HUNTER LANDEN: vocals, harp, etc
ROBIN MANN: guitar
CLIFTON MANN: bass
ROCK FORBES: drums
BIO
The BAD CHECKS formed in Cig-City, Durham, NC, as a three-piece garage/punkabilly band in 1980, brothers, Robin and Clifton, with high school friend Larry Tally. They played their first show with Butchwax on New Wave night at the infamous Cat's Cradle and opened for the Bad Brains at The Station. They released their first single, "I'm Paranoid", in 1982 on their own label, Loretta Records. Spotting a potential frontman with "Crash" Landen and the Kamikazes, Hunter Landen joined the band and played his first live show in his high school graduation gown in 1984. The Checks released "Graveyard Tramp" in 1985 (replacing Larry with Mike Griffin) and played shows with the Dead Kennedys, Replacements, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Sonic Youth, Mike Watt, Fishbone, Suicidal Tendacies and many others.
Their second album, "Innocence" was released on the French Label Music Action and in the US on Blackpark Records. Mike Griffin returned to his studies, and the Checks burned up a few drummers over the next few years. Mike Grealing played on the next release "Live at 9:30", Rob Ladd sat in for a while as well as Scott Carle, Jon McClain and Chuck Garrison. In 1997, the Bad Checks found ex-Smooch frontman Rock Forbes who has been drumming ever since.
DISCOGRAPHY
1982 i'm paranoid / single / loretta records
1985 graveyard tramp / lp / loretta records
1985 more mondo compilation / lp / dolphin records
1987 innocence / lp / blackpark records
1990 live at 9:30 / cd / loretta records
1991 freestyle / cassette / loretta records
1995 undertow / ep / bittersweet records
1998 high dollar / cd / yep rock records
2000 graveyard tramp re-release / cd / demonbeach records
2001 demonbeach compilation / lp / demonbeach records
2003 demonbeach mini 3" sampler / cd / demonbeach records
"A mutant blues/punkabilly/garage rock outfit, Bad Checks was founded in 1980 by the Mann brothers, Robin and busy Clifton Lee (Pipe, The Ghost of Rock, Chrome Plated Apostles). The old school rockers became one of the area's signature acts playing with about every important underground punk and alt-rock group of the time. Alternating between a laconic rumble with the despondent blues pulse of Jon Spencer and a muscle car guitar hum racing hell-bent for leather down old-fashioned rock-n-roll highways and unmarked dirt roads, the quartet sizzles like steak gristle cooking on V-8 manifold. While still performing locally on occasion, their last album, High Dollar, (YEP ROC) came out in 1998." -Chris Parker / Indy Weekly Music Guide
Did somebody just get out of prison? Where did this come from? Long overdue and better late than never...but I wasn't sure I was ever going to hear the Bad Checks again outside of my own house. Thanks!
