Sonichris
Joined: Mar 06, 2006
Posts: 1872
Wear gloves - I'm in the Rockies
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Posted on May 20 2017 09:26 PM
All of his hometown of Denver is mourning. I am too. I learned of it from BTD today while I was driving back from NE. I had a lot of time to think about it, yet I don't know what to think.
I met him after an Aquasonics gig in 2005? He bought our cd. And he posted a review before I even knew who he was. Some dude named "Tuck" on SG101 reviewed it, and he liked it! It was far more complimentary than it should have been, which should have been a clue as to his kindness. He started coming to every gig we did, no matter where we were playing. 100 miles away? Sure! John would be there. Last slot on a Thursday night at 1am? Yup! John was on the scene! And not just my surf band, but all the local surf bands. And pretty soon, he was at the rockabilly shows, and the punk shows, and the country shows, and all the shows!!!
He was a supporter of nearly every rock band I know in Denver. If he was at a show, you knew it was probably the one to be at that day. He would often go to 2 or 3 shows a night - the man about town! If he missed your show, you probably weren't that good, and should start looking into a day job.
We nicknamed him "SuperFan John". As in "the only person there tonight was SuperFan John". My whole family, and lots of friends know him by this name. I don't know if he knew about his nickname or not - he probably wouldn't mind it. He was "SuperFan" to a lot of bands!
John was a student of surf music. Who here remembers his masters class on the song "Exotic" and it's origins? Or his Ted Brinson research, which I found fascinating! (Look it up, I'm not doing your homework!). He and I would talk about surf music, and he would always win. He knew more, which pissed me off. He was smarter than me in a subject I love. But, every once in a while, I'd know something he didn't, and we could be friends again!
The last time I talked to him was via text, a few months ago. He sent me some pictures of the HUGE HUGE HUGE collection of video he had taken in the last few years that he was going to dig through eventually. It was 100's upon 100's of tapes, and cards, and media. He truly was a fan of music.
Here's my funny John Koontz story. The Astronauts have two songs, "Kuk", and "Banzai Pipeline". The titles are mixed up on a compilation or two. John really liked "Banzai Pipeline", but he knew it as "Kuk". He asked the band to play "Kuk", so we learned "Kuk". "Kuk" is a vocal, and John didn't like that song. For several months, maybe even a year, he would come up and ask when we were going to play "Kuk", which i would usually reply "We just did" or "next set". At the end of the night, he would ask abou "Kuk" again. I'd say "we played it, you must have missed it". It was a long long time before he realized we HAD played "Kuk", it was "that terrible vocal song" as he put it, that we kept doing for our #1 fan.
I could ramble on and on about the guy, but I'll end with this. I didn't think he would be gone this soon. He was so dependable, I think I thought he'd be here forever. Now that he's not, I sure do miss him.
Every time I play "Intoxica" or "Exotic", I'll remember him asking "Is that the Dave Meyers version, or the Original Surfaris version?" And I'll think "you tell me John - you're the expert."
RIP SuperFan John.
— "You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"
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Matt22
Joined: Feb 15, 2007
Posts: 2813
Fredericksburg, Virginia
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Posted on May 20 2017 09:30 PM
That was a nice story, Chris! I never got to meet him but chatted with him a bit over Facebook about bands and things. I'm so sad to hear of his passing. 
— Matt "tha Kat" Lentz
Skippy and the Skipjacks: 2018-
Skippyandtheskipjacks.net
https://www.facebook.com/skippyandtheskipjacks
Otto and the Ottomans: 2014-2015
The Coconauts surf band: 2009-2014
www.theamazingcoconauts.com
Group Captain and the Mandrakes 2013
http://www.gcmband.com/
The Surfside IV: 2002-2005, 2008-2009
the Del-Vamps: 1992-1999, 2006-2007
http://www.dblcrown.com/delvamps.html
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19194
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 20 2017 09:36 PM
Amazing story Chris, thanks for sharing!
Like Josheboy said, the conventions will not be the same without him.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Noel
Joined: Mar 15, 2011
Posts: 8528
Back in Piitsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I grew up.
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Posted on May 20 2017 10:08 PM
I don't want to believe it. John and I were talking just the other day about the geography of my mother's family. This is one comment he sent me. John Koontz was a true renaissance man, a good man, a friend, and the world is less interesting without him. I will miss him deeply.
