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The Choir Invisible was a rock band from Pasadena, California, formed c. 1981 and comprising John Curry (vocals, keyboards), Scott Lasken (bass guitar), Thames