The 6th Anything

Early on, Kelby helped us out on the drums. After learning the ways of drum machines, synthesizers and midi programming, he saw the band who I believe was known as "Footcheese" at a party and was awestruck at the raw and rude acoustic drum sounds. Kelby hooked up with Jared Peterson, the Footcheese drummer, to get a few pointers on the drums. Then came a very serendipitous moment: Kelby was house-sitting for the family Hartnett over Christmas 1993 and it turns out that he did some drum-sitting also. Jared set up his drums at the house and left them there for Kelby to go primal with. Then enters the newly electrified Only Anything, wanting nothing more than to turn the dream into a real rock and roll experience.
We pulled ourselves away from watching Cure Show and drinking egg nog to go do our own version of Cure Show. We jammed like we never had before; Forest, End, Disintegration, Lullaby. We blew a speaker, we roused the neighbors, we made merry the day after Christmas.
Kelby played with us at a few of our first shows and by the time he got the mission call, Joe was ready to step in permanantly. It all came together so perfectly. Coincidentally there was another house-sitting rock and roll experience, but this time the Richins were out of town. Jon, Kelby and I had a recording session at the house and we did a bunch of covers; Violent Femmes, The Cure, The Smiths. This time (unlike the Hartnett situation) the vacationing family was well aware that rock and roll was going on while they were away, and no neighbors complained.
Growing up with Kelby gave me musical advantages: I learned to play on his guitar, we used his mixer for all the Only Anything recordings, he stepped in on the drums when needed and I'm sure there was some constructive sibling rivalry between us which pushed me to rise to his standard. So here's to you Kelby, and your part in the OA legacy.

J. Thwaits
aka DangerBoy