In the summer of 2000, Gil returned to Minnesota to see his old band mates and jam for the hell of it.  Sadly, there was a lot of friction during the only jam session that summer.  It wasn't until July 2001 that things changed on the edge of a blade.

Upon arriving in Minneapolis, Brian & Shawn took Gil to a party.  They decided not to jam until the next day and went to a couple of clubs in St. Paul for some fun.  Brian, during a Chinese fire drill, was dragged about ten feet by the car after failing to get in all the way when Gil stepped on the gas.  He had a pretty nice raspberry on his leg.

About 1:00 a.m., the boys and a group of friends were joined by a woman who said she was being chased by a man who wanted to hurt her.  Shawn and Gil turned to tell the man to leave.  The man pulled a straight razor out of his pocket and, with two quick slashes, cut Shawn's throat straight across and Gil's face from below the jawbone to the corner of his mouth.  The boys were in the emergency room for almost four hours.

After resting for a few hours, Shawn, Brian, and Gil sat in the basement with a case of beer and a carton cigarettes discussing how close to death they had been.  They decided that they should press on because they had received a tremendous lesson in mortality.   Even though they were in pain, the boys jammed and recorded.  The song "Heathens Rejoice!" was recorded at that session and the lyrics for "Frog Town Kat" were written two days later.

Gil returned to Minnesota the following summer.  Armed with coffee, cigarettes, donuts, beer, and chips, The Whitinos hunkered down in Shawn's studio and recorded "Frustration & Bliss," "Whack," "Frog Town Kat," "Walk The Future," "Mama Said," and the new vocal track for "Heathens Rejoice"   The Whitinos, being huge fans of Tom Waits, decided to cover "Going Out West" which seemed to fit right in with what they were doing. 

In February 2003, Shawn and Brian came to San Antonio to have some fun and try to fix up some tracks at Edit Point Studio.  Unfortunately, the only usable track was the new "Frog Town Kat" vocal.

Each of The Whitinos were very busy during the next year and a half.  The tracks gathered dust until the summer of 2004 when mixing for the demo was finally complete.

What remains is for the band to return to the studio and record more songs for a fourteen song CD.

The Whitinos have come a long way and have suffered pitfalls that many artists have encountered.  They've learned that no matter how many times they get knocked down, they have to get up and dust themselves off and start all over again.  Even though, when all is said and done, all they have to show is a big pile of dust... it's their dust.

What a tale that dust can tell.

To be continued...