Soophie Nun Squad's unreleased 1993 demo now available digitally!

Behold, perhaps the last remaining still-unheard recordings by Soophie Nun Squad: our very first “real” session for an August 1993 demo tape, recorded on 4-track by Joe Cole at his house! It’s free/pay-what-you-want at my Harlan Records archive on Bandcamp.

Why was it unreleased? Because only one of our two vocalists is on the recording: the previous night, we played our third show ever (and track 7 is live from a VHS recording of that show) and I got in trouble for coming home super-late at night. I had just turned 15 years old. My parents found out I was gonna skip out on a trip to Hot Springs with a friend in order to record the demo, and being suspicious of our punk band's activities, threatened to ground me if I still chose to record. Should I have just skated away and gotten in more trouble? YES. But I didn't. So I missed the sesh.

Anyway, this recording features only Mike Lierly, Mark Lierly, Eli Milholland, and Dustin Clark, plus some bonus verbage by Corey, known in Little Rock's hip hop future as 9th Scientist. This demo shows some of the often-lost early musical influences on Soophie: "PJ Sod" distinctively drawing from Downcast, and "Paula" being an explicit nod to Chino Horde, with a kinship to Moss Icon as well.

Unused cover art by Mike Lierly, who also made up the undiscussed demo title in real time while drawing! This was only a couple of months after we self-published our first five comic books. All of this was happening at the same time!

June: Arkansas & Michigan book events, and a Trusty tribute show!

I’m coming out of my cave next month!

Back in my hometown of North Little Rock, Arkansas: It’s a major joy to announce that part of my Soophie family will be reuniting on June 3rd to cover a few Trusty songs during Mutants of the Monster Fest— a tribute show for one of the most formative bands of my life, and as a memorial for beloved Trusty drummer Bircho, who passed away in 2020.

Our unit will be covering songs from Trusty’s self-titled 1990 LP, a four-piece with members of Deadbird, Pallbearer, Universe, Tem Eyos Ki, R.I.O.T.S., and half of Soophie Nun Squad! This is my first show in 12 years, and I’m already running through songs in my sleep each night.

And Trusty themselves are playing, with Marcus Lowe on drums!

This tribute will be immediately following a book event I’m doing with fellow author Kim Kelly (Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor)— both at Refuge Church in North Little Rock; book talk at 2:30 pm, show at 4 pm. This will be my first time to ever discuss my forthcoming graphic novel, Fall Through— which is appropriate, since it revolves around the 1990s Arkansas punk underground. See you there!

CORRECTION: I’ve updated the text of this post with the correct event times— please disregard the times stated on the flyers above. Turns out the show must end by 5pm— thanks!

Then on June 10-11, I’m a guest at A2CAF at the Ann Arbor District Library— I’ll be slangin books there at my table, as well as doing a panel/interview. Athenaeum Comic Art will also be at my table during a two-hour window TBD, selling some of my original artwork if anyone’s interested. More details to be added to the events page!

SOOPHIE NUN SQUAD musical family tree!

For those interested, I’ve taken it upon myself to translate the musical relationships of my flagship band Soophie Nun Squad into a convenient flow-chart style family tree! (It’s fairly exhaustive, but by no means complete— I had to snip the connections the further out I went, usually stopping at band relationships one step out from direct SNS membership.)

Many of these bands may be explored further here at Harlan Records (a DIY punk record label I operated from 1994-2010).

SNS family tree 300dpi.jpg

CONDIZIONI playlist up at Fumettologica!



This rules-- Condizioni, the new Italian edition of Sounds Of Your Name just released by Edizioni BD's Psychopop imprint, has an unofficial playlist available at its review on Fumettologica.

Included are songs and bands that were incorporated into the titles, tone, or content of many of those 1998-2003 stories: Samiam, His Hero Is Gone, Fleetwood Mac, Mohinder, Assfactor 4, Monsula, Moss Icon, Wonderful Broken Thing, Amon Amarth, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Bruce Springsteen, Soophie Nun Squad, and Destiny's Child!

Interview with ELI V MANUSCRIPT in the Providence Phoenix


Here's a enlightening interview with Eli V Manuscript, AKA Eli Milholland-- lifelong best friend, performer in Humanbeast/ V Manuscript/ Tem Eyos Ki/ Soophie Nun Squad, and in recent years a writer as well.

Eli has a new book of writings out, Madness Of The Canary, available here, and is finishing work on a new Humanbeast album entitled Pantheon (with his other half, Maralie Armstrong-Rial) to be released in coming months on Load Records, while releasing more music on his own Gross Domestic Product label.

(here are some Humanbeast photos I took from 2009-2010 as well.)

Tem Eyos Ki's remastered LP masterpiece now available digitally!

 
I am honored to announce that, after being out-of-print for 9 years, North Little Rock punk/speed metal/chamber folk powerhouse Tem Eyos Ki has digitally reissued their classic 2002 LP on my Harlan Records site!

(download/listen here!)

The album is completely remixed and remastered by drummer/engineer Kevin Rains, and features a previously unreleased song as well. If you haven't heard this band (or this album), you're missing out on something powerful, visionary, and heartfelt. My favorite band of all time! Besides sharing membership with Soophie Nun Squad, members have gone on to perform in Humanbeast, Bloodhuff, V Manuscript, Universe, Divorce Chord, Holy Angell, and Zucura. Vocalist Maralie Armstrong-Rial is a multimedia performance artist, guitarist Eli Milholland runs the Gross Domestic Product cassette label, and guitarist Michael Lierly is an accomplished painter.

