My psychedelic "radio" show on Mixcoud - The Good Trip Lollipop dose:8

You can't beat free music, right? Every couple weeks or so I drop a dose of psychedelically oriented music - about an hour's worth of mp3's from my hard drive of music I've collected on vinyl, CD, cassette, digital downloads and 8 tracks and stuff I am most currently listening to at home, in the van or at the tattoo studio on the iPod dock. This week's "dose:8" finds us on an unaccompanied trip (as in, I don't talk on this one) through a vast panorama of moody tunes from the past, present and future of "head music".

It's also a helluva good excuse to share my own sounds - this dose feature a track from my psych/prog oriented lo-fi home recording project Cricketbows as well as an old basement recording of a short lived side band I once played guitar in - Hazard County Heathens - also featuring my brother Gerede "Lucifer Laine" Stephens (formerly of The Bang Tale Sedation Generation, Nightbreed, Queen Wasp) and original drummer for The Jackalopes (and Luxury Pushers!)- Kyle Thirteen. Enjoy.

The Good Trip Lollipop - dose:8 (Sunshine Overdose Dance Atrocity) by Reverendneverend on Mixcloud

The Outsider

“A free and easy society loves outsiders. People give him food and really take care of him, because they know that man is doing for us what we haven’t got the guts to do. That outsider who lives up there in the Mountain is at the highest peak of human evolution; his consciousness is one with the divine, and it’s great just that there is someone like that around. It makes you feel a little better. He’s realized. He knows what it’s all about. And we need a number of those people. Even though they don’t join our Game, they tell us, ‘What you’re doing is only a Game. It’s okay, I’m not going to condemn you, but it is only a Game. And we up on that Mountaintop are watching you, we love you, we have compassion for you, but excuse us please, we aren’t going to join.’”

Alan Watts


I have always been an outsider - to the degree that when I have become a part of a "thing" or group or "scene" I will develop an incessant and obsessive need to leave. From childhood to the present day I experience a wanting to belong, to be accepted, to be respected, loved, a part of the gang. An ego based urge to be justified, to be acknowledged - to reassure myself that I am a human being, that I am alive and I'm doing "the right thing" or succeeding. At the very moment I achieve the level of acceptance that I am looking for I find, paradoxically, that it is not at all what I need or truly want. With my music, my art, tattooing and studies I have achieved goals and levels of success that once achieved leave me hollow and wanting more or, more often than that, leave me with a realization that it's all illusory. It's all bullshit - or in the words of John Lennon, "it's all dick". And so I live on the outside of society, just around the fringe. Doing my own thing, my own way, in my own time with the knowledge and realization that my yearnings are a manifestation of a peculiarly formed ego. The ego is like a computer program running security checks on the machine. "Is everything still working properly? Is the machine secure? Are the files fragmented?" This is an evolutionary consciousness mechanism in it's simplest form. The problem that arises is when the ego becomes not a safety oriented program but the machine's entire operating system. A computer with a security program that grows too large or needs to run constantly and perform it's tasks infinitely will eventually no longer run any other programs. So I find myself in a constant state of inflating and deflating ego mechanism. Through the use of visionary states of consciousness, meditation upon and enrichment from the arts and music and metaphysical sciences I allow my self to ever expand while enjoying many deaths and blows to my fragile ego and to bring these lessons to my family, my children, my friends and those folks I come into contact with through my art and work. Am I living out some archetypal role of Shaman? Yogi? Sadhu? Monk? Minister? Teacher? Perhaps I am. I also realize that the very consideration of these concepts is an act of the over active ego - always questioning, testing, seeking validation. The truth is that I am only me - a carbon based life form who gives seed to help create other carbon based lifeforms. Everything else is an action of the ego. My point with all of this verbosity is to point out that those black sheep - those outsiders who are critical of the larger culture are just as important to the culture or society as those who seem to be at the center of it. Those who do the "right thing" or "play by the rules". We are here as an equal and opposite representation of the society. A way to hold a mirror above and below the greater culture and reveal those dark and hidden secrets that are ever growing and always evolving. We are the evolutionary, societal ego. We are society's security program. We are testing all the locks on the doors, challenging the thoughts and concepts so that those that are detrimental to our greater human, planetary or Universal systems will be dissolved and those that are advantageous shall be strengthened. So know that those beings that live beyond your personal safety zone or outside of your conceptualized morality or ideologies are the very people you will benefit from the most deeply. These are the beings who wade first into the waters of the deep, who are the first to traverse the hills and mountains to see what is on the other side, the first to dive into the deep inner and outer spaces of consciousness, the first to try the new medications, the first to lay upon the sword, to throw themselves upon the grenades of society and though many of us may wear cloaks that signify darkness, death, poverty or illness - know that we are as important or at least as much a part of this world as your self. Just as a fire in the forest may claim thousands of acres of trees it is also an important aspect of the natural order. A cleansing - a destructive construction. Though the trees no longer stand, new vegetation will appear there and thrive in soil that has been fortified by the essential minerals created by the burn and that the burn is not separate from nature or destructive to nature, it IS nature and that we outsiders and insiders alike are a part of that same nature - we are but flames and roots, dirt and leaves, sky and stone.

