Ladyfinger

Forgive me if I get a little repetitious here.  I know there's often a story arc on this blog that consists of the following: (1) Boy hears band for the first time and doesn't like it. (2) Years go by and/or circumstances change. (3) Man discovers in hindsight that said band just might have been on to something.  So, you can save yourself some time and skip to the link below to listen, or just go read a better music blog like  Awesome Tapes From Africa.
In the late winter/early spring of either 1994 or 1995, I was at a party on either Main or Cary Street in Richmond.  Some band called Ladyfinger was playing.  Their guitarist looked like a white Urkel and bore the countenance of someone that would rather slowly watch you drown at sea rather than throw you a life raft.  The bassist looked like the kind of girl in High School that was both out of your league and had a better record collection than you.  The drummer supposedly had a childhood accident that made it impossible for him to ever wear a shirt, ever.  They played math rock, but a lot of people did back then.
A year or so later, I got a job at Christie's Cafe and Bakery in Carytown.  It was basically an excuse to hang out with friends and see what we could get away with without getting fired (Once I got my boss to eat a concoction consisting of blended bacon, mayonnaise, and Triple Sec).  I worked in the kitchen sometimes with my friend Chris Wade, and we'd listen to Samhain and such.  He would also put on a Ladyfinger tape sometimes, and I didn't really get into it.

Years and years later, Chunklet magazine posted a long article about Pen Rollings which included the Ladyfinger demo that I heard at Christie's and several songs that I hadn't heard yet that were way better.  Part of it might have been that the ones I hadn't heard had better vocals on them and were catchier.  Unfortunately, they weren't as well recorded as the later material.  Regardless, I still prefer it.  The earlier songs sounded like a punk rock band/metal band whose ideas grew beyond standard 4/4 riffs and had a singer that had an intuitive feel for the music; while the later stuff sounded more complicated for the sake of being complicated with a guy choking into a delay pedal over top.  Not that it was bad at all, just not as... charming.
Oh, I forgot to mention the names of the people in the band.  Ron Dimmick (I've seen his name spelled 4 different ways) played guitar in this band and also was in Sliang Laos - possibly one of the greatest bands of all time (see June's entry on them).  Elisa played bass and is my facebook friend but will probably never read this.  Pen Rollings (drums) was the guitarist in Breadwinner and is in a band called Loincloth.  I bet you $5 he isn't wearing a shirt right now.  Sean Harris (vocals) was in Butterglove and Human Thurma and The Rams.  He is alive and well and tortures various Telecasters in Seattle.
Complete Discography
Lyrics!
And a couple videos:
One Trick Pony
Juan Dominico
Chet