Tuesday, March 4, 2008

THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER, Fantastic Planet (cassette, 199?)

Once again we have a little real world business to take care of before diving into Dayton's musical past. As you certainly know, today is primary day! That is, one of two days that come only once every four years during which anyone in either of the two major parties gives a shit about Ohio. And I, for one, think that's already two days too fucking many!

(ADDENDUM: Vote for Jane Mitakides for the Ohio-3 in November. Just thought I'd mention that).

Anyway, I'm a Hillary man myself, but if you want to get out there and vote for Mr. Obama, you should do it. And now that that's out of the way, let's get to something of far greater import:

Another curiosity today -- found this one in the dark recesses of a box of tapes Grog lent me. There are no song titles. The cassette insert is photocopied and hand cut (nice art, by the way). The cassette is a JVC GI-90 with a label stuck on one side bearing the legend "CAPTAIN WOODY CRAFTER" in dot matrix printing. The dot matrix and my vague recollection of when I heard this band's name around town lead me to place it some time around 1993-1995, but I've no way to know for sure.

For some reason, I find myself associating Chris Wright with this band somehow.

The artwork on the insert gives a fair indication of the musical direction within: half psychedelic, half grunge, half proto-metal... so that's 150% RAWK for those keeping score at home.

About the band's name, the label prints it as three separate words, but the flap on the insert prints "WOODYCRAFTER" as one word. I've found various entries on the web that add the definite article "THE" to the band name. Sometimes "CAPTAIN" is abbreviated as "CAP'T." (which is odd considering there are no letters between the "p" and the "t" in "captain") or just "CAPT." but it's spelled out on the label and insert here. Because the web sources adding "THE" seem to pop up among listings of people who used to be in this band, I'll go ahead and add it here even though it's not on the cassette material. So we'll tentatively give the band the official title of "THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER."

Researching obscure local bands on the web is a little easier where the artists were good enough to choose a name comprised of a unique string of characters like "Woodycrafter" (try typing "MOM" or "KEY-NOTE SPEAKER" into Google some time and see the shit that turns up). Still, I've been able to uncover only a few fragments of information:
  • Singer Kevion Kelley "unexpectedly passed away" at some point, but it's hard to tell exactly when or how. It seems his death came some time between the MYSTERY ADDICTS last show at the 1999 Monster Hop and their reformation in 2000 or 2001. Here's the source excerpt from the article in the May 24, 2001 edition of the Impact Weekly (click on the link and then do a search on "woodycrafter" to find the relevant portion). You figure it out.
  • THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER seems to have put out a self-titled CD at some point (unless there was another CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER I don't know about). It has turned up on various 1-cent listings around the web.
  • Some former members of this band were later in the now semi-defunct Dayton experimental combo YARDBOY.
  • The bass player now does a solo industrial thing called HarSH.
  • One or more members were later in ALL ELECTRIC KITCHEN CARNIVAL.
  • The band appears among a list of bands that MY LATEX BRAIN has played with over at their site.
  • This half-complete band page for ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE lists the bass player of that band as having played in THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER.
This bizarre YouTube video has the tag "WoodyCrafter" appearing among the label list. It was reportedly filmed in Dayton and has sort of a ROB ZOMBIE/DOCTOR CREEP aesthetic going (face paint, macabre imagery in domestic circumstances, characters in a trance like state -- you get the picture). It uses one of the songs presented for download here in the soundtrack (it's about 4 minutes in), but I don't know how else it might be related to the band (maybe some of the band members are in it? You tell me). The main character is called "Wil" at the beginning but "Woody" later on in the film. A "Kevin Kelly" is listed among the creators, but I don't know whether that's the same person as the "Kevion Kelley" referenced in the source I mentioned above.

The opening text places the events portrayed in 1990 and it's copyrighted in that year. Since it uses a song on this tape, that might place the recording somewhere in 1990 or earlier. But I don't recollect hearing anything about THE CAPTAIN WOODY CRAFTER before the mid-'90s, and the video could've been cut and edited much later. So who knows for sure? (If you know, correct me in the comments section).


That's all the information I've been able to gather. If you know more, let's hear it. In the meantime, enjoy the two songs presented here. Good rawk!

Track List:

1. Hollywood
2. The Pain

Download It! (12 MB) (link re-upped on 2-1-2013)


As I mentioned above, the insert shows no song titles, so I just broke up the title given on the cassette insert.

UPDATE 2-6-2013: Helpful commenters have provided the correct song titles.  This has been corrected in the download.

So once again I Remember Dayton... serves up another recording that presents more questions than answers. But what would Dayton (or life itself) be without a little twisted mystery?

take care

---Jones()

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, that's definitely Kevin (Kevion) in the video - the one with the pigtails. A couple others look familiar, but I'm hesitant to put a name with the white face.

If I had to guess, though, I would say that the video is set back in time. To my knowledge Capt. Woodycrafter was more like mid- to late 90s.

The Mystery Addicts actually reformed to play the tribute show for Kevin at The Asylum.

Steven probably knows more than I do - I'll see if I can get him to post.

Anonymous said...

