"Big" Al Staggs - Throat & other mouth type noises
1981 First gig was singing an Ozzy Ozborne song with older brother Lee’s band Triax at the NASA Carnival. I don’t know know know! With out echo.... We lost by two points to a belly dancer. 1982 2nd gig I got into a high school band as a drummer and played a talent show with a Journey song “Open Arms” and I sang Twist and Shout and played drums. We lost that show too. In high school I played drums in the Tabb Tiger Marching Band. I learned to keep time and write drum music. I went to ODU and in 1987 I started Left Wing Fascists at a open mic night at The Corner a bar at ODU. My roommate Slicky Bob, (He loved the Slicky Boys from DC) came up with the name of the band. We had a good run from 1987-1995 and got to play a lot of gigs from backyards to Lallapolloza on a second stage. Backyards were so much more fun. I had a record deal which was the beginning of the end for the band. Did a couple of albums. Got to work with Producer Stacy Haydon a Canuck who could spin knobs in a studio with the best of them and was always saying “Get it Done”! I got to do some Virginia tours with the Ramones, got to open for Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper (my hero), Romantics, Social Distortian, Dead Milkmen, Concrete Blonde, Connels and the Rev Hortan Heat. I got to meet Bill Monroe (because of my dad, “ Steady Freddy on the Bass” http://www.haleyandtheboys.com/ . Those were big shows to me because I have the most respect for those bands. Playing in LWF was a great experience for me because I got to do a lot of crazy stuff. As Country Dick would say “They pay me to act like an 11 year old”. If you want to read about being in a band on the road then click this link http://sdam.com/artists/bf/roadrules.shtml. Go read Cdicks rules for the road. I had some great times with Eric, Scott, Dave, Markus, Rick, Billy, and Bobby. I got to meet a lot of great people and bands like personal brothers Waxing Poetics. (The friendships I now have are what makes up the full picture of why I play music). Big Bobby and the Nitecaps, Paul Kamanski and Caren, (Paul wrote songs for Beat Farmers and he is the mack daddy of song writers), Egypt Quang-T, Parrot Head, Rip Dizzy, The Fat Daddy Band, and Factory Playboys to name a few. Egypt lived with Lee and me for a couple of weeks when their van blew up. There is nothing more fun when you have a bunch of Egyptians hanging out and living on your floor. Scott Carlisle was my Axe in LWF. Our friendship has grown through the years with all the “lets go 1000 miles for 100 bucks and a two piece chicken snack days”! Anyway Now I am in the Moaning Lisas. We have had some change ups over the years and many ups and some sad sad downs. Our first up was playing with Cowboy Mouth over in Hampton. Then we started playing out in Raleigh and all over Norfolk. Then a downer when Lee had to leave the band due to illness and then, Richie relocated out of the area. It all came back when Lee was able to return and then the Moaning Lisas found Gene. We hit the Internet at the TMXchange and sent out 3 emails. One email came back and it was Gene. His ad was something like "Looking for kindered spirits and a Cosmic Cowboy faithful to the 6l6's, Can play b-string bender. Boy did we find the right guy. Gene joined the band and he and Whopper JR hit it off on the same love of music. The mls wrote "Cow Tippin" right off the bat and found out that Anvil can sing awsome harmony! MLs suffered another blow when Lee left the band again for reasons that would later take his life. Scott was able to jump back in on bass and we continued on with out our original backbone of the band. We started playing so much that the music ever started to wear us down. Gene soon found it was time for him to make changes in latitude so he moved out of town and we where left without our six stringer. Scott is just about the best guitar player in this whole area. Who else are you gonna ask? All our close friends and critics(the sound men) had never seen Scott play this style of music. I had seen it when he was in the Patio Boys. Scott smokes at any style. So whom do you find to play bass around here? You have to go all the way back to when you met Richie Bohr. That is right the original backbone to Richie’s band. I called Rich Kuhns into the picture. Rick was the perfect fit to put us back on top of the scales. Rick was a front man the last few years so the third part harmonies have been the best I have ever worked with in a band. What a great time this has been for me. I have gotten to play with some great friends like my brother Lee, Anvil, Richie, Gene, Scott and now our newest member Rick. I am very content with this project and look forward to writing, recording, and playing in this band for many years.
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Ron "Anvil" Augustin - Drums/Vocals
MODERN DRUMMER
March 1999
"ANVIL! The Man, The Myth, The Mess"
By Rip Dashing
Although the early years of Anvil's path to drumming fame remain shrouded in mystery, we can trace some of the artist's steps since he first joined the burgeoning Tidewater music scene...
The year: 1989. The place: Norfolk, Virginia. Chunkstyle and the Pleistocene Playboys (a.k.a. Tectonics) tear up house party after house party with their sonic assault. They're fueled by copious quantities of vicious Skull Attack beer and a sincere desire to keep warm in the Arctic-like confines of their Argall Avenue duplex. Whipped into a righteous frenzy by the mesmerizing jungle beats of Anvil, the partygoers are readily induced into setting fire to couches, shattering chandeliers, and performing other acts of casual anarchy. These salad days seem like they would last forever, until, alas, a new home must be found for the band's chartreuse Microbus...
