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"DAISYCUTTER was like the Addams Family meets the Manson "family", or, perhaps, having the Ren & Stimpy show performed by the Jim Rose Circus. It was painfully evident that we were all out of our minds." - Jim Hogan |
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DAISYCUTTER needed to find a replacement for Ed, so Reg brought in Mike Schweigert. Mike was a tattoo artist who had played guitar in a variety of hardcore bands. Mike was a natural fit. "He was covered in tattoos. He was cool to hang out with, and he had a guitar, and wasn't afraid to use it. Tim Cronin summed him up the best by simply stating that "He really leans into it." |
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"Mike would change equipment on a daily basis. We never knew what brand of guitar he would be playing, but we always knew what style. He was one of the best rhythm players around. Tim was right. He really did lean into it." |
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At the same time, Cronin had some ideas of his own about expanding the scope of DAISYCUTTER’s sound. He wanted to bring in a flamenco and classical guitarist by the name Kim Rausch. Tim had worked with her at a record store. |
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"The first time I had a chance to see Kim play was at this coffee house in Red Bank. She was playing these beautiful classical pieces in a room full of caffeine addicts. We gave her a tape and she came to our practice and started playing this weird melody over the song that would eventually be known as ‘Liquid Tape’. I thought to myself, "This will never work." The next day, I heard the recording of band practice and thought "My God. This is brilliant." . . . It really was, too." |
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"Kim rarely played with a guitar pick. She preferred to pluck at the strings, flamenco style. She could produce these weird, haunting melodies with wild harmonics using multiple notes.It was incredible stuff. I have yet to hear anything like it in the world of rock." |
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"Together Mike and Kim were a hell of a
team."
The group released a split single with Seattle’s ATOMIC 61 on Jim Hogan’s Heat Blast label, as well as a track on Heat Blast's F*ck You In The Eye compilation. By late 1993, DAISYCUTTER was busy writing their first full-length CD, entitled "Truck Fist" for the Rockville label. "Truck Fist was our finest moment. It was the crowning achievement for us. We ended up making the charts on a lot of college stations with that release. They were really digging the sound. I think that one of the reasons we became well known so many parts of the nation." |
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Shortly, after the release of Truck Fist, Tim Cronin found his employment as MONSTER MAGNET’s light technician to be too demanding of his time and had to leave the band. |
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"DAISYCUTTER was Tim’s concept; his creation, and it’s got to be one of the worst things a person can go through, to have to walk away from something that you’ve put your heart into. The bottom line was that he created MONSTER MAGNET’s legendary light show as well, and out of the two, it was the only job that offered a steady paycheck, so he did what he had to do. There are a lot of different Hells right here on Earth, and that was one of them." |
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One day, Jim received a call from Roadrunner. "They wanted me to call Rockville and talk to the owner of the parent company, Dutch East. Roadrunner wanted to license the Truck Fist record from them for a fee or try to re-route the distribution through their network. Things didn’t pan-out, but at least we knew that things were heating up." |
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Soon after, the manager of the Rockville label resigned and took a job at Roadrunner. |
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"We called the office for the recording advance for the next record. They didn’t know what to say. Two weeks later they sent us a "Dear John" letter telling us we were dropped. It turns out that they decided to fold several of their in-house labels at that time and, with no one at the helm, Rockville was one of them...and we were out on our ass." At this point, Mike decided to leave the band, stating that his tattoo business was really taking off and that he would not have the time to dedicate himself to both things. "Schweigert is one of the top tattoo artists in New Jersey. He’s had a spread in every tattoo magazine out there. Artists can control their |
| own destiny, answering only to themselves, but a rock band has to co-exist and work off of each other as a team, which is incredibly difficult. I think it’s safe to say that he did the right thing. He can be as creative as he wants, make a decent living, and he doesn’t have to deal with anyone’s BS." | ||
Minutes after Mike left the band, Kim Rausch followed suit.
"Kim always felt out of place. She’s demure, very pretty, and very feminine. If you saw us on stage, it was probably very disturbing to see this very normal person standing amidst this Cukoo’s Nest rabble. She was like the eye of the storm…and we were the storm. She had had her fill of the lunacy and was ready to get out."
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-- | "Show biz has this backwards property that makes people both smart and senseless…all at the same time. It can drive sane people to the brink of insanity. DAISYCUTTER was the circus life, and I’m surprised that Mike and Kim stuck with it as long as they did." |
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DAISYCUTTER ended 1994 by re-mixing an old, unreleased track recorded earlier with Ed Mundell, and used it for a split single with CAVITY on Florida’s Starcrunch label. |
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