The Date - which I was told last week had surfaced on YouTube had started filming in late 1990. I joined the band, in early 1992. The video was edited during the summer of 1992. All band members and some friends were involved, Kevin, Jeff and myself, Jay (from Lost Marble Collection) is the drag queen mom. I still have the white mask worn by the dad. The editing was done after hours at Channel 2 studios. Now for the cassette tape...I think it was the 1st recording and artwork from 1993. It's somewhat of a blur but, I think the master got screwed up and we ended up recording the whole thing over again and released it in 1994. The song titles from your download are Hollywood (in the movie) and The Pain. We later released a self titled CD in 1996 and disbanded around 1998. He passed away in April of 2000. I was in NOitAll at the time and went on to do YardboY (also with Jeff-guitarist CWC), HarsH, All Electric Kitchen Carnival and Accidently On Purpose. I've been converting all the old live/practice tapes to cd and have a few live videos shot at the Palace Club and The Asylum that I need to put to dvd. If anyone has any CWC works, let me know. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

The Date- just to add: was a film me (Jay of LMC aka. wil robinson;
u86news.com) and william kevin kelly made with C. Brown, a news photographer from an other than channel 2, I believe. The origin of the name was: captain would he craft her knobs?. Sexual of course. Kevin was always sexual. Actually, I lived with Kevin on Watervliet for a year or so. We recorded LMC's 'Everything is Here' live on Green Street in the Oregon District. Ritch Kerns lived with Kevin at the time. I lived at 28 Hess Street with Johnny Mikula (sp.), 3rd floor. We would go dancing all the time. Well actually, kevin went dancing at 1470's and The Palace Club, and he would pick up chicks left and right. Alway an artist first. I just drank on the side lines. I just would hang looking for new ideas. Hey what am I here to say; Kevin had a vision. Lost Marble Collection (LMC) loved it's experience with Kevin Kelly aka will kelly. My sons middle name is kelly. Watch LMC's videos on youtube under 'wilrobinson'. We miss Kevin. That son of bitch was magic. The music goes on and on. We wrote alot of tunes and ideas together. But, the best one is when me and kevin turned on our tape loops and did a circle around Ritch Kerns (Keyboard Player of LMC aka. little brian eno) Kevin is playing a flute and I am chasing him with a wind tube. Like a whip. Round and round. It's called "man floating in space". Ok I will upload it. Or you can ask me for an mp3. I have a couple of Kevin's art pieces in my room hanging. Kevin Kelly and Timmy Taylor will always be missed. Timmy Taylor made my heart race and Kevin Kelly made it skip.............what more can I say??? Those were the days.....

Anonymous said...

Kevin was great he was a tail that didn't stop wagging. Hot fun and a hot mess. I wish I had recorded the show in Kettering 1470's it was magical. Got me in bed!!! I did't know he passed until I asked a friend about him- horrible. He was an artist a great one. He is missed, I still think about him. He sparkled.

Anonymous said...

I think about him and I touch myself!!!!

Anonymous said...

I knew Jeff Mundy of Captain Woodycrafter and did a cassette tape cover for them on an early version of Corel Draw. Im curious if that's the tape you have.
I know that was either 1995 or 1996.
I cant remember much about the cover except I think it had a picture of the band in black and white on it.
They played at Canal Street during a battle of the bands or two. Cant recall more than that.

Anonymous said...

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-11963565.html

"DAYTON -- A Dayton man drew the minimum 20 years in federal prison on charges connected to the April 24, 2000, death of the vocalist of the rock band Captain Woodycrafter.

Michael D. Horton, 30, also known as "Fresh," pleaded guilty Sept. 21 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, crack cocaine and the prescription drug Xanax. The plea interrupted Horton's federal trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Richard Chema said, after the Dec. 22 sentencing, that William "Kevin" Kelley, 29, of Beavercreek and another man bought heroin from Horton at Horton's apartment in the 1000 ... "

From 1/1/06

Anonymous said...

Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Richard Chema said, after the Dec. 22 sentencing, that William "Kevin" Kelley, 29, of Beavercreek and another man bought heroin from Horton at Horton's apartment in the 1000 block of Wayne Avenue. The drugs turned out to be very concentrated heroin, and both men passed out in a car outside Horton's apartment. Kelley died.

In early 2001, Horton was sentenced in a state drug case to London Correctional Institution, where his monitored phone calls led to the April 24, 2001, arrest of a woman for smuggling drugs into the prison, Chema said.

Horton entered a plea agreement in the current case after federal prosecutors withdrew enhancements that would have meant life in prison, Chema said in September.

At the sentencing before U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice, federal agents arrested Horton's wife, Debra Horton, 35, charging her with being part of a conspiracy to transport drugs to Horton while he was imprisoned.

Contact Rob Modic at 225-2282.

Anonymous said...

It's Kevin. This video was mostly shot in Mike Zink's basement on the corner of Patterson Rd, and Whittier Ave. This video was shot before Captain Woody Crafter was even formed.

Anonymous said...

captain would he craft her knobs.....

Anon said...

I was good friends with Orgygonerumble (Xenia Avenue and The Pink Palace). They put me onto Woodycrafter. One night they were playing at a bar (don't remember the name) and the management wanted Kevin to push the hotdogs they were selling. He got on the mic and told everyone not to eat hotdogs because they were bad for you. Funny stuff.