History of the Shorter Bus
Where the Shit Began:
SBk has been around for over 7 years. Suck on that. They used to simply be known as Billy and Mike, and they started playing music together in late 1993 in Billy's basement. Originally they had a bass player who was more into Jimi Hendrix and funk/rock kinda stuff. They also had a lead guitarist who was into blues and Stevie Ray Vaughn, i think. They finally ditched these kids and picked up a new guitarist and Hife in September of 1994. Now they were called the Swirley Bees, then they actually were scheduled to play a show at GEE in February 1995 under the name "jellystone." Their first show came in January 1995, and it was a total disaster, yet very memorable. Mike and Peter (who was his bestest friend and played guitar from Sept. 1994 to April 1995)were terribly stoned and Mike got angry at his guitar, which was still being rented and threw it and knocked over the p.a. and amps. Then Mike stopped using drugs and they got much better. They played their first public show in September of 1995 at the Harmon Park Pavillion, which was the same place that the Crackbabies, another local KC punk band (now dead and long gone) had played thier first show. In fact, one month later, on Friday October 13, 1995, the Kidz (then called blue jesus) played at the Pavillion with the Crackbabies, the John C. Holmes Band, Nuclear Family and Good Luck Finger (now electronimo). The only people who really liked the kids at that point were these weird drug addicts, the Crackbabies, and Josh and Tom from the Holmes Band. I guess.
The Kidz Make More Friends
So after their first couple of live disasters, the Kidz went back into hiding until May 11, 1996. Another show was scheduled at the Pavillion, this time with their friends in 60 Cycle Hum. That day, a friend of the Kidz called and asked if "the Radtones" could also play since their show had been cancelled the night before. Yuk agreed and upon arriving at the Pav he met Justin Warring and the Radtones, who later became better known as the Lowbrows. The Radtones played some fast, catchy ska/punk that was later a huge influence on the Madd Scientists, one of Yuk's other bands. Justin and the Kidz hit if off and they played several more shows together. And Yuk and Justin even formed a band called "the Hecklers" who never actually got to play. But some of the Kids songs came from Mike and Justin jamming, including: "go away", "unisom" and "kill them."
Um. More shit.
In August of 1996 Yuk got the idea that the Kidz (still called blue jesus) should go record. The dude who cuts his hair had been in lots of bands and recommended that he record at Junior's Motel, a remote but really kewl studio in northwestern Iowa. After a few phone calls, Yuk had set the first weekend of November to be the recording date. The Kids went to Iowa on November 1st, but due to a scheduling error, the studio was double booked for Sunday and the Kidz had to do all their recording in one day. They ended up recording 13 songs, and Yuk went back to Iowa two weeks later to mix them. All 13 songs were on a demo tape they made (blue jesus). Around this time Yuk met Michele, who had a radio show on KKFI 90.1 FM on Friday nights (technically Saturday morning assholes) from 2-5am. Yuk gave her a cd and she played it. Over the holiday break the Kidz were scheduled to play their first show at GEE, but upon arriving at GEE, Cal (who was the owner then. seems like yesterday to us, but most of you prolly won't remember him.) told us that the sound board operater hadn't shown up. And this was back in the day when GEE had that huge sound system and all the effects and board were locked up and only the sound guy had the key. So, we left, but lucky for us the bassist for 60 Cycle Hum (brian adams, yeah it's his real name.) had the show at his house. About 60 of our friends showed up and 60 Cycle Hum and Blue Jesus played. Justin Warring (lowbrows) played second guitar and sang back up vox that night and the show went pretty well.
The Kidz Get a Break?
