"Towards the end of 1999, for a variety of reasons, the band Load was near the end of their reign as the loudest, most prolific, most volatile...and in my opinion...the best punk band in South Florida history.

As the live shows became fewer, and the disagreements between band members became less tolerable to those involved, it became clear that Load was in its final days.

It was during this time that the band's members started planning for a future, post Load. Jeff Tucci started practicing with Middle Finger Mob, and did a brief stint with North Carolina's Buzzoven, Fausto started drumming and playing out with multiple other local bands, and Ray and Tony began their own side projects. Bobby Johnston, Load's singer and lyricist, also began putting feelers out, with respect to taking his talents elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Morgantown's Karma to Burn, sometimes known as K2B, were gaining a reputation as the tightest, heaviest, self-described "desert rock/stoner rock" band in the area of the country where the Midwest meets the Northeast.

The band was/are noted for their uncompromising, mostly instrumental sound, and Roadrunner Records noticed, signing them in 1996. K2B were planning to release an entirely instrumental album, but Roadrunner insisted that the contract was only valid under the condition that they hired a vocalist and toured with that vocalist. So, they began a search, both locally and nationally, for a singer.

It was in 1999 that the then instrumental K2B were finishing up their most recent tour, and my brother Mitchell (one of Bobby's best friends) was traveling with them as a roadie, and he suggested that Bobby Johnston should get an audition to be their new singer.

Bobby was so excited about this possibility, that he obtained a cassette tape of Karma to Burn's first record, wrote his own lyrics without the band's knowledge, and went to his friend Stephen Johnson's (of Postface fame) 4-track studio in Boca Raton, and recorded his own demo/audition tape.

He was very excited about how good he thought it turned out. He called me up and had me pick him up, and I popped it in the tape deck of car, to give it a listen.

It blew me away. We immediately drove straight to my apartment, where I made three copies: One for me, one for Mitchell, and one for my friend Steve Yeager that lived in Pittsburgh.

Bobby made me swear not to let anyone in South Florida know that he had made this tape, because he still had hope that Load would carry on, and was hoping this Karma to Burn collaboration would only be a contingency plan, should Load break up, and he didn't want this tape to be the catalyst leading to that breakup.

Bobby sent his copy to Karma to Burn, who liked it, but didn't think his vocal stylings were a good fit for their sound. Rumor has it that they had also gotten wind of Bobby Load's reputation as a heavy drinker, and felt it best to pass on having him as their new front man.

Fast forward to 2019: while moving in to my new apartment, I started going through all my old records, CDs, and cassette tapes, and I found my copy of this tape. I couldn't wait to hear it again. I put it in my stereo's cassette player, and all I heard was a garbled, distorted mess. I had mistakenly stored my old tapes in the attic of my old house, and the tape got baked and warped in the Fort Lauderdale heat. I was pissed.

But, then I remembered the other copies..."

-- Jim McCrady