOLY SHIT" over and over. I was too terrified to speak because I probably would have come off as the starstruck dipshit kid that I was. Despite the fact that RFTC was touring on their weakest record, "RFTC" they tore ass later that night.
Anyhow, as for the record I posted, a shortage of material was never a problem for RFTC. Despite having more records than I could ever conceivably collect (not that I haven't tried) to this day, they still have a slew of songs that were never collected or re-released on any of their 3 collections. As far as I know, this was the only place to get this song.
I Flame You was a 1-sided, etched 7" that was a fan club release only. I walked into Reckless in Wicker Park (when they were still on North Ave), saw this on the wall and plunked down the $15 for it, which for a 7" was a lot of money for me.
Enjoy
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