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Bobby Strete (born Robert Werner Ahrendt),[ citation needed ] also known as Werner or R.A. Werner, is an American musician who is best known as the bass player in New Jersey pop-punk/garage band Mod Fun and, later, with the industrial combo Crocodile Shop.
Strete began playing bass in 1979 at the age of 12, when he formed the band that would eventually become Mod Fun with childhood friends Mick Hale and Chris Collins. He initially learned the standard 4-string electric bass and, later, stand-up bass (which he occasionally played with a jazz combo at a local restaurant) as well as the electric guitar which he continues to play to this day. He grew up in Lodi, New Jersey, and met and played in bands with Eerie Von Stellmann and Steve Zing both from Samhain and Danzig fame, while he attended Lodi High School.
In the mid-1980s he and Mod Fun drummer Collins also did a brief stint as the rhythm-section of an otherwise all female pop-rock outfit known as The Vertical Smiles.
Strete contributed bass lines and backing vocals to the entire recorded output of Mod Fun from 1983 to 1987 after which he became known as "R.A. Werner" and continued working with Hale in Crocodile Shop until 1997. He departed from Crocodile Shop soon after their European tour in the summer of 1997. Strete/Werner then became one of the driving forces behind New Jersey punk band X-Breed, in which he played bass, guitar, sang backing vocals, and contributed to the song writing. They released a full-length CD entitled Reduced To Nothing and a 3-song EP on their own.
In 2004, Bobby Strete re-emerged as the bassist in Crocodile Shop (now known simply as "Croc Shop") and participated in the reunion of Mod Fun. [1] After reuniting, Strete and his friends in Mod Fun released a double-length CD entitled Now...and Again and they performed at a wide variety of venues in New York, New Jersey, and in major cities around the U.S.
Between 2004 and 2006 Strete also served as the bassist in reformed New York power-pop group The Punch Line, which put out an album during his tenure. In 2007, he contributed a good deal of guitar work to bandmate Chris Collins' debut solo album. [2] [ better source needed ]
Parliament-Funkadelic is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. With an eclectic style drawing on psychedelia, outlandish fashion, and surreal humor, they have released albums such as Maggot Brain (1971), Mothership Connection (1975), and One Nation Under a Groove (1978) to critical praise, and scored charting hits with singles such as "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker" (1975) and "Flash Light" (1978). Overall, the collective achieved thirteen top ten hits in the American R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983, including six number one hits. Their work has had an influential effect on subsequent funk, post-punk, hip-hop, and techno artists of the 1980s and 1990s, while their collective mythology has helped pioneer Afrofuturism.
Steve Swallow is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar.
Kim Anand Thayil is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden, which he co-founded with singer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984. Cornell and Thayil remained as the original members of the band until Cornell's death in 2017, and the band's subsequent split in 2018. Thayil was named the 100th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2010, and the 67th greatest guitarist of all time by SPIN in 2012. Thayil has won two Grammy Awards as a member of Soundgarden.
Thomas Eugene Stinson is an American rock musician. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the bass guitarist for The Replacements, one of the definitive American alternative rock groups. After their breakup in 1991, Stinson formed Bash & Pop, acting as lead vocalist, guitarist and frontman. In the mid-1990s he was the singer and guitarist for the rock band Perfect, and eventually joined the hard rock band Guns N' Roses in 1998.
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Pinoy rock, or Filipino rock, is the brand of rock music produced in the Philippines or by Filipinos. It has become as diverse as the rock music genre itself, and bands adopting this style are now further classified under more specific genres or combinations of genres like alternative rock, post-grunge, ethnic, new wave, pop rock, punk rock, funk, reggae, heavy metal, ska, and recently, indie. Because these genres are generally considered to fall under the broad rock music category, Pinoy rock may be more specifically defined as rock music with Filipino cultural sensibilities.
Eric Goulden, known as Wreckless Eric, is an English rock and new wave singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single "Whole Wide World" on Stiff Records. More than two decades after its release, the song was included in Mojo magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all time. It was also acclaimed as one of the "top 40 singles of the alternative era 1975–2000".
Eerie Von is an American musician and photographer best known as the original bassist for the heavy metal band Danzig. His preferred bass is the Fender Jazz Bass.
Frank Anthony Iero, Jr. is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the rhythm guitarist and backup vocalist of the rock band My Chemical Romance and as a guitarist in the supergroup L.S. Dunes. He was also the lead vocalist of the post-hardcore band Leathermouth. He has a solo project titled Frank Iero and the Future Violents. He released his debut solo album titled Stomachaches on August 26, 2014.
Emil John Schmidt IV, known professionally as Acey Slade, is an American musician. He is the bassist and one of the guitarists in the industrial metal band Dope and a former guitarist of the horror punk and glam metal act Murderdolls. He is also the lead singer and guitarist of Acey Slade & the Dark Party and a touring guitarist of The Misfits. Previous to this, he served as the bassist in Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and as the lead vocalist and guitarist in the punk rock band Trashlight Vision, which broke up in 2007.
The Beat is an American rock and power pop band from Los Angeles that formed in 1979. Paul Collins' Beat resurfaced in the 1990s and continues to tour and record new material. Front man Paul Collins has released several projects with his alternative country group The Paul Collins Band, who play Americana music inspired by country rock and folk rock.
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PAX217 is an American Christian rock band from Orange County, California. The band's music gained popularity in the Christian rock scene in the early 2000s. PAX217's lineup consists of David Tosti on vocals, Jesse Craig on guitar, Josh Auer on bass, Joey Marchiano on drums, Chris "Tito" Duran on keyboards, and Bobby "Bobbito the Chef" Duran on turntables. Former members include Ethan Luck on guitar, Dan Sessum on guitar, and David Tosti's younger brother Aaron "Skwid" Tosti, who later played in Hawk Nelson, on drums. The band began in 1994 and broke up in 2005, but reunited in 2010.
The 4-Skins are a punk rock band from the East End of London, England. Originally composed of Gary Hodges (vocals), 'Hoxton' Tom McCourt (guitar), Steve 'H' Harmer (bass) and John Jacobs (drums), the group was formed in 1979 and disbanded in 1984 – although new line-ups formed in 2007 and 2008. Many of their songs dealt with violent topics, but the band has claimed they were discussing the realities of inner city life, not promoting violence. Other 4-Skins song topics include police harassment, political corruption, war and unemployment.
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Mick Hale is an American musician, songwriter, producer, remixer, DJ, and graphic artist. Credited on over three dozen commercial releases, his body of work spans over 30 years, from 1984 onwards.
Chris Collins is an American musician, recording engineer and producer, and technologist. His work in the New Jersey and New York City music scene started in the early 1980s when he co-founded the pop-punk/garage band Mod Fun. He founded the CC Media Network in 2006, a multimedia production and promotion company through which he could produce, promote, and release his own music. On December 8, 2020 he released a solo EP titled Good on ya', John – a tribute to John Lennon.
The Front Bottoms are an American rock band from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, formed in 2006. They are currently a duo consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist Brian Sella and drummer Mat Uychich. During live performances, they are currently accompanied by touring members, including guitarist and backing vocalist AJ Peacox, bassist and backing vocalist Natalie Newbold, and bassist, guitarist and backing vocalist Erik Kase Romero.