Biography
Guitarist/ Vocalist Ralph Spight has spent over twenty years traversing
the world playing a tight brew of kinetic punk with his band Victims Family and
it's offshoots Saturn's Flea Collar and Hellworms . The Northern California trio
put out numerous albums (six on the Alternative Tentacles label) and toured
repeatedly through the US and Europe and garnered a rabid cult following
worldwide.
Following the most recent disbanding of Victims Family, Ralph put
together a record with an eclectic bunch of Bay Area musicians which became
the basis for "The Freak Accident" (Alternative Tentacles Records, 2004), a
stylistic rollercoaster ride through punk, pop, latin surf, blues, piano ballads
and more. Assembling a live band for this material proved difficult but the live
shows began to include freakish improvisational deconstructions of the
albums diverse tracks and the band toured the Northwestern United States
and played Alternative Tentacles 2006 South by Southwest showcase to an
enthusiastic response. Parting ways with several members of the group Ralph
and drummer Mike Branum (Hell's Kitchen, Capitol Punishment) pressed on
recruiting their old Plainfield teammate Kimo Ball to do hold down bass duties
and returned to Ralph's more noisy math punk direction.
The resulting sophomore effort "Tissue Sample" (out September 6th,
2007, on their own new Nerve Center Recordings label) is a tight sinewy set of
eleven new brash, satirical rock songs that take on heavyweight topics such
as, the teaching of evolution (we're for it), torture (we're against it), suicide,
cross-dressing, hero worship, consumerism, human cloning, unrequited love,
religious fanaticism and the relative merits of various poisonous substances.
Musically the band is tight as a drum with giant grooves, a crushing bass tone
and moments ranging from raging hardcore to shimmering beauty to garagey
blues.
The band finished 2006 with five dates across Northern California with
Canadian legends No Means No.with whom they will share the stage in
Europe in September/ October 2007. "Tissue Sample" is available on CD direct
from thefreakaccident . com, CD Baby. Com and in fine stores everywhere. The
album is distributed in Europe through De Konkurrent, and is available on
vinyl through gatetohell.net.
$12 in North America.