| Keep informed by "liking" or following The Last's Facebook Page which will keep you up to date about future gigs and important info regarding the band. The old mailing list is now defunct, and this website is merely a look at the past rather than the future, so run over to facebook to stay current with the band! |
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| Welcome to the newly revamped Last Website! I hope everyone enjoys it and finds it easy to navigate. Most of the information is the same, but I've tried to package and lay it out in a manner which made more sense. While the Reviews and Links pages are pretty much the same, you'll notice a lot of changes as you check us out. My favorite change is the Music section. As this section incorporates the band's discography, lyrics, sound samples, album art, as well as the stories behind the songs (and/or making of the records), it was a challenge to put together. There were a few different ways I considered going, but I think I chose the right one. On the main Music page, you have immediate access not only to each Last record, but to the lyrics and info for every song the Last recorded. That way, if you're looking for info or lyrics to a certain song, you don't have to guess which album it appeared on. And when you go to a certain record's page, a simple click of the record's artwork opens a popup window with a larger image (you may have to disable popup blockers for that). The Gigs page is the same, except that the "most recent Last show" section has been replaced by a chronological listing of every Last concert the band ever played (at least the ones we remember - we realize there are some holes, but we are getting older and there have been many beers between then and now). The History section is currently being worked on. When I have a satisfactory first draft, I plan to slap it in a post in our forum and ask everyone to make their edits and to argue over what really happened all those years ago. (The forum will stay where it is - if I change the URL, it'll mess up a lot of links contained in this website, on other people's sites, and in various posts on the board, itself.) But perhaps the biggest change was how we dealt with the Video Page. We have trashed our old video page and created an account on YouTube (which will now be hosting our stuff). Not only does this give our videos greater access (the chance for the band to be discovered by people browsing YouTube), but it also reduces demand on our own server, which helps to reduce downtimes. When going to our YouTube page, you will see our videos located in the "videos" box; and we have linked other Last videos (uploaded by others) in the box labled Video Log. Also, just for fun, I've linked to numerous videos by other bands I like - from the Beatles and Stones to Stiff Little Fingers. Those are listed in the Favorites box, and aren't meant to necessarily represent the musical tastes of the band members (though I doubt there's anything there they don't like). Look for more Last videos to make their way onto YouTube in the coming months... Work
continues on getting the latest Last album released, which should
be followed by a proper tour. For
those who came-in late, Bill
Stevenson and Karl Alvarez (of Descendents/All fame) joined
The Last in 2004, making the current lineup:
Copies of the "Joe and Mike" CD are still available for purchase. This acoustic collection of various songs (previously unreleased by the Last) is only available for a limited time via mail order from Joe Nolte. Songs include:
Joe also has other selected Last merchandise available (such as stickers & T-shirts), but you'll need to email him directly to find out exactly what he has, as items occasionally go out of stock.
In 2003, the Last re-released their 1979 debut album "L.A. Explosion" for the first time on CD, via Bomp Records. It's been over 20 years, but this "new" CD got a lot of good reviews in the press! You can check out some of them in the Reviews Section. This was followed a couple of years later by the CD release of the long out-of-print compilation album Warfrat Tales. This 1983 compilation features The Last, plus a lot of other similar underground bands of the time, including The Rain Parade, The Gun Club, Wednesday Week, To Damascus, The Leaving Trains, 100 Flowers/The Urinals, The Question, The Earwigs, Hector & the Clockwatchers, The Point and The Up & Out. This CD features some bands that were not on the original vinyl release, and loads of bonus tracks, including The Last's previously unreleased recording of "Anything That's Out There."
More news when it happens. For more up-to-date info on the progress of things, keep your eyes on our Forum, where you'll also find excerpts from Joe and Mike's personal journals from the 70s and 80s, plus Joe's daily entries of what went on during the recording of their latest record in Colorado and great pictures and recollections from Vitus Mataré! Joe, Mike, Vitus and other former Last members regularly post, and are usually there to answer your every question. |
Feb 8, 2007
What a great turnout at Brennan's Pub last month! If you missed it, or want to relive it, I'm happy to announce that the Last will be playing at Safari Sam's (in Hollywood) on Sunday, Feb 18th! The lineup will be:
Check out the Gigs page for details. Hope to see you there! |
Jan 10, 2007
The Last will be playing Saturday Jaunuary 20th at Brennan's Pub in Marina Del Rey. The special lineup will be:
Basically a reunion of the Last circa 1980 (with the addition of John R). Check out the Gigs page for details. Hope to see you there! |
...
