Saint Bastard

Bio:

Saint Bastard began in 2003, as all good things in New York City do, at Marz Bar. Drunken drummer Jubal Fearing ran into Dave Gwiazdowski one too many times there. One night, both men realized that they had a mutual soft spot for Flipper. Jubal had already been playing music with the other guitarist Vanya Edwards and invited Dave to join in the fun. While Dave had been in several bands, his guitar playing was less than stellar, and he was forced to play catch-up to Vanya's comparative proficiency. Originally the three started playing covers of Radio Birdman, the Ramones and the Stooges. The band was fated to be a crappy punk rock bar band. Or was it?

After week after week went by, some original songs started to emerge from the rubble. The first bass player Jim Foo, started coming by and the band started to take shape. Inebriated gigs at Hanks in Brooklyn and CBGB's followed. Would this band make a step beyond being heckled by Chris Spencer of the Unsane? Foo thought not, and quit. The band went through a couple more bass players that didn't really fit. It seemed Saint Bastard were destined ascension to the rock 'n' roll clouds.

In came shit-kicking bass player James Roy. It was June of 2004. The band had rented a hot-as-hell rehearsal space from John Lyons of local cowpunk freaks the Barnyard Playboys on 5th Street next to the ACE bar. Noting that it was the first time he ever worked up a sweat in practice, James immediately wanted in. His Ampeg (aka "Peggy") was moved into the space to sit along side Dave's Peavey deuce-two and Vanya's Sovtek. A formidable noise assault was brewing.

While the band mercilessly teased James for his practice attire coming from his job of selling antique maps, he got revenge by constantly forcing the band to pick up the pace. The 3-chord songs became more punishing. The retarded solos of Dave became interesting as the high end came more into play to escape Vanya's "turf". The crushing low-end chug of Vanya became more allied with the unit. The hungover Jubal drum technique became more precise. Saint Bastard were writing, gasp, interesting songs. They also started leaving town playing Cambridge, MA, New Paltz, NY and Jersey City, NJ. They also were kicked out of their rehearsal space for being too loud and wound up in South Williamsburg.

Saint Bastard stumbled into John Gerstad's basement 6-track set up to record demos in December 2004. From this session came a couple songs done well enough to release as a debut 7": Dave's "Up Against the Pipe" backed with Vanya's "I Like Your Shoes." Described by Village Voice editor Chuck Eddy as "punk verging on oi", the single captured the early songs of the band. The songs coming together for the next Gerstad session in February 2005 were tighter, weirder and heavier. A new phase had begun.

In August 2005, the band entered B.C. Studios to record with NY legend Martin Bisi, who worked on everything from Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" to Sonic Youth's "Evol" to Unsane's "Total Destruction" to more recently the Dresden Dolls. Roughly 20 hours went into 6 songs, and another 20 to mix them down. Recorded were pop songs about hybrid food and bill collectors. Punk songs about Interrogators and Handsome Dick Manitoba's 86'ed bar patron. Heavy songs about a girl's contact lens fumbling morning hangover and the band's theme song "All Hail Saint Bastard." There were weird chorused guitar solos and crushing chords. Insane bass runs met insistent drumming. The band planned to relased a 12" ep after their March 2006 west coast tour, but it never happened. In March 2007 the band returned to John Gertad's basement to put their final tracks on tape knowing that Jubal would never whack a snare nor crash a ride for them again. Vanya was so disenchanted with the final results that he didn't bother to redo his guitar scratch tracks. In August 2007 Jubal and Dave went over to Girstad's to get a rough mix of the final songs the band recorded. Of these recordings we have "Middle Age Draft Dodge" up. Dave, James & Vanya continue on under a new moniker A Bunch of Girls, performing some later-era Saint Bastard stuff and writing new material.

Member Since:

October 17, 2004

Members:

David Gwiazdowski-guitar, vocals
Vanya Edwards-lead guitar, vocals
James Roy-bass, vocals
Jubal Fearing-drums

Influences:

Does it really matter? At some point in our existance we have covered: Devo, Dead Boys, Ramones, Stooges, Kraftwerk
Jubal and I both like Flipper. James likes Guided By Voices. Vanya likes Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. Jubal likes the Dwarves. I like the Beatles. Vanya likes Motorhead. I like Motorhead. James likes Rocket From the Crypt and Drive Like Jehu. Vanya left the Rocket From the Crypt show after Gluecifer played. I would've stayed, but the show was sold out, so I couldn't go. Jubal doesn't really care about either of those bands. I could go on and on.
We don't really sound like any of these

Sounds Like:

77 punk meets 89 noise rock. Very dirty.

Label Type:

None