Still in Richmond - Amphetamine Library

Amphetamine Library congealed in the dormitories of VCU in 1985. Andy Thompson (lead guitar), Hunter Duke (drums), and Donny Shattuck (bass and vocals) had already been working for a few months as the power trio Black 44 when 17 year-old long-haired Manko Eponymous showed up and started playing solo acoustic sets in the student union pub and the dorm stairwells. They combined forces with Manko adding his electric guitar, voice and weird moody lyrics. Early touchstone influences were Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Gong and King Crimson, which in hindsight seems weird considering all the drugs they weren't taking. As one old freak was heard to say after the band played their version of "Interstellar Overdrive" in a floodzone bar, "Y'all are way too young to be playing that shit."

A generation later, the surviving four members got together in Nashville to finally record the songs properly. After a brief rehearsal in Andy's basement, they spent a day in the studio recording and then had some celebratory shots of bourbon and went out for Mexican food and margaritas. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.