In 1992 Anvil's career moves on to a new stage, and his base of operations changes as well. Attracted to the nearby artists' colony of Ghent, he sets up his drum kit in the wide, Bohemian expanses of the legendary Loft. During one of his usual Super Big Gulp laden all-night practice sessions, he has an epiphany. Why should his creativity be stifled by the straitjacket of Classic Rock 'n' Roll? The very next day Anvil offers up his paradiddles and flamacues to the Progressive Rock band The Blind Venetians. The Venetians are fronted by "Space Vixen" Gabrielle and Jim "Major Burns" Hazel. Along with Mike "I can play anything with strings on it" Munden, the solid percussive backing of Anvil is ably matched by the pounding, Richter-scale bass playing of Whopper Jr.
The hipster doofus crowd fills Cogan's nightclub night after night. At first, they didn't know quite what to make of the band's metallic Spandex jumpsuits. But once they glimpse the furious gleam in the Blind Venetians' eyes (behind the polarized glass of the vintage Apollo space helmets Whopper Jr.'s dad "borrowed" from NASA), they are hopelessly hooked. The band's nightly bill for pyrotechnics, lasers, and inflatable pigs is tremendous, even exceeding their massive bar tab. "Klaatu barada nikto" the teeming masses would chant, hoping for yet another encore. Unfortunately, the chanting would all too soon come to an end...
In 1996, spurred by a wicked allergic reaction to polyester, a still-restless Anvil once again decides to move on. Accompanied by bassist Whopper Jr., he soon joins up with ragin' vocalist Big Al and axeman Little Richie. They form Tidewater's Largest Band, The Moaning Lisas - and the rest is history. Their first gigs take place at pagan winter solstice oyster worshipping rituals. Deep in the woods of rural Virginia Beach, beer-soaked revelers groove to the hypnotic sounds of The Lisas, ruthlessly stuffing helpless bivalve after bivalve into their hungry maws. Pagans are well known for being a fickle lot, but once over their hideous hangovers they nonetheless form a dedicated base for the band's surging popularity. Before long, Tidewater venues are having bidding wars just to be blessed with a few apocalyptic sets from The Lisas. Psychobilly, alternative country, and yes, even straight-ahead rock 'n' roll - the band's repertoire is truly varied.
Perhaps Anvil has finally found a musical home...
March 1999
"ANVIL! The Man, The Myth, The Mess"
By Rip Dashing
Although the early years of Anvil's path to drumming fame remain shrouded in mystery, we can trace some of the artist's steps since he first joined the burgeoning Tidewater music scene...
The year: 1989. The place: Norfolk, Virginia. Chunkstyle and the Pleistocene Playboys (a.k.a. Tectonics) tear up house party after house party with their sonic assault. They're fueled by copious quantities of vicious Skull Attack beer and a sincere desire to keep warm in the Arctic-like confines of their Argall Avenue duplex. Whipped into a righteous frenzy by the mesmerizing jungle beats of Anvil, the partygoers are readily induced into setting fire to couches, shattering chandeliers, and performing other acts of casual anarchy. These salad days seem like they would last forever, until, alas, a new home must be found for the band's chartreuse Microbus...
In 1992 Anvil's career moves on to a new stage, and his base of operations changes as well. Attracted to the nearby artists' colony of Ghent, he sets up his drum kit in the wide, Bohemian expanses of the legendary Loft. During one of his usual Super Big Gulp laden all-night practice sessions, he has an epiphany. Why should his creativity be stifled by the straitjacket of Classic Rock 'n' Roll? The very next day Anvil offers up his paradiddles and flamacues to the Progressive Rock band The Blind Venetians. The Venetians are fronted by "Space Vixen" Gabrielle and Jim "Major Burns" Hazel. Along with Mike "I can play anything with strings on it" Munden, the solid percussive backing of Anvil is ably matched by the pounding, Richter-scale bass playing of Whopper Jr.
The hipster doofus crowd fills Cogan's nightclub night after night. At first, they didn't know quite what to make of the band's metallic Spandex jumpsuits. But once they glimpse the furious gleam in the Blind Venetians' eyes (behind the polarized glass of the vintage Apollo space helmets Whopper Jr.'s dad "borrowed" from NASA), they are hopelessly hooked. The band's nightly bill for pyrotechnics, lasers, and inflatable pigs is tremendous, even exceeding their massive bar tab. "Klaatu barada nikto" the teeming masses would chant, hoping for yet another encore. Unfortunately, the chanting would all too soon come to an end...
In 1996, spurred by a wicked allergic reaction to polyester, a still-restless Anvil once again decides to move on. Accompanied by bassist Whopper Jr., he soon joins up with ragin' vocalist Big Al and axeman Little Richie. They form Tidewater's Largest Band, The Moaning Lisas - and the rest is history. Their first gigs take place at pagan winter solstice oyster worshipping rituals. Deep in the woods of rural Virginia Beach, beer-soaked revelers groove to the hypnotic sounds of The Lisas, ruthlessly stuffing helpless bivalve after bivalve into their hungry maws. Pagans are well known for being a fickle lot, but once over their hideous hangovers they nonetheless form a dedicated base for the band's surging popularity. Before long, Tidewater venues are having bidding wars just to be blessed with a few apocalyptic sets from The Lisas. Psychobilly, alternative country, and yes, even straight-ahead rock 'n' roll - the band's repertoire is truly varied.
Perhaps Anvil has finally found a musical home...
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William Frye - Bass/Vocals
Master of the left-handed upside-down 5-string bass guitar...kind of like playing in a mirror while standing on your head!
Master of the left-handed upside-down 5-string bass guitar...kind of like playing in a mirror while standing on your head!
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"Bink" Brown - Guitar
The self-proclaimed washed up punk rocker!
The self-proclaimed washed up punk rocker!
