It all started on a decent day in March,2001. It was Pennsylvania, a cold weary place at the time, and we were just a couple of young, lost, pathetic losers. Alex, Trey, Ryan, and Zach, four best friends at the time, sat at an assembly at junior high, awaiting to get this boring thing over with. We were all kind of into alternative, some punk, mostly blink at the time, and we basically had no lives. All we did all the time was hang out, play videogames, and talk about girls. So we sat there, us 4, waiting for the first act to come on. And that was the beginning of a story.
     Henry Auerbach was probably one of the only punks in Holland Junior High. With crazy hair and a lip ring, Henry was someone we all always kind of looked up to. The first act was one with this young punk in it. He was on stage playing guitar with two amazingly hot girl lead singers and the rest of a band. Now, none of us had really any idea about music except for Ryan, Trey, and Zach's drum lessons taken throughout elementary. And holy Sh*t, were we blown away. They were loud, and they were great. None of us had ever even been to a real concert and this was the closest thing any of us had ever had to it. And it made us addicted. Watching this single performance made us 4 best friends form a band. We wanted to play music, write music, have people like us, and have two hot girl lead singers.We knew we could never accomplish the last one, but we decided we would at least dream on and try to just pick up instruments and start playing. And so we did.
        When it came time to instrument picking time, the choice was hard. At first Trey and Zach would play guitar, Alex would get a bass, and Ryan was defintly going to be on drums. He was probably the best out of any of the drummers and he wanted it the most. Zach's dad used to play guitar, so that was pretty much a giver. But Trey ended up switching to bass and Alex to guitar. Why you ask? Because Trey and Alex's favorite band, Blink182, had their two role models, Mark Hoppus and Tom Delonge. And Trey's role model was Mark, the bassist, and Alex loves Tom and walked around his house in Tom's stolen underwear, who was the guitarist. So Trey would be Mark and Alex would be Tom. Period.
      Zach got a headstart on the rest of the new formed band and went out and bought a red and white fender squier stratocaster. Alex's mom took Trey, Alex, and Ryan to the local Guitar center. Alex got a black and white squier strat, Trey got a blue and white fender p-bass, and ryan finally got a high hat and cymbals (he already had a bass, toms and snare). So now we were a band, with instruments. Now we might actually try to play. Or so we thought.
Ok, so we all go home and practice like mad. Well, Trey did. He was always the most dedicated. Alex and Zach just learned simple guitar intros and even that was difficult. Man, starting an instrument was tough as hell! All got frustrated but refused to give up. At band practices we would play.........absolute crap. We even had a name. Too Many. I think our friend Evan came up with that. Anyways, we tried some songs by Sum 41 and Blink, but it came out like pure a$$ crap. I mean, we had no idea what we were doing. It was like watching a bunch of dumb monkeys type up Shakespeare's works,literally we tried. We were getting a little better, but to any band today we would sound like a piece horse maneur. All the sudden, one morning in school on the announcements,"Attention. Any band that wants to try out for beach day, please try out tomorrow." We thought nothing of it. Or at least, most of us didn't. I mean, playing at beach day would just be a complete embarassment to us and shame our name for future reference (i really wish we thought that then). So Zach calls up Trey and Ryan that night and tells them make sure they know all the small things by blink, because they would by trying out tomorrow! (you have to understand trey zach and ryan all lived on the same street, so alex was always kind of excluded sometimes).
