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1990-1991: After disbanding their Boston
quartet Inside Outburst, Rob Elba and Dan Hosker made the
inexplicable decision to leave the countless clubs, supportive college radio
stations, and a teeming Boston music scene to form a new band in sunny South
Florida. Whatever made them think that the land of vacationing French-Canadians,
retirees, and the $5.95 early bird special would be conductive to forming an
original rock band is anybody's guess -- suffice it to say these guys weren't
rocket scientists. But form a band they did. And with drummer Sam Fogarino
and bass player Frank Labrador, they christened themselves The Holy
Terrors and set out to conquer the Miami/Fort Lauderdale rock music scene,
which took about two weeks. With local producer
Frank "Rat Bastard"
Falestra, they recorded and released two
singles, "Spirit/Shine/Stranger" and "Cigaretello/Bad Thing", as well as Live
Six, a six-song cassette recorded live on Bob Slade's Off the Beaten Path
radio show on WLRN (91.3-FM).
1991-1996: When Frank Labrador decided to quit the band and pursue a
career of "not playing in a band anymore," Sam recruited friend William Trev,
who performed with Sam in a Rat Bastard project called The Wahoos, to play bass.
In 1993 the Terrors again entered the studio and began working on their first
full-length release, Lolitaville, for local label Pound Records. Pound
was a subsidiary of the successful South Florida bass label
Neurodisc,
and as its first "rock" release Lolitaville proved to be decidedly un-bootylicious
for the rap label. An East Coast/Midwest tour followed, but by the time the
Terrors returned, it was apparent that this was indeed a marriage made in hell.
The band and label soon parted ways.
1996-1999: The Holy Terrors continued playing locally and regionally,
often driving 10 hours or more just to get OUT of Florida and play support shows
for touring bands who didn't realize there were actually people living south of
Tallahassee (which, technically, there are). By 1996, drummer Sam had grown
tired of the non-stop fun and left the band to follow a series of girlfriends up
and down the East Coast, eventually settling in New York City and joining
soon-to-be Matador (now Capitol) recording artists
Interpol.
Fellow musician Mike Bocsusis of the band One took over drum duties, and
the Terrors released their third single, "Four Questions/Janet From Another
Planet". In 1998 the Terrors again entered the studio, this time with producer
Jeremy Dubois, to begin recording another full-length album. With 5 songs in the
can, guitarist and co-founding member Dan Hosker decided to take a break and
tour with his other band, Harry Pussy.
2001-Present: Proving that you can't keep a good band down, and that
there really isn't a whole hell of a lot to do in South Florida, The Holy Terrors,
with Dan back in the fold, begin to play out again. Long-time fan Tom Berman of
Purple Skunk Records approaches the band
about releasing material, and after the requisite all-night pepsi-snorting-record-signing-in-blood
session, an agreement is made. The long- lost Jeremy Dubois sessions are
retrieved, various unreleased studio and live tracks are assembled, and the
final result is the epic, career-spanning, appropriately titled, This is What
it Sounds Like When You're Dead. Oh, and the early bird is now $6.95.
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