Old dogs new beginings A TRiBE Overview How s that go You know the addage about sleeping dogs Whatever I m sure you know what I m refering to Here I was less than two months away from a nice quite retirement from drawing ANSi s and what happens A second rate would be despot orchastraits a coup de-tah-de-fuckin-da and declairs himself a soveirn NaTiON all supposedly in the name of fun Deja-fuckin-doodle-do you say Keep in mind *I* publicly quit iCE and it was months before anyone who was in iCE at that time *ASKED* to join TRiBE Sure in closing in on four years in this scene perhaps it was the kismet of some of my past sins but that incident wasn t one of them To paraphrase Tempus I see where you re coming from and agree with your decision Supposedly NaTiON was in the planning stages for several days before the March Pack (TRIBE-10) was released AND until the recent Gothic break-up consisted mostly of TRiBE Members Regardless this isn t about jumping up and down pointing fingers at Maestro and the Musical Mayhem of his RyTHMiC NaTiON There has been and will be enough of that elsewhere to be sure This is about an old sleeping dog that some smart asses thought would be fun to give one last hard quick kick before he was put to sleep As the addage leads one to conclude not the wisest of actions As I ve chronicled elsewhere TRiBE in both name and function was a joke Weeks before I came to the decision to leave iCE whilst talking to Corigan about comics (specificly how he hated the big butted black chick book called Tribe) I joked that I was quitting iCE to start a new group that would only draw big butts called TRiBE When the time came that I actually did quit I thought it humorous to start a one man group called TRiBE for that is what it was just me Realisticly however as with most things it s just not fun by yourself Some were asked to join (such as Mr Man and the rest of Mindless Logan the guy who got me into ANSi and Dreamevil another old bud from the LTD days ) and others came to me (such as the whole ChroniC mishap Quazar et al) Before I knew it TRiBE was in danger of becoming a real group in that it would look and opperate like all the others I d be having none of that At every oppertunity I bucked the scenes conventional wisdom No sites no staff no non-artists no competition you know it all by now On the one hand this was successful as it kept things so loose that TRiBE never got any real continuity to be actually considered as a group It was as it claimed to be a collection of individuals The only problem was that other hand which was usually wraped around a knife that could be found stuck in my back No It was not people leaving that was ever the problem Anyone would have to be an idiot to think that a group setup and run (if you can call zipping packs running a group) like TRiBE could be a successful group in so much as beinc capable of holding the attention or ambitions of the type of artists that populate the scene today From very early on I was more than content with the PRIVATE thought that TRiBE was *THE* Minor League group the scene always needed where talent could be developed and shipped up to the big game You can look at the member lists of groups out there and find quite a large portion of them having had a stint in TRiBE which just happens to coencide with a noticable improvement in thier product The problem came mostly in the actions of an admitedly few people who traversed thru the revolving doors that TRiBE was built with It would be a rather short list of rather well known overly-ambitious-under-achivers if I were to go thru actually listing them on a case by case basis The only people who would stand by any of these people today are afew people who happen to be in their same group today I m sure alot of you know alot of them if not personally than thier type They re frauds of the worst kind two-faced opertunists who ll lie looking you straight in the perverbial eye most of them at one time or another having called you friend They are betrayers of one of the only things holding this community together trust Tired of the all too real group like work of having to find out who is or isn t still with you Tired of so called friends twisting the knife in you as they leave I disbanded TRiBE In the next few seconds that followed my rash decision (that ended with a rather loud thud of hanging up a phone) that old dog stat striaght up with a very feral very familar growl These little shits just pissed on your grave he said I d be having none of that Making a quick list of everyone I would want in a group from the last TRiBE member listing I had I quickly called them up Apon notifying them of what had just transpired and why I invited them to join a new group I was starting called TRiBE At the time I did not know where it would be going but as those first few people can attest I was enjoying myself again for the first time in several months (Of course it was at the expense of others but that s besides the point ) Rather quickly the path to which we would be walking was becoming crystal clear For the past eleven months now everyone has been pissing and moaning about how TRiBE s full of shit How it did this didn t do that generally contradicting (often simply to be contradictory) anything I claimed TRiBE wasn t different it did compete and I was in charge Ok They WANT to see that They got it After all if all this shit could happen when I sat back and did nothing imagine what I could do if I TRIED TRiBE became Invitation Only and that would be a limited one time only offer to join Pass it up you re shit out of luck Who d be invited Only people *I* wanted in and nothing else would matter All this time where just about anyone could get into TRiBE and now only a few people would ever even get the CHANCE to join NOW there would ONLY be TRiBE and if you weren t in TRiBE SCREW YOU! You lose slick I was there durring the iCE Age which is pretty much the example we all measure ourselves by even today I seem to be the only guy out there today that really understands what the term best *SHOULD* mean Of the Ex-Tribe guys Invited to TRiBE all accepted Of the Master List of Possibles so far only three have been Invited all three declined and will never be TRiBE members Of the four off the cuff Invitations only one was not accepted Future Archives will keep a running tally for entertainment purposes only Please No wagering (Yes we re taking it seriously this time but our tounge is still firmly stuck in our cheak ) It should be obvious that with the Invitation Only System TRiBE will (nor should) ever be the megalithic type groups of ACiD and iCE Fewer people will EVER be invited to TRiBE than either of those have REJECTED Today TRiBE is as different from TRiBE as KFK s Mirage was from the Triumvirate s MiRAGE or from R Noble s Mirage-D-Light The name may be the same there may even be some of the same members but it IS a different group let NO ONE tell you otherwise You will see it as plain as day in the weeks and months to come in all words actions and end results People will still confuse the two but as before whenever there s inaccuracy I ll be having none of that Just as Mirage put out 5 Compendiums (in two years) TRiBE has put out 10 Archives (in ten months) this month s will make it 11 our 1st We are not ashamed of nor ignoring our past because it was in it s fire that our resolve was forged We are not a fly-by-night group that has just poped up destined to crumble within a matter of months Only 4 other art groups have been in existance longer than TRiBE of which only 3 are still alive and kicking Few groups prior have accomplished what it has and none since have even come close most won t even TRY This old dog knows that the best revenge it could ever have on those who went out of thier way to take a swipe at him on thier way thru HIS yard is to get up off the porch one last time for the great chase TRiBE will become one of the most exclusive premire art groups the scene will ever see LONG after the likes of Maestro and his RyTHM NaTiON have faded from peoples memories as anything other than the passing fancies that they were From Legacy to Valiant Gothic to Eternity all these groups have collapsed from the weight of the ego s which spawned them It is Monday April 25th 1994 twenty days since this all occured As of 3 00am we do not have one single finsihed thing Nothing I can tell you here and now without any doubt that this will be the best TRiBE Archive to date With the PRiDE! Policy in place you are looking at the first group to officially and publicly proclaim a set standard of quality (Not to mention one that doesn t shoot ones self in ones foot ) Yes we ve thrown our hats into the ring and we ll take our share of shots Just remember it s only the first of MANY rounds and you don t expect to get a title fight your first time out We ve proven TRiBE s here for the long haul TRiBE 94 - Today the NaTiON tomorrow the world! Shihear Kallizad TRiBELCHUNG! - Paradigm -