"Mozdzanow, meaning "of the Mozhdzhans." Mozdzanowski is an adjective form derived from that, which can also be used as a noun, and so a surname. It does appear that certain families dominated certain localities. All the famous people from Sycow are Gielzaks. And it appears that your village is literally on the historical frontier between the Poznan (Posen) part of Great Poland and Lower (downstream) Silesia. Poznan (Posen) is the land around the city of Poznan, and Lower Silesia centers on Wroclaw "Vrotswav" (Breslau). I'm omitting all the diacritics. Furthermore, your mother's Ursprung seems to be more or less where the districts of Milicz (Militsch), Sycow (Gross Wartenberg) and Odolanow (Adelnau) meet. The first two are in Lower Silesia and the last in Great Poland/Posen. God knows where the actual frontier was in any given year. It may actually never have wandered much.
From 1742 on Lower Silesia was part of Prussia, torn bodily from the grip of Maria Theresa of Austria on some pretext or another in spite of the Hohenzollern pledge to let her succeed to the Hapsburg domains even though a woman. It was preserved to Prussia in 3 increasingly vicious wars. The ones that got Frederick the sobriquet "Great," and nearly cost him his kingdom the last time. From 1772 - the first Polish Partition - to 1918 (less 1807-1814 for Napoleon's Grand Duchy of Warsaw) Posen was part of the Kingdom too, sliced off of the Kingdom of Poland (whose last kings were mostly Saxon princes elected by the Polish lords). Both areas were full of Evangelicals - extremist Calvinist Protestants to the left of the Lutherans - from the time of the 30 Years War. The Hapsburgs and Poles suppressed them. The north Germans and the Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia encouraged them. The Protestants were a minority, but a powerful one. Mostly they were German immigrants, but the ethnic and religious boundaries must have started fuzzy and gotten fuzzier over time.
I'll bet the expulsion of the Mozdzaowskis was not in the post WW I period as I had been assuming, but in the late 1800s in the the "Germanization" push under Bismarck (see Wikipedia). So they were probably long out of the area before WW I, let alone WW II, and the village may well have been Polish from 1918-1939. And your mother's father may have been in the German Navy in WW I and in danger of being recalled in some capacity. I suppose there might be enough surviving records to find out who commanded U-Boats in WW I. Maybe not everyone who served in them. I think you had to be a Kapitan-Leutnant (Commander?) to command one. It was a suicidal job, so nobody very senior got it.
I checked on the von Trapps. He was an Austrian (born in Croatia) and an Austrian sub commander in WW I. Like some Austrians he didn't care for the annexation to Germany or Hitler and he left. I don't know if he was actually in danger of being recalled to serve the German authorities or not. He was technically an Italian citizen from 1918 or so and they just announced they were going to tour the US and took a train to Italy. I would imagine the main problem wasn't leaving. It was getting residency in the US as usual!"
— This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.
Last edited: May 20, 2017 22:27:10
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Sonichris
Joined: Mar 06, 2006
Posts: 1872
Wear gloves - I'm in the Rockies
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Posted on May 20 2017 10:11 PM
^^^^^^^. So John 
— "You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"
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Sonichris
Joined: Mar 06, 2006
Posts: 1872
Wear gloves - I'm in the Rockies
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Posted on May 20 2017 10:18 PM
This is from (I assume) Chrispy Bess at the Instro Summit Facebook page. It's very nice, and better than I tried to say.
"It is with a very heavy heart that we inform our fans of the passing of John Koontz, one of the Instro Summit's most stalwart fans and supporters.
A dedicated fan to surf and roots music, John had already established himself as regular attendee of the SG101 convention before he got word of our festival on the other side of the country. Once he found us, he loved us, always singing our praises before, during and after the Summits, making long-term friends with fans and band alike, and always with picture and video cameras at the ready to document the music he loved. Many of the photos in our annual photo albums came from John, and there's not a turkey in the bunch, all showing as much love and dedication to the film as he had for the performers he was capturing.
He was also a wise man, deeply insightful, with a droll wit that made you always appreciate whatever he had to say or post. You looked forward to his remarks on Facebook, because you knew they were always going to be not merely good, but often exactly what you needed to hear at that moment.
John apparently collapsed while taking pictures at a concert in Denver, never making it to the hospital, slipping away peacefully in the presence of musicians that loved him, still clutching his camera in his hands. It was a fine way to leave this realm, but in this man's opinion, far too soon to do so.
We are missing you already, John. Not just for the memories of we had with you, but also all the memories we had planned for you in the future.
