Douglas Enkler, singer. Robert Griffin, guitars, klaviers, vocals. Patrick Hawley, batterie. Steve Scariano, bassman.
Influences
60s r&b, Alice Cooper (orig band, not solo), Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Faces (+ early Rod Stewart), Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer, Rolling Stones, The Pagans, Electric Eels, Pere Ubu, Peter Laughner, Dead Boys, Raspberries, Easter Monkeys, 70s Queen, Art Bears, New York Dolls/Heartbreakers, Chrome, The Residents, early 80s Christian Death, Black Flag, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, David Bowie, Wipers, Velvet Underground, MX-80 Sound, The Stooges, Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn, The Replacements, Grauzone, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Bob Quine, Brian Eno, X, Jacobites, Bob Dylan, Television, Thelonious Monk, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Marty Robbins, Andrew Hill, Prisonshake.
Sounds Like
driving a vixen the wrong way down a one-way street
Prisonshake began in 1986 out of the ashes of the early 80s HC punk scene in Cleveland. Robert Griffin and Scott Pickering had played together in Spike in Vain and when that band broke up, the two used some studio time originally booked for SiV to record the band's first demo. One year later, with engineer/producer Chris Burgess filling the bass slot, the trio started playing out and releasing records, and in late 1988 Doug Enkler joined as main vocalist after the Offbeats fizzled out. Around this same time Griffin started the Scat Records label to release the band's third single, but also went on to release records by My Dad Is Dead, Guided By Voices, Mono Men, Electric Eels, The Mice and many others. After a dozen singles & EPs, several albums, 4 US tours and the loss of the original rhythm section, Griffin and Enkler moved to St. Louis in 1995 (though Enk left StL for Baltimore in 2003 and now lives in Lexington, KY). At that point we were pretty burnt and reached new heights of doing whatever the fuck we wanted, which was mostly not very much ("you mean we'd have to carry our amps? fuck that"), although the first sessions for Dirty Moons did occur that year. The earlier flood of activity became a trickle, then stopped altogether, at least publicly. But, we'd found a killer new rhythm section in Scariano and Hawley and we woodshedded new material like crazy, recording off and on up until now. We gladly bring forth the fruit of that exile, Dirty Moons, a true double album steeped in our dialect of the rock language, this August 26th.
everyone who has ever uttered the words 'rock and roll' should own at least one copy of 'the roaring third'. any you should prolly buy the new record when it hits, too.
Ok, ok, ok. At the big-ass Agora and other CLE major haunts just a bit later there was finally something like 8 ga-zillion people at your shows, R. Agreed.
I do stand totally corrected. I get the picture. Mia Coppola! Both of 'em even.... Werner Her-f-ing-zog, ok?! I get it. I get it. I'm just a proud elitist. Leave me be.
Tanks for mentioning a few weirdo mutual musical "friends" (Mr. Subtle...Strayhorn ...and even the massively fucked up early jazz/rock(?)/Godspell bitch Sister Rosetta. Heard she was religious as hell!)
Also glad to see the 'tube and the fairly new dude(s) of Resignation, etc. But most of all, none of us can wait to scam all your band's cryptic other refs. Just warning you in advance.
Yeah, the Sister was supposed to be massively fuckin' righteous, dude. Damn righteous bitch, make no mistake, with that weird-ass Peter Hook guitar stance. Ok. I'll go away. For now.
Don't forget to book a huge, hairy-ass national tour....
Michael and Amber "The Kid" - a big Della St. fan. I'm oafish enough to dig all your band's crap. - M.
Fave Cleveland band ever? The 'Shake for Key-riced's sake! Esp live - ripping it up to the usual 13 fans in their hometown! Glory days indeed.
"Cut Out Bin" sure reminds me of that fucked up original drummer (hey Pick!), and that instrumental stuff on the 3rd track is as cool as Unwed Sailor. Maybe a lot better.
Michael
PS Always wished I could help bands and labels like yours a whole lot more. Unfortunately I'm a double major in Fuck Up. Have fun!
'I'm really fucked now' is and has been in my cassette player for a long time now. I listen to it all the time and never get tired of it. I miss Snak shows :( - not that I can stay awake that late anyway! Good to 'see' you here!
