The Blunt Objects

was the first real band that I was ever in. I met John Christy in college my sophomore year. We lived in Shaw hall on MSU Campus on the Terrace West level. I had known Tim Weber as a friend of my brother's from high school. He had just returned to Bay City from somewhere in California, where he was in a band. He was looking to put together a new band, and when he heard that John and I had started jamming together, he started making weekend trips to Lansing to rehearse with us. We played together spradically over the next year or so, doing a house party here and there, sometimes in East Lansing, sometimes in Bay City. Eventually, Tim moved to Lansing and we got a house together and began rehearsing constantly.

We started out as "The Fleshmonkeys," but soon Tim pointed out that there were already too many bands with monkey in the title, so he suggested changing it to "The Blunt Objects," which we took a liking to right away. We started playing a ton of shows around East Lansing, and got real involved with the local scene. There a was a guy named Lou Seligman who rented a house at 704 Sunset in East Lansing who was putting together shows in his basement, and getting some pretty major acts to come through. He called the place "Ed's Lounge," and we soon were playing there on a regular basis, so much so that soon people jokingly called us the "house band." We also played a bunch of other places around Lansing, and did some gigs in Ann Arbor and Detroit.

One of the last gigs we did in this period was at 602 Evergreen in East Lansing. The band False Prophets were touring and had an open day in their schedule and were looking for a place to play in East Lansing. Some close friends of ours were living in the Evergreen house and their lease was up the day after the proposed show date, so they offered up the living room for the show. This house was not at all a punk house at the time; our friends' roommates (all female) were not necessarily in the punk scene, and the house at that time was a clean, tidy, and conventional place for a bunch of young college girls to live in. Needless to say, the house got pretty trashed that night, but the show was excellent, featuring The Blunt Objects, 11:55, Army of God, and, of course, The False Prophets. Eventually that same house was taken over by a succession of punk renters, and a couple of years later it was the house we rehearsed in when I was in the band Just Say No. The house was eventually immortalized in the Just Say No song "Cartoon Castle." The Blunt Objects broke up shortly after that, as John graduated, I got a scholarship and stayed another year, and eventually ended up joining Just Say No.

A few years later, it just so happened that all three of us lived in Chicago, and the Blunt Objects reformed. I was fresh out of Just Say No, and having done all the touring and such that I did with that band, took up booking The Blunt Objects and started getting us shows around Chicago and throughout the Midwest. We eventually got as far west as Missouri, and did many return gigs back to Michigan. After about a year or so, we ended up breaking up again, due to some waning interests by some of us. I was looking for something fresh, so I was fine with the eventual breakup, and went on to form Food Chain with Pete Downes. The Blunt Objects made one final impromptu appearance at Food Chain loft party a couple of years later. We still remain friends to this day, so who knows what the future holds?

--Randal Huiskens