John Also Bennett, Ben Branstetter, Forest Christenson, Garth Shack, and Ben Kile all do lots of different things.
Influences
The creeping realization that your life is slipping away at every moment, beautiful summer days, hardy partys, the urge to create, stickin' it to the man, Brian Wilson.
Sounds Like
the most fun you've ever had jammed into a kazoo and then blown out by madman on LSD
Starving Goliath started sometime in 2002 when John Also Bennett, Forest Christenson and Garth Shack, who met each other in elementary school, started playing music together. John sold his flute which he played in band class to buy an electric guitar and amp and started writing songs. They started playing lots of music together. Oooh wee! Then, Ben Branstetter came along. Ben was a small blond kid who looked like he was 12 untill he was about 17 yrs old. He could play just about anything on the piano by ear the first time. He eventually said something to the effect of, 'hey, shit, i can like, sing and stuff, and also play piano!' followed by agreement from John and Forest. Ben B Joined the band followed shortly by Eric Sweazy and Ben Kile, who both happened to get a bass guitar on the same day and call John who had previously told them seperately that he needed a bass guitar player for a band he was starting. The band practiced for a while with two bass players under several names, including the Dead Appendages, Barcode, and Empty Set, among others. Then the four original members realized it was pointless to have two bass players playing the same shit, so on essentially the flip of a coin decided to stick with Ben Kile. Seriously, we probably could have gone with either one. I'm sorry, Eric Sweazy. I love you.
Anyways, the band played it's first gig at their 8th grade school dance, playing 3 rock instrumentals over and over again. They somehow managed to make 150 bucks in tips, and put out a home-made cd under the name Barcode that ran about 25. The band began to play more shows, mainly at the only all ages venue in town they could get shows at, which was Midgard Comics. Midgard was a comic book store run by a crazy dude named Keith that put on shows in a spare room. It was eventually shut down due to rowdy kids setting the place on fire. Shortly after, the band entered a battle of the bands at the Newport Music Hall and played their first show under the name Starving Goliath. The name had little intended meaning, just two words thrown together, but after months of arguing over a proper name the band stuck with it because of it's uniqeness and it's abilty to stick in people's mind. The band began to move on from only all ages venues, venturing into the bars and other venues of columbus. While still in high school, the band found themselves playing shows at 21 and over venues entertaining crowds of drunken older folks. They played many shows at Bernies Distillery, a hole in the wall shit-hole bar in a basement on OSU campus, where SG earned their stripes as a band that could put on a hell of a rock show. The band's sound began to transform from 3 chord driven rock to a more unique, melodic driven rock sound that while having a new sounding edge didn't stray too far from their blues/punk rock roots. The bands pure contempt and hate for most music on the radio channeled into the song writing, leading to poppy rock and roll songs that were deliberatly structured not to sound like anything else on the radio.
The band tirelessly worked and eventually put out their debut album, 'Starving Goliath', recorded at Workbook studio with the help of the legendary Jon Chinn, and sold a shit ton of copies. They ventured outside of Columbus and played many shows out of town.
SG continued to rock very hard, establishing a great reputation around town, eventually winning the Dispatch Battle of the Bands during their junior year in high school, which led to a large amount of press and greater awareness of the band in the Columbus area. The band began to pick up bigger shows, including a headling spot at Comfest. SG caught the attention of Bob Daitz, former tour manager for Van Halen and personal friend of many important people, and landed shows opening for Blue Oyster Cult, The Eagles of Death Metal, The Pogues and a spot on the Vans Warped Tour. The band graduated high school with much under their belts, and 4 out of 5 members entered college in Columbus.
Everyone went on to do pretty much different stuff, and now SG is pretty much defunct. That is, broken up. We havn't been in the same room together for months, except for a little while ago when we sort of broke up. Maybe we'll play a reunion show someday, or eventually put out nuclear rocket.
These
thats pretty crazy that you guys were in a freakin text book...can't wait to hear the rest of Nuclear Rocket...maybe next time im at Ben and Garths ill get a sneak :) keep rockin sox off guys, later