Aug 15, 2005
| Special "80s Reunion" lineup of The Last performing September 17 in Los Angeles! See Gigs page for details!
Those who have the vinyl edition of Warfrat Tales will notice some of these bands didn't appear on the original—but all the original tracks are here on this "Unabridged" CD version plus these extra tracks. Most of the original bands have bonus tracks as well, including The Last's previously unreleased track "Anything That's Out There." So on September 17th, there will be a combined record release party for both these classic albums, featuring, among others, The Urinals and a special 1980s lineup of The Last (including Vitus Matare, John Frank, Steve Andrews and John Rosewall)! See the Gigs page and tune into our Forum for more info! |
May 26, 2005
The Last will play at the Starlight in Ft Collins, CO on June 17th. See the Gigs page for more info! Also of interest is the long-awaited CD release of Warfrat Tales. This great 1983 compilation features a lot of bands close to the Last at the time, and was financed by then-Last manager Gary Stewart. Bands include The Last, The Rain Parade, The Gun Club, Wednesday Week, To Damascus, The Leaving Trains, 100 Flowers/The Urinals, The Question, The Earwigs, Hector & the Clockwatchers, The Point and The Up & Out. Those who have the vinyl edition already will notice some of these bands didn't appear on the original—but all the original tracks are here on this "Unabridged" CD version. Also most of the bands here have bonus tracks, including The Last's previously unreleased track "Anything That's Out There." While Warfrat Tales won't be released to stores until August, you can buy it now, online, through the Avebury Records Website! |
Dec 4, 2004
Recording of the latest Last album, produced by Bill Stevenson, has recently wrapped up in Ft Collins, CO; and it is now in the mixing stages. The band is extremely pleased with the results so far—their expectations were surpassed. After mixing (in late December) it will be aggressively shopped around to various labels for a hopeful Spring 2005 release, followed by a possible Summer tour. On a personal note, I consider this the best-produced album the Last has done to date. |
Nov 5, 2004
| The Last are set to play their first live show with the new lineup (as well as the first live show in over a year) in Ft Collins, CO on Nov. 20. Check out the Gigs Page for details. They are currently in Colorado recording their next album. Joe and Mike recently went to Colorado and recorded a demo with Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez. You can view a short video of these sessions on the Video Page. The Video Page has been updated with 6 new clips, ranging from 1979 to 2002. The clips are in Real Video format, and will be replaced/rotated 2 or 3 times per year. |
June 16, 2004
|
Bill Stevenson (pictured above with Joe & Mike) and Karl Alvarez (both of Descendents/All fame) have joined The Last, and recording on the next Last album is tentatively set for November 2004 at Colorado's infamous Blasting Room. Exactly which songs will be on the next album hasn't been totally decided yet, but the core of it will be the same as the previously-planned "Shank." Says Joe, "Bill and I have seriously been discussing doing something like this for two decades, and in spite of the fact that they're both way too busy the time was right this time. The first demo will be done by Independence Day, and final recordings should commence (and finish) around September of this year." |
April 26, 2004
In mid-April, after almost 2 years of puerile drama, Missy and Robbie are no longer members of The Last. However, this does not mean that the band has disbanded, even as its exciting period of doing nothing continues (which may soon change as Joe extends his tentacles in search of a new rhythm section). Recording on Shank stopped over a year ago because of the circumstances surrounding the band. Joe still plans for this to be the next release from the band, but these previous sessions won't be used. You can still watch the 13 minute video of one of those last recording sessions (filmed in November of 2002) on the Video Page. Meanwhile, Joe continues his work with Misfortune Cookie — a band he started with some former members of 5 Star Crush — while Missy & Robbie are currently stepping up work on Queef — describing themselves as "unapologetically vulgar purveyors of F*ckcore Music." Both bands have MP3s up on their sites. Check 'em out. The Video Page has been redesigned. Instead of featuring one video clip per month, it now features 8 video clips. However, it will not be updated every month like before - it will be updated on an informal basis, perhaps 2 or 3 times per year. |
