David Bowie, The Replacements, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, The Descendents, Fugazi, Pixies, The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, The Kinks, The Byrds, Merle Haggard, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, T.Rex, Nick Cave, The Who, The Clash, The Ramones, New York Dolls, Hank Williams
"Dead sexy motherfuckers. Scarce sounded like all those parts of R.E.M and Bowie no one is supposed to like. Scarce had such passion and self-belief it hurt." - Everett True, Live Through This American Rock Music in the 90’s
"On a lesser night Scarce were a fine rock band; on a good night they were a force of nature." - Brett Milano, Boston Phoenix 10.07
IT'S LIKE THIS...Scarce was a genius, dead sexy band from Rhode Island. Scarce—a trio comprising Chick Graning, Joyce Raskin and a series of drummers who never remained long enough to catch their names—a band that fired imagination and moved as if possessed by their libidos, who took all the bits that David Bowie and R.E.M left out and mutated them into a searing, mesmerizing whole. Fugazi once snagged a plectrum bassist Joyce had been using, claiming they’d never seen so much blood on one. Chick was straight out of the Marcel Marceau school of expression. His grimaces, the way he thrust his guitar into the air, his leaps & bounds, were inspirational. His silken shirt & jacket didn’t just get soaked. Little rivulets of sweat would continue to form on his back an hour after Scarce had finished playing. Scarce were so cool; they would grab hold of all the cracks other bands fall through & make something of them.
In 1995, following a support tour with Hole in Europe and on the verge of seriously breaking it big with their debut album Deadsexy, Chick suffered a brain aneurysm and lapsed into a coma for several weeks. He recovered & astonishingly, Scarce kept going as a band till 1997, playing two major US tours—even though this meant Chick relearning all his guitar parts and vocals from scratch. But the strain of his illness took it's toll on the band and they went their separate ways.
BACK TO THE FUTURE…Writing a book about the band called, Aching To Be led to Joyce contacting Chick, and then to Scarce’s re-forming, ending nine years of silence. Songwriting is already under way for a new album, and Deadsexy, along with previously unreleased material and pre-A&M demos is now available on iTunes. With no expectations but to savor being a real band again, and no one to answer to but themselves, Scarce finally have the happy new beginning they deserved all along.
Aw, hell yeah. Thank you so much for "bandfriending" us, gusy! We truly appreciate it and were delighted to find you out there. I remember watching the video for "All Sideways" when it came out and thought that Joyce (?) jumping up and down at the start was one of the greatest music video openers ever!
We hope that you find something of ours that will wriggle into your ears, burrow down to your heart (in a good way), and compel you to ROB US BLIND (again, in a good way: "Free downloads, away!").
If you dig us, tell a friend. If you don't, hell, tell an enemy.
We're off to dig up our copy of "DeadSexy." Be well and keep up the good work, GUSSY
Dear lord, I haven't had two seconds to BREATHE lately... but I just logged on here for the first time in nearly a month & just thought I'd say hi. So hi!!! :)
i was gonna send you guys a message that said, "you guys are awesome! wanna swap shows sometime?" Then I saw that you're going to europe and thought to myself, "why would anyone want to play Syracuse, NY after playing Europe?" Anyway, you guys are awesome and kudos on the red Myspace background.