Joe Christmas

Bio:

joe christmas formed in the spring of 1992, except, back then we called ourselves 'the subliminal neckties'. our first show was our high school talent show. we played a song called "you're special to me", a take-off on a mister rogers song of the same title. we didn't win the talent show but instead discovered how much we enjoyed being on stage together. so, we kept banging away, making ever more noise, practicing every week and driving our parents to the brink. by the following spring, in junior year, we had been unleashed onto the local atlanta music scene to the appall of many and the joy of a few. in april of 1993 we changed our name to 'crayon' and got some louder amps and new pawn shop guitars. then we recorded our first ep and sold it at school and shows. things kept rolling along. the next fall we discovered a band from out west who were already using the name 'crayon' so we had to come up with a new name. in AP english we were reading "A Light in August" by William Faulkner when zach's girlfriend, katie, suggested we rename the band after the novel's central character, Joe Christmas. we talked about it. our friend jason dempsey had just started playing drums with us and he thought it'd be unique. we agreed. it was settled. more shows. recorded second ep, 'Oatmeal', with Chris Colbert engineering and producing. played some festivals. went off to college in seperate towns and thought the band was pretty much over. then, a record deal offer from indie label Flying Tart records. we gladly accept. then, jason abrubtly leaves the group weeks before we are to begin recording our first album. russell meets philip brown at college. philip rocks the drums. two weeks before recording is to begin, philip joins the band. we practice three times and then head off to nashville to record with Chris Colbert and Steve Hindalong at the fabled neverland studios. these sessions plus one track off the 'oatmeal' ep ended up comprising our debut record "Upstairs, Overlooking". so, alex parker, owner/operator of flying tart, decides to call up brandon ebel of tooth and nail records and tell him about our record. alex sends him a copy of the final mix. brandon likes the record and eben from Blenderhead suggests that brandon sign us. so, Tooth and Nail snatch us away from Flying Tart and "Upstairs..." is released in the summer of 1995. we played at cornerstone festival that year and had a wonderful time. we met other t&N bands and became fast friends with the amazing Roadside Monument. in an attempt to impress and confuse some girls in our hotel lobby, we told them we were MXPX. they'd never heard of MXPX. after cornerstone festival we went home and practiced and wrote more songs. in the fall we went back to college and kept playing on the weekends. we drove to mississippi one weekend and a man in a truck pulled a gun on us. as spring approached, recording time was nearing once again. this time we went to chicago and recorded our sophmore effort, 'North to the Future' with Bob Weston at Electrical Audio. it was an incredible experience and we were very happy with how our record turned out. after recording we embarked on a two month tour/vacation that took us all the way to Vancouver, B.C. and then down to L.A. Our last show of the tour was at the first Tooth and Nail Festival. every single tooth and nail band was there and it was awsome, even though we were only alotted fifteen minutes of stage time, as we were the first band to go on. after the festival the long drive from california to georgia began. our friend maria hitched a ride with us. we drove straight, taking turns at the wheel, and made it back home in a scant 54 hours. the next thing we knew...

Member Since:

August 09, 2006

Members:

zachy zaque (aka - Zachary Gresham), blondie "phelps" martini (aka - Phillip Brown), randal rocket (aka - Ryan Weaver), j.j.johnny love (aka - Russell Holbrook).

Influences:

sebadoh, pavement, larry norman, spirituallized, florida, the black lodge, the land phil, faust, breakfast with amy, the choir, pablo rodriguez, james b., neil young, sonic youth, elf power, slow dive, the supreme dicks, fluffy, dura-lux, butterglory, superchunk, neutral milk hotel, guided by voices(tobin sprout era), smog, palace music/bonnie 'prince' billy/will oldham, white lion, archers of loaf, low, the van that shot fire, yo la tengo, the smiths, the cure, dinosaur jr., lee mayfield appreciation society, spudgun, lifesaversunderground, that lady who sings that one song(you know, that one), weezer, ELO, athens ga. homeless/vagrant contengentcy, elephant six collective, phil waldorf's brain on drugs,

Sounds Like:

you decide!

Record Label:

tooth and nail records, alumni, class of '97.