Good morning,
Rev. Chad

ReverendNeverend - The Good Trip Lollipop - dose:7 - Covered In Acid | Mixcloud - Re-think radio

The Good Trip Lollipop - dose:7 - Covered In Acid by Reverendneverend on Mixcloud

2012 - This is the End?

Welcome to the end of the world. There are dozens or more theories on what this year represents. From Nostradamus predictions to those Mayan Calendar conjectures - 2012 signifies the end of the old "world" or "age" and the beginning of the next one so it's probably gonna call for a little more than the standard New Year Resolution. Whether you believe that we are living in the end times or not, we are most certainly at the precipice of a new time. If you stop for just a moment you'll feel it. Look around. Everything is changing at such a rapid clip. Technological advances compound daily and so does the effect of said advance on our ecosystems. I do not think the Earth is going to stop spinning any time soon, but for the sake of creating REAL change in the world, why not assume that the end of the year may bring the end of us? If we all started living like we only had a year left to live the world would be in for a drastically different set of values and a drastically different practical application of those values. We would see those non-spiritual folks flip their coin to the mystical side near immediately and we'd also likely see those folks who seem to hold the hardest to the old religious moralities let go of the parts that hold them in restrictive, dogmatic bondage. We would see the true faces of our friends and relatives emerge - for the better or worse sides, whichever being the strongest side of their personality - would certainly surface and have it's time in the Sun, unfettered by what tomorrow might bring. We all hang onto those things from our past that make us comfortable and many of us hold onto old beliefs and patterns and ways of being out of fear of change, what others may think or what the long term consequences of our actions might mean. If you were given a terminal illness diagnosis today, end date guaranteed and not negotiable, how would you behave differently? Tomorrow is not a given. You are not guaranteed life past this very second. A comet could fly through the ceiling of your bedroom right now and incinerate you. A bus could jump the curb this afternoon and end your existence. Like a fly slapped by the random hand of humanity we all face an eventual and most often unexpected and uncontrollable demise. So why not live with more purpose, intent, passion, compassion and vigor? Let's make a BIG New Year's Resolution together here today. Let's live, eat, work, play and LOVE like the end of everything is on it's way. Stop putting off those bucket list experiences. Stop putting off those things you're saving for retirement or when you are financially "able". Stop living in fear of embarrassment or ridicule or persecution. Show the world your true self. If you're living a lie, come out of the closet and live in the light. If you're punishing your body with poor habits, stop now. If you're working hard at a job for your family but you never see them, find a way to make more time. Take a new job or find a way to leave those material world considerations behind. I'm not saying that you should quit your job and stop paying your mortgage (however if that's your bag, don't let anyone stop you from indulging your heart's desires - many fine men and women have found renunciation to be a purifying force in their lives and the world) but I'm also not proposing that we make tiny little minor changes over time. Be who you are right now. Show love now. Book that skydiving expedition now. Stop eating fast food or drinking or drugging now. "Eventually" is not coming. RIGHT NOW is the only thing that is a guarantee. Now is the only thing it is real. Now is all that matters. If we all flipped the switch right now, when December 21st, 2012 comes 'round and the planet doesn't explode or tilt on it's axis or Quetzalcoatl doesn't comes screaming from the sky or we don't all sprout our angelic wings or ascend or transform or start producing massive amounts of DMT from our dormant pineal glands - won't we still have achieved a sort of transcendence? Will we not be living in a new age? I hope that 2012 is the end. The end of suffering. The end of bullshit. The end of that which doesn't matter.

