"LIKE" THE LAST'S
FACEBOOK PAGE: |
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! |
|
...
May 16, 2014
The Last will be playing this Sunday in LA at the Liquid Kitty Punk Rock BBQ (see Gigs page for more info) and will be playing in Vegas on Memorial Day (May 26 at the Beauty Bar, 517 Fremont Street). Check out the band's facebook page for more details.
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Jan 24, 2014
Last-minute gig tomorrow at the Redwood Bar in LA. More info on the Gigs page and on the band's facebook page.
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Oct 5, 2013
The You can now pre-order "Danger" (the new release from The Last) on Amazon. If you use the following links, it helps to support this website (thanks!): CD Pre-Order • Vinyl Pre-Order
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Sept 26, 2013
The release date for the new album "Danger" has been announced by End Sounds Records: Nov 5, 2013. Also recently announced is another gig outside of California, with the band playing the Fun Fun Fun Fest this November in Austin, Texas. More info on the Texas (and Florida) gigs on the band's facebook page (and eventually here on the Gigs page). To be quite honest, the facebook page is really where you should look for news from the band, as this site slowly becomes more of a place for historical info (videos, song clips, lyrics, etc).
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Aug 23, 2013
The Last have signed to End Sounds Records, which means their new album "Danger" will be released this fall (on CD & vinyl), coinciding with select live dates (TBD) in various parts of the US. The first such date announced will be November 3rd in Gainesville, Florida (part of Fest 12).
Closer to home, and closer to today, the band will be playing at Alex's Bar in Long Beach with the Alley Cats on Sunday, Aug 25th. It's the "after party" to the screening of "Filmage" earlier that day. More info on the Gigs page and on the band's facebook page.
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May 16, 2013
The Last will be playing again at Liquid Kitty's Punk Rock BBQ in West LA this Sunday. See the Gigs page for details.
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April 3, 2013
The Last will be playing a benefit show down in San Pedro on Sat April 6th for Randy Stodola of the Alley Cats. He's not dying or anything, but is in a financial pickle of sorts nonetheless. See the Gigs page for details.
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Aug 15, 2012
Two shows coming up. First on Sunday Aug 19th in West LA at the Liquid Kitty (with The Alley Cats!)
and next on Saturday Sept 8th in Santa
Monica (with The Adolescents & Saccharine
Trust!). See the Gigs page for details. And remember, Sunday's show is in the
afternoon (and includes free hot dogs, free admission, cheap
beer, and, unfortunately, a 21+ age limit). See
you there!
BTW, my
old computer got sick and died, so if you haven't received
an email about these gigs (which went out today), you should
update your mailing list request by sending an email to
the above address.
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Aug
26, 2011
On
Sunday, September 25th, The Last will be playing a special
free show as part of the 5th annual TriArt
Festival (held at the Ports O'Call Village in San Pedro).
The Last is currently scheduled to go on at 6:30pm, with
Saccharine Trust playing right before them (5:30) and followed
by Mike Watt and the Missingmen (7:25). A total of 7 bands
all together, free admission, free parking, all ages, and
outdoors. Check out the TriArt
Festival website for directions and more details. See
you there!
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May
24, 2010
On
Sunday, May 30th, The Last will be playing a special reunion
show as part of a special "WarfRat Night" at the
special Rhino
Records Pop Up Store event (going on now in Westwood).
See the Gigs
page for details. Also playing that night is a special reunion
of Wednesday Week plus the fabulous Urinals! See you there!
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Dec
1, 2009
It is with
deep regret that we announce the passing of Jack
Reynolds – the original drummer for The Last.
Jack passed away in his sleep on December 1, 2009. This
comes as a total shock. Jack will be missed by us all. Our
sympathies go out to his family and friends. A very sad
day for us here.
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July
3, 2009
The
Last will be playing at Alex's Bar on July 20th (that's
in Long Beach). A 30th anniversary gig for the release of
"LA Explosion." Special lineup. See the Gigs
page for details. Its only 5 bucks, too! That's half the
price of the cheapest Dodger ticket! And there's even less
of a chance of getting smacked in the head with a baseball
at Alex's Bar, so you win all-around...
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March
6, 2008
Karl
Alvarez is doing much better. Apparently he's fine
now. That's good news!
Last will
be playing in San Pedro on April 26. See the Gigs
page for details. That's also good news!
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August
24, 2007
Some
good news and bad news...
First, the
bad news. Last bassist Karl Alvarez has
suffered a minor heart attack on August 11th. Although he'll
be fine, he now faces mounting medical bills, and plans
are in the works for organizing benefit shows. For more
information, please visit the Karl
Alvarez Benefit Page on MySpace.
On the happier
side of the Last News - Joe Nolte is now
a father. His daughter Clara June was born
to Joe and Lisa on August
13th, and already has a recording contract with Atlantic
Records. (Okay, maybe not a recording contract - but the
baby is real.) Both mother and daughter are doing well,
especially now that the current heatwave in Los Angeles
has come to an end. For more information (and photos), please
visit our Forum.
|
|
...
March 25, 2007 |
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:
 |
Joe
Nolte: guitar, vocals (pictured left)
Mike
Nolte: keyboards, vocals (pictured right)
Luke
Lohnes: guitar (not pictured)
Karl Alvarez: bass
(pictured bottom)
Bill Stevenson:
drums (pictured top)
|
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:
- Difference
Someday I'll Have You
Rain Town
Everywhere
Goodbye
The Other Side
Day Girl
A Part of Your Soul (Pallbearer)
Nearly Dead
You Walk Into a Room
It All Comes Down
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.
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|
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:
Joe Nolte (lead guitar/vocals)
Mike
Nolte (vocals)
Vitus
Matare (keyboards)
Steve
Andrews (guitar)
John
Rosewall (bass)
John
Frank (drums)
Check out the Gigs
page for details. Hope to see you there! |
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Jan 10, 2007
The Last will
be playing Saturday Jaunuary 20th at Brennan's
Pub in Marina Del Rey. The special lineup will be:
Joe
Nolte (lead guitar/vocals)
Mike
Nolte (vocals)
David
Nolte (guitar)
Vitus
Matare (keyboards)
John
Rosewall (bass)
John
Frank (drums)
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!
The
reason for this special one-off reunion is due to a couple of special
CD reissues. Firstly, the wonderful folks at Happy
Squid Records have just re-released the 1981 compilation Keats
Rides a Harleyone of my favorite albumson CD!
Although this CD doesn't include The Last, it does feature many
other cool LA bands, and friends of the Last, including The Earwigs,
S-Squad, Toxic Shock, The Gun Club, The
Meat Puppets, The Leaving Trains, The Tunneltones,
Human Hands, and 100 Flowers (aka The Urinals). The
CD version features 9 extra bonus tracksone from each bandas
well as the 5-song "Happy Squid Sampler" from 1980, turning
the original 9-song compilation into a 23-song CD release!
This
comes on the heels of another great recent CD reissueWarfrat
Tales. Another of my all-time faves, this 1983 compilation
does feature The Last, plus a lot of other bands close
to the Last at 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.
Those who have the
vinyl edition of Warfrat Tales will notice some of these
bands didn't appear on the originalbut 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! |
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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 originalbut 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 fartheir 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... |
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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 |
|