Fat Amy was formed in 1994 around vocalist Bobby Guiney, guitarists Mark Meyers and Kirk Reedy, bassist Brent Gillespie and drummer Brad Trimas, the group gigged around the MSU campus and eventually began to write original music, led by Bob's Songwriting.
The band was an immediate fan favorite and grew more and more popular, and started playing clubs around mid-Michigan. Eventually, they won a "Battle of the Bands" contest, and recorded their first album, titled "Ice Cream Headache". The album was released in 1995, recorded by members Bob Guiney, Brent Gillespie on bass, Mark Meyers on guitar, and Brad Trimas on drums.
Ice Cream Headache featured 9 songs, including the band's most popular song "Purple". It had a very dark and grungy sound to it, and sold well. Fat Amy's stock was on the rise as word of their energetic live shows spread throughout the Midwest.
After Ice Cream Headache was recorded, the makeup of the band changed. Brad Trimas was still on drums, and Mark Meyers on guitar, but Matt Jackson replaced Brent Gillespie as the bassist, and Kirk Reedy also joined the band, adding to the depth of the guitar section.
In 1996, Fat Amy released a six-song EP under their own label titled Five-Way Switch. The EP included 5 new songs and a revamped version of "Purple". Tim Patalan, who at the time was known for having produced the band Sponge, was the producer. The band marketed this product to labels and eventually signed a publishing deal with MCA Music Publishing and with the now-defunct indie record label, Rubber Records.
After the signing, Jeff "Pico" Gensterblum became the new drummer, replacing Brad Trimas.
Rubber sent Fat Amy back into the studio with Patalan, where they recorded 7 more songs, and a full length Five-Way Switch was released in 1997. The album contained 12 songs, with the lyrics all penned by Bob with some help from his cohorts. The album received many good reviews.
Five-Way Switch was re-released with national distribution in 1998, and was available in most stores around the country and several online vendors.
The band continued to tour relentlessly throughout 1998, drawing crowds all over the midwest, with trips to both coasts and to the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference in Austin, Texas. All the while, they were working on marketing their material toward major record labels. One of the labels that was interested was Wind-Up Records, an indie label who had just signed the band Creed. Unfortunately, Wind-Up decided to focus entirely on Creed at the time, and Fat Amy was not signed.
As things began to slow down, Matt Jackson left the band to finish his degree, and Bob started his own mortgage business with long-time friend Greg Clausen. Britt Hancock replaced Jackson on bass, and the band continued to tour in '99 and into 2000, A few new songs were written but never released, including "23", "No More", "How Long", and another new song, "Slow 44" appeared on a compilation album put out by WGRD 97.9 in Grand Rapids.
The band never officially broke up, but went on hiatus in 2000.
Things were pretty quiet until January, 2003 when Bob appeared as a contestant on a reality TV dating show.
Matt Jackson and Jeff Gensterblum rejoined Bob's band, now simply known as "The Bob Guiney Band" or BGB for short, and added guitarist Andy Patalan (Sponge, Solid Frog, Throttlebody) and Joel Ferguson (The Verve Pipe, Miles To Mars, Papa Vegas). The new lineup retooled a few of the unreleased songs, a few songs from Five-Way Switch, wrote a few other new songs, and released the album "3 Sides" under the name ofThe Bob Guiney Band.
You can find the Bob Guiney Band aka F@AMY Here orat Bobguiney.com
"Bob Guiney Band" aka F@A 2003-Present
Joel, Bob, Pico, Andy and Tim
Fat Amy-A Blast from the Past's Friend Space (Top 19)
Hey Guys! What's new? Am I about the only one who still leaves you comments now and then or what??? Any local concerts coming up??? KIT...take care...Hugs from Sharon in Hazeltucky!! LOL !!
hey thanks 4 the add check out our new video and also you can subscribe to our youtube channel if you like http://www.youtube.com/Spynation10 have a nice day spy nation waiting download online spread the word
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Hey Guys, just letting you know to be extra careful...Lots of ills going around. Still fighting one here but getting better. Hope you are all fine!! Stay warm and keep rockin' !! Hugs...
My favorite Fat Amy song depends on my mood because I love them all so much. I love Early November for its unique electric/acoustic guitar solo, but this song is already added. So I will have to go with Awake - that was always an encore favorite back in the day.