Nov 1, 2003
The video clip for November is from a 1995 show at the Roxy in West Hollywood. Joe Nolte (guitar, vocals), Mike Nolte (keyboards, vocals), Luke Lohnes (guitar), Ed Urlik (bass) and Dave Nazworthy (drums) perform "It's Not That Way" and "Jungle Book." Joe still has copies of the new "Joe and Mike" CD available for purchase! It's a really good acoustic offering, which I talked about in the July 16th email. Joe also has other selected Last merchandise available, but you'll need to email him directly to find out what he has. A new page on the site features archived concert recordings of the Last. Starting off with a recording of the band playing the Starwood in 1979. It's the same performance that was partially videotaped by Danny Winter and friends, and which you can occasionally see on the Video Page. This recording was made on an old compact cassette recorder (with a condenser mic). The quality is pretty dismal, but it's still enjoyable. The recording was invaluable when I restored the Danny Winter video, as the sound from our copies of that videotape had deteriorated badly. Don't worry - the Last are still together, even though they've stopped recording "Shank," and even though Joe, Mike, Missy & Robbie have all started new side projects: Joe is in a band called Misfortune Cookie, which he started with some former members of 5 Star Crush. Mike has been working on material for a solo album he plans to record, while Missy & Robbie have started a band called Queef - labeling themselves as "unapologetically vulgar purveyors of F*ckcore Music." |
Aug 31, 2003
The video clip for September is from a 1995 show at the Alligator Lounge. Joe Nolte (guitar, vocals), Mike Nolte (keyboards, vocals), Luke Lohnes (guitar, vocals), Ed Urlik (bass), and Dave Nazworthy (drums) perform "You Won't Win" and "Anybody Else." Current drummer Robbie Rist was recently featured on E Television's Star Dates on August 29th. If you missed it, don't worry - E tends to rerun its shows to death... |
July 13, 2003
The band have just finished their journey to this year's Stockage festival in Colorado. Early reports say it went well. Reports on the trip should be appearing in the Forum later in the week. Joe & Mike will play an acoustic show on Sunday, July 20th, at 7:30pm. Check out the Gigs page for details. The video clip for July is up. It's from last year's Stockage, featuring the songs I Saw Your Eyes, Go Away Girl & Anarchy in UK. Yes, that's the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK," though it wasn't really a part of the Last's set, but featured Joe and Mike pretending to be Johnny Rotten and ... ummm... Mike. The lineup for this gig was Joe Nolte (voice, guitar), Mike Nolte (voice, keyboard), Missy Buettner (bass), and Josh Pickering (drums). (Robbie and Luke couldn't make it.) And recording continues on their next release, entitled "Shank" - hopefully due out sometime this year. A 13-minute video showing the band recording some tracks for Shank can be seen in the Video section. |
May 31, 2003
The band will be playing Stockage this month - Friday, June 27th through Sunday, June 29th in Colorado. The exact date and time is still unknown to me. It was set at one point, then had to be changed. Check back here, or keep an eye on their website for further details. The new Last video clip for June is up. It's from a 1982 gig at the Whisky in Hollywood on May 26th. The songs featured are "Make Believe" and "December Song." The lineup for this gig was Joe Nolte (guitar, vocals), Vitus Mataré (keyboards, guitar, vocals), John Rosewall (bass, vocals), and John Frank (drums). |
May 1, 2003
The new video clip for May is from a gig the Last did at the Alligator Lounge on September 7th, 1996. The songs featured are "Go Away Girl" and "Don't Make No Sound." The lineup back then is the same as today: Joe Nolte (guitar, vocals), Mike Nolte (keyboards, vocals), Luke Lohnes (guitar, vocals), Missy Buettner (bass), and Robbie Rist (drums). The video clips are now presented solely in Real Video format. The Quicktime clips were too large, and the quality wasn't as good as I was getting with Real systems. Joe did a solo acoustic appearance at a local record store last month, while visiting Brooklyn, New York. You can view pictures of it in the History section. The Last will be playing Stockage again in June - always a fun experience! Exact date and time will be posted on the Gigs page when things are finalized. |
