ANXIETY THEN... (1985 - 1989)

(Please Note: This is the history according to Mark Tippin as compiled from notes and letters from over the years. Every effort has been made to make it as accurate as possible.)

ANXIETY was founded in 1985 by Mark Tippin, Jim Smith and Jeff Maser while we were in high school in San Jose, CA. The original band name was “Local Hardcore” but changed it to “ANXIETY” within a few weeks. Our first practices were without a drummer and although none of us really knew how to play, we worked out a system of notation in order to share song ideas in between jam sessions.

We played our first show – without a drummer – at our highschool. The bill was ANXIETY and NASAL SEX. Sometime later, Jeff introduced the band to Darryl Sweet, a talented drummer from our school, and the first real band lineup was complete. We managed to record a demo cassette, “Are you the dumb one?” at a small studio in someone’s back yard in Palo Alto. Before we played a second show, Jim who had changed his name to Alx Dark, left the band.

We continued to practice as a trio until Jimbo “Blockhead” Pitts asked to join the band to sing vocals in 1986. We played one show with him at the On Broadway. Then we learned just how unpopular he was in the scene. MAXIMUMROCKANDROLL even ran an entire cover photo of Jimbo with the words “Banned From The Scene.” He did hook us up to play with the Adolescents, but in time we knew that he wasn’t a good fit for the band.

Shortly after Jimbo left, Jeff introduced us to a guitar player from his neighborhood. Tony Sly joined the band in 1986 and this was the lineup for the bulk of the shows we played and the next studio demo we recorded, “Instruments of the Passion.” We ran an ad in MAXIMUMROCKANDROLL and sold a few hundred copies – and got a decent review.

(Review from MRR #49, June '87)

In 1987 we had written enough new material to go back into the studio, but when it came time to record Jeff had a bad case of mono so I played the bass tracks. As soon as the drum tracks were done, Darryl packed up his kit and left for college. Tony and I worked to finish the mix, but for all intensive purposes this phase of ANXIETY was over. “Horror Visions” was a great demo, but was not to be released. The first phase of ANXIETY's history was over and this lineup never played together again.

In 1988 I re-formed ANXIETY with new musicians from the San Jose area. Brett Cappelluti joined in for a few jams, and introduced Corin Stiggall, an amazing bass player. This lineup never played any shows, but Corin and I started writing lots of new material. Soon, Jim Monack joined the band on drums and the next gigging lineup was complete.

At the time, Steve Von Till of Neruosis and I had met at SJSU and were tinkering with video editing and computer manipulation for use in the early Neurosis shows. Steve agreed to record the next batch of ANXIETY material with his portable studio. This “Demo ‘88” was never released, but it did provide us the material we needed to play a few shows at the Cactus Club in San Jose, The Gilman Street Project and a great show in Davis with STIKKY.

Corin soon left for the East Coast and a professional Jazz career. Although I did find a talented replacement named “Johnboy” McGeechan for a show at the Cactus Club, this second phase of ANXIETY ended in 1989. It would also mark the year I started my design studio.

Circle Jerks Show - Fencing Center, San Jose 1987 - Jeff Maser on bass. Ironically, to the far right is Chris Wilder, who would join the band on bass 13 years later.

Gilman Street, Berkeley 1987 - Mark wearing the CJ shirt he traded with Keith Morris.

Anxiety Band Logo c.1986

Instruments of the Passion - Cassette J-Card

ANXIETY IN HYBERNATION (1989 - 1999)

For the first time in many years the band was not the main creative outlet in my life. I started a design studio (Cranium Design) to work on flyers, T-Shirts and album packaging for local bands. ANXIETY had shared the bill a few years before with Chris and Todd Wilder's band, STIKKY, at the On Broadway, but it wasn’t until Mark and Chris were in the same honors science course in '86-'87 that we got to really connect. Later, Chris Wilder was asked to join MDC and conduct a would tour that included North and South America, Europe and Russia. Chris Wilder and Steve Von Till were responsible for hooking me up with several design and illustration projects including:

Corrupted Morals, “Chet” EP – Cover Illustration
Nurosis, “Souls At Zero” LP – Cover Illustration / Design
MDC, “Shades of Brown” CD – Packaging Design / Cover Illustration / “Cop-Badge” Logo
MDC, “Thanks for giving me what I didn’t want…” EP – Packaging Design / Illustrations

Eventually the design work turned into interactive multimedia CD-Rom development and eventually Java development and web design. I found myself right in the middle of the "dot.com" phenomenon and was product manager for a visual Java programming tool (Hyperwire) for Kinetix (now discreet), right around the corner from South Park in San Francisco where Dave Eggers started "Might" and Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe founded "Wired." Those years in the Bay Area were amazing. It seemed as though the DIY youth of the punk scene had taken all they learned and were forging a new, intelligent and fiercely creative culture that would show the world what was possible. But all that was going to change...

NOW... (2000 - The Present)

11 years passed. It was 2000. Y2K. We'd gone from Reagan to Bush Sr. to Clinton and now “Dubya” was in office (illegally).

I had been hosting open “jams” in my basement studio in Menlo Park and Chris and Todd Wilder were regular attendees. When the 2000 election nightmare happened I asked Chris and Todd if they would be interested in re-forming ANXIETY. They entusiastically agreed and we started writing material immediately. We already had a few songs nailed down when the dot.com bubble burst and the 9/11 attacks took place. Within a few, short months I had been “downsized” out of a job and watched as the world changed forever with the demise of the World Trade Center.

It was another five years before everyone’s life had settled and we gathered to complete the album, “bleak.” The basic tracking was completed in a day and a half in Chris’ studio in Los Gatos. I then worked on the mixes and the mastering for several more months. It took another two months to review all the clippings and material I had been collecting since the late 90's and assemble them into the design for the CD packaging.

ANXIETY – bleak is a 13-track CD with some of the best material ANXIETY has produced yet thanks to the talents Chris and Todd lent to the project. The album is available now on this site and via CD-Baby.

"bleak" an all new 13-track release from ANXIETY

Band Members Past and Present

DISCOGRAPHY

“Are you the dumb one?” – Cassette / 1985 (Sold Out)

“Instruments of the Passion” – Cassette / 1986 (Sold Out)

“Horror Visions” – Cassette / 1987 (Sold Out)

“Demo 88” – material recorded 1988, never released.

“Instruments of the Passion / Horror Visions” – Limited edition CD / 2000 (Sold Out)

“bleak” – CD / 2006 release AVAILABLE NOW!