hellwood - guitar/vox***** sebastian - drums***** tommy - bass
Influences
MUSIC INFLUENCES - hendrix, coltrane, dennis brown, charlie parker, fats waller, errol dunkley, don drummond, minor threat, shattered faith, social unrest, circle jerks, bad religion, van halen, sabbath, old metallica, exodus, gabor szabo, 7 seconds, TSOL, agent orange, descendents, dead kennedys, jamie aebersold, franco et l'OK jazz, augustus pablo, suicidal tendencies, jack killed jill, art tatum, los olvidados, code of honor, free beer, tongue avulsion, no alternative, urban assault, MIA, whipping boy, red c, void, artificial peace, monk, mingus, LKJ, exploited, robert johnson, muddy waters, DOA, howling wolf, john lee hooker, elmore james, bessie smith, django reinhart, miles, lester young, junior byles, barry brown, bob & damien marley, aswad, don carlos, delroy wilson, barrington levy, beres hammond, sly & robbie, king tubby, joe pass, roots radics, gregory isaacs, horace andy, big youth, black uhuru, john holt, jah thomas, alton ellis, admiral tibet, cornell campbell, ernest ranglin, earl sixteen, monty alexander, dawn penn, abyssinians, johnny clarke, junior murvin, prince buster, lee scratch perry, mad professor, anthony cruz, bitty mcclean, michael prophet, mighty diamonds, linval thompson, Uroy, khari kill, judy mowatt, pablo moses, jacob miller, wasted youth, the beatles, rush, mamas & papas, tosh, billie holiday, bix, count basie, errol garner, willie dixon, dizzy, richie havens, james brown, yngvie, the doors, X, AC/DC, adolescents, and about a million others!
OTHER MISC. INSPIRATIONS - fender, gibson, marshall, fuzz-face, univibe, octavia, SOS, eddie gregor, darryl goldfarb, rafael osuna, equidemius, brian o'neal, bateke, maximum strength, mike town, matt shumway, mary jane, wave watch, H3o, alva, hosoi, tom curren, bud llamas, francis villablanca, donnell fuller, three's company, davy & goliath, speed racer, benny hill, gumby, the land of the lost, the road runner, tom & jerry, underdog, felix the cat, popeye, dukes of hazzard, wait til your father gets home, the brady bunch, purple gel, bruce lee, pac-man, crazy climber, donkey kong junior, atari, playstation, redline, PK ripper, marina skatepark, kauai, carveboard, the prince of bel-air, univision, the simpsons, spongebob, runman, joe dirt, wheelie and the chopper bunch, MAD magazine
The Harsh Carpets original members are Cameron "Hellwood" Wellwood (guitar/vox), Todd "Longstockings" Nosek (drums), and "Racer" Dave Tenhouten. (bass) Hellwood met Todd in the summer of 1992 when Hell auditioned for a super-cheesy band. That eventually fell apart and Hellwood and Todd started their own band. Meanwhile while pillaging porn stars, "Racer" decided to put his pants on and join the band. Within weeks THC played their first show on 2/17/95 at 14 Below in Santa Monica. Then they took on The Malibu Inn on 3/3/95 and were expected to fill a 4 hour slot. (about 48 or so songs) It went well, so they were asked to play weekly until Todd unexpectedly quit the band on 3/25/95. THC had only played 7 shows.
Shannon "Shogun" Winters, an old high school friend of Hellwood's got on the drums and THC was back at 14 Below on 6/20/95. They bounced around from The Cobalt Cafe to The Cock & Bull to The Amazon to being the first band to play at The Main Line Brewing Co.
The most popular show of all was at the American Pie on 10/20/95 w/ Maximum Strength. It was also the last.
It was nearly 10 years later when the original band members would play another show. By then The Malibu Inn was sold and it was no longer a "locals only" swashbuckling saloon . The times had changed and the only cool place left in town was The Dume Room and that is where THC made their comeback on 3/12/04. They gigged regularly the next 6 months locally at The Pearl Dragon, The Joint, and at The Riverbottom in Burbank. Things were looking good until Dave's second kid was due. THC played their last show on 9/11/04 at Richard Evan's Major Rager in Topanga.
There was no replacement in sight for Dave. With upcoming shows and the ball rolling, THC was not about to give up. They did 5 more shows w/ no bassist and then a random miracle happened. An ad for a surfboard for sale brought a creative, highly skilled, supercool bassist right to the epicenter. It was 10/29/05 when Jordan "Newms" Newman played his first show. Things were better than ever w/ this maniac ripping melodic and rhythmic solos on command! The closest of friends and fans all agreed that THC never sounded better. It was at a Halloween keg party where THC unleashed a fury on unsuspecting partiers to test themselves for their first gig 11/12/05 at The Dume Room w/ a band called Sindicate. Next, THC shared The Pearl Dragon with Mike and Shannon (Black Train) 12/17/05 and it was nuts! 2006 shows...The Cat Club 1/28/06, The Dume Room 2/10/06, a raging show at The Pearl Dragon w/ Seedyside 3/11/06, The Riverbottom w/ Swig 3/23/06, and The Pearl Dragon w/ Bad Influence 4/15/06. Rusty's Surfranch 5/12/06 was a blast!!! The SM pier attracts a lot of spectators ready to party! Summer brought the usual freaks to the Dume Room 6/24/06. A 64 year old drunk out of an irish spring commercial told THC to change their beat and "bang, bang, bang is not good" at Rusty's 7/21/06 , and then the Dume Room 8/5/06 was the last show w/ Newms because he quit.
One phone call was all it took. THC had a replacement (bassist) within a day! What were the odds? Pat was given a CD and one rehearsal and they tore the Dume Room up! 10/7/06. Next stop was Yannick's Halloween party 10/28/06 where the haunted house featured a sawzall powered dildo that scared most of the women. Pat was MIA and THC got there late because they had a prior gig backing "Rambob's" reggae band "Babakazah". THC went on at 11pm and 10 neighbors were freaking within minutes. It was LOUD!! The pigs were there 3 songs later and were in no mood for "Rampart Cop".
Breaking news!!...a tragic day in Malibu...The Dume Room closed down due to a new selfish asshole property owner (Zan Marquis) who doesn't care about what's important to Malibu's music / social scene! With one week warning and Pat nowhere to be found, THC managed to get Ken Waco (Maximum Strength) on bass and played The Dume Room's last show 12/1/06 with several other bands. It was a magical night nobody who was there will ever forget! "The Death of the Dume Room", is now on Charter Cable as well as the latest creation "The Harsh Carpets Live in '95 at the Malibu Inn"
Another bassist (Ben) stepped in to save the day for Rusty's Battle of the Bands 1/19/07 which turned out to be a joke! Then THC was offered a show at the Riverbottom 1/27/07 which Hellwood had to do by himself. All hell broke loose as everything that could go wrong did and then some. The small crowd was scared to blink because they might miss the disaster as it unfolded exponentially. It was so fucked, raw, and spontaneous that the small crowd really enjoyed the lesson on 101 ways to sabotage a gig!
Longstockings moved on to bigger and better things and despite the painful loss, Hellwood briefly continued to struggle on a solo mission performing LIVE and delivering as if this fucked up world was ending tomorrow! With Malipalooza 2007 on the horizon, Richard Evan's Memorial Day BBQ was a perfect place to suffer through a set without a band.
It was nearly a year later when Mario Vitale returned to LA to host a Dume Room Reunion at the Malibu Inn on 6/14/08 when the latest lineup was back in action. With Tommy "salami" on bass and Sebastian on drums, the potential was obvious. Clout Surf Shop had a party on 6/21/08 and THC was all over it! The next day was the 2nd annual Malipalooza 2008 and it turned out to be a kick ass show! Sebastian's drum solo was so heavy, Hellwood's amp head fell off of the speaker cabinet and went tumbling onto the stage. Luckily Paul Grundman of the band "Celeste" climbed onto the stage and saved the day! Tommy split to NY for school.
With Tommy in NY and Malibu's Chili Cook-off '08 to deal with, THC got a Malibu local named Craig on the bass and took care of business.
Tommy came back so THC played with SWIG at Mr. B's 3/20/09 in Burbank and Gina B. told them that they had enough time to play 2 songs. Obviously that was a joke, so THC spazzed and picked the most technical song to play first and despite technical difficulties leading to the edge of panic, it had moments that were undeniably creative. If you believe in cosmic bullshit and all the stars aligning or whatever, 3/21/09 had it all! Clout Rideshop had the BIGGEST RAGER anyone in Malibu has seen in years and The Harsh Carpets delivered! Everybody had the time of their lives and it was a night that people will be talking about for years.
Fuck, I want to go to your show Thursday but I got my rehearsal. Zeke & Thor are going on tour with Lunatics soon so I don't want to opt out. Are you still for Punkers that hate jazz? I'm going to a punk show in HB Friday, but some may argue I've turned more jazz...
hey u should check out this band rebelution(reggae) on my top friends next 2 groundation-(another good reggae band). rebelutions playin right by u on the 9th just lettin ya know. u might actually like it u never no. go give it a listen. an dont act like ur 2 busy. ur just sittin there surfin the internet dont act like u rnt!! an check out groundation too, they b sick wit it son!
A huge "Thank you" to Hellwood for filling in for Zeke at Nikfest Saturday with S.W.I.G., such a stellar performance. There has been nothing but rave reviews of our performance, can't wait to see the video. Kick ass job as always!!!!
I was at that Riverbottom show and I heard afterwards you played so fucking loud that they had to shutdown and board the little shithole up. The place was never the same again. Just another example of how the fury of Hellwood rocked another club off it's foundation.
Sup nigga!? wazzz crackalakin? comment me back bro sooooo everyone can see that the HARSH CARPETS left me a message an theyll all wanna b ur friend!! later slacker.
Holy Crap! Not another flighty bass player - Goddammit that sucks!!! Well at least I know Todd & Cameron can rock the hell out of any club by themselves w/o some retarded bass player that thinks he's going to do better without THC in the equation.
THC proved that a band could still rock the hell out of you without a bass-player (little intimidating I must admit). Now with a full crew, I'm sure THC will carve it's mark as one of LA's most acclaimed power trios.
Alright I get to pop the comment cherry, right on Cam, welcome to hell I mean Myspace... from a punker that likes jazz but not jazzers. I'm a junker, not puh-jazzer.
