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redvinegar  combines influences of folk, classic rock, hard rock, and the ever present and so-called "alternative" rock (that's a lot of rock) to create a wholly pleasing blend of herbs and spices.

redvinegar has been a band in the making for some 9 years, when Pete Peterson and Dave Hendrick met in the frozen tundra of Northern Wisconsin and began to play rock and roll. Later, Peterson went to Chicago for school, and musical endeavours with Hendrick happened only on vacations. (and later on the rare occaisions that Hendrick could come down to Chicago.)

Skip to 1995, when Pete Peterson met Phil Kuhl at North Park University. Phil played in a band called "Atwitter," and Pete played largely on his own in the university coffee house. At some point along the way, Phil and Pete started to play together, and when Dave Hendrick began school in Milwaukee, weekend practices commenced and Pedro was born.

It wasn't long after that that Peter Everett Carlson was added to the mix as an official member of the band, and Pedro made it's first appearace at a North Park variety show in early 1999. However, because of Dave's travel schedule (and run-ins with the police), Pedro never practiced as a full band until the show-- but you know what? It turned out just fine.

Jump to the fall of 1999, skipping summer, Korea, blinding heat, and major, invasive surgery on Phil Kuhl, and that brings us to today. These days, Dave Hendrick is on assignment in Northern Wisconsin doing field work-- collecting the songs of the natives, making sociological studies, and getting a degree while making mad connections through college radio.

Meanwhile, Pedro became redvinegar and Aaron Moon has been drafted into the ranks of redvinegar. (Which is especially cool because Aaron drummed in Phil's very first band, "Exit," back when Aaron was 12!) Regardless, Aaron totally rocks out and we think you'll agree.
Listen to redvinegar.

--Peter

Well, we said it was gonna happen, and it appears that now is the winter of our discount tent. Actually though, we just got around to asking everybody in the band, it looks like the name has been changed to redvinegar. It's kinda a long story, and I'm sure I'll end up writing it up. Pedro has been ditched for two reasons-- one, there is a up and coming band called Pedro the Lion and people have already asked us if this has anything to do with them. The other reason, is that we're not latin in any way, really, and pedro might seem a little incongruous. Not that incongruity is such a bad thing... but you know.

--Peter

Sherman! Set the wayback machine for the winter of 1989.

I went to a Skate-a-thon in Willow River, MN, for Covenant Park Bible Camp. Now, for those of you who don't know what a skate-a-thon is, it's where people pledge you money to go roller skate, and for the amount of time that you roller skate, you get whatever they pledged. It's not very complex, and it is a fundraiser, so cut them some slack. Rollerskating was cool. It was fun. I stunk at it. And she, well... she was marvelous.

She, of course is M1ndy Z4pp. This may be the only web page to immortalize (cough) her name and so I'll say it again. M1ndy Z4pp. A friend of a friend, M1indy Z4pp, from Duluth MN, was destined to be my first crush. And I mean my real, honest, first crush. Crush for the reasons they call it a crush. I mean, there was N1kki Fl3mmen, in 6th grade, ok, and some of high-school, fine (i'm sure she is a "Nicole" now) but that was really, nothing compared to the gut-wrenching, lay-awake -at-night kind of infatuation this was.

But enough about me. Let's talk about M1ndy Z4pp.

I had seen her from across the skating floor off and on that night, but me, being the socially-inept little dude that I was (I'm so much wiser now), of course couldn't go say hi. Ooh, and boy, if you knew what we were wearing. I mean, the 80s were having their last death knell, and they were inflicting it on M1ndy and myself. POR EJEMPLO: I was wearing light blue acid washed jeans and a shirt, and as the coup de grace, a "Reese's Pieces" bike hat that I actually saved UPCs for. For her part, M1ndy was wearing a black crumply hat (we sure did like our hats), and had a bubble blowing orb thing on a string around her neck. Don't get me wrong. I loved it then and I love it now. But I still have to laugh.

ANYWAY, my friend Sh4rla Sch3linder dragged me over (alright, i was pretty willing) to meet M1ndy. And it was great. For some reason, she seemed to think I was alright, we hit it off, and have I yet explained that I was smitten? I was.

But we hit it off, like I just said, for no apparent reason. And after skating around for a while, we found ourselves talking near one of the cinderblock walls. She said to me, "I think I'm going to call you 'Vinegar.' From now on, you'll be Vinegar to me."

Touching, no? I mean, at the risk of sounding corny and unrepentently mushy, I never stopped to think about what or why, or how on earth she could have come up with that name -- and I still have no idea, although I have faith that all the bad things you are associating vinegar with right now  weren't what inspired her. But I loved and embraced the name immediately. Of course I did.

