1990-1991 "The Birth of Pornflakes"

My name is Snackie Hillman. I was born April 18, 1966 in the city of Baltimore. Except for a brief stint in Seattle, Washington (1990-1991) and an ill-fated move to New York City in August 2001 (talk about bad luck), Baltimore has been my home.

This particular story though begins in Seattle, Washington. I moved there in July 1990 following a love interest of mine.

In Seattle, I began writing a lot of songs (some good, most bad). I was determined to make a cassette of my songs and mail them to my friends back in Baltimore by X-Mas 1990.

So with a Rickenbacker guitar, TR-505 drum machine, beatle bass, acoustic guitar, Digi-Tech delay pedal, some old unfinished recordings, and a lot of time on my hands (I was unemployed for 4 months), I put together my first full length release and called it "Pornflakes-They're Not Just For Breakfast Anymore".

The name "Pornflakes" I came up with about a year before while hanging out at my favorite Baltimore watering hole - The Mount Royal Tavern.

Anyway, I was pretty stoked that I had made this tape and thought it would be real cool to perform the tunes. Not having a band, I made a master cassette tape leaving out the vocals and a guitar track. The idea was that my then girlfriend Corky and I would sing along with the tape while I played guitar.

So, we actually did this for 3 shows till I was to embarrassed to show my face in public anymore.

Needless to say, this incarnation of Pornflakes or "The Seattle Pornflakes" didn't pan out. By mid -1991, my relationship was falling apart and I missed home so I decided to move back to Baltimore.

1991-1992 "The Rise of Pornflakes"

In September of '91, I moved back to Baltimore and into a house on Eastern Avenue with my friend Augie Bucheit. Before I moved to Seattle, Augie and I had been in a couple of bands together. Augie is a drummer.

Augie and I began practicing some of my new material with the intention of making a band and scoring lots of chics. But we needed a bassist.

I had played bass briefly in a band called "The Beatoes" in 1987. Charleigh Chadwick was their guitarist and an excellent musician (not to mention a ruthless poker player). I asked Charleigh if he would be our bassist and he accepted.

Now we needed the icing on the cake-THE LEAD GUITARIST. This job required a specialist, someone who knew all the Beatles licks and who would bring his own pot to rehearsal. That person was Berkeley Savage.

So the 4 of us rehearsed for about 2 months till we decided we were ready to amaze the world and we sort of did. That day came on March 15, 1992.

Our first show was a huge success but we needed a name. For some reason, I was reluctant to call the band Pornflakes. So, I threw a party at my house and the band played in my bedroom which was our rehearsal space. I made about 20 tickets that got you into my room. Each ticket had a list of 8 band names and a space to fill in your own name. The results were inconclusive and I decided to just call the band Pornflakes.

Now we were a legitimate band and it was time to ROCK THE WORLD! (or was it ?)

1992-1993 "The Rise of Pornflakes-Continued"

Well, the ball was rolling and for the next several months we played quite a few shows for a new band.

We got a regular gig at a terrible club downtown on Calvert Street. The Rage was opened about a year before they closed their doors and packed away the smoke machine. My memory of this club is very cloudy (Ha, Ha).

In April of 1992, we added a fifth member to the group. Ron Ray was a 40 something year old computer wiz who happened to play a little trumpet (when he wasn't on an all day liquor binge). Ron also is a dear friend.

Sometime during the summer of 1992, Berkley started blowing off practices and announced that he would be leaving the group. Berkley got a gig with a local reggae group called "Uprising". He suggested that we ask his friend "Crash" to join the group.
Crash played with a local R&B group called Chaz and would regularly come to our shows. We asked if he would like to join the band and he did in September 1992.

September 18 & 19 Gong Show I

Crash was a monster on guitar. A little Stevie Ray and whole lot of Eddie Van Halen. Crash totally changed the band's sound, we actually sounded BIG! Peoples' jaws would drop when he played a solo, which was about 99.9% of the time. Little did I know that Crash and Berkley would be just 2 of a dozen or so members I would have to replace during the band's 4 year tenure.

On Mother's Day, 1992, my mom's house burned down. My mom, Judy, was a baker at the notorious "Louie's Bookstore Cafe". It was notorious for it's artsy decor and waitstaff, not to mention the shitty service. Louie's had a benefit party for my mom and the band played. Anyway, I think I met Leonard Mayfield around this time and knew he played trumpet. A few months went by and I was gearing up to take the band into the studio to cut our first album. I asked Leonard if he would like to be on the record. He accepted and joined the group in October 1992.

I had been listening to a lot of Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Waits and The Beatles. I wanted to make a recording that told a story and used a lot of samples. We had a piece in our set called "Turn Off That Television" and I decided to center the recording around this piece. We brought in a television and simply changed the channel between songs. I also had a bunch of choice samples that I wanted to use but did not have a sampler. Charleigh suggested his friend Mark Harp.

I had heard of the legendary Mark Harp and clearly remember, to this day, the first time I heard "I've Got Five Dollars" on the radio. Charleigh arranged for us to meet at Mark's place and discuss what we had in mind for the recording. Mark had heard some of our demos and practice tapes and liked what he heard. He signed on to help with the project and joined the band.

On November 7 & 8, 1992 we went to the very reputable Hat Factory operated by Tony French and recorded our first album-Turn Off That Television.

Arguably the band's best album, Turn Off That Television would receive rave reviews from a variety of Zines including.... Songs like Coffee and Goddamn would receive air play as well appearances on locally and nationally distributed compilation discs.

Also during the summer of 1992, I believe at the 14 Karat Cabaret, we were seen by a guy from Erie, Pennsylavania named John Johnston. John had a small record label called Trailer Life Records. He really liked the Coffee song. He also liked another local band-Cloaca. Long story short, John offered to release a 7" split single-Pornflakes "Coffee" backed by Cloaca's "Diggin' In That Bag".

1993 "We Mean Business"

Like most naive, wanna-be rock stars it was my belief that in order to make it big you had to play in New York City. I started looking for gigs in New York shortly after the release of Turn Off That Television. I tried the usual places: CBGB's (we would eventually play there), The Mercury Lounge, The Continental and landed a gig at a place called The Bond Street Cafe. The guy who booked the place suggested we charter a bus and basically bring an audience. Sounded logical to me and fun. So, I chartered a bus from a Clyde's Chartered Bus Service and sold tickets at $25 a pop. The ticket got you to and back from New York and admission into the show. So on April 30, 1993 we loaded up a chartered bus with 30 people, a keg of beer and headed to New York. When we got there most of the people who came hit the street and only came back when it was time to go back to Baltimore. I can't blame them. Hey, it was still a hell of a good time.

The record release party for our split 7" was held May 7, 1993 at the now defunct Hour House. I remember this show particularly well as the band played pretty poorly before a 200+ audience. I learned later that our trumpet player, Ron, was high on heroin which would account for his sitting on the edge of the stage all night rather than playing.

June 11 Gong Show II

September 3 CBGB's