positively state st.

Marko 72 is guitar player for Sugarcult, bass player for the Lap Dancers, record sales guy at Just Play Music, and sometime writer for the Independent. Sugarcult has just been selected by MTV to compete in a nationwide talent search in San Diego this Sunday. Onward, ho.

ALL THE WAY TO MEMPHIS: So I was sitting on a couch next to Dave Grohl watching VH1's Poison: Behind the Music, and it was pop-culture heaven when their downfall was credited to a new sound out of Seattle and cut to footage of his old band, Nirvana.

Let me explain: By now you've all heard that Santa Barbara native and guitar prodigy Chris Shiflett (ex-Lost Kittenz) has joined the Foo Fighters (beating out 100 plus hopefuls at the audition). Figuring he must be getting homesick amongst all those fancy backstage deli spreads, huge tour buses, and nightly roomfuls of screaming fans, KJEE's Dave Hanacek and I decided to take Chris up on his offer to join him on tour for a few days.

We flew out to New Orleans--Which was going off Mardi Grasstyle due to the annual Jazz Festival taking place, absolutely mental on Bourbon Street!--got to the show as the Foos hit the stage, raided their endless beverage supply, and got to watch from stage right. As the sweaty arena-rockers filed backstage, we were introduced to hyper drummer Taylor, pensive bassist Nate, and giddy frontman/modern legend Dave Grohl, his girlfriend Melissa (ex-Hole, current Smashing Pumpkins bassist), and their crew. The first thing Grohl cautioned was, "You guys weren't in Rat Pack were you!?" referring to a wild experience in S.B. 12 years ago when his punk band Scream played/partied with said S.B. punk outlaws. Heading to the stage as co-headliners the Red Hot Chili Peppers prepared to play was like walking into the pages of Rolling Stone: "Hey Lenny [Kravitz], s'cuse me Adam Duritz [Counting Crows], word, Flea." Weird.

The trip to Pensacola, Florida was short. We awoke in Chris' hotel room to find white sand and crystalline seas outside (Gulf of Mexico). We jet-skiied and then went to sound check, where Grohl amused us by returning to the drumkit for a while and the band joked through some '80s metal riffs. Had dinner with the band. Food Fighters? Chris, Dave H., and I have been close pals since our early teens so it was just like old times, only with Gus the road manager telling us to settle down instead of our moms. The last show of our trip was an outdoor festival in Memphis, where we rolled up in time to catch Bryan Adams' fun set before the Foo's. It was also Chris's birthday, so Grohl presented him with a new iMac laptop, and had the crowd of 40,000 sing him "Happy Birthday." Touring nonstop since August, hard-working Chris is using his two-week break to work on his other band, punk-supergroup Me First & the Gimme Gimmes' third album. And that's only the stuff I'm allowed to tell you!

WHAT YOU'RE DOING FRIDAY NIGHT: Welcome home S.B.'s ambassadors of punk-pop kick-your-ass-adour, the Ataris, to the Yucatan (appearing with not-to-be-missed Arizona punks Pollen). They've just returned from a three-and-a-half months/95 shows tour, which included a headlining run of the U.S. and Canada, and a month with compadres Mad Caddies as part of the Fat Wreck Chords tour. Bassist Mike Davenport tells me the Fat tour hit St. Louis, across the street from a show by S.B. heavies Ultra-spank, who are gearing up to release their second effort for Epic, titled Progress (May 30). I've heard a few tracks and it is gonna have you sports-met'lers trying to speed-read "how-to" books on recording industrial-edged thinking-person's metal. Cheers!