Mykel and Carli and their younger sister Trista died
in a car accident near Colorado Springs in Juli 1997. Mykel
and Carli ran the official Weezer fanclub and was so nice to everybody...
Mykel & Carli Here's what Mykel and Carli said about themselves:
We
moved to Hollywood together in 1989 as parents planned another family move. Carli converted Mykel to seeing live music and
since then we have spent most of our nights standing too close to thumping speakers and becoming the "jaded-scenesters" that
we are. While in Hollywood we saw literally thousands of bands, some good and some not so good. It didn't take long to make
a list of favorites and meet the people involved. July 9, 1992 we were at Club Dump (Johnny Depp bought the place, called
it the Viper Room, River Phoenix died there) to see a good band Crux (No longer a band). At someone's suggesion we stuck around
to see the next band Weezer. We were impressed and put them on the mental-list of bands to go see again. The following night
we were at a birthday party for our friend Bryan Ray. Bryan is the bass player in a band called Black Market Flowers, the
first band to write a song called "Mykel & Carli". At the party we recognized the guy with long hair sitting alone by
the refrigerator. It was Rivers, from Weezer, and he had his eyes for the birthday cake we had brought. We told him we has
enjoyed his band the night before, he seemed amazed that we had liked it so much. The three of us sat on the couch and talked
about music, food and growing up - we had wierd names and hippie parents in common. Rivers told us when the next weezer show
was and we remained anti-socially on that couch wondering how long it had taken some of the people there to get dressed. We
made sure he got a piece of the cake and visited until his ride was ready to go. We continued going to Weezer shows (60 at
last count) whenever we could. We met the rest of the band and provided a spectator's viewpoint and sideline reviews, whether
they wanted to hear it or not. We made cookies and road trips. The band got better and the audience grew. Weezer signed with
Geffen and was actually going to release an album! They asked us if we would send lyrics for them so they could include the
picture of the garage inside the cover. Not knowing what we were in for we agreed, "Of course, anything for you guys." After
all, Rivers had written a sweet song for us called "Mykel & Carli". Just sending lyrics wasn't enough. Stuffing envelopes
isn't much fun and we wanted to share what we knew about them with other people who care about them. So the "Fanclub" began.
At the end of February we moved out of Hollywood. We left some good friends to come to Portland, Oregon but it's nice to have
a garage to spread the Weezer stuff out in and some time to keep up with all the mail. Sometimes we miss seeing Weezer and
it's members all the time. However, it's fun to have some people to jump up and down to see the band happy.
One cannot really understand weezer's history
without knowing about Mykel and Carli Allan, and what they did for weezer fans. That they were taken from us is a cruel injustice,
and it is to their wonderful memories that this page exists.
Mykel and Carli were two sisters who loved two things: rock
and roll, and meeting new freinds. They were amongst the very kindest, sweetest, funniest and cool people on earth, and they
brought their infectious fun with them when they moved to L.A. in the early 90's. They went to countless local shows and were
big supporters of "cool" music, which was just beginning to blossom in the post-hair band dominated L.A. scene. On July 9th
1992 they caught a show by a struggling band who had been doing some pretty rough gigs since February, who went by the name
weezer. In the ensuing months, they attended nearly every show the band played, and were hard core supporters of the group.
Before long the "weezer camp" and Mykel and Carli were good freinds, and it was common for the girls to bequeath cakes and
cookies on the band after a show.
By Spring '93, the prospects for the band were looking pretty
good, and when a Geffen Records contract came through, the girls made and gave to the band a great treasure: handmade replicas
of the necklace talismans given to KISS in the film "Phantom of the Park", complete with a red velvet lined case! This was
a perfect example of the girls wit and attention to detail (photo of this item forthcoming...)
In return, Rivers had by then cooked up a special song in their
honor, "Mykel and Carli", which later was professionally recorded and appeared as a b-side on the imported CD single for "Undone".
Once the Blue Album was finished (complete with Mykel's voice
in the second verse of "Undone", even), the girls were asked to do the band a favor: would they send out lyrics to people
who wrote in requesting them? Rivers wanted the lyrics to be special, just for those who asked. The girls jumped on the project
and did a great job. By mid summer '94 the girls had some news: tons of people were requesting to join a fanclub, one that
didn't exist! The girls proposed that they start one, and they do it right: very personal, and with lots of goodies. In late
'94 the club had become reality, and swiftly passed the 1000 mark in memberships.
