IN BLACK AND WHITE
(CD)


THE STORY OF MUSTARD PLUG
(DVD)

4.23 - 5.6.96
Mustard Plug convince their long time idols, Bill Stevenson and Stephen Egerton of ALL/Descendent fame, to produce their upcoming album.  10 days are spent in Billy's Ft. Collins Colorado studio learning how to sing, drum, record, and make breakfast burritos. 12 songs are recorded.

10.8.96
While opening for the Descendents at LA's Whiskey-A-Go-Go,  Colin and Dave run into Louis and Darren from Hopeless Records in the crowded beer line.  A lucrative multi-record recording deal is soon etched.

1.97
MTV darling and celebrity schitzophrenic, Wesley Willis releases his ode to the band, brilliantly entitled "Mustard Plug".  In six months people ask "Wesley who?"

3.18.97
Their second CD "Evildoers Beware" is released.  More touring commences, albums are sold, hearts are broken.

Summer '97
Ska goes into the Billboard charts and MTV rotation. Mustard Plug, oblivious to the hype, doesn't sell the van.

6.16.97
In an excuse to spend the day riding around Los Angeles on tricycles, Mustard Plug films a video for the song "You".  The video gets no airplay but is featured on the Hopeless video compilation "Cinema Beer Nuts".  Mustard Plug still doesn't sell the van.

12.13.97
Narrowly escaping a disasterous event, the floor collapses at a Mustard Plug show in Flint, MI. Thankfully, no one gets hurt (or sued).

1.98
For some strange reason, Hopeless Records decides they want to re-release the band's original cassette tape on CD. Skapocalypse Now! becomes Mustard Plug's third (but 1st?) full length CD.

9.30.98
At the request of a local radio station the band records a song for a local benefit cd.  Despite conventional wisdom the band chooses to cover the song that put West Michigan on the musical map (for a couple months), "The Freshmen" by hometown boys the Verve Pipe. The public is at first unsure whether it should commend the band or lynch them for sacrilege.  Despite the wrath of sorority girls everywhere the song miraculously gains heavy airplay on commercial radio in Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

4.19 - 5.10.98
Mustard Plug joins Less Than Jake, The Toasters, The Blue Meanies, MU330, Five Iron Frenzy, Kemuri and Mike Park to make the world a better place on the "Ska Against  Racism Tour".  For at least 6 weeks (and hopefully more) the world is a better place.

8.15.98
Dave trips and smashes his front tooth out while performing "Mr. Smiley" in Buffalo. The stage is covered in blood, Dave is rushed to the hospital, and the crowd is left wondering what the band is going to do for an encore.

10.30 - 11.7.98
Mustard Plug embarks on their first tour of Japan with Nicotine.  In an attempt of international good will the band consumes vast quantities of raw fish, Sapporo, and saki.  Perhaps out of curiosity, the Japanese crowds receive the band with vigorous enthusiasm and an avalanche of dinner invitations and autograph requests.

11.22 - 11.23.98
Producer Bill Stevenson flies to Grand Rapids to help Mustard Plug with 12 new songs. Upon arrival Bill discovers an extreme allergic reaction to the West Michigan climate. Prolonged exposure to Amway products and Midwest Conservatism apparently give him hives. Despite moderate difficulties, songwriting progresses.

1.14 - 1.30.99
Under threat of the impending new milenium and the inevitable breakdown of human civilization, the band retreats to Ft. Collins Colorado, along the snowy foothills of the Rockies to record with Bill Stevenson and Stephan Egerton, leaders of the Blasting Room Militia.

2.23.99
"Ska is dead" declares William Yardmouth, former part-time rudeboy, present zoot suit rioter, and future Korn fanatic. Mustard Plug and their legion of devoted fans ignore the anti-hype.

3.16.99
Mustard Plug releases it's fourth full length CD "Pray for Mojo" on Hopeless records. Their most mature (and in a couple places immature) album to date, "Pray for Mojo" goes to further entrench the band in the hearts of disenfranchised youth, discriminating Gen-Xers and primates everywhere.

3.19.99
Mustard Plug performs an intense, heated set for the intensely heated scenesters at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. Afterwards the band is approached by one such appreciative crowdmember, "hey you guys were great, I don't know if you remember, but we played a show together about 5 years ago. My name is Weird Al Yankovic." The band is awestruck.

4.13.99
While in beautiful Burbank, California, Mustard Plug shoots it's second professional video, this time for the song "Everything Girl". It was to be an elaborate concept video, revolutionary in the fact that it was to be the first music video done entirely in 3-D. The band agrees to do it on the condition that there are zombies involved. Flesheating zombies, dammit! While the concept got distorted, and the 3-D effects turned out at about 2.5-D it still succeeded at making people laugh (although not entirely in the way we had planned).

4.14.99
While performing at The Roxy on the infamous Sunset strip, the band is joined onstage by members of the Verve Pipe during their rendition of "The Freshmen". Afterwards the bands drink together at the bar next door and are joined by Lemmy from Motorhead and Scott Ian from Anthrax. IT'S HOLLYWOOD BABY! YEAH!!!!

6.29.99
Mustard Plug embarks on their first tour of Europe. They discover the magic and magnificence of beer halls in Bavaria and nude beaches in Switzerland, squats in Slovenia, and pubs in Great Britain. An artistic triumph and financial disaster, the continent will recover about the same time as the band's livers.

11.16 - 11.18.99
Mustard Plug embarks on their second trip to Japan where Nick our beloved drummer of six years plays his final show in Tokyo. Despite our close friendship, the enticement of becoming personal-trainer to the stars in Hollywood, California is just too much to resist for a simple Grand Rapids boy like Nick.

11.30.99
Drummer Brad Rozier joins Mustard Plug. Rumors of bizarre genetic engineering experiments designed to create the perfect Mustard Plug drummer circulate as the only possible explanation of his expertise.

12.31.99
Brad's first show on the dawn of a new millennium. The Rozier Theory of Inverse Proportionality is discovered as Mustard Plug both decreases the average age of it's members by about half while at the same time doubling the decibel rating of young screaming girls in the crowd.

2.9 - 12.18.00
Mustard Plug spends much of the year on the roads of North America breaking in Brad and bringing Mojo to the Masses. Highlights include the SnoJam tour in Canada, headlined by our favorite rudeboys from Buffalo, Snapcase, the wildly successful East Coast ska-punk takeover supported by Catch 22 and Edna's Goldfish, the Winter Wonderland tour with our good friends MU330 and Cooter (aka Auto Pilot Off), and another East Coast venture with the Bouncing Souls and Youth Brigade.

1.18 - 2.19.01
Mustard Plug hops the pond for a second trip to Europe. The band spends most of their time freezing at night on hard wooden floors and driving past monuments like Stonehenge without stopping. Somehow the shows turn out amazingly well.

3.8.01
While on a short tour of Eastern Canada, Dave receives a phone call late at night that his pregnant wife is going into labor 7 weeks early. The band gets out of bed and drives straight through the snowy Canadian night back to Grand Rapids. After a few stressful days, a healthy baby girl named Isabella becomes the newest member of the Mustard Plug family. Within the same week, the band returns to the road to play 2 sold out shows with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.