Chuck Biscuits

Chuck Biscuits
Birth name Charles Montgomery
Born April 17, 1965 (1965-04-17) (age 46)
British Columbia, Canada[1]
Genres Punk rock, metal
Instruments Drums
Years active 1970s–1999
Associated acts Danzig, Social Distortion, D.O.A., Circle Jerks, Samhain, Black Flag, Subhumans, Weirdos, Fear, The Four Horsemen, Floorlords, Brown Sound, Victorian Pork

Chuck Biscuits (born Charles Montgomery on April 17, 1965) is a Canadian-born drummer, now a U.S. citizen, who is best known as an original member of the heavy metal/hard rock band Danzig. Most recently, he was a member of the punk rock band Social Distortion in the late 1990s. Biscuits has named his main influences as John Bonham, Keith Moon and Stewart Copeland.

Contents

Biography

Biscuits is the brother of Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery, a fixture on the Vancouver music scene—at different times, both brothers played drums for D.O.A.. Biscuits joined Black Flag in 1982 and toured with them for 5 months. His only studio recordings for the band were demos for the My War album, which have been widely bootlegged.[2]

After Black Flag, he played with the short-lived Floorlords. When that band broke up, Biscuits planned to quit the music business and took courses in art and electrical engineering. However, producer Rick Rubin invited Biscuits to become the drummer for Danzig.[3] Biscuits had been vocalist/songwriter Glenn Danzig's first choice as drummer for his band.[4]

Biscuits joined Danzig in 1987 and appeared on the band's first four albums and one EP. In 1990 he also recorded drums for Glenn Danzig's final album with the band Samhain. In 1994 he became the first member of the original Danzig line-up to leave the band, citing a contract dispute as the reason for his departure.[5]

Biscuits participated in a special concert held on December 28, 1994 to honour the lifetime achievements of his brother Ken, who had died earlier in the year of a drug overdose.

On October 27, 2009, a blogger named James Greene, Jr. who claimed to have been in recent contact with Biscuits posted a report on his blog announcing that the drummer had died on October 24 of throat cancer. This report quickly circulated to multiple media sources,[6][7] but was soon questioned by Biscuits' friends and family as a hoax. That evening, Biscuit's sister-in-law e-mailed Greene to confirm that the musician was still alive.[8] Biscuits himself never released a statement concerning the death hoax, and Greene would later argue that Biscuits was entirely responsible for the false report.[9][10]

Equipment

Biscuits used Pro-Mark[11] DC-10[12] marching sticks to drum. His drumkit at the beginning of Danzig was a black Premier Resonator, though he switched to a chrome covered 70s era Ludwig[11] Classic Maple kit for Danzig II, and continued with that kit to record and tour for Danzig III and Danzig IV. Biscuits was usually seen using Zildjian cymbals. His regular ride cymbal sound during his work with Danzig was a Zildjian 22" Earth Ride.[11] Biscuits also favored Paiste RUDE cymbals. He used medium and rock ride cymbals as crashes. Biscuits mainstay snare with Danzig was a Sonor steel model, though he also used a Ludwig Piccolo snare.[11]

With D.O.A. and Black Flag, Biscuits used an older blonde maple Ludwig kit. For Social Distortion, Biscuits used a Boom Theory kit, including a Bridgedeck snare built by Al Adinolfi.

Discography

D.O.A. (1978–1982)

Black Flag (1982)

Circle Jerks (1983-1984)

Floorlords

Glenn Danzig And The Power And Fury Orchestra

Danzig (1987-1994)

Run-D.M.C.

Samhain

Social Distortion (1996-1999)

References

  1. ^ Reports of Chuck Biscuits death a hoax from CBC 30 October 2009
  2. ^ "Black Flag". Misfits Central. http://www.misfitscentral.com/bands/black-flag.php. Retrieved 2009-09-26. 
  3. ^ "Biscuits". Flipside. May/June, 1993. http://misfitscentral.com/darticle/flip84.html. Retrieved 2009-09-26. 
  4. ^ Natanael, Christine (1988). "Danzig with Danzig". Metal Mania. http://misfitscentral.com/display.php?t=darticle&f=mania.88. Retrieved 2009-09-26. 
  5. ^ "Sympathy for the Devil". Entertainment Weekly. October 14, 1994. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,304064,00.html. Retrieved 2009-09-26. 
  6. ^ Original CBC report of death
  7. ^ R.I.P. Chuck Biscuits (1965 – 2009); www.inlog.org.
  8. ^ "Chuck Biscuits: 1965-2009". JG2Land. October 27, 2009. http://jgtwo.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/chuck-biscuits-1965-2009/. Retrieved August 14, 2011. 
  9. ^ "The Chuck Biscuits Death Hoaxer: Chuck Biscuits?". Jgtwo.wordpress.com. 2009-11-11. http://jgtwo.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-chuck-biscuits-death-hoaxer-chuck-biscuits. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
  10. ^ Chuck Biscuits "Could Not Care Less" You Thought He Was Dead; www.crawdaddyarchive.com.
  11. ^ a b c d Young, Jon (August 1994). "Danzig Knows the Power of the Dark Side". Musician. http://www.misfitscentral.com/display.php?t=darticle&f=musician.894. Retrieved 2011-02-09. 
  12. ^ Von, Eerie. Misery Obscura: The Photography Of Eerie Von (1981-2009). Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2009: p. 140

External links