Here's a collection of Tem Eyos Ki photos up on my Flickr site.

You can also download digital versions of their 7", split 7" with Hundred Years War, and tour CDR.

Tem Eyos Ki in Richmond VA, June 2001. Photos by Chris Boarts Larson.

new Harlan Records archive site is up!



From 1994-2010 I ran a small DIY punk label called Harlan Records. That label (and its accompanying site) and defunct, so I thought I'd start up a new site to document all of those moldy old releases and bands.

I'm still working out the kinks-- but the first release is up now. Soophie Nun Squad's "We Ate Slayer" demo tape from 1994! 

Please email me at seemybrotherdance@yahoo.com if you have any photos or videos of any of the bands. Thanks!

20th anniversary of publishing comics!

This week marks the 20th anniversary of publishing my first comic--  D.O.A. #1, with the combined creative efforts of Michael Lierly, Nathan Wilson, and Alan Short. We printed up 100 copies under cover of darkness in late September 1992, and sold them on shelves at Collector's Edition Comics as well as out of our backpacks at school in North Little Rock, AR.

(D.O.A. #1 cover-- art by Mike Lierly, colors by me.)


To our surprise, the print run sold out by the time issue #2 hit the stands around Thanksgiving 1992. This encouraged us to continue a bi-monthly print schedule as we worked on writing all 50 issues of the series, but naturally by the time #4 hit shelves, we were neck-deep in a number of spin-off title ideas, writing songs for our fledgling band Soophie Nun Squad, laying groundwork on a small record label and punk zine, and figuring out how to make all of these projects work together.

(D.O.A. #2 interior page-- pencils by me, inks by Mike.)


I never looked back from these early efforts, and was just as serious about telling stories and communicating ideas through comics as I am today. I feel so fortunate to have had this kind of tunnel vision since age 11, when Mike Lierly (who had already been working on earlier incarnations of D.O.A. with Nate Wilson and Alan Short) suggested we make comics together as we rode to a week-long summer camp in his parents' minivan.

(Mike and I trying to "go pro", 1991.)


D.O.A. and its spin-off titles, coupled with shop owner Michael Tierney's decade-prior underground comic Wildstars, were part of a small early-mid 90's self-publishing scene in Little Rock. Books by area cartoonists Ron MacAdoo (now of Backyard Entertainment), Jeff Jackson, Chris Raymond, Jason Binfliff, Graham Westerlund, Ben Nichols (now of Lucero fame), and Ken Edge began surfacing as well, all learning from each other as we went, sometimes having never spoken in person about these various comics efforts. 

I truly don't know what I would've done if not for the possibilities opened to me through comics storytelling. Thanks to everyone I've collaborated with, everyone who has provided criticism, feedback, and advice over the last two decades, who has written or spoken to me at a convention, and readers willing to put up with my weird-ass stories.

Here's to tunnel vision and dedication.

(Mike Lierly continues his narrative path as a painter, and was also a member of the bands Soophie Nun Squad, Tem Eyos Ki, Boomfancy, Gioteens, Divorce Chord, and Universe. Nathan Wilson is a Bay Area tech wizard who is still cooking up an epic sci-fi/fantasy comic with me, and was a crucial behind-the-scenes force in Soophie Nun Squad. Alan Short is a member of Little Rock area metal bands Holy Angell, Deadbird, Zucura, and Seahag, and was also a member of Soophie Nun Squad and Them Of Delphi. We all remain best friends for life, though our paths cross less frequently.)

Soophie Nun Squad albums now available for download!

Soophie Nun Squad was a 10-piece, way-over-the-top punk ensemble I was in from 1992-2006, based in Little Rock, AR. Our last three records are now available digitally from Plan-It-X Records for less than $5 each-- download links are below.

Members of Soophie Nun Squad were/are also part of Humanbeast, Universe, V Manuscript, Tem Eyos Ki, Divorce Chord, Wait, Bloodhuff, Boomfancy, Sand City, The Insides, Shake Ray Turbine, William Martyr 17, Madeline, Sugar And The Raw, The Evelyns, R.I.O.T.S., Rainy Day Regatta, Deadbird, Zucura, The Body, and dozens more bands.

If anyone has photos or video of Soophie Nun Squad or Tem Eyos Ki, please email me!


The Devil, The Metal, The Big Booty Beats (2000)


Soophie Nun Squad/ Abe Froman split LP (2003)


Passion Slays The Dragon (2003)

looking for SOOPHIE NUN SQUAD and TEM EYOS KI photos!

I'm on an eternal archiving kick. If you have any photos or video of SOOPHIE NUN SQUAD, TEM EYOS KI, BOOMFANCY, GIOTEENS, WAIT, or UNIVERSE, I would love to get my hands on them. You can email them to me at seemybrotherdance@yahoo.com, or you can mail them to:
Nate Powell/ PO Box 3382/ Bloomington IN 47402.

I'll gladly trade comics, music, or throw down some cash! Thanks so much..