And so logically, I needed a name to call her. "What should I call you?", I said.

She thought for a while, and then provided, "Wilhelmina."

"Wilhelmina?" I asked.

"Yep."

And so it began. I was Vinegar, and she was Wilhelmina. Or more often, Vin-Vin and Wil. She introduced me to the hilarious convention of actually spelling (A-hem).  And her handwriting was deliciously messy. I coined a theory that I was later to test.

Many, many letters were written and fewer phone calls were made, and truth be told, I really only saw her twice in my life. No, I take that back. She worked at Target in Duluth, and I think I saw her there once, but didn't have the nerve to talk to her. I wasn't sure if it was really her. Or if she'd recognize me. Don't get me wrong-- I only know how I felt at the time... I don't pretend to know what she thought. I mean, to be fair, I was a boy who lived 40 miles away. We were friends -- but I'll admit that I've had more than my share of imagination in this life.

[volumes of boring-to-everyone-else information snipped.]

SO. Skip the boring part about how she started dating this guy, and how our friendship kinda faded away into obscurity, as these things do, and how I still have this story bouncing around in my head, and even a little spot for her in my heart. Ultimately though, nicknames are romantic, magical things -- at least they are in the truer sense of those words -- so I like to think that somewhere, tuba-toting Vin-Vin has been audaciously saving accordion-jet-packed Wilhelmina from both real and imagined peril even though M1ndy and I haven't spoken in years. And I hope that someday, should M1ndy find this, she'll be a good sport.

The red part of the redvinegar story ins't nearly as cool or exciting as the vinegar part of the story. In fact, if people would just trust me that it's not nearly as cool, I'd just leave it out. But you probably wouldn't trust me on this one and just let it go, so I'll try to sum it up here.

When I came to North Park, there was no Internet access here, and so I had to use J4mes H. W3solowski's  AOL account -- his screen name was RedDragon72, and since I had played around as him for awhile, when I finally made my own screen name, I prefixed the red to the vinegar -- and redvinegar was born.

And so, after all is said and done, it seems somewhat fitting that this band's name is the product of both infatuation and geekiness. On the one hand there is imaginative passion, and on the other hand a wonderful person who needs to call you by name. That these things created redvinegar  is perfect with me.

--Peter

Dave Hendrick, the fifth shemp of redvinegar, will be in Chicago for the weekend. I'm sure that hilarity will ensue, since our comrade bands The Project and Blue Stone are also playing this weekend. I will make sure to keep you informed.

addendum:

Dave's ride, a miss Marian Paroo (not her real name), decided to leave this morning without Dave or his girlfriend Crystal. Apparently there was  some misunderstanding, but it also seems like she wasn't willing to wait three and a half hours for them.

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--Peter

Yesterday my cat Caesar died at home of not eating (a common old pet disease) in Wisconsin yesterday.

</eulogy>

--Peter

Me and Dave were watching Phantom Menace yesterday. Dave watches it everyday, and I think that's lame. Anyhoo, we were watching it, and I started thinking about the whole story. 

So Qui Gon thinks that Anakin is supposed to fulfill some kind of prophecy and bring "Balance To The Force".

As near as I can tell, in Phantom Menace, things looked pretty balanced to me. The Jedi Masters sit around all day. How hard could things have been. Were they really worried about the Pantom Sidious destroying the Jedi? He couldn't even outwit a thriteen year old girl.

And so Qui Gon got bumrushed by Darth Maul? I think Yoda and Sammy Jackson would've been able to beat down his ass Onyx style eventually. Or at least Ki-Adu Mundi would've been dispatched to settle the score. NO, apparently when you're a Jedi Master, you have to sit around and discuss things like new techniques in evaporating into the force when you die ("Don't tell Qui Gon. He has defiant cooties.") and who has the more comfortable chair (My vote is for Yaddle).

So, in order for Anakin to bring balance to the Force, someone apparantly had to unbalance it. You know who it was? Qui Gon. 

Obi Won could've saved us all a lot of trouble by just slicing off the kid's head as soon as they brought him aboard. I'm sure Qui Gon would've been pissed, but Obi could've taken him out for Ice Cream when they got to Coruscant. Yeah, some Gungans would've gotten pasted too, eh, but they were ready to do there-san parrt, so no biggie on that end, either. 

The whole story is dumb, and watching Dave spend hundreds of dollars on it is too much for me. Seriously, that kid has a problem. He could be spending that money on beer or completing his Foghat CD collection, WHICH HE HASN'T EVEN STARTED YET!