The Kids got another show at GEE on January 17, 1997. But the week before that was their radio debut on KKFI. Michele picked their fukt-up anthem "i am a bean" to be the first Kidz tune broadcasted over the airwaves. Yeah. that whole section was dramaticized and cheezy. eat shit. The Kidz show on January 17th was with Braid and Back of Dave. But. For some reason those bands didn't show up. So the Kidz played first with the Get Up Kids and the Revolvers playing after them. The Get Up Kids were nice and came up and introduced themselves. We never thought they'd go anywhere. Heh. Not really. Anyway, the Kidz got interviewed on Michele's radio show on January 30th, and they played some bad live acoustic music. Billy's cello got broken by a drunk girl, and hife talked more than anyone else. In February the Kidz played at Jamnesty, a benefit at S.M. North, the Distorted and the Atomic Six also played. Little did we know it, but in the audience were a bunch of people we would later become friends with either through the Madd Scientists, O.D.T., or the Kidz. The Distorted and Atomic Six were kewl, Jiz (from the Distorted) and Hife bonded talking about bass and Metallica. And Atomic Six liked us and were just generally weird like us. Yuk was sporting a dress and a pink afro, courtesy of Michele. A few weeks later they began dating. The Kidz played a slew (ooh good word!) oh shows that were either amazingly good or amazingly bad. One good show they had was at Gee in April of that year. They played a late show after Unsteady and the Lowbrows had played an early one. A bunch of kids stuck around to see the Kidz. It was a bizarre and informal show (yeah, like most of their shows are even remotely formal) and the Kidz got pelted with M$M's from the plastic, candy-filled easter eggs they threw into the audience. Most of the kids at the show skanked to the Kidz songs. Which the Kidz thought was fuking hilarious. The next month SBK played a show at GEE the night after their graduation and got booed off the stage by a bunch of metal heads screaming for Pulse. Go 311 rock!! (hahahaha-ed.) That summer the Kidz went back to Iowa, this time for 4 straight days of recording. It nearly killed them, and Hife got a huge speeding ticket, but they recorded 45 songs. None of which have ever been released. That August the Kidz (still blue jesus, damn) played a final show on Bill's driveway for a block party. Yuk sported green hair and a dress. The next day he played drums at the very first Madd Scientists' show at the '97 KC Spirit Festival, in the Reggae Tent. Nothing more was heard from the Kidz, who then went their separate ways for skool (Bill to Wisconsin, Hife to Chicago, Yuk stayed in kc with the Madd Scientists).
Finally, the Fuking Short Bus Kids...
OK! Now to the part that some of you at least, might be familiar with. Nothing at all happened with the Kidz between August of 1997 and July of 1998. They were all at separate skools, and Yuk was busy helping make a name for the little ska/punk band, the Madd Scientists. The Madd recorded at Yuk's house, then called "mADD Central" (cuz it was and still is a total hangout after the mADD kids started hanging out there) and was helping the mADD get shows at GEE using all the connections he'd made with the Kidz. Needless to say, Madd was much more popular much quicker than the Kidz. There are many reasons for this, like the fact that ska/punk had broken into the mainstream and become very popular, plus the Madd worked very hard to constantly come up with new songs and had a vigorous practice schedule which had them practicing 3 times a week. Anyway! Back to SBK! In July of 1998, the Kidz got to play with the Madd Scientists and O.D.T. (who Yuk had also started drumming for in May of '98). The Kidz played to a bunch of bored kids at Rachel Tobin's house. It was ok. Yuk had kewl blue hair, and they covered "Born in a Trunk" by the John C. Holmes band. Not like anyone there really knew that besides the few people that Yuk made listen to his Holmes demo tape while riding in his car. Besides that, the Kidz just played at Yuk's house whenever they all happened to be there, which was pretty much everyday or every other day, and since the place is a hang-out, a few people started sitting in on practice and actually getting to know the new songs. It was around this time that Bill came up with the idea to call the band the Short Bus Kids. They were actually called "the Pussants" (a Hife suggestion) for the entire month of June, but decided against it, because it seemed to gross people out. Fukerz. Let it be said! Mike Yuk is the only dumbass who never came up with a band name for this band. He's named plenty of others, but the stupid jerkoff couldn't even name the band that he had been fronting for 5 years. After summer of '98, Hife stayed in KC and went to UMKC with Yuk. Nothing Kidz happened until that December, when Bill Kill returned. The Kidz played a show at Beamers Garage, a metal bar on Johnson Drive. It's a long story how they got the show, basically they were filling in for the Madd, who couldn't play. It was a terrible night to play, it was a few days before X-Mas and it had snowed a lot, which made attendance kinda sparse. But SBK rocked the house down! Metalheds, punx, trendies and dorx all agreed that SBK rocked that night. Sporting their suits and a fuking rude 'tude the Kidz took to the stage and did their best to offend and entertain. During their set, the Veternary Clinic next door caught on fire and hundreds of animals died! Rule!! No! Not rule. SBK does not condone any kind of animal cruelty. Up the ALF! The Kidz made stickers for the occasion, which read: "Big Fat Booty Style, Short Bus Kids." Those things kept turning up everywhere for the next few months.
Fall/Winter '99
After that show the Kidz did nothing until summer of '99. They only played a couple "shows" at Yuk's house in '99, where they invited all their friends. But more importantly they went to Iowa for 3 days and recorded about 18 songs. It was kind of a tense week for the Kidz, getting up early and the fact that Yuk had to leave early for a funeral didn't help much either. But they did manage to make a decent recording. They plan to release about 10 songs on the first official SBK tape by the time they play at GEE on December 23rd, 1999 with the Bea Arthurs, Kosher and the Abilities. This is the first time this band has played at GEE for 1 1/2 years. A new addition to the Short Bus Kids is MeredithLilly, who Yuk met in O.D.T., where she played bass and sang. She has taken over some of the vox, as Yuk wants to experiment with a new sound. That's about all there is to tell for now... if you have anything to add or suggest, please email the Kidz... the saga continues...
