Gorilla started in the late '80s in Seattle by Jon Hale. Formed by Washington medical students (and dissolved after singer/organist/pianist Drew McRoberts and bassist Dan Merrick became doctors), Gorilla filled its first album (recorded after the departure of founding guitarist/singer Jon Hale) with manic garage raving that, in its nostalgia-free intensity, resembles either a Northwest Stranglers (thanks to McRoberts' hyperactive fingers) or a punkier Fleshtones. Drawing on their region's deep roots in the genre (after all, the Kingsmen were from Portland and the Sonics came straight outta Tacoma), the quartet gathers up all the voltage lurking in their carport's electric sockets and matches it with burly, scratched-larynx vocals and frenzied playing....
[Ira Robbins]
Gorilla released 6 singles and 3 full length albums. They exsisted from about 1988 to 1996. In December 2004 they played a few reunion shows around Seattle.
With the members of Gorilla individually working as a doctor, boat-builder, graphic artist and Muzak producer, these Seattle natives breakdown the stereotypes of elderly punkers only being qualified to work at a fast-food restaurant. As see on their first full-length Deal With It, age also doesn't get in the way of playing blazing, dual guitar 60's punk. On top of the added organs as well as a strong influences of The Sonics and The Stranglers, Gorilla would eventually capture this sound on the albums Squid Row Daze (1994) and Obliterator (1996). But thanks to the time constraints of working a professional job, the idea of touring cross-continental was always impossible.
dan is my uncle yeh too bad u guys all became docters and stuff u guys coulda been big thats ok my band is gonna get big for u guys :) u should listen. but we need different recording equipment ours sucks
Infamous hot sexy gundge housemate, Meche, was the reason the whole band rocked so hard. Her hot moves and great hair kept the whole house on edge, in cold showers. The raging frustration found in all their big hits like "you bitch" came mainly because of the way she drove the whole house stark raving mad. Although the "bitch" from the song refered to another woman. Meche always knew the band respected the way she could truely "kill a little fish". Her stories and musings she would love to share if only she could remember them.
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