| Band Members | The legendary Alice Donut, now in its 20th year, has just completed its 9th full length release, Fuzz. Since 1987, Alice Donut has been making an eclectic, hard-to-define tripped out mixture of hard rock, punk, grunge, pop and post-punk, often punctuated with brass, banjos, washboards and the occasional abused household appliance. Alice Donut's melodic, guitar-heavy, odd-metered yet deeply grooved takes on the perversities, odd details, petty humiliations and sick joys of life have created a long term loyal following among indie music die-hards, industry insiders and misfit punk rockers. They've been cited as an influence by everyone from Broadway composers to performance artists, from fringe noise bangers to today's front-and-center bands.
Between 1987 and 1996, Alice Donut released seven full length albums on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label, and 15 or so singles, EPs and odd releases through various others. The band toured relentlessly, and then, after their 1000th live performance, decided to take a break to pursue other projects.
2004s Three Sisters, Alice Donut's first release after its hiatus, was recorded by the band as a four-piece (Tom Antona on vocals, Michael Jung on guitar, Stephen Moses on drums and Sissi Schulmeister on bass) before the band's complete reassembling for Fuzz when guitarist Dave Giffen (co-owner of Howler Records), stepped back in on guitar. Fuzz, recorded in Brooklyn's famed BC Studio with longtime co-producer Martin Bisi, is out now! www.alicedonut.com
Bad Wizard stands up with the heaviest, ball-swinginest hard rockers of all time. Curtis, Eddie, Tina, John and Kurt throw it down hard, but always keep the spirit up. Heavy, but not metal, Bad Wizard is essentially a boogie band with huge ones. Every song urges the crowd to party, rock, stay up all night and then rock some more.
Sounding like Chuck Berry bombarded by gamma rays, Eddie Lynch plays tear-down-the-walls, terrify-the-parents monster-rock, while Tina Gorin chugs from the Holy Grail of rock guitarists: tasty as Keith and angry as Angus. With the crushing grooves of drummer John Sherman and bassist Kurt Midness, Bad Wizard lays out arena-ready anthems that will make you blow your bong load.
At the center of the maelstrom is front man Curtis "Don't Hurt Us" Brown. With one of the greatest hard rock voices you've ever heard, Curtis bellows like a beserker in battle, challenging anyone foolish enough to stand in the way of his merry marauders, while inviting the rest of us to share the plunder.
Look for the new Bad Wizard record, Sky High, produced by Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux and RTX, in stores now.www.badwiz.com
MONSTROUS is three brothers from Rhode Island: Led Gethway (guitar & vocals), Ken Gethway (bass & vocals) and Alex Gethway (drums & vocals). The brothers have been playing and stockpiling songs for over 10 years and have been traveling around the country in a big white candy truck playing shows and writing yet more songs.
MONSTROUS self-released two full-length CDs, Not a Studio Record, and the double-CD The Revolution is Death, (with a mere 39 songs on it). Now based in Portland, Oregon (maybe), they have established a reputation as hugely gifted songwriters with a raw and frenetic live show that has made die hard fans of The Dandy Warhols, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and many others.
With influences as disparate as Syd Barret, the Beach Boys, Forrest Carland, Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, the Ramones, Nirvana, Flaming Lips and Lightning Bolt, the MONSTROUS style careens from head banging punk to beautiful rich harmony pop to off-the-map weirdness and chaos. Their debut on Howler, Mother Nature's Slaves, will be released on September 19, 2006.
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The Witnesses are a rock and roll band from New York City. With drummer Will Scott and bass player Kenan Gunduz locking down the sweet grooves, guitarists Oakley Munson and Darian Zahedi and keyboard player Bonnie Bloomgarden pump, slide and squeeze R'n'B inflected lines through songs that all bear the unmistakable Witnesses sound...raw, raucous and rousing, swinging, stinging and all the way live. With the spirit of punk and the soul of the blues poured into songwriting that is sharp, smart and witty, The Witnesses are the type of rock band in all too short supply these days; fun, fun, fun... but not to be fucked with.
The Witnesses have toured the U.S. with the likes of the Donnas and Deadmeadow, and in the UK with Har Mar Superstar and most recently Mick Jones of the Clash. About their debut full length, released by Howler Records in 2004, the Real Detroit Weekly said, "Tunnel Vision flaunts the tightest R&B/rock n' roll around, stepping in and out of vintage NYC and Detroit with touches of the Stones and Chuck Berry." The EP, Hard Up, was released in October of 05, and their brand new CD, Black Eyes and White Lies, is in stores now.www.thewitnessesnyc.com
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zZz is the sleazy, steamin' locomotive barreling out of the Amsterdam underground. Fueled only by drums, vocals and one very large organ, the duo of Bjorn Ottenheim and Daan Schinkel serve up a Molotov cocktail of garage soul, violent trance and electro-waved, dirty rock & roll.
zZz came to life at the turn of the century when the two house mates decided to make music with a simple drum kit and an old $50 church organ in their basement. Now, with doom-laden, Jim Morrison-like vocals and soul-searing keyboards, zZz could be mistaken for Satan's own lounge act .
The band has been freaking audiences out across the US this year as they tour in support of their mind-blowing US debut, Sound of zZz (Howler Records 2005). In October, dance-rock go-between Tommie Sunshine produced a re-mix of the song "Ecstasy", so now the sound of zZz will be spreading from turn table to turn table, shaking souls from the floor up. www.soundofzzz.com
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