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Bruce "Ravens" Moreland (born January 22, 1959) is an American rock musician and songwriter. He has worked with such bands as Wall of Voodoo (with his brother Marc Moreland), The Weirdos, Nervous Gender, and Concrete Blonde among others. As of 2011, his current project is known as Ravens Moreland.
Bruce Moreland and his brother Marc grew up in the 1960s in West Covina, a suburb in the San Gabriel Valley region of Southern California. In their early teens, the brothers copied Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop and wore spiked hair and clothes that looked like dresses and started playing music. While attending West Covina High School, they started the "space glitter" rock band, Capt. Cosmos de Venus & The Sky People. Sky People also featured Randy Jones (singer) of Stormer and London, and Audie Desbrow, future drummer of Great White.
The Moreland brothers left the San Gabriel Valley in the late 1970s and slept in a broken down van on Gower and Selma Street in Hollywood, jamming with bands like The Dogs and Arthur "Killer" Kane, until Bruce settled in at upstart LA underground punk club The Masque with Brendan Mullen. Bruce became known as "Bruce Barf" and would MC the club's punk nights, introducing early shows of the Germs, The Go-Go's, The Dickies, The Skulls, [1] The Weirdos (who Bruce joined on bass in 1977), and many other influential Los Angeles punk bands. During Bruce's one-year tenure with The Weirdos, they recorded such songs as "I'm Not Like You" and "Teenage". Bruce also did shows with his brother Marc with The Skulls, as well as The Controllers.
In late 1977, Bruce and Marc became founding members of the iconic post punk group Wall of Voodoo, who played their first show in 1978, opening for The Cramps at the Save The Masque benefit show in Los Angeles. Bruce would venture in and out of Wall of Voodoo, recording on four of their six albums; he cites chemical dependencies, emotional instability and hospital stays for the periods he missed during that time.[ citation needed ] In May 1995, some of Bruce's experiences with heroin and methadone were chronicled in an article published in Hustler magazine entitled "Turning Junkies Into Junkies: America's Methadone Treatment Program" by Scott Schalin.
In 1986, Moreland started several other music projects, including the rock band Black Cherry with Paul Black of L.A. Guns. He also merged fellow Wall of Voodoo members Marc Moreland, Chas Grey and Ned Leukhardt into the avant-garde noise group Nervous Gender, and performed with them for several years. He teamed up with longtime friend Johnette Napolitano to write the song "The Sky is a Poisonous Garden" for Bloodletting (Concrete Blonde album) . Moreland spent several years after this period getting help for substance abuse, and helping others to do the same.
Following his brother's death, Moreland focused on songwriting and producing the recordings of his own band Ravens Moreland; "Ravens" was to be his new nickname. After primarily playing bass and keyboards throughout his musical career, he switched to lead vocals and guitar in live performance while still playing bass and keyboards on many of the recordings. David Bianco, former producer of albums by Danzig, Ozzy Osbourne and The Damned, shares production credits on the first two Ravens Moreland albums Lock up Your Mothers and Sin Has a Soundtrack. Moreland self-produced their third album, Candy Bad and Pretty Things. An album released in the summer of 2011, The Dirt on You, was produced only on 12" vinyl. Ravens Moreland produced 3 more albums between 2015 and 2020, "Occupy The Earth" 2015,"Six" 2018 (digital only) and "The Death of the Guardians of the State" 2020. Ravens Moreland has featured drummers Brian Head, Jared Shavelson, Jarrod Alexander. and currently Linda LeSabre formerly of Death Ride 69 and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. The band has also featured Chas Stopnik and mainstay Tara Belle on Bass.
Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single "Mexican Radio" became a hit on MTV and alternative radio. The band was known for surrealist lyrics drawing on iconography of the American southwest.
The Weirdos are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles. They formed in 1975, split-up in 1981, re-grouped in 1986 and have remained semi-active ever since. Critic Mark Deming calls them "quite simply, one of the best and brightest American bands of punk's first wave."
I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III, Jay Boberg, and Carl Grasso in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and alternative rock artists, including R.E.M., The Go-Go's, Wall of Voodoo, and Fine Young Cannibals. Currently the label is distributed by parent company Universal Music Group.
Concrete Blonde was an American rock band from Hollywood, California. They were initially active from 1982 to 1994, and reunited twice: first from 2001 to 2004, and again from 2010 to 2012. They were best known for their album Bloodletting (1990), its top 20 single "Joey", and Johnette Napolitano's distinctive vocal style.