March 6, 2003
There's a nice blurb on the reissue of L.A. Explosion in the L.A. Times today. You can check it out here. Most of you know of the problems we've had with the site for the past couple of months. Well, I've finally had enough, and switched hosting providers. The situation with Feature Price was getting ridiculous. The last downtime should have been only 5 minutes long, but they gave me the major runaround. 30 hours later, I finally got a tech person who flipped a switch and brought the site back up. It took him a minute. Very frustrating. I did some research, and it seems like life should be wonderful with this new company. Some changes on the site include a new forum/message board, and a bunch of new reviews that Joe sent me. The new video clip for March comes from a 1982 show at the world-famous Whisky-a-go-go. The band plays "Up in the Air" and "Fade to Black." Two Vitus songs. Perhaps I should have saved this clip for the month of his birthday. Speaking of video clips, the Quicktime version of last month's video is not currently available. I'll put it back up March 9th or so. |
February 1, 2003
Damn, the web site's been going down a lot lately! Twice this week alone (and for the whole day)! Hopefully this won't be a regular thing, or I'll have to start shopping for a new hosting service. I added a search feature so you can now look up specific information more easily. It's located at the bottom of this page. So I assume you all have your copy of LA Explosion on CD. Sounds good, doesn't it? The Daily Breeze - a local newspaper in Southern California - ran a nice review on it (Jan 31st). As the CD just came out last week, this will most likely be the last time I mention it here in the news column. Too bad, too, as it made nice filler... I'd like to congratulate Andreas Dörfler of Germany for winning the Mystery Song Contest! The song turned out to be "Nothing Left" by Modern Warfare - a band hailing from Long Beach, California - a mere 15 minutes drive from my apartment in Fullerton. Not much going on with The Last at the moment. Recording has been on hiatus for Shank, their latest recording, as drummer/producer Robbie Rist has been in Europe. He returns around Feb 10th, and Joe has a lot of free time coming up soon, so things should really start progressing on that. This month's video clip comes from a 1987 "reunion" show at Club Lingerie. The Last had pretty much disbanded at the end of 1985, but was brought back together again for this benefit for D.D. Faye. In this clip, the band does a great rendition of the Blues Magoos classic "We Ain't Got Nothing Yet" and then are joined by Phast Phreddie who sings lead on the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard." |
January 2, 2003
Hooray! You found our new web address! This new site gives us more space so we can finally host all the music clips on our own, without having to impose on the kindness of our friends. Also, with more space, we can make higher quality video clips available each month. Starting today, the video page will offer a new clip each month as well as the chance to see the previous month's video clip. The video clip for this month is from a 1979 show at the Starwood. The Last play Century City Rag and Looking at You. The lineup for this show was Joe Nolte (lead guitar, vocals), Mike Nolte (backing vocals), David Nolte (bass), Vitus Mataré (keyboards), Jack Reynolds (drums). In between songs, Joe plugs the new "L.A. Explosion" album, which had just come out on Bomp Records. Speaking of which, L.A. Explosion finally comes out on CD January 21st from Bomp Records! Previously, a German label released this on CD, but not only were they apparently not licensed to do so, they ended up making a horrible copy - at one point it sounds like somebody bumped the turntable during the copy. This new Bomp CD release has been remastered and sounds great! There's also lots of bonus tracks - including the band's first 3 self-released singles and "We're In Control," a rare, strange song written by Vitus and released only in 1979 on a Bomp Records compilation LP. Recording on Shank, the band's latest project, continues. You can see this for yourself in this new 13-minute video I shot last November during one of the recording sessions. This video is in Real Player format (click here for a free player). Choose based on your Internet connection speed: Dialup Shank • DSL Shank |