Fuck Mike Harpring! Just kidding. Bodyhammer was not only a lineup-changing machine, they were a noisy, screamy, sometimes chaotic hardcore band in the late 90s that was kind of Born-Against-ish (in fact they covered "Mary and Child"). They did two east coast tours (1999 + 2000). In their time they played shows with the Locust, Creation is Crucifiction, Catharsis, Converge, Isis, Majority Rule, Mastodon, Murder City Devils and many more. Not that any of that matters...
The band began in 1997 as a three piece with Mike Harpring, Corey Lyons and Andy Schanie.
In 1998 (?) Thommy Browne expressed interest in playing drums for the band, the trio gave it a shot and the 'Hammer was forever changed for the better. Mike temporarily moved to bass, until he moved back to drums with the departure of Thommy. Much to the benefit of the band, Ben Cundiff took over the bass duties (this isn't saying anything bad about Mike's bass playing, but rather emphasizing Ben's gifted musicianship. Mike also rules.). The migration of Andy from bass and vocals to just vocals gave the band an added dynamic that in many ways defined their live shows and reputation for going off.
Corey Lyons left for "higher" education at Antioch College, and the band was left in flux. He returned in the summer of 2000 with the intention of training his replacement, Eric Young, before heading off to a summer internship/co-op in Boston. To say Eric and Corey hit it off would be an understatement, and Corey quickly changed his summer plans to stay in Louisville and rock out with Bodyhammer. This, of course, was merely a summertime love affair, and although it led to a second east coast tour and the album, Die Young Amplifiers, it laid the groundwork for a series of lineup changes that lasted until the band finally called it quits in 2002, before the band could release another record that had already been recorded.
ZOMG IT'S TEH TRIVIA TIME: In an odd twist of fate, Corey filled in for Eric for two of Bodyhammer's last shows, in Nashville and Atlanta in May of 2002. A brief video is available at http://teamabunai.org/videos/bodyhammer.mov
Releases: s/t cassette (October 1998, Ancient Order Of Assassins)
Live cassette (Noise Pollution)
Die Young Amplifiers (2000, Noise Pollution)
Unreleases: So It Goes (Recorded and mixed but never released) (currently featured on this profile)
Compilations: In Native Soil CD (Noise Pollution)
Brycc House Benefit CD (Thrown Brick)
Also Known As: Bootyhammer
Partyhammered
Mike Harpring's Bodyhammer
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About the songs featured on this page these are from the unreleased second album. i'll be rotating through all the albums in the song over time, so keep checking back! and, no, you can't download them, unless we decide to never release the album for real. so there.
Reunion show is a go!
Bodyhammer will play their last show ever as part of the Last Saturday show series in June. The second CD So It Goes... will be released in some fashion. I also have a bunch of old shirts sitting around my garage.
