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While Kenny Chambers has been living in Los Angeles for the last couple of years, it is impossible to separate him from Boston rock n' roll.
Chambers -- a classic case of the 70s rock kid who got hooked on punk rock at its inception -- got a guitar and started making his own noise with his friends when he moved to the North Shore. Out of the haze of drugs and the racket of Zeppelin and Dead Boys records, The Moving Targets emerged from the basement in the early 1980s to make a loud first impression on the Boston rock scene. Joined by Pat Leonard (sadly, now departed) on bass and Pat Brady on drums, Chambers, on guitar and lead vocals, came out of the gate as a skilled songwriter with chops to match. The trio's quick evolution from Bad Brains-inspired hardcore thrash to more measured, melodic punk-edged pop fare put them in the same league as Hüsker Dü yet proved that Chambers had found a distinct voice of his own. The Targets' stellar TAANG! Records debut, Burning In Water (1986), balanced intensity and melody as formidably as the aforementioned midwestern contemporaries. The only area where the record suffered was exposure.
During the mid-1980s, Chambers, along with post-punk/post-Burma outfit the Volcano Suns, was enlisted for the backup band for Dan Ireton's Dredd Foole And The Din, which in its initial incarnation released two albums, Eat My Dust/Cleanse My Soul (a WERS live radio session issued by Homestead in 1985) and Take Off Your Skin (released by PVC in 1988).
With Moving Targets slowing in activity, Chambers joined forces with Bullet LaVolta as second guitarist in the latter half of the 1980s as that band was kicking and screaming its way to the forefront of the metal-ized Boston hardcore scene. He toured and recorded with BLaV from their debut EP (which included "Dead Wrong," a revamped take of a song Chambers had written with his pre-Targets band Iron Cross), the follow-up full length The Gift, until their major label (and, ultimately, swan song) outing, Swan Dive (RCA). A revived Targets, with Chuck Freeman ultimately taking over the bass slot for Leonard, also toured and released a solid follow-up LP, Brave Noise, in 1989, as well as Fall, in 1991, which was essentially the single "Away From Me" bolstered into full-length form largely with Brave Noise-era outtakes.
After Chambers' departure from Bullet LaVolta, he took a solo approach, performing live as The Kenny Chambers Band and recording records under his own name, including the import LP Double Negative (City Slang - 1990), No Reaction (1994), and the all-instrumental Sin Cigarros (1996). The last Moving Targets record, Take This Ride (released, like all prior Targets material, on TAANG!), was in 1993 (with Chambers as the sole original member), but the first two (and, arguably, best) Targets lineups have come out of hiding live periodically throughout the 90s and as recently as 2007, when Chambers, Freeman, and Brady took the stage to support Buffalo Tom at sold out shows in New York and Boston.
In terms of new releases, things slowed somewhat for Chambers after the mid-90s, but he never stopped writing and recording. In fact, it could be argued that he’s been busier -- whether solo or with a variety of projects and directions. There was his furious (if criminally short-lived) burst as the front man for American Pulverizer, a Turbonegro-inspired outfit that sounded like revved-up Targets colliding head-on with Bullet LaVolta. There was the Stone Strangers, where Chambers delved into lap steel-tinged country roots. There was The Golden Arrows, a four-piece that fleshed out the shimmering, newer explorations that Chambers had been sketching out on demo tapes in recent years (as well as the occasional “Ghosts Of Princes In Towers” cover thrown in for good measure). And there has always been Chambers and his guitar – whether he is testing new original material on willing ears or dedicating a Plough & Stars residency slot to a set of his favorite Velvet Underground tunes.
Soon, Chambers will be heading to Europe for his first tour in years. Consider it a look back at the past and a glimpse of the future. Several local bands will be backing Chambers so he can serve up some old Targets gems, but he will also be including new material and making solo acoustic appearances. “This may be the last time for a while that I will be revisiting the old back catalog,” Chambers said recently. “I know how pretentious this sounds, but after this, I gotta move on.”
- Tim Kelly
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