Official
Bio goes here...
All right, so band bios suck! And probably this one will too. So what!
Here goes:
johnny
moved into the neighborhood at age 5 and Dan was 7.
But it was Dan’s
sister Tami, who was 4, that was actually
credited with introducing the
two.
You
see, The Murray’s (Dan’s family) had a large, cardboard
trashcan; the
kind with a sealed metal bottom and an open
metal ring. It was perfect for
tubing (a person would get
inside the trashcan and roll down a hill, in
this case, Dan’s
front yard hill). Tami invited johnny to go tubing and
later
Dan joined them. Whoopee!
While
growing up in suburban Philadelphia, (actually Dan and
johnny lived two
houses away from each other) Dan an johnny
grew to be close friends.
Scrounging spare pieces of wood and
nails, they built forts (clubhouses).
They borrowed family
super-eight movie cameras and wrote, produced,
directed and
stared in their own horror/monster flicks, which they would
show to neighborhood kids in johnny’s garage for a nominal
price.
Sometime,
I’m not sure when, music entered into both of their
lives. johnny would
borrow Beatle albums from his brother and
Dan and johnny would listen
intently to the magic of the
Beatles. At any given time, johnny or Dan
might be found with
their ears planted up to the speaker listening for
hidden
messages. Even, at times, playing albums backwards for “Paul
is
dead” messages. Didn’t work though.
The
stages of their life continued, experiencing new and
unanswered gestures;
like Kiss.
Sometime
later they discovered Kiss. Kiss was the first musical
experience that
the two of them had experienced without the
aid of any adult. They bought
albums, paraphernalia and even
dabbled in the rock-star emulation world;
using butane
containers to fill one’s mouth an ignite the gas as on
released
the gas from the mouth. But the concert ticket for a show at the
Spectrum in Philadelphia was the culmination of the Kiss
experience. It
was the first concert for Dan and johnny’s second
(johnny saw David
Bowie the year before), at it was the first
concert where the two were not
accompanied by an adult. It
was the perfect time to see Kiss and be a
pre-teen. Blood, pyrotechniques and LOUD male-oriented music.
But
it wasn’t until Dan got his first acoustic guitar that they both
had an
affinity for performing music. You see, johnny’s brothers
were always
active in the music scene. One brother was into
folksy type music and
played his Martin acoustic and banjo.
Another was into avant garde musical
statements and joined a
musical statement band. But the last one was very
serious. He
took lessons and worked to form a number of local band,
performing at local bars, schools and performance houses. He
always played
original music, although never really penning
too many of his own. He was
the biggest influence on Dan and
johnny. Both Dan and johnny would attend
his shows (when
ever they could get in) and listen to rehearsal tapes. So
as Dan
began to learn the guitar, and figure out Beatles songs, johnny’s
brother would turn out to be a fine resource.
When
johnny decided to pick up the guitar Dan and johnny
started writing and
recording songs in the most arcane fashion
imagined. Essentially at age 12
johnny would use his two tape recorders, one a reel-to-reel and one a
cassette to produce
multi-track recording. It would go something like
this: johnny
would set up suitcases arranged by size for tonal density and
Dan would be on guitar. They would record the two of them playing one
guitar and suitcases using tape recorder A. Then play with tape recorder A
and record vocals and other instruments onto tape recorder B. Then tape
recorder B had both the first track and the
second track onto it. Arcane!
During
the early high-school years, Dan, Randy and johnny
informally get together
with about 6 other dudes and plenty of
other substances and make loud
annoying noise with the use of
musical instruments. Nothing comes from
this. (nothing really
should have, it sucked)
Now
let’s jump ahead a few years when johnny formed “Furthur Abuse” for
a high-school battle of the bands show. Dan or
Randy were not in this band
and basically had nothing to do
with it. But Dan and Randy helped carry in
the cases of beer
and some equipment into the high-school gymnasium.
More
time elapses...
johnny
begins playing around the philly area with a four-piece
band (guitar,
bass, keys, drums). The lineup has the bass players
and key player from the
high-school lineup and that’s it. But
after a couple of shows this
lineup stops. Until Dan walks by
johnny’s house and is coaxed into
coming in and playing some
songs. A short time later, Dan takes over as bassist. Now it was
time to convince Randy to play.
Randy,
at this time had been playing in a couple of thrash band
(RELLIK to name
one) and didn’t want to do anything less.
johnny basically convinced him
to play but assuring to him that
he could use johnny’s drums during
rehearsal. They started rehearsing and started playing around the philly
area again. The
songs, this time sounded better, but were basically
johnny’s arrangement and notes played by other band members (drums,
bass, keys). They play very successful shows, opening up for
acts on major
labels such as I.R.S. and Epic.
After
a year and a-half Randy accepted a position as Randy the
Rapist in the
glam-punk band “The Serial Killers.” He left and
the band broke up.
johnny went back to school and marginally
formed “The Velcroes” and
“The Yarbles.” Dan formed “Quigley
Mansion” and played local
philly-area venues.
Jump
ahead a few more years....
johnny
is visiting his parents house and bullshitting with Dan,
when Randy drives
by. It was the first time a long time since
johnny had seen Randy and they
were very glad to see one
another. Reminiscing over old stories, Randy
suggests getting together to go over old songs. johnny, even though very
busy,
agrees and arranges a night.
johnny
breaks out his guitar and amp and dusts off his bass
(which Dan always
used) and shows up at Dan’s parents house
. Randy arrives and they stand
around figuring what songs to
do and trying to remember the structure of
them. They gleefully stumble through some of the old songs, giving a
rougher and
more honest edge to the music; much more so than when they
were together before. Remember, this revision is keyboard-less
A
friend of Randy’s: Bezzi drops by. He has a death-metal band
called:
Trust Not and had previously sang for a revision of
RELLIK years before.
After sitting through this first practice,
Bezzi exclaims “You guys are
awesome!! You ought to play
down at Spelunker’s.” A local dive.
“You’d blow everyone
away!”
They
complete the night and everyone is smiles, but the nothing
is said about
reforming. Someone mentions that it might be
cool to bet together again,
but nothing is concrete. And it is left
up in the air.
Low
and behold, Bezzi contacts Dan about a month later and
offers them a show
opening up for Trust Not at Spelunkers in a
couple of weeks. Dan calls
johnny. johnny says OK, whatever.
Randy says sure. They agree NOT to get
together before the
show; and didn’t.
They
play the show and blow everyone away, with a rocking
set of 45 minutes.
Everyone comments on how great they
sounded and how tight they were, even
though they hadn’t
played together for about 3 years.
After
that show came more and more and more, mostly at the
same arenas. During
this time, however, Furthur Abuse begins
to refine a sound that has become
unique to them and begin to incorporate new songs.
After
playing for 3 years they release their first CD release
“Avant Gardian
Angel” on lowercase records. Avant Gardian
Angel contains 9 tracks of
original music. The disc is sold to
fans at shows and at local record
stores in the philly area. It is reviewed in local newspapers and
industry-related magazines.
Avant Gardian Angel begins to receive airplay
on philly area
stations such as WDRE, WYSP, WXPN and WKDU, aside from
other college radio station; they are heard on the airwaves
from the
Jersey Shore to the middle of Pennsylvania and all the
way to the west
coast, were KSCR in southern California places
Avant Gardian Angel on its
high-rotation list. It quickly
becomes a requested favorite at the
station.
Since
then, they have been playing in more established arenas
such as The
Trocadero which has showcased such acts as
Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, and
JC Dobbs who have featured Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr. But mainly have been
focusing on
playing some of the worst dives and hole-in-the-walls in the
area.
They
are now recording a follow-up to Avant Gardian Angel
which will be
available, hopefully, for the Christmas holiday.
|