War Babies (band)

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War Babies
Origin Seattle, Washington, United States
Genre(s) hard rock, heavy metal, grunge
Years active 1988–1993
Label(s) Columbia
Associated acts TKO, The Fastbacks, Fifth Angel, Pearl Jam
Members
Brad Sinsel (vocals)
Guy Lacey (guitars)
Tommy McMullin (Guitars)
Shawn Trotter (bass)
Richard Stuverud (drums)

War Babies is an American hard rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1988 by the guitarist Tommy "Gun" McMullin and the TKO vocalist Brian Sinsel. Although associated with hard rock, the band's sound incorporates some grunge music. They only released one album in 1992, self-titled War Babies and soon the band ended in 1993, not receiving the same success of their home pals.

[edit] History

The bassist of TKO Scott "The Bitch" Earl, was convinced that they needed to move to L.A. for the band get signed. So he moved to L.A. and waited for Brad Sinsel and the guitarist Kjartan. But Sinsel's move was too late and Scott was playing with The Bang Gang. He tried put Brad Sinsel on vocals but the band declined in favor of another vocalist. One Seattle guitarist who was jamming with scott earl at the time but not wanting the gig, was Tommy "Gun" McMullin (a guitarist that played in pop glam band in Seattle called "the Slaughterhaus 5". Moving back to Seattle, Brad and Tommy put a new band together, the idea of War Babies was born.

Before War Babies, in 1988, Brad Sinsel made a solo project called Suicide Squad, with a well known drummer in Seattle called Richard Stuverud (he had played with punk rock band The Fastbacks and was working with the power metal band Fifth Angel).

At the end of the project, and with Tommy Gun searching for members for the band, Brad Sinsel came up with Richard Stuverud and between 1988 and 1992, they had different members and had played in Seattle city a lot, where Brad Sinsel could know the new generation of Seattle bands. They played with Mother Love Bone, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and other bands.

In 1990, at the time of Andrew Wood's death and the end of Mother Love Bone, Jeff Ament joined War Babies, but Stone Gossard asked him to play in his band, which became Pearl Jam. Tommy used to play in Luv Co., a cover band with other Seattle musicians. Used to play in this short-lived band, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament from Mother Love Bone, Regan Hagar from Malfunkshun and Richard Stuverud, Mike McCready from Shadow and the vocalist Shawn Smith.

After all, they got a deal with Columbia Records. The record company was trying to get Aerosmith from Geffen and retarded the release of the War Babies album. Not getting Aerosmith, Columbia tried to make their own Aerosmith with War Babies. In 1992, the album was released and the former band was Brad Sinsel (vocals), Guy Lacey (guitars), Tommy McMullin (Guitars), Shawn Trotter (bass) and Richard Stuverud (drums).

Their sound was too glam for their time, what not helped them when their grunge home boys top the success, leading the War Babies to a premature end, in 1993.

Their first single, "Hang Me Up", was co-written by tommy "gunn"mcmullin and Paul Stanley and another two singles were released, "Blue Tomorrow" (a song dedicated to Andrew Wood, who was a TKO fan and who was a friend of Brad and tommys and the power ballad "Cry Yourself To Sleep".

After the disband, Tommy "Gun" McMullin started the band "the Dead Letters" while Lacey and Trotter are currently in "8 Days In Jail" band. Stuverud would join and record with several Seattle bands, the most recognizable being Three Fish (a side project featuring Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament) and Brad Sinsel return to play regular gigs with "TKO". tommy has resurfaced and is currently fronting his own band GUNN and the DAMAGE DONE with an album due to be released in 2008. brad sinsel is fronting his own band AMERICAN STANDARD and has been working with stone gossard on a solo project

[edit] Discography