Tem Eyos Ki.

For the first few years that I started doing shows, all ages spaces were in short supply. The Faubourg Center shut down in the summer of 1998, and the only other consistent space was Movie Pitchers--a great space, but one that took half the door which cut into a chunk of money for touring bands (especially for me back then when I was still trying to grasp the idea that people don't want to come out for bands they'd never heard of and that I would have to trick them into coming out to shows by putting on terrible local bands). The Dixie Taverne was an option since there was an unspoken agreement that carding didn't need to be overly enforced, but doing late night bar shows could be taxing at times. I set up shows briefly in the basement of my apartment on St. Charles and Burdette, but that was destined to fall apart. Nowe Miasto was doing shows back then, but the folks there were so insular, it was hard enough finding out about a show they were doing, let alone setting one up.

Luckily, my persistent attendance and and fervent search for punk shows across the city led me into the good graces of Icky Apparatus and a few of the other Nowe Miastos. In late 2000 or early 2001, Icky ended up putting on an amazing show with Tem Eyos Ki, Them of Delphi, Living Under Lies, The Tree of Knowledge zine distro, Tom Sweet, and I think maybe a local band. This was also my first introduction to the Ark which would become the home for a large amount of my future shows. I think I was most interested in catching Living Under Lies, since it was the new band from one or two of the Talk is Poison folks, who had blown me a way a couple of years before with their show at the Dixie Taverne. But my pal Steven Springer was amped up about Tem Eyos Ki, whom I had never heard of. But, like introducing me to Avail at the Faubourg Center or Dropdead at the Ranch, he would lay his christian hands upon my heathen brow and bless me with another amazing band in an intensely DIY space.

Tem Eyos Ki is one of those short-lived and hugely underrated punk bands like Sicarii, One Eyed God Prophecy, Holocron, or Ire. Imagine a bunch of Peter Pan, pell mell hippie bike punks somehow combining Judas Priest-like guitar leads with early 90s emotional hardcore; now throw in an accordian, a cello, and some singing. Sincere, creative, energetic--this band certainly embodied all the best aspects of DIY punk culture. When they broke out that accordian on "Tigris / Euphrates," it literally blew my mind--not to mention the packaging for the tour CDR (tranparent image set over an old map cutout) had as much of an impact on my graphic design senses as Dan Fox's typewriter-based, cut-and-paste take on flyers; and the packaging for the LP is one of the direct influences for the layout and packaging of the Thou Tyrant LP.

Tem Eyos Ki never made it back down to New Orleans. I was supposed to do a show with them, This Scares Me, and Dear Diary I Seem to Be Dead at Nowe Miasto in 2003, but their tour ended up getting canceled. I did get the pleasure of doing a couple of shows with their other band Soophie Nun Squad before they broke up--the first of which is still listed in my top shows ever. The one Tem Eyos Ki show I did get to attend stands out as one of the most influential shows I've ever been to.

tour CDR:
Ogoni
Drinking Gourd
Tigris / Euphrates
Letter to the US Marshalls
Blind Guardian
Stop Action
John Parker's Iron Wheel
Barefooted
Aluminalkalyde
Grinding Rogue Honest
Kaput Mortem
Communion


seven inch:
Aluminalkalyde
Chipko
Communion
Annie Mae


split seven inch with Hundred Years War:
Kids Kill Kids
Purge

new unmastered mix of the LP (aka Argenta Roughs):
Portrait of Agatha Bas
Cruithne
The Lion, the Roach, and the Naked Mole Rat
Last of the Mastadons
Ogoni
Spring
Wolf and Moon

The original mix of the LP with the rest of the tracks:
Spring
Pangea
Wolf and Moon
Ogoni
The Lion, the Roach, and the Naked Mole Rat
Pulpit and the Pallbearer
Argenta
Drinking Gourd
Potrait of Agatha Bas
John Parker's Iron Wheel
Cruithne
Last of the Mastadons


All the Days are Numbered So compilation:
Blind Guardian

Nate Powell has some info up on the Harlan site and a few pictures on his flicker, and there are a few good pictures up on this fan myspace page. This guy from Goleta also mentions them in his blog. And if you do a YouTube search, you can also find a number of awesome videos. And here are the rest of my pictures from that show at the Ark.

Here's Maralie's site for her art, other bands, projects, etc.