Tiger Army

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Image:Ta bio.jpg
Tiger Army (2002-2004) - Geoff Kresge, Nick 13, Fred Hell

Tiger Army is a psychobilly band that was formed in 1995 in San Francisco, California.

Contents

[edit] Biography

The band played their first show at legendary venue 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California, with AFI on March 29, 1996. After making a name for themselves playing shows throughout the California area with AFI and English psychobilly pioneers, The Meteors, they were picked up by Chapter Eleven Records.

Tiger Army first entered the studio in the summer of 1996 to record a self-titled vinyl record EP, now referred to as the Temptation EP. This EP fell into the hands of Tim Armstrong, owner of Hellcat Records, who signed the band. Tiger Army recorded their first self-titled full-length, Tiger Army, in January 1999. It was released that October. Stand-up bassist Joel Day had left the band prior to being signed, so the Quakes stand-up bassist Rob Peltier was hired to play on the album.

During the ensuing California mini-tour promoting the album, Nick 13 asked Geoff Kresge, one of his former bandmates from his first band, Influence 13, to play stand-up bass with them. Kresge accepted, and joined as a permanent member a few months later. The band was asked to play on the Danzig and Samhain tour in 2000, where they befriended Samhain drummer London May. He joined the band when Adam Carson left.

The band recorded a second album, Tiger Army II: Power of Moonlite in 2001. London May left shortly after the recording, and was replaced with Fred Hell.

On March 10, 2003, Fred Hell was shot four times by armed robbers who broke into his friend's apartment in Chino, California. A bullet became lodged in his brain, making it necessary for him to go through physical therapy before he could play drums again. At the time, the band was in the process of recording the album Tiger Army III: Ghost Tigers Rise. At first, the record was repeatedly delayed to make time for him to recover enough to perform, but his injuries proved serious enough for the band to hire a studio drummer, Mike Fasano, drum tech to both Rancid and Tiger Army, to play on the album. Hell attempted to play on the tour supporting the album's release, but he was again forced to stay and recover while Fasano joined the band on the road. In July 2004, Hell decided to depart from the band in light of his condition.

Only months later, in September 2004, Geoff Kresge departed the band to focus his efforts on his new record label, Dead Body Records and began recruiting members for a new band called Viva Hate. He would join his wife Kamilla with Horrorpops as a guitarist a month later. Nick 13 quickly announced a new line-up for Tiger Army, featuring drummer \"Wasted\" James Meza (formerly of numerous other small Los Angeles psychobilly bands, and a former touring drummer for the Nekromantix) and stand-up bassist Jeff Roffredo (formerly of Cosmic Voodoo and Calavera), who are now full-time members of Tiger Army.

The band is currently writing songs for their fourth album. They plan to go into the studio this fall, and release the album in 2007. They originally intended to get in the studio sometime earlier this year, but went on tour with AFI.

Currently the band is headlining a tour in the US. Earlier in the month they were asked to leave the Morrissey tour after just a handful of shows. The reasons for this departure are unclear, although there is speculation that it was because members of the Tiger Army camp ate meat while on the tour. Further rumours have spread, with reasons such as Tiger Army getting a better reception than Morrissey and Nick's constant complaining about the poor Tiger Army sound being cited.

[edit] Current band members

[edit] Former band members

  • Joel Day - Stand-up bass (1995-1997)
  • Geoff Kresge - Stand-up bass (1999-2004)
  • Adam Carson - Drums (1995-2000)
  • London May - Drums (2000-2002)
  • Fred Hell - Drums (2002-2004)

[edit] Discography

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/i/g/Tiger_Army_a429.html"
In other languages