Feel free to leave comments here about how you're going to transform the world - whether inwardly or outwardly - in 2012.

Peace and love and deepest regards.

Christmastime Sure Looks Weird This Year

FIFTY awesomely trippy, weird, unusual Holiday videos to rock you like a reindeer train!



DON'T FORGET!! My band Cricketbows has a great new Holiday tune that's out NOW! You can name your own price (yes, even FREE!) over at our Bandcamp.com page!! It's also available to purchase at iTunes, Amazon, Emusic, Napster and all the other music download sites!

Merry Christmas, fuckers!

-Chad

New post over on my Needle Damaged blog!

CLICK HERE!

Crosby, Still & Nash - Teach Your Children (Live)

Something special on the horizon to announce soon! Let's all reflect this day on how we can individually and as a group get back to the root of our existence. Peace and Love.

I'm ridding my world of a lot of clutter and freeing more space for my kids to grow. Here's some stuff I have up on E-Bay right now!

CLICK HERE!

Gracious Peasant - Dayton City Paper

CLICK HERE to read about Cricketbows and Mosquito Hawk Exquisite Recordings in the Dayton City Paper.

My band Cricketbows... Weird rock stuff mostly recorded at home by myself (with a little help on a few tracks by Mr. Roger Joseph Manning Jr. of Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, Moog Cookbook, Beck, A.F.I. and shitloads more) You can buy it here: http://cricketbows.bandcamp.com It will also be available on iTunes, Amazon.com, eMusic, Spotify and all the other digital music retailers. You can also request it from your favorite record stores. Chicka check it out.

Cricketbows - Drawing Explosions

A fan made video for the instrumental closer to Cricketbows "Mycocosmic Transmission" CD.

Cricketbows - "Invoking the Mycologist" PSYCHEDELIC 2011

My band, Cricketbows profiled on thebuddhaden.net

Cricketbows profiled by Don Thrasher
Check out part one of this two part profile on my psychedelic band, Cricketbows!

New Cricketbows action!

Check out Cricketbows on Reverbnation.com and listen to "Andromeda Suede" from the forthcoming full length CD, "Mycocosmic Transmissions"

COH, @Rebos, New Carlisle, OH 1993 Moshpit Hoods vs. Straight Edge DAYTON

Andrew Copp DVD about me Pre-Order page

>>Pre-order! Limited Edition! INK & FLESH DVD (Standard AND Deluxe Packages available!). The atmospheric, conversational film that brings together Cult Director Andrew Copp and Counterculture Tattoo Artist Rev. Dr. Chad Wells. Confessional interviews and amazing soundtrack by Wells himself create a strange and languid yet familiar afternoon with a Tattoo Family. Includes bonus features, Trailers, Andrew Copp shorts, Wells' own experimental film, promos and music video from Wells related bands. A must have.<<
ORDER HERE!

Healing Overtone (Solfeggio DNA Arpeggio & binaural beats)

Cricketbows - Andromeda Suede (without vocals + Tattoo and Misc. Photo S...

A sampling of some of my musical project - Cricketbows, with a Tattoo-heavy slideshow.

Ghost Dance - Native American - Power Drums - Spirit Pride

Mom, Dad, Fuck You's, etc...

So, at a family holiday party the other night my Mom told me that she had read my "FTW" post (below). I told her that it was more of a symbolic "Fuck You". It was symbolic in that the entire post was my way of quickly striking out at all of the things that had effected me in an adverse fashion leading to the terrible pain and subsequent depression that I've been going through. I could've used a sarcastic "Thank You" rather than a "Fuck You" but it didn't feel as cathartic to me at that moment. The "Fuck You" to Mom and Dad were most specifically about the genetics that they, as teen parents - both smokers with poor nutrition (among other things) had passed on to me. No, that's not their "fault" and if we're going back genetically we're gonna have to send a whole lot of "Fuck You's" down the family line for the shit batch of DNA I've been dealt. It was also a jab at them for what I suffered through as a child of teen parents. Both were uneducated. Both were mentally unprepared as parents. Not that I'm any better. I won't sit here and say that I've got it all figured out. I'm not sure ANYONE can be 100% mentally prepared for what it takes to be a parent and I've certainly done my own damage to my health that had nothing (directly) to do with my parents... But here's the deal. In my opinion to heal myself and to find someplace where my mind and body can achieve some semblance of "peace" I have to find a way to put all of the things from the past and my childhood that have made me the broken piece of shit that I am in the proper perspective. So when I am laying on a mattress on the floor, wrapped in a heated blanket, wishing that I could put a gun barrel down my throat and pull the trigger because of my own genetic shortcomings and hereditary maladies the first things that come through my mind are the "Fuck You's". I should certainly be thinking about forgiving them all. It's not my Mom's fault that she was born into the world the way that she was, with the parents that she had (teen parents again!). Mom's Dad walked out on the family when she was a little girl and never had a whole lot of good to bring to the table afterward - barely seeing or speaking to her and her brother when they were growing up. Of course that's going to make a kid do unhealthy things - feeling unloved and fucked up in the head and all of the crazy shit that goes with it. Family alcoholism and multiple step-parents later Mom was left in a pretty unhealthy place psychologically. She's not evil. She did the best she knew how to do with me and my brothers but when you're trying to navigate a ship with a half deteriorated map that's full of wrong directions you're gonna end up here. Same goes for Dad. He was a young dude looking to party and hang out with his friends and listen music and he ended up a Dad before he was old enough to vote. His back story's a different one than Mom's but it's not much better. Times were tough and shit got out of control. I'm trying to forgive them both. I'm having a hard time letting go of my anger and hurt but I'm trying. The story goes on and on from there. The lesson I'm trying to take from all of this is that the past happened and it fucking sucked. There were shining moments and wonderful bits here and there but they were tempered with confusion and resentment and seeing and hearing too much too young. I can think about the good things I got from my parents but then come the memories of stepdads' abuses. A pain in my coccyx to this day that cripples me when it's at it's worst and keeps me from putting food on my family's table - probably caused by a powerful kick from a stepfather's workboot the Summer between 3rd and 4th grade. The same stepfather that "playfully" stabbed my Mom in the leg and beat her head and mine into so many walls... Who exposed himself to me and thought it was funny. Who called me such terrible names that I still have the urge to hang myself with a bath towel just like I wanted to then - at 5 years old. She stayed with him for years. She stayed with him and let me leave to go live with my Dad who was completely unequipped to handle me and it still fucking hurts. It hurts even more now that that stepdad is dying of cancer and everybody is sad about it. Even I am sad about it because he's the father of my two younger brothers and one of my earliest male role models. This is all just the tip of the iceberg as far as the shit that fucked my head up as a kid and the shit that still continues to fuck my head up and manifest itself as mental and physical anguish to this very day. So, yes, I love my Mom. I love my Dad. I wish wishes every other day that I could hug them both and not feel anxiety or pain or fear or sadness. I'm trying to figure my head out and heal the things that are physically wrong with me so I can be a better parent for my daughters. I picked a woman who will never leave me. I picked a woman who loves me unconditionally. I picked a woman who has stronger and sturdier genetics than either side of my family. I picked a woman whose parents stayed married and taught her to do the same. I picked a woman who is imperfect enough to understand and accept MY imperfections. So, I'm trying to get past the "Fuck You" stage and into the forgiveness stage. I've tried the "I don't give a fuck" stage and that doesn't work so... I'm sorry if I've hurt anyone by saying "Fuck You". I'm sorry if I've hurt anyone by airing this "dirty laundry" in public but you guys all had your chances and I'm trying to do what's right to make me better and make my girls have a life with a Dad who's not carrying all this bullshit inside of him. So if I have to let it out to do that I will and if I have to let it out publicly so that I can feel like it REALLY has left me and maybe get some love and consolation from some other people who have experienced the same things that I have (or worse) then that's what I'm going to do.

Merry Christmas
-Chad

FTW

My brain hurts. My body hurts. My heart hurts. My complete being - the tangible and the intangible HURTS. SO here is the first step in my recovery. FUCK YOU Mom. FUCK YOU Dad. FUCK YOU to my first and all subsequent "step-parents", FUCK YOU drugs, alcohol, religion and school. FUCK YOU Caffeine. FUCK YOU packaged, processed foods. FUCK YOU Capitalism. FUCK YOU Television. FUCK YOU Universe.