THE BURLAP STORY Born in Bung River, Arkansas, Benjamen James Burlap was raised by unknown sources after his mother Elvetta, was trampled to death in a riot at the local banjoe factory. His father Dwight Henry, perished soon after in a homemade hash oil explosion and young Ben was thought to have wandered off into the backwoods horribly disfigured and parentless. He emerged several years later, mysteriously unscathed, wearing a balaclava and "ready for a go at the music industry." His first band was Bill's Psychotic Mother, a hillbilly grindcore outfit from Sweden. Ben fit in nicely as a replacement for the former lead singer, Sven Spunkenfelch who disappeared while ice fishing at a clothing optional resort. The incident spawned the tribute album, Farewell to Frauzennut which charted well but was dismissed by critics as being "noisey" and "hard to understand". Negative reviews were compounded by the incarceration of the bands bass player, Timmy "the shiv" Hunsley, for his involvement with the Knights of Necrosodomy, a post mortem porn ring known for their outlandish graveyard shenanigans. Undaunted, Ben moved on , garnering moderate success as a member of the "All Boy Sensations"(the Abs) and had a top ten hit with the perrenial teen anthem "Loving the Love (my love). Scandal soon errupted however, when it was dicovered that live perfomances had been lip-synched by a group of non-union actors, while the real band played videogames backstage. Disillusioned and pennyless, Ben took work at a Vancouver meat proccessing plant, where he would meet his current bandmates and form Burlap, an indulgent foray into what critics call "a scathing testimonial of troubled youth trapped in a quagmire of retarded sexuality and pre-apocolyptic fervor." A local fan summed it up by saying, "they've got a good beat and they're kinda' funny".