Stiffs, Incorporated were called a punk band, a postpunk band, a Victorian punk band, and a post-Orwellian rock combo. Nearly everything except a steam punk band, which is what we would surely call them today.
Though they were not a well-known band during their active period in the 1990s, they have been sited as an influence by a surprising number of today's great "dark cabaret" and goth bands, including My Chemical Romance, who sited the second Stiffs Inc album as the template for their band (Gerard of the aforementioned band once dated "Miss Cootie," one of this site's primary sources of information in the late 1990s).
I, your host, Mr. Meenee, was a sixteen year old high school student from Snellville, Georgia, when this page was first launched as an AOL member page. In 1997, a large accordion folder appeard at my door step containing this note, along with copies of magazine articles, fliers, and other ephemera.
Most of the band was hard to contact in those days - Whitey was said to hate computers - so most of the other information about the band came from spies, including Miss Cootie, Miss Cheeser, and the Psychotic Eve's boyfriend.
They played their final show on 5/24/1998 at Mother in New York City, and have not been heard from since, except for occasional interviews and new projects, such as Mr. Sterling's "Umbrella Brigade" and Mr. Boering's "Coke."
The webpage survived in various forms, of which this is the most recent.
Drummer Bryn Mars returned to school, getting an MBA in business from Wharton. According to notes sent from an unnamed spy: "Mr.Mars has fled to the uppermost floors of the towers of the corporate banking world, although he does not work there. He is repeatedly asked as to why he returns day after day, to which he only spits. Mr. Mauser had conversely/obversely/reversely buried himself in the vaults of said towers, where he does work, only not for the banks. The people he works for have no idea he is there, but pay him nonetheless. "
Guitarist Paul Boering (ne Boring) and angelic-twist-vocalist Lost Forever began to perform cabaret music under the name Coke. (see below for update)
In 2000, an informer mentioned above went on to reveal the wherabouts of Messers Sterling and Lang, quoted verbatim below: "Mr. Sterling's musical health has taken a decidedly electronic turn, some say for the worse, leaving behind St.Vitus but retaining the Dance. He is frequently locked in a room, sometimes by himself, sometimes by others, having imaginary conversations with a stranger by the name of Oakenfold. And Byron Lang, the keyboardist at the time of the demise, stops by to visit each of the others, if for no reason other than to kick one of them in the head."
While Mr. Sterling indicated that Boering and Forever had recently dropped the moniker "coke," Mr. Boering sent the following update:
Coke recently changed its name to: "White Powder (Of Which We Do Not Partake) Which Brings To Mind The Cold Beauty Of Snow As Well As The Glamour And Sophistication Of The 1920s, But Also Happens To Be The Name Of A Brown Sugary Beverage".
But when they found out this would not fit on the marquee at Madison Square Garden, they decided to continue their search for a new name. The search continues, but for now it is still referred to as "coke".
In fact, some time later they became Beaut.
The original perpetrators were last heard from in a recent interview with Deaf Sparrow. Whitey is said (as of 2011) to be readying a new Umbrella Brigade release.
And as for Mr. Meenee... that's a whole other story.