Beach day. I bet none of us could probably say those two words without laughing, crying, or shaking our heads. So zach, ryan, and trey come into school with their instruments. They had all learned all the small things. Attempting not to exclude Alex from the band, they told the guy with the worst voice of all that he could sing. Biggest mistake of all. So now Alex is printing out lyrics to this song which they will knwo try out with today. A song they had never practiced! Mr. Frank, the band teacher, said that if we could make it through this one song, we were automatically in. Boy were we worried. So Ryan clicks his sticks, and we played. If you call it playing, I don't whether random screeching on a guitar where you can't play a frickin power chord and your lead singer sounds like crap and it is disorganized and crappy. What we played that day did not sound like a song, more like pure a$$ crap. But, what do you know, they really did let anybody in. So for the two weeks that we had until beach day, we surprisingly pulled our act together and started sounding really good. NOT. Oy vey. I don't know why we even bothered playing. Sure, it was our first live show, but is it worth playing if you have absolutely no idea what you're doing at all? So Beach Day comes (again, head shaking) and we set up, we play. We make it through the song. Most of our fellow students thought it was a joke, but all the same we made it, kind of. Weird though, it seemed only Trey and Zach were getting the hugs and compliments from the really hot popular girls. Damn hotness ruins the band
          Life after beach day was not an easy one. We kept attempting covers but we were not good enough individually and did not click as a whole. ALl 4 of us used to be best friends, but Zach was kind of drifting. It was kind of just a mutual agreement that he was out of the band, and so now we were three. Alex, Trey, and Ryan. We felt better now, more connected. Alex and Trey had been best friends for a while and Ryan was close enough. We were very open to new players though. So we kept learning covers. School ended, and things pretty much stayed the same. We still tried learning covers, but got frustrated too easily. Alex and Trey and Ryan never officially split up, but it was pretty obvious when band practices would be Alex and Trey playing for our girlfriends in his basement. We learned about every blink song ever plus more. Secretely Ryan sat in his batcave becoming a skilled drummer. The summer was where most of our individual skills started to get honed, and when we met back up again every once and a while we found it easier to learn songs. School came again, and the 8th grade was a new start for all of us. We all found ourselves more, and music became more a part of us. We had become decent musicians, and we were all taking lessons and learning as much as we possibly could. Trey was always the hardest worker and most dedicated though. But we still didn't feel complete. We would practice and play mostly blink stuff but 1. nobody could really sing that good. Trey was decent but not lead singer material. 2. We always wanted another guitarist to be a 4 man band, I mean cmon, they were just cooler. By the way September 11, 2001 was around this time and our prayers were with all the victims who went trhough that.
        Our prayers were answered and god proved that he does exist. You know why? Because Mikey Mullin fell into the trap that was then the somewhat artists formerly known as too many. Ok, things could not have gotten any better. Mike was a grade younger then us three. Trey's little brother had told us how Mike had played in his elementary school talent show last year alone by himself. He played guitar and sang a Good Charlotte song called Seasons. Connor said he was awed, and Mike seemed just what we were looking for. He came over and the second he stepped out of the car we were amazed. This kid was all punked out, ya know black spikey hair, lots of bracelets, that sort of thing. I think the thing that got us the most though was this marshall amp. Trey and Alex both had like Crate 15 watt amps and this kid walks over with a Marshall 150 watt. It was at least 5 times the size of our amps and it blew us out of the water. Mike had too much talent we didn't knwo what to do with it. We were awed by his already 2 year playing guitar skills as opposed to Trey and Alex's one. He could play songs we thought near impossible before and we would all jam. Mike was perfect for us. Except for one thing, he was in a band, and actual good band. But o well. We hung out with him anyway, jammed when we could. The visits soon became more frequent and the jam sessions longer. We started hanging out with Mikey outside of school, and he was soon one of the tight group of us, the band. His other band barely practiced, and while they probably had a million times more talent then us, I guess Mike just liked us better and realized we were more dedicated. So Mikey finally decided to ditch his other band in late december and commit to us nerds full time. Mikey, we couldn't have asked for more. It was seriously too good to be true. Except it actually was true, so that statement is pure a$$ crap. "Hey Mikey" and "Mikey likes it" soon became catch phrases. We practiced every day after school, and hung all weekends. We went to concerts together, hung out all the time, and even made out with each others dogs. What can I say, we were close. But we were more than just a band. We were best friends. And througout the fights, the arguments, and the dispute (they all mean the same thing) we have pulled through with one thought in our mind"hell we are a band and something stupid as this can't screw it up." So what else is there to say? like every other band, we started writing songs. We even recorded a little for free. They were pretty good songs too. We hung 24/7. We started to play at some parties, got a show or two scheduled. Losing Streak, we decided. Everybody asked what their band name means. Well guess what ours means. Absolutely nothing!
*pure a$$ crap is from the andy dick show, one of the greatest shows ever!

Written by Alex M. Handfinger