Econochrist

Bio:

.. econochrist existed from early 1988 until late summer 1993. here goes a rambling bio... we formed in little rock, arkansas in 1988 from the ashes of criminal mischief. we ranged in age from 17 to 22 when we started the band. ben was the youngest and jon was the oldest. jon and markley had been playing together for years. ben had moved there from memphis in 1987 and he sang for criminal mischief. jason played bass in that band. after it fell apart andy started jamming on bass and econochrist was formed. i think our pal sledge tweeked jon's idea to come up with the name. we played our first show opening up for jfa in memphis on july 4, 1988 at the antenna club. we played a bunch of shows opening for touring bands that year like bad religion, youth of today, ignition, and government issue. we then did a 2 week winter midwest and east coast tour with sobering consequences and their singer roy put out our "it runs deep" 7". we decided to leave arkansas in early 1989 and resettled in the bay area. we always printed up our own t-shirts. markley is a printer so he also made our stickers, flyers, posters, inserts, lyric sheets and other shit. we were a do it yourself band. we all got a house together in oakland, know as little arkansas or the econo lodge, and kept playing. our last show with andy on bass was at gilman st. opening up for gwar and operation ivy. he decided he'd had enough and moved back. we met the dudes from christ on parade and shared a practice pad with them at their house. we met mike and he took over for andy on bass. he had played guitar for teenage warning, christ on parade, and raskul so we were stoked he wanted to play with us. we met david hayes and he put out the "ruination" lp. we played lots of shows at gilman st. and various parties and dives. we played with bands like christ on parade, neurosis, and even green day. our only rule was that the show be all ages and if there was ever a fight we'd stop playing and deal with it. we toured the usa for 6 weeks in the summer of 1990. we put out the "another victim" 7" on vermiform records sam m. from born against's label out of new jersey. we had stayed with adam n. and i guess that's how we met sam and how he came to want to put out a record by us after we played some shows with born against out in california. thanks to kate k.'s connections we toured europe for six weeks in the summer of 1991. then back in the east bay we continued to play (too many!) shows usually with bands like filth, spitboy, blister, paxton quiggly and grimple. we tried to practice 1-3 times a week and we worked shitty day jobs which we'd quit to go tour. we spent a lot of time together and it was quite a crazy time. from when we moved out to the bay area in '89 through the early 90s there were; loads of great bands, 100's of punk shows, parties and events, a lot of cool venues for punk shows, scores of punk houses in the area, numerous anti-nazi protests and brawls, massive anti-war protests, riots after the rodney king verdict, various people's park protests, the big quake, the oakland hills fire, the anarchist gathering and just tons exciting underground shit happening. there was a tight but growing east bay punk scene that we were proud to be part of. we all hung out together, had fun together, shared housing, worked together and helped each other. we all got along for the most part and it didn't matter who you knew or who you were or any bullshit like that. the music we wrote was hardcore/punk. we were (and still are) pissed off. we wrote lyrics about our beliefs. they were anti-greed, anti-racist, anti-oppression, anti-war, anti-religion and anti-authority. we wrote about how fucked up the world was to us and about our personal lives as well. of course it all had a leftist/anarchist and punk slant to it. during the course of the band a lot of alcohol and drugs were consumed as well, except for ben who was the only straight edge member of the band and still is straight edge at age 37. amazingly we all got along like brothers. we all became vegetarian like mike, except for jon. we were a unity band! anyways we put out a split 7" with the detonators on insurrection records at some point in there and we had tracks on various compilation records. ben started going to college at sfsu at some point. we put out the "trained to serve" lp on vermiform records in 1992 and toured the usa that summer for 2 months then came home and played more gigs in the bay area and various little trips up and down the west coast. in 1993 we recorded the "skewed" 7" in that summer we toured europe again for a couple of months and mike decided to stay there. our last show would be in hamburg at the flora with sabot. the rest of us returned to the east bay and we didn't feel like getting a new bass player and being one of these bands that stays around forever and goes through tons of members. probably things had gotten a little stagnant and we weren't writing as many songs as we used to. 5 years is a long time for a punk band to exist, so we called it quits. the "skewed" 7" was the last thing record we made and it came out on ebullition records just after we broke up. later ebullition would put out a double cd discography and repress "another victim" and "trained to serve". jon, markley, mike and andy have all gone on to be in various bands. jon was in cancer alley, ojorojo, pig iron and i love a parade. markley was in zero hour, strychnine, and now plays in fracas. mike was in a38, the stinking borgs, and now nitrious oxide wrestling club. andy was in el dopa and kalas. ben has never done music again. everybody still lives in oakland except for mike who lives in bremen, germany and andy who lives in little rock. we put this up on myspace because some friends asked us to and since there were already some unofficial profiles up so we figured we'd finally do one to set things straight. if you've read all this, you're brave and patient. if you write, we'll try to answer any questions you have. take care...ben...2008.

Member Since:

March 17, 2008

Members:

jon s.= guitar, markley h.= drums, ben s.= vocals, mike s. = bass 1989-93, andy b. = bass 1988-89

Influences:

black flag, minor threat, bad brains, neurosis, christ on parade, rudimentary peni, crucifix, subhumans, social distortion, born against, rorschach, poison idea, negative approach, necros, jimi hendrix, mdc, dri, nota, the big boys, government issue, swiz, capitol punishment, void, 7 seconds, soulside, the clash, discharge, the offenders, agnostic front, bad religion, the freeze, gang green, ssd, coc, sobering consequences, the germs, iron maiden, black sabbath, too many other fucking bands to name, skateboarding, growing up in the bible belt in the 80s, living in and being part of the east bay punk scene in the early 90s.

Sounds Like:

hardcore/punk rock

Record Label:

Ebullition, Vermiform, Very Small, Truant