By Summer '97, well over 4000 people had signed up, (though
not all members renewed every year, so actual membership was around 2500 and growing) Every new member got a new number, so
that no numbers were ever "re-used". Mykel was #0001, and Carli was #0002. They spent every available second on the fanclub,
even going to such lengths as to call every fanclub member to inform them of an upcoming TV appearence, and sending out a
yearly secret suprise gift. They also helped pioneer early net-fandom by making themselves available online to the swelling
world of the web, via email and frequent chat room visitation. All in all, they just ruled.
Another of their cool activites was fan gatherings, where they
met up with local groups of weezer fans before a show and went and did fun stuff, like going out to eat and whatnot. They
did this not only in their LA (and later Portland, OR) homertowns, but "on the road", caravaning with weezer on tour for several
days at a stretch. It was on one of these weezer missions that tragedy struck. In the early hours of July 9, 1997 (in fact
5 years to the date from their first weezer show), while en route from Denver, CO, to Salt Lake City, UT, Mykel and Carli
along with their wonderful younger sister Trysta went off the road in a one car accident on I-70 near Rifle, CO. All 3 passed
away instantly. However, the wreck was hidden from the road, so there was a major mystery as to their well-being and whereabouts
all during the next day's show in Salt Lake. Weezer did the show as an uneasy feeling overtook everyone. The band learned
the news the next day, enroute to Calgary, Alberta. Through the shock, the band managed to get through the 2 shows in Calgary,
knowing that Mykel and Carli would be disappointed if weezer missed the gigs! The Vancouver gig was scrapped and the band
flew to Salt Lake to participate in the memorial service, which was beautiful. A local fan Tim attended and reported:
"the memorial service was held at 2:00 pm, July 14th,
at the Orem Park 10th ward meeting house of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, in Orem, Utah. I had the pleasure
of attending the memorial and graveside services. Mykel, Carli, and Trysta's father [Wayne] gave an introduction, and eulogies
were offered for Mykel, Carli, and Trysta by Claudia (their mother), Kenyan (their brother), and Tyler (their brother), respectively.
After the memorial service concluded, we proceeded to Springville, Utah. Several members of the band were among a group of
approximately 20 pallbearers. After the graves were dedicated by the girls' paternal grandfather, the crowd mingled, and people
gave their love to the girls' family. At the end of the service, before people left, Karl placed 2 special weezer hats, one
on Mykel's grave, one on Carli's grave." -Tim After
the Pinkerton Tour was over, there was one last special show on August 15th 1997, a memorial show that was covered by Mtv
News. The Allan family was in attendance, to rock out for the girls who couldnt be there, and Rivers did a special acoustic
version of "Mykel and Carli" in the encore, somehow getting through it without breaking down. Also playing that night were
2 other L.A. bands that the girls cared a lot about, that dog and Black Market Flowers (who in fact wrote their own "Mykel
and Carli" song several weeks before Rivers wrote his!) A special run of t-shirts was made especially for the show, and again,
all profits went to the memorial fund, which at the time was cheifly concerned with covering the high funeral expenses. The
concert revenue took care of that aspect, and the fund has been growing ever since. There are in fact a small amount of leftover
shirts, that you can still order and contribute to the fund while getting a neat limited edition weezer t-shirt. Please scroll
down for details on that.
The passing of the girls has come to be recognized as one of
the causes for weezer's extended downtime, or at least the start of it. Besides other tensions and stuff that had to be worked
out (including Matt's eventual desicion to leave the band), there was a distinct sense in everyone that they just needed time
to work out how they felt about all this and what to do next, each on their own for a while. While weezer's future was always
considered a reality, it would take many, many months before the band (now with Mikey) were even rehearsing, and over 2 years
would go by before more tours and a new album happened in 2000. In the meantime, due to overwhelming demand, Karl (aided by
a close freind and ex-roomate of the girls) did his best to continue the fanclub, eventually putting out 4 more issues of
the fanclub's "weezine" including #11, the memorial issue featuring extensive input from the Allan family. #14 came out in
summer 1999, as karl struggled to keep it going after the assistant resigned in the fall of '98. As the weezer.com duties
became more and more pressing (and a great way to connect with the ever more web-savvy fanbase), karl decided to put the fanclub
on hold till a viable solution could be found. Currently negotiations are underway with a new fanclub person, who is all about
doing it in a way that Mykel and Carli would like. Now that weezer is back in full swing, its good to look back and remember
the two people who helped so much in getting weezer off the ground, and who were such wonderful people to boot! |
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