Rest in Peace, Good sir."
— "You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"
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Noel
Joined: Mar 15, 2011
Posts: 8528
Back in Piitsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I grew up.
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Posted on May 20 2017 10:27 PM
One more thing. John was very, very funny. We eventually got around to the etymology of the name Squitieri. He sent this gem:
"And squit(t)iero 'squeaker, pipsqueak'. Maybe 'kid'." You can't make this stuff up, but John did.
— This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.
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bigtikidude
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 25309
Anaheim(So.Cal.)U.S.A.
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Posted on May 21 2017 03:09 AM
John(tuck) and Baja Marty are having a beer up there tonight.
— Jeff(bigtikidude)
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Badger
Joined: Nov 16, 2013
Posts: 4536
Wisconsin
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Posted on May 21 2017 07:24 AM
My condolences to those of you who knew him. Sounds like someone I could've bought a cold one for. I mean who pulls the phrase "hoary chestnut" out of their vocabulary in the context of a review? Superb.*
— Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel
DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.
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wfoguy
Joined: Dec 11, 2011
Posts: 2090
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Posted on May 21 2017 09:54 AM
I missed out on meeting him. I'm sure it's my loss. My condolences to all the family and friends. We're always sad when someone good passes but he sure did it the best way.
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skeeter
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 2062
Virginia, USA
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Posted on May 21 2017 10:25 AM
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CrazyAces
Joined: Jul 31, 2012
Posts: 4052
Nashville, TN.
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Posted on May 21 2017 10:46 AM
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Fady
Joined: Mar 07, 2010
Posts: 2226
North Carolina
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Posted on May 21 2017 12:06 PM
Just unbelievable...
If a few paragraphs on the internet could ever start to convey the essence of a man, you've done just that Chris, Noel, Crispy. SuperFan John, indeed.
He definitely had a few favorite classic tunes, but perhaps his most favorite was Intoxica. He made me a copy of a compilation he'd put together following a similar conversation to the one you'd shared, Chris, when he'd heard us play it at one of the Instro Summits. The compilation he gave me the next time I saw him... 16 versions of Intoxica. Brilliant & Classic "Tuck".
Rest In Peace, my friend.
— Fady
El Mirage @ ReverbNation
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Richard
Joined: Mar 02, 2006
Posts: 1674
Georgia
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Posted on May 21 2017 02:31 PM
I can only echo what's been said so well by everyone here. I'm going to miss him at the convention.
— The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31
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bigtikidude
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 25309
Anaheim(So.Cal.)U.S.A.
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Posted on May 21 2017 04:58 PM
— Jeff(bigtikidude)
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tahitijack
Joined: Nov 03, 2006
Posts: 690
San Clemente, CA
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Posted on May 21 2017 06:53 PM
For those that might not know him, please visit his Facebook page. He was a true fan. Rest in piece Tuck.
— Happy Sunsets!
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CaptainSpringfield
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 4387
Under the Sun
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Posted on May 21 2017 09:34 PM
Awful news, he was a great guy.
R.I.P., John.
— That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it.
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subdigit6
Joined: Oct 27, 2010
Posts: 116
Centennial, Co
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Posted on May 21 2017 10:16 PM
Here's John, doing what he enjoyed doing- filming a band (The Royal Aces at I believe The Berkeley Inn)... On the table is a book he bought for my girl, because at the previous gig we were at together we talked about her favorite animal. "I was on Amazon, and I saw this... please give it to your daughter". That's the kind of guy he was.
As Sonichris said above, he was always there. I figured he always would be. He will be missed.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155366313969695&set=p.10155366313969695&type=3
Last edited: May 21, 2017 22:22:19
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PolloGuitar
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 5080
San Francisco
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Posted on May 22 2017 01:02 AM
John came to so many Bay Area shows, I thought he might have lived out here. 
What a great guy, so knowledgeable and friendly.
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DJ Frankie Pool Boy on North Sea Surf Radio
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MadScientist
Joined: Jan 17, 2008
Posts: 2188
Atlanta, GA
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Posted on May 22 2017 08:24 AM
I was so sad to hear of John's passing. He was one of the first people that I met and talked to at my first SG101 Convention many years ago, and again at my 2nd when I was traveling completely solo, so it was extra meaningful! How great it was to see him even start attending the Instro Summits! I will always cherish the great videos and detailed discussions of trivia and research that he has left us. May these documents of his joys help him truly live forever! RIP John, we're all better for having known you.
—
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