The Masque was a small punk rock club in central Hollywood, California which existed from 1977 to 1978. It is remembered as a key part of the early LA punk scene.
Voodoo Glow Skulls are an American ska punk band formed in 1988 in Riverside, California, by brothers Frank, Eddie, and Jorge Casillas and their longtime friend Jerry O'Neill. Voodoo Glow Skulls first played at backyard parties and later at Spanky's Café in their hometown of Riverside, where they played shows with the Angry Samoans, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Firehose, Murphy's Law, and The Dickies.
Marc Moreland was an American rock musician. He was the former guitarist for rock band Wall of Voodoo, punk band The Skulls, and rock bands Pretty and Twisted and Department of Crooks. He also released a solo album under the name Marc Moreland Mess.
"Mexican Radio" is a song by American rock band Wall of Voodoo. The track was initially released on their second studio album Call of the West (1982).
Johnette Napolitano is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and bassist for the alternative rock group Concrete Blonde.
Andy Prieboy is an American musician, songwriter, and author. He was lead singer of the band Wall of Voodoo from 1983 to 1988. Later, he produced solo albums, musicals, and a novel.
Call of the West is the second studio album by Los Angeles rock band Wall of Voodoo, released in September 1982. The album contains "Mexican Radio", the group's most well-known song, which was released as a single and whose video received moderate airplay on MTV.
Bloodletting is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Concrete Blonde. Released on May 15, 1990, the album marks a shift for the band toward gothic rock. It features guest appearances by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Wall of Voodoo's Andy Prieboy.
Seven Days in Sammystown is the third studio album by American rock band Wall of Voodoo, released in 1985. This was the first Wall of Voodoo album to include Andy Prieboy on vocals and Ned Leukhardt on drums—following the departure of frontman Stan Ridgway and percussionist Joe Nanini—and also features the return of original bassist Bruce Moreland. It includes their cover version of Merle Travis' "Dark as a Dungeon". The track "Far Side of Crazy" is featured in the 1985 movie Head Office. The album reached No. 50 on the Australian charts.
The Skulls were a Los Angeles punk band formed in 1976. After a short lifespan, vocalist Steven William "Billy Bones" Fortuna reformed the band from time to time with various differing members, however The Skulls were re-established full-time with James 'Hardslug' Harding in 2000 until 2006. In recent years the band plays a casual show here and there with the '2000-2003' lineup of Billy Bones, James Harding, Sean Antillon and Kevin Preston.
Happy Planet is the fourth and final studio album by American rock band Wall of Voodoo, released in 1987. It marked the return of producer Richard Mazda, who had produced their 1982 album Call of the West.
Earle Mankey is an American musician, record producer and audio engineer. He was a founding member and guitarist for the band Halfnelson, later called Sparks. He became a record producer, predominantly for Los Angeles area bands like The Pop, 20/20, The Runaways, Concrete Blonde, Jumpin' Jimes, The Long Ryders, The Three O'Clock, The Tearaways, The Conditionz, Adicts, Durango 95, Leslie Pereira and The Lazy Heroes, and Kristian Hoffman. He is the brother of Concrete Blonde guitarist James Mankey.
Dark Continent is the debut studio album by the American rock band Wall of Voodoo, released in 1981 by I.R.S. Records. Early live versions of four songs are featured on the compilation The Index Masters.
The Ugly Americans in Australia is a live album by American rock band Wall of Voodoo, mostly recorded at the Palace Theatre in Melbourne in August 1987, during the group's Australian tour.
"Joey" is the ninth track from American alternative rock band Concrete Blonde's third studio album, Bloodletting (1990). The song was released in 1990 and was written and sung by the band's frontwoman, Johnette Napolitano. The song was written in a cab on the way to a photo studio in Philadelphia; it was the last vocal recorded on the album due to Napolitano's reluctance to record the lyrics, which were hard for her to deal with.
"Caroline" is a song from American alternative rock band Concrete Blonde, which was released in 1990 as the third single from their third studio album Bloodletting. The song was written by Johnette Napolitano, and produced by Concrete Blonde and Chris Tsangarides. The song reached number 23 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
1. http://www.tangento.net/marcmorelandtribute.html
2. http://www.wallofvoodoo.com/marctribute/marcobit.htm
3. http://www.laweekly.com/related/to/Bruce+Barf/
5. https://web.archive.org/web/20120425062642/http://www.scottschalin.com/?p=163