In
the year 2000, David J Bacon, originally from Alaska, moved to Olympia,
WA. Like most musicians, heÕd been
in a lot of bands youÕve never heard (Janis Moons, PBR Streetgang, Camaro, The
Misfortunes, Oracle), performing his duties as primarily a bassist and a
keyboardist. David joined the
Olympia band Whoa
Dizzy in 2004 as the drummer, and then set about teaching
himself how to play the drums. But
more on that in a moment.
In
the summer of 2006, David bought a house and moved across
town to Olympia's east side. One afternoon David's friend,
Michael Parks, visiting from Texas, was hanging out at the house. Still
busy getting moved in, David was out running some errands, while Michael,
a little bored, sat down behind David's drum kit and started pounding out some
of his peculiar primeval rhythms.
Within the hour, there was a knock at the door.
The
visitor said, "I'm Jon, I live next door, is there a drummer here?"
David
was thinking, "Oh great, just moved in, and already pissing off the
neighbors."
But
Jon was not your usual neighbor.
Jon
Moon had moved to Olympia in 2001, and was already a veteran of the indie rock
scene. If you lived in Central Florida in the 1990's, and were interested
in that sort of thing, you may have seen him playing guitar and/or bass in
groups like Little 2 Eyes, Cougar Melonscent, Tick Tick
Tock, Men Eat Rocks, or Merengue.
Having
had little success forming a new band in Olympia, Jon came a knocking on
David's door that summer evening, and the two formed a writing project that
came to be known as Bacon Moon.
It
started as some improvisational jams at Jon's house with David on the drums and
Jon on guitar. The two started
making demos in DavidÕs home studio, mashing together JonÕs experimental noise
pop with DavidÕs progressive punk and hard rock. They posted the demos on MySpace throughout 2007-08, and started thinking about the live
act. The obvious choice to expand
the group came in the form of Nick Lutes, Nebraska transplant, and lead singer
of DavidÕs other band Whoa Dizzy, who also happened to be a drummer.
The group
played a number of Northwest shows between 2008-10, but outside commitments of
the members (including a few injuries and some legal problems) kept the band in
low gear. Bacon MoonÕs existence
during this period could best be termed as occasional.
A 2010
MySpace review summarized the situation, asking if Òmaybe the band members
[werenÕt] taking themselves seriously enoughÓ and wondering Òif they put their
minds to it they could make a really good CD.Ó
The band has since set about making that record, the first part of which, an EP, is slated to be released in the summer of 2011.