The John and Jim's Band Story

John and Jims band was formed in 1993-94 by John Terlouw
and Jim Campbell. At first the band was mythical,often
advertised in the halls of South Tama High School.On every
poster the band's name changed( John, Jim, and Jingleheimer
Schmidt(suggested by John),John, Jim and the Stinkfish
(suggested by Travis Mulen) Arthur Stanly Eddington, etc).
In addition, many posters would note that it was "John and
Jim's band" beneath the title of the day-simply stating the
fact. Later someone (probobly John) suggested that this
absurdly straight-forward line be the bands name.And so came
to be the ledgend.
Much turmoil then insued over finding a drummer.At first
Travis Mullen was a prime target,but he quickly dissed the
project as not being worth his time after only a couple
short jam sessions. John and Jim would often take a whirl at
playing the drums on John's dad(Andy Terlouw)'s drum set
from his early sixties band "The Classix". Eventually Adam
Brown joined. He turned out to be an obvious choice being
that Jim had played with him at evening church functions
from time to time, and he had a newer drumset. The band then
added "with New Drummer Adam" to it's title, adding to it's
rediculousness.
Often additinal guitarists were tried out (Eli Mullen
and Darius Carr were two of the main ones), but they
eventually found Joe, who was then in 8th grade and just
learning the guitar.(his sister Brooke often comlained that
"and awesome guitarist Joe" should have been added to the
title, though it never really stuck.)
The band often practiced in the evenings and on
weekends, developing a set that included tunes by the ever
so popular Nirvana, REM, and Jim's favorite The Lemonheads,
as well as original tunes penned almost equally by all the
bandmembers. John and Adam composed the lyrics to the hit
song Spoon Empathy while entering a discussion with Sarah
Stoner about how spoons and forks are treated unequally in
the dishwashing world. Jim composed Dee Dee Loves felt in
conjunction with Justin Augspurg - a ramones lover and
feltmaker Jim met at a Kansas City Art Institute summer
program. Adding Encephalon, a product of new drummer Adam's
Imagination, they figured they had enogh for a demo tape.
This demo tape later would be distributed as the band's
first and only major release, The Galfunk album.
This infamous tape boasted an undespiked Lemon and a
title derived from an obscure referance to a lemonheads
video.As you know all lemons have spikes and are usually
despiked before reaching the consumer.The Undespiked lemon
appeared on posters and T-shirts and were a big part of the
John and Jim's band culture. Jim even mentioned in his
yearbook that "throwing undespiked lemons at Andy Mohr" the
foreign exchange student from Germany was one of his
favorite passtimes. The galfunk album was recorded and
released in at the beginning of summer 1995, and featured a
guest guitar performance by John's brother- in-law, the
famous Neil Clopton (who along with Ian Mallory, recorded
and mixed the tape) on a funky instumental track later
called Thanks be to the Reluctant. Add a remake of a popular
piano teaching song, Freight Train, (played and sung by Adam
Brown with accompaniment on recorder by Jim and Joe) and
you've got a hit on your hands!
The band had been together for nearly two years
when they decided to put down these original songs onto 4
track (a machine they borrowed from the South Tama High
School music dept). The whole event was captured on super-
eight film and included pizza and bratwurst donated by Susan
Terlouw and Elizabeth Brown.
Jim's cheap distortion pedal broke just before the
recording took place so he settled for the overdrive built
into his Yamaha amp (once the property of Clyde Purk of
Peppertree, purchased for an even hundred spot) for a unique
sound. Clyde Purk also donated additional effects that
afternoon which came in handy when recording vocals.
The tape was distributed all around the South Tama area
and surrounding communities.It include an offer inside for a
free T-shirt (like the one sported in the photo by New
Drummer Adam) which was to be sent to the first person who
sent them fan mail: a girl from marshalltown, Iowa who
bought the tape (and a pair of official John and Jim's band
sunglasses-the kind with yellow lenses-very ahead of it's
time was this band) from the ever so suave Adam when he
first made a brief encounter with her in M-town.
The band had played only one show previous to this - a
small gathering in John's elegantly decorated basement. this
basement had served as practice space for all of the cold
seasons in Iowa. It included several once abandoned pieces
of furnature, a slightly underscaled pool table, a folding
mirror, a fake palm tree, the Classix drumset, and a
continuous field of posters,flags, and other wall and
ceiling decorations. This basement had once fallen victim to
floods and cat manure but was cleaned by John and Jim when
the idea of having a band first came up. The first show
took place there one day with an unmonitored doorfee of 15
cents. Those who attended included John and Joe's sisters
and a few others.
The band played only 4 shows after that:Bandfest
(organized by John and Jim's band at the Sean Plowman farm),
a show in Montour,Ia when Ragbrai came through, in John's
Sister's wedding on Dec 31st 1995, and a brief reunion show
at an AFS picnic at the Tama the following summer.(Two of
those shows,the AFS show and Ragbrai included Brian Cooper
of Peppertree who filled in at a moments notice when Adam
was unable) An additional show was rumored to have taken
place in Adam Brown's garage without Joe one sunny
afternoon,and was attended by most of the Peppertree gang.
In January of 1996, when John was in Mexico helping
poor children and showing off his skateboard to them, Adam
and Jim Raided his basement and recorded an additional set
of original tunes later to be known as the Tape Dispenser
sessions. It included the tune Our Town, on which John later
dubbed a Bass line so the song could be played a rare one
time(unheard by even the band) on a Grinell, Ia radio
station. Eventually with Jim in College, and the rest soon
to be, the band disolved. Jim later mastered the John and
Jim's Band 4 track recordings onto cd so that they could be
preserved for the next generation.
Today, John, Jim and Adam are in college. Jim started a
band called the Ottomen in Kansas City. Adam sold his
drums and bought a sampler, 4 track, and epiphone guitar and
is currently between projects. Joe is a Senior in High
School and has started a band called Exit there with fellow
South Tamans Jon Smith, Ben Applegate, and Aaron Sievers.
They recently played in the School the last day of school
before Christmas break (in the tradition of Peppertree
beforethem) and have played and plan to play more shows at
Joe's Internet Cafe. John is now in a band in Iowa City with
Tama native Justin Bartch and 2 other UI students. Brian
Cooper and Clyde Purk continue to play with Peppertree and
it's many variables. Copies are still available of The
Galfunk Album at Recycled Sounds in K.C., MO or send $3.00
for cassette or $4.00 for cd to J&JB 203 S.Division ST,
Montour, IA 50173 USA











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