American Werewolves (band)

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American Werewolves is a horror punk band from Cleveland, Ohio. The band was originally known as The Plan and it was formed in 1998 by then-art student Trevor Moment. Moment, a fan of doo-wop, horror movies, Elvis and punk, decided that he wanted to make music. His idea was to create a cross between Sam Cooke and Samhain while not disregarding his love for doo-wop, and he began writing tunes before The Plan was formed.

Contents

[edit] Introduction

The original lineup of the The Plan was Trevor Moment, Lee Christ and Mike Bridavsky. The Plan released two demos before their name change. The "Rock-A-Die Demo" was recorded in the spring of 1999, and it featured five horror-themed punk-art rock songs. Moment wrote the music and lyrics and the drums, guitars and bass were done by sound engineer Mike Bridavsky. Christ played drums on the cover of Samhain's "Black Dream" which was originally intended to be included on a Samhain tribute album. This demo laid the groundwork for the sound of The Plan/American Werewolves. The songs on the demo were later be re-worked/re-recorded with great attention paid to maintaining the purity of the original versions.

Moment decided that he needed to put together a live band. Bridavsky couldn't be anything more than a studio guitarist because he was a recording student at the time and the short search for a replacement began. The search ended shortly after when Moment met Brendan Moore.

[edit] Beginnings

Brendan Moore was attending the Cleveland Institute of Art at the same time as Moment. Moore had been playing bass in a local band at the time and the two found they shared similar interests. The first rehearsal was in Moment's garage. Moment did vocals, Christ played drums Moore handled guitar. The first rehearsal was shaky but promising. This lineup didn't last long because Christ left to attend college. Steve Callahan was recruited from Brendan's other band to play drums. After auditioning a number of bassists, the band decided to have Brendan, now known as Brendan Less, play bass and to find a new guitarist. Skinny, a motorcycle friend of Moment's, was an accomplished guitarist, and he soon joined the band. In the summer of 2000 the band played their first show at the Phantasy Nite Club with ex-Misfit Bobby Steele's The Undead. The band played songs from the "Rock-A-Die Demo" as well as some Misfits covers.

After the Phantasy show, The Plan rehearsed sporadically and often unproductively. Less had another band that was talking to labels and he left The Plan. Moment and Less remained good friends. A mutual friend of Moment and Skinny named Tony Scamboney became the new bassist for The Plan. The gothic, minimalist feel of Less' playing was replaced by Scamboney's more violent punk vibe. The new lineup debuted on Halloween of 2000 to a crowd of fans who had heard on the "Rock-A-Die Demo". The band played three more shows before New Year's Day.

Moment and ex-member Brendan Less both felt that The Plan needed to be as violent on stage as their music was, and this led to the decision not to continue with Skinny. Skinny's Zeppelin/Hendrix guitar hero persona did not fit with Moment's vision of what a garage band should be. The Plan looked for a new guitarist and decided to record a new demo in the meantime.

[edit] The Atom Age

"The Atom Age Demo" was recorded in The Plan's rehearsal spot in one evening. Callahan played all of the instruments for the record and the vocal tracking was done at Bridavsky's studio in Indiana. Once the demo was finished it saw a very small pressing that the band had put out themselves. The Plan hadn't played in months and Moment felt it was time to restart the band because of the growing popularity of the Atom Age Demo. This new lineup survived long enough to record a full length record at a studio in Mentor, Ohio. This album would never see daylight. Only a handful of people have even heard it.

[edit] We Won't Stay Dead

Though The Plan had dug its own grave, Trevor Moment still wanted to perform and write music. American Werewolves were born. Moment formed the American Werewolves with new drummer Nate 68, guitarist Ray Terry (Allergic to Whores/Nightbreed/Kill The Fall) and Tony Scamboney. The band played its first official show with Integrity at Peabody's in Cleveland, Ohio. The band did play a one-off show at the Grog Shop in (Cleveland Heights) a few weeks earlier but was never really considered to be the official show since some of the members had never met prior to taking the stage and the set was kind of thrown together. It was more like a practice show.

The band had made its mark in a big way with the Integrity show. The band still had the faithful from The Plan days and made plenty of new fans at that show. The band played a couple more shows until the amicable departure of Ray Terry. Ray had his own band to focus on and felt that AW was cutting into that. This left Moment with the familiar task of having to find a new guitarist.

In early June of 2003 Trevor contacted an old friend who was quite familiar with the American Werewolves/The Plan catalog to see if he'd be interested in filling the newly vacant guitar spot. This would mark the third time that Brendan Less would be a part of the organization. The band had made plans to record the first release under the name American Werewolves. After just four practices with the new lineup, the 'Wolves entered Russian Recording Studio in Nashville, Indiana to begin work on what would become "We Won't Stay Dead" with Mike Bridavsky at the helm. Thirteen tracks and five days later the album was done. The album contained some unreleased songs as well as re-recorded versions of older songs performed by The Plan.

[edit] Discography

  • Rock-A-Die Demo
  1. "Rock-A-Die"
  2. "Livin A Zombie Dream"
  3. "Diana" or "Die-ana"
  4. "Little Red Ridin' Hood" (cover of Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs)
  • The Atom Age Demo
  1. "Beware"
  2. "Teenage Ghouls Out For Blood"
  3. "Atom Age Vampire"
  4. "I Spit On Your Grave"
  5. "The Undead"
  6. "Why Monster Why?"
  7. "Rock-A-Die"
  8. "House On The Haunted Hill"
  • We Won't Stay Dead (US)
  1. "Beware"
  2. "Teenage Ghouls Out For Blood"
  3. "The Day the Earth Stood Still"
  4. "Thing That Wouldn't Die"
  5. "Atom Age Vampire"
  6. "Monster Movie"
  7. "Destroy All Monsters"
  8. "I Drink Your Blood"
  9. "Why Monster Why"
  10. "We Won't Stay Dead"
  11. "The Undead"
  12. "House On The Haunted Hill"
  13. "They Died Crawling"
  14. "Little Red Ridin Hood (EUR)"
  • 1968
  1. "Untamed Youth"
  2. "American Werewolves"
  3. "Nothing In The Dark"
  4. "1968"
  5. "For Your Blood"
  6. "The Devils Hand"
  7. "The Dead Alive (The Dead Have Eyes)"
  8. "A Kiss For The Dying"
  9. "Monster Movie"
  10. "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte"
  11. "Rock-A-Die Baby"
  12. "I Spit On Your Grave"
  13. "Scream A Little Scream"
  • American Werewolves/Phantom Pains Split 7"
  1. "Inside (PP)"
  2. "The Light (PP)"
  3. "Nightbreed (PP)"
  4. "We Won't Stay Dead (AW)"
  5. "The Undead (AW)"
  6. "Thing That Wouldn't Die (AW)"