SBK Millenium
After Winter break of 1999, Meredith went back to school in New York. At the December 23, 1999 show at Gee, Mike had met Andiy through a mutual friend. Around new years, SBk got asked to play at the pirate house in Lawrence. None of the Kidz knew the pirates very well, they'd only met them at the show at Gee briefly. But they agreed to play and Mike asked Andiy if she'd like to sing for SBk, she happily accepted. The show at the pirate house was the very first Matinee Show, and the line up was: Element, Lost Pride, Short Bus Kids and the Basement Disasters. The show was amazing and Lost Pride played their set twice. During Spring of 2000, SBk played a show at the Flanders Punk House in Lawrence, during this show the tradition of jumping off Keith Warnhoff began. Keith is an ex-boyscout camp box that was found in Mike's Grandma's closet. He's been used by many of Mike's bands (including Madd Scientists and O.D.T.) to carry around guitar cables and distortion pedals, set lists, batterys, etc... But after the Flander's show, he became part of the show, and kids would line up and take turns doing hardcore jumps off of him. He has been retired as of December 29, 2000 due to injuries sustained in action. We'll miss him. In May of 2000, SBk played a bike aid benefit at the pirate house, during this set they debuted the song "Martha Stuarts Cuttin' Cheese" otherwise known as the "right/left" song. It was a hit. Soon after Mike moved into the pirate house. At the end of June, SBk got their first ever opening slot for a touring band, opening for Good Clean Fun at El Torreon. The show was amazing and the audience had lots of energy. On the 4th of July, SBk played a benefit show for the Peltier Defense fund in Leavenworth with a slew of other area bands. Towards the end of July they played with DS-13, and finished of their summer by playing with Zegota at the pirate house at the end of August. The day after the Zegota show they were in Iowa recording at Junior's Motel Recording Studio, they recorded and mixed 9 songs in one day. A few days later, Tyler left for Europe for a semester of studying abroad, and BiLL KiLL left in the middle of September.
The Kid's Split
Three of the songs from the August 2000 recording were put on a 7" record with the band JBk. SBk and JBk had played together many times. Mike and Jesse (jbk) had talked about the fact that there hadn't been many good 7"s released in Kansas in the past couple years. There were a few here and there, but nothing hardcore really. The last hardcore 7" out of KC/Lawrence had been the Derailer/Esoteric split two years earlier. It was decided that SBk and JBk would put out "the Kid's Split." And for about 6 or 7 months it just seemed like idle talk, until October 2000, when Mike and Jesse pooled their money together and had the record pressed. The release show was on December 23, 2000, one year after the show at GEE where Mike had met Andiy. It was an amazing show and the Controlled, Red Letter and Rock Over London played. KC/Lawrence hardcore punk shows always feel like a family get together, not the awkward weird ones, but the really nice ones, where you know everyone there and they're all friends, and you're greeted with smiles. In the past year, the hardcore scene in Eastern Kansas has become a truely unique and strong scene, with bands like: Lost Pride, the Controlled, the Enlisted, JBk and some of the newer bands that are popping up, it's been a great time to be involved. SBk also played a show at the pirate house on December 29, 2000 with JBk, One Concern, Sobriety Check and the debut of Olsen Terror. It was a raging show and over 100 people were in attendence.
The Kidz will be back in action in February of 2001, beware.
Email the Kidz with ideas at:
ShortBusKidz@hotmail.com
Bands We've played With:
Sobriety Check
One Concern
Olsen Terror
Zegota
Demon System 13 (DS-13)
Spazm 151
Lost Pride
JBK
Derailer
the Syndicate
Rotting Broccoli
Pray for Mojo
Good Clean Fun
the Controlled
Figure 70
Annie on my Mind
the Mongoloids
Red Letter
Instability
the Crackbabies
the John C. Holmes Band
the Nuclear Family
Electronimo
Wednesday Blue
the Get Up Kids
the Revolvers
60 Cycle Hum
the Lowbrows
the Distorted
the Socials
the Atomic Six
Anti-State
Element
the Good for Nothings
Madd Scientists
O.D.T.
There are LOTS of bands I can't remember off-hand... if we've played with you, please email us and let us know and we'll add you. Also if you have a web page and want a link, we can do that to. If yr nice, fuko.
Other Names We've Had:
Broken Crayons (1993)
Stupid Idiots (1994)
Or Whatever (1994)
Swirley Bees (1994)
Jellystone (1995)
Blue Jesus (1995-1998)
the Pussants (1998)
the Short Bus Kids (1998- )
A quote we still cherish:
"I got Blue Jesus tattooed across my ASS!"
-Joe Schmo (drummer from Anti-State)