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Blanks III – Power Ring Concert

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Tracks remastered and reissued on compact disc.

Release Info
Cover Art
Band Memoirs

Release Info

Tracks

Intro
Spider Woman
30.06
Wackos Up The Wall
Checker Belly
Ahh
Power Ring Concert Intro
Zoic
Mark
Insane Asylum II
Insane Asylum (Reprise)
Power Ring (Is Here To Stay)
She's A Dog
Barred Windows Forever
King Fred

The Blanks: Dynamic Drew, Kar, and Ran
Guest: Mark Miller

Produced, written, and performed by The Blanks. Recorded live to two-track at Old House Studios, Houston, TX. 2006 reissue mastered by Kar at Lopwood Studios, Cypress, TX. Original cassette label art by Ran. Reissue package design by Kar.
©1983 The Blanks.

1983: First issue, cassette, Tone Master Records.
2006: Remastered compact disc, Blanks Enterprises.

Cover Art

Click for larger image:

Blanks III CD

Blanks III CD liner notes

Blanks III CD label

Blanks III original cassette label (side 1)

Blanks III original cassette label (side 2)

Band Memoirs

This was probably one of our most insane periods. A lot of people look at Blanks II, and the insanity there is obvious, but I don't think the energy was the same as with Blanks III. The critics trashed this album particularly.

The power rings the concert was named after used to cut open Ran's fingers about 50% of the time he would wear them. For some reason that wasn't enough for any of us to stop wearing the things. It was obviously a period in which we were searching. We used power rings, bubbles, and whatever we could. There was turbulence with Mark, and we were writing strange songs like “Zoic.” The energy around us at that time was as insane as ever, and perhaps it lacked a direction, which enabled that insanity to spread out all over the place. Little Man, probably kept us from imploding around that time.

This was also one of the times when we first began to second guess ourselves. Second-guessing never really happened much with us, but on this album we thought that “Spider Woman” was too long, and so we went back to make some changes.

– Spike

I remember writing the lyrics for “Zoic,” a blend of financial and horticultural advice. This was very progressive for the time. Ran was working on a framework to chart people's insanity. If you had a negative level, it meant you appeared sane but were actually more insane than if you just appeared insane. This concept shows up on this album on the song “Insane Asylum II.” Ran thought I had a negative insanity level.

Little Man had just become our manager at the time of this album. He was our first manager. (Little Man has really been our only manager to this day. His friend Banana Man stepped in for a short time after Little Man's untimely death. Some people called Big Andy our manager around the time of Bean Monster Rituals, but I never really considered him in that role.) Little Man kept us in line and provided direction. In retrospect, he may be the best indication of where the band's head was at the time of Blanks III – he was a one-inch tall, plastic bunch of grapes with limbs and a top hat. Good manager, though.

– Kar