Victim's Family

Victim's Family

Victims Family was a punk band formed in 1984 in Santa Rosa, California by bassist Larry Boothroyd and guitarist and vocalist Ralph Spight. Drummer Devon VrMeer completed the trio. Their sound blended punk, heavy metal and jazz, making them difficult to categorize into a single genre. Allmusic says, "since its inception, the trio has refused to be pigeonholed to any single musical style — incorporating elements of hardcore punk, jazz, funk, hard rock, and noise into its challenging sound." They were known as one of the most musically diverse bands in the San Francisco, California underground music scene. Over the years, Victims Family went through four drummers and two breakups. Their name was taken by a piece by cartoonist B. Kliban.

History

In 1984, Victims Family played their first show at the Kennilworth Recreation Center in Petaluma, California, where they later opened for Faith No More and Suicidal Tendencies. Summer of '85 the band did their first U.S. tour which they booked themselves by mailing out a cassette demo. They played with NOFX in Albuquerque and challenged Tales of Terror to a drinking contest in Dallas. Also this year they opened for the Dead Kennedys, Descendents and Social Unrest at the Novato Theater, where they first caught the attention of Jello Biafra. In 1986, they opened for the Butthole Surfers and Camper Van Beethoven at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. At this time they recorded their first album, "Voltage and Violets", for Ruth Schwartz's Mordam Records, and regularly played The Farm and Club Foot in San Francisco. 1986 was also the year they played a pizza parlor in Oakland with Nomeansno, beginning a long friendship between the two bands. In 1987, they barely completed a tour of the United States and missed their dates in Canada after being banned from that country for one year. Highlights included playing with Capitol Punishment in Fresno and Scratch Acid in Dallas. "Things I Hate To Admit" was recorded in 1988 at Prairie Sun Studio in Cotati, California. 1988 was also the beginning of their friendship with Primus, whom they would share the stage with many times in the years to follow. 1989 saw an invitation by Konkurrent, a record label in Amsterdam, for a European tour. Devon VrMeer had left the band to pursue a family, so Eric Strand was recruited as drummer. The band embarked on a two month tour of Europe with Snuff from London supporting them. Highlights included helping to break down the Berlin Wall and getting strip searched in Norway. After returning from Europe Eric was replaced by roadie Tim Solyan who would continue to drum for Victims Family throughout the height of their touring days.

Their third album, "White Bread Blues", produced by Nomeansno drummer John Wright, followed in 1990 and was received on a much wider critical and commercial scale than before including the song "Caged Bird" reaching #6 on the Holland national charts. Around this time, little known acts such as Mr. Bungle and Green Day often opened for Victims Family. Also in 1990 they supported TAD and Nirvana on the Midwest leg of cross country tour. Numerous tours of the US and Europe cemented the group's reputation as an incendiary live act. "The Germ", released in 1992, also produced by John Wright was their debut for Alternative Tentacles Records. The band's schedule began to take it's toll, and in '92 they took a hiatus.

Ten months later Victims Family reformed in the spring of 1993 to play a sold-out show at San Francisco's Kennel Club. A new album "Headache Remedy", was released by Alternative Tentacles in February, 1994. "Four Great Thrash Songs", which would be the last album of the classic line up was recorded live in '94 at their final show at Melkweg in Amsterdam, the bands home away from home. Founding members Ralph and Larry also formed the bands Saturn's Flea Collar and Hellworms, both of whom toured the U.S. and Europe and recorded albums for Alternative Tentacles. Following a six year split, Victims Family with new drummer David Gleza of My Name recorded the album "Apocalicious" in 2001. The band continued to tour relentlessly, including two trips to Texas for SXSW, and two more tours of Europe, causing the band to lose another member to tour fatigue. This time Spight and Boothroyd decided not to look for another drummer.

