Abcent Minded

1999-2004

Nick Best - Bass/Vocals
Robert Sandberg - Guitar
Austin Palmer - Guitar
Roy Durand - Drums

Terry Best - Guitar (Late 2002-2003)
Grant Leblanc (Late 2004-End)


Abcent Minded was the home of four kids who believed in friendship and music above all else.

The band was started in the summer of 2001, but really didn't get rolling until the fall because of a serious "your ass is grounded" moment. Originally conceived as a band to jam and play covers, when Terry Best decided not to get involved with the project Roy Durand recruited long time friend Robert Sandburg to come and jam.

The Three Original members, Nick Best on bass, Robert Sandburg on guitar, and Roy Durand on drums, started really working in september of 2001. From the get go the friends mutual love of Nofx,Green day, MXPX, and many others gave them a natural lean towards Punk music. It became clear from the first day of practice that covers would not be there motivation and the three started writing songs that day.

There first show was played as "Beer Piss", the best piss by far, sometime in the first months of January. After they realized this name was the greatest they changed it to "Abcent Minded Drake" a joke about student from another high school. When Roy brought it to the bands attention that his nephews name was drake, the band final settled on "Abcent Minded". All though nick might have told you drunkenly the "C" in the name came from not wanting to put the thought of money into music.....it really just happened.

Not long after that Robert Sandburg wanted to thicken the sound and Started recruiting second guitarist Austin Palmer in March or April of that year.

With this new line up the boys went to work and started playing as often as possible. They were barley 17 and cloud be seen at Main street, Changes, Club co2, and many other local venues and bars.

In the summer of 2001 under the production of Allen Clements the band went in and recorded the "Mt. Vernon and Everything beyond" ep with Ivan Klisonian.

The record was well received by the local punk scene but in a triumphant moment for the band, it was trashed by their high schools paper.

Some point during this time lead singer and bassist Nick Best Contacted a local art house which the band wold soon start to rent and produce what became known as the "Art house shows". With the art house running the band hosted many touring acts as well as a lot of bands from this forum. Culminating in the "punks against terrorism show" which raised over 1000 dollars for the red cross and had an estimated 250-300 kids (for us that was a shit ton.

The band started to travel at this point and really got their legs under them.

In the summer of 2002 the band recorded the "Commode Commandos" ep and started to travel on the record.

Sometime in the fall of 2002 a chance visit by Nicks Brother terry (then living in California), and a great NO USE FOR A NAME show convinced the boys to head west. When the news was broke to Austin he made the decision to peruse school and Terry Best, Nick's brother, moved back and started playing rhythm guitar.

During this period Nick moved in to the Cleveland house where after many changes shows anyone who could stumble home made it there. A TON of the bands listed here where in the partly cloudy atmosphere of Cleveland street. It is also in this time frame where nick purchased their 1999 16 passenger van and with bunk installed the band really started traveling the gulf coast.

After traveling most weekends throughout the late 2002 fall and spring of 2003 the boys moved to Anaheim California in July of 2003, everyone of them 18 except terry.

When they arrived in California having no place to stay the band slept in a wal mart parking lot in Westminster Cali for almost 2 months. Finally after much desperation and searching the band setup shop @ 600 beach boulevard.

Once the band got a practice space it was long before Terry Best decided to leave the band. In this period the band became a three piece again and decided to completely scrap their set and revamp all their music.

In the fall of 2003 California was politically charged and the band became highly influenced by the energy of the moment. Their sound started to shift from inner to outer thoughts and this began the writing process of "FADING MEMORIES"

In the summer of 2004 Austin after tiring of school moved to California and the band was the original members again. At this point they practiced 6 nights a week from 12:00-4:00 and almost all members of the band held 2 jobs to pay rents and play.

While the band never hit a solid market they did have some good shows in California, and laid the ground work for their only full record.

In late 2004 with terry moving back to Lafayette, the band crammed 12 hour studio sessions for 2 weeks and crafted what would become their unreleased full length record "Fading Memories".

In "October/November" 2004 the band Finished the record and headed back to Lafayette.

When they got home they soon where playing all over the gulf coast again but it wasn't the same.

In early 2005 after hearing unfinished copies of the "Fading Memories" Grant Leblanc mentioned that he really liked the new sound. The band had been toying with the idea of nick just singing, as playing bass and signing, one seemed to suffer, so they invited Grant to play bass. They band played a hand full of shows as a five piece.

Robert Sandburg decided to leave the band in early 2005. Grant switched to guitar and the band continued, but soon after Austin Palmer left as well.

With two original members gone, and a never truly finished record, Nick and Roy Decided the band was done and Abcent Minded broke up in 2005. The remaining three members would go on to start "Inept coalition"

Other projects;

Roy Durand: Screams of triumph, Heist at Hand, The Villianheirs,
Vagabond Swing, Dude vs BRA,Inept Coalition, tons of hired work.

Robert Sandburg: Screams of Triumph

Nick Best: Inept coalition, Short Bus All-stars, Mission Vs
Madness

Grant Leblanc: Wildfires

Bands they jammed with:

So Many from this list, The Casualties, Fallout Boy, Guff, Narcoleptic Youth, D.I., Keepsake, The busdrivers, Stereohype,
Frigg, The Pink Spiders, A Global Threat, and tons others.

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