Jan Gregor -- lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Mark Fenton -- drums
Greg Morlan -- lead guitar
Ryco -- bass
The core band of Jan, Mark and Greg played together from 1981 till 1989. Keyboard players in Variant Cause were Rick Hogan and later Frank Holman.
Tony Bortko played lead guitar during the last year of the group.
Influences
Jan Gregor -- lead vocals rhythm guitar
influenced by British Invasion 60s groups the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals, the Troggs, Free;
American Garage rock including the Seeds, Standells, Sonics, Stooges; Paul Revere & Raiders;
1st Generation 70s glam including Mott the Hoople, Slade, Alice Cooper Group, David Bowie
and the Spiders from Mars. And 1950s legends Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley and Jerry Lee Lewis. And a vocal nod to Chrissie, Nina, Lene and Cyndi.
Mark Fenton -- drums
Traffic, Genesis with Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Alex Harvey Band, Spooky Tooth, Family, Aynsley Dunbar, Keith Moon.
Greg Morlan -- lead guitar
Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Buck Dharma, Will Sargent, Daniel Ash.
Ryco -- bass
Fishbone, Slayer, Tom Petty, Rockpile, the Ventures, the Who, Todd Rundgren, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Fear.
Sounds Like
Some kind of a strange brew. When these guys mixed the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s together they did not get the 90s -- it was something else called Variant Cause.
Long live Spinal Tap!
Contemporary ritics have made comparisons to the Wipers, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Critics past made references to David Bowie, the Sparks, Van Halen, Abba, Sonic Youth. Today Variant Cause would not sound out of place alongside Green Day, the Raconteurs, the Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, the Kaiser Chiefs, Eagles of Death Metal, Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, AFI, My Chemical Romance, the Killers, the Hives, Jet, Interpol, Snow Patrol, the White Stripes, the Towers of London, Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters, OK Go, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Flaming Lips, Neko Case, Wolfmother, the Futureheads, Sparta, Snow Patrol to name a few.
Excavating Variant Cause
1980s Pacific Northwest
Volume 1 and Volume2 Out Now!
Own the Variant Cause Excavating Vol. 2 CD from CDBaby
Click Here!
Own the Variant Cause Excavating Vol. 1 CD from CDBaby
Click Here!
"By 1986, hard rock in Seattle -- at least the stuff getting noticed elsewhere -- was starting to sludge like Flipper crossed with the Birthday Party (or maybe Black Sabbath crossed with Led Zeppelin in bands' dreams), and that's not where Variant Cause were at either . . .
"Their just-compiled album rocks some dark-and-spooky carnival-goth slime, some psychobilly goo-goo muck, some proto-techno jungle drums and a great song called "She's A Moving Violation" that dedicates surf guitar explosions and metal screeches and trippy garage organs to someone's backfield in motion. And it all has a goofball bounce to it that would have scared most grungesters back to their heroin dens."
Chuck Eddy, Paper Thin Walls Sept 2006
"As far as most of music fandom knows (including me), the Pacific Northwest
was a dead issue between the 60s garage rock explosion and the ascent of
grunge in the very early 90s. (Heart's 70s superstardom was an exception, of
course.) Variant Cause intends to change that perception.
"Excavating-Volume 1 is a set of 80s recordings from a band that crossbreeds the classic rock sounds it grew up with and the new wave noises proliferating in both the
mainstream and the underground. Tunes like "She's a Moving Violation,"
"Right Now She's Not" and "Life in the Wind" sound like the love children of
Thin Lizzy and Devo; shockingly, it for the most part works. Part of it's
due to Jan Gregor's appealing voice, but most of it is due to the group's
unerring accuracy with hooks. It's a sound full of promise, if not exactly
timeless. The album title implies this is only the first artifact -- it'll be
interesting to hear how this band developed over its lifespan."
Michael Toland, High Bias, Dec 2006
The Pacific Northwest rock scene of the 1980s was a hotbed of creativity,
with a multitude of bands developing uncommon sounds in relative geographic
isolation. Living was cheap and a band had the time to play and grow,
unconstrained by any set musical standards of conformity. A rock generation
above the grunge groups that eventually put Seattle on the rock map,
Variant Cause was an odd combination of disparate personalities
who came together to create a brand new sound.
Any given week throughout the 80s you could find them performing their
neoteric rock somewhere: at an armory dance, a DIY loft party or an
intimate rock club. In Seattle; Spokane; Bellingham; Salem; Portland;
Moscow; Tacoma and all points in between. They were the local opening
act for Iggy Pop, Nico, Ian Hunter, the Godfathers and the Blasters.
We are in the final round of voting to get on Tempe Music Festival, cast your vote for Fight The Quiet at the link below. And if you live in the Phoenix area watch our performance on channel 7 at the times listed on our site and vote for us again! Thanks for helping us get this far, this is the last stretch! And send us a comment after you vote saying you did so so we look cool! -Fight The Quiet
So we try not to be one of those bands that bothers you all the time to come help us with this or that, but we have an opportunity to play with My Chemical Romance at the Tempe Music Festival and we need your help to do it. If you follow the address you can vote for us there. Thanks so much! -Fight the Quiet
Aloha Variant Cause! Stopping by to say love your music.. Rick Hogan and I used to have the band MerKaBa back in Seattle. Wishing you guys the best :-) Blessings from Maui!
Kickin' It Oldskool (ha!) Iknow you folks are skattered to the 4 winds but, I hope you can make it out on November 16th @ The Funhouse! You'll see some faces in my band that you haven't seen on stage in a long ass time. I promise that!
Holy shit!!!! Good to see you around!!!! Man, it is actually the 21st Century now. I guess we were all ahead of our time. Check out myspace.com/newsoulenterprises for a blast...
We have added a 5th song to our Myspace page from our newly arrived CD.
Stop on by and check it out- let us now what you think.
Or better yet - If ya happen to be in the area, come on out to one these shows and say hi.