On December 11th and 12th, 2004, Victim's Family reunited, with Tim Solyan back on drums, in Petaluma California at the Phoenix Theatre, and in San Francisco at the Bottom of the Hill, to celebrate their 20th anniversary with all their different incarnations, including The Freak Accident (Spight's solo project), and Meowmeow and the Meowmeows (Boothroyd's new band). Also included at this time was a Saturn's Flea Collar 10th anniversary reunion and a Hellworms reunion. This sparked subsequent shows with both Hellworms and Victims Family. In 2006, Boothroyd began playing with the bay area band that would come to be known as Triclops! and began touring and releasing records with them. The Freak Accident released an LP on Alternative Tentacles and toured Europe with Nomeansno. Triclops! released their full length debut album "Out of Africa" on Alternative Tentacles March 2008.

Line-up

*Ralph Spight—Guitar, Vocals
*Larry Boothroyd-Bass
*Devon VrMeer,Tim Solyan,Eric Strand,David Gleza-Drums

Discography

Albums

*1986 "Voltage and Violets" LP Mordam Records
*1988 "Things I Hate to Admit" LP Mordam Records
*1990 "White Bread Blues" LP Mordam Records
*1992 "The Germ" LP Alternative Tentacles
*1994 "Headache Remedy" LP Alternative Tentacles
*1995 "Four Great Thrash" Songs LP Alternative Tentacles
*2001 "Apocalicious" LP Alternative Tentacles

ingles and compilations

*1988 "Son of a Church Card/Quivering Lip" 7" Mordam Records
*1990 "Burly Jalisco" on Sasquach compilation 7" Kirbdog
*1990 "Sinatra Mantra" on The Big One Flipside Records
*1991 "My Evil Twin" on split 7" with Coffin Break Rave Records
*1992 "Ill in the Head" on "Virus 100" Comp. LP Alternative Tentacles
*1993 "Maybe if I..." 7" Alternative Tentacles
*2001 "Dr. Schlesinger" on split 7" with the Fleshies Alternative Tentacles
*2002 "Fridge" on comp. "Apocalypse Always" Alternative Tentacles

External links

* [http://www.alternativetentacles.com/bandinfo.php?band=victimsfamily Alternative Tentacles]
* [http://www.victimsfamily.com Victim's Family homepage]
*


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Family nexus — The term family nexus was used by the psychiatrist R D Laing to describe a common viewpoint held and reinforced by the majority of family members regarding events in the family and relationships with the world. Laing was particularly interested… …   Wikipedia

  • victim impact statement — Statement read into the record during the sentencing phase of a criminal trial to inform the court about the impact of the crime on the victim or victim s family …   Black's law dictionary

  • Victim Support — is a charity in England and Wales which aims to help victims and witnesses of crime by raising awareness of their needs and by delivering dedicated services to them. It was established in 1974. It is a national charity with branches in every… …   Wikipedia

  • Victim blaming — is holding the victims of a crime, an accident, or any type of abusive maltreatment to be entirely or partially responsible for the unfortunate incident that has occurred in their life, oftentimes when the victim had performed no actions to… …   Wikipedia

  • Family Business (Law & Order episode) — Family Business is the 142th episode of NBC s legal drama Law Order, and the eighth episode of the seventh season.PlotThe chief financial officer of a department store is found shot to death on an elevator at the store late at night. The victim s …   Wikipedia

  • victim — victim, prey, quarry denote a person or animal killed or injured for the ends of the one who kills or injures. Victim primarily applies to a living creature, usually an animal, sometimes a person, that is killed and offered as a sacrifice to a… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Family Constellations — is a therapeutic method developed by Bert Hellinger and practised by psychologists, psychiatrists psychotherapists and alternative practitioners. Its objective is to release profound tensions within and between people. Those tensions may lie in a …   Wikipedia

  • Family of Harlay —     Harlay, Family of     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Family of Harlay     An important family of parliamentarians and bishops, who deserve a place in religious history.     (1) Achille de Harlay     Born At Paris, 7 March, 1536; d. at Paris, 21… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Victim impact statement — A victim impact statement is a written or verbal statement made as part of the judicial legal process, which allows a victim of crime the opportunity to speak during the sentencing of their attacker or at subsequent parole hearings. In some… …   Wikipedia

  • Family of Humfrey of Xanth — For more characters of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, see List of Xanth characters. The magician Humfrey has the largest known extended family in Xanth. Characters from nearly the beginning of Xanth to many in current day Xanth are included… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”