|
THE VOLUNTEERS, formerly the Swiss
Guard, formerly the New Originals, formed in Anxious, Scotland, in 1998,
achieving esteem for their fiery performances opening for Sinead O'Henry
and the Self-Righteous Brothers.
Having been presented with a "Cease and
Desist" order, for copyright infringement (by the management of another
band called the "New Originals), the band, impressed by their reception
in Tennessee, took the name "Volunteers", presenting their public with
irony, given that they do not, and shall not work, for free.
Later that year, the Volunteers made
world history by topping both the Israeli pop charts (having made their
mark while playing at the wedding of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's
eldest daughter Hannah) as well as the UK, Irish, French, and Arkansas
top 40 (with the groundbreaking electronic album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Techno Club Band".)
Exhausting! By 1999, the Volunteers
retreated to their studio in Duluth, to record their opus, "Welcome
Home, Chester", dedicated to the memory of lead singer Reg Sprague's
best friend from childhood, who passed away all too soon at the age of
14. Sprague, overcome with emotion at reliving the passing of his dog,
soon left the band - temporarily as it would turn out - to work on his
novella, about, a boy and his canine, in the grand tradition of late
1970's teenage coming of age literature.
In the meantime, and in
all the other time, the band members took other paths. Guitarist Randy
McNally moonlighted in a Joy Division cover band; bassist Carlos
Peckinpah toured the western United States in a flex-fuel Airstream.
Vibes player Potatoes O'Brien left the country on a Peace Corps mission
to Belgium (joined the natives, and never came back) ; all the while
Keyboard player Audie Murphy locked himself away in his basement with
nothing but a Radio Shack tape recorder and a Ferrante and Teicher-style
dual grand piano. Who'd play the other side, one might ask? No one
knows.
|
|
Album Demos, November 2007
No One Knows
Band Practice,
September, 2007
Gone II
The Great Panacea
Make Me Of Metal
No One Knows
No Speed Limit
Rock Stupid
Souvenir
Thieves
Test Patterns ,
02-07
No One Knows
Concrete
Gone I
Rock Stupid
Souvenir
Thus, we watch the clock for the Omega to
our Alpha - we wait for the musical Maschiach. Murphy - the brains of
the outfit, laid the foundation, working 3-3.5 hours a day on songs for
that day when the band would come back together.
Enter 2006: The band got back together,
including drummer Zak Starchy (formerly of the other "New Originals"),
and in March, 2008, will release their first major label production,
tentatively called "No Speed Limit."
The first single, a ragtime influenced
little nugget called "Thieves/No One Knows/The Great Panacea/No Speed
Limit/Souvenir" is currently climbing the charts in the UK, Ireland,
France, and Arkansas.
|
