Meatbodies

Meatbodies is an American garage rock band, formed in 2013 in Monrovia, California by Chad Ubovich. The band is currently composed of Chad Ubovich, Kevin Boog and Patrick Nolan.^[1]

Chad Ubovich also plays bass with Fuzz and was previously a member of Mikal Cronin's backing band.

Biography

Early history

Chad Ubovich was raised in Monrovia, California, which he described as: "kind of [an] old, abandoned part of Los Angeles. There’s a racetrack there that Charles Bukowski would go to."^[2] While attending high school, Ubovich began working on his own music, stating: "I was very into a lot of noise music and a lot of stuff I was making was pretty much tape-art. It was like I would buy a lot of weird tape machines and try splicing together things and all that kind of weird stuff."^[2] Ubovich formed a band, named Thief, with his high school friend, Cory Hanson. Describing the band as a "pretty boy band," Ubovich noted, "It's so ridiculous to think that we were, like, trying to be Radiohead."^[3]

During this time, he befriended Ty Segall, and Mikal Cronin as the latter attended college.^[2] After performing on the same bill as Segall's then-band The Epsilons, Ubovich noted: "I went home and looked them up on MySpace, back when that was the thing you did to find out about bands. I said to my band, 'Dudes! They're guitar, keyboards, drums... and they’re way better than us! Fuck!"^[3] Ubovich lost touch with Segall, but the two later reconnected following the release of Segall's album, Lemons (2009).^[3]

In 2010, Cronin asked Ubovich to join his backing band. Occupying the role of bass guitarist, the band went on tour with Ty Segall as he toured his studio album, Goodbye Bread (2011).^[3] Ubovich soon switched to guitar within the band.

Meatbodies (2013-present)

While touring with Cronin, Ubovich formed his own band, Chad and the Meatbodies. Featuring his friend and former Thief bandmate Cory Hanson, the band also featured drummer Erik Jimenez and Riley Youngdahl.

In 2013, Chad and the Meatbodies supported Ty Segall and Charles Moothart's hard rock band Fuzz. Segall subsequently encouraged Ubovich to record his music and offered to release it on his label, God? Records. The resultant self-titled cassette, Chad and the Meatbodies, sold out its initial run.

The band changed their name simply to Meatbodies, and entered the studio with producer Eric Bauer to record the band's debut studio album, Meatbodies. The album was released in 2014. The band have also released a string of 7" vinyl singles.

Fuzz

Ubovich went on to join Segall and Moothart in Fuzz as its bass guitarist and vocalist, following the departure of Roland Cosio. Joining Segall and Moothart in the writing process for Fuzz's second studio album, Ubovich noted: "We all kind of did something we’ve never done before, which was write together as a band. That was a first for all of us. Usually in our respective projects it’s all about writing on our own, and that process. This time we tried something definitely new."^[4] The resultant album, II, was released in October 2015 on In the Red Records.

Discography

• Chad and the Meatbodies (2013)
• Meatbodies (2014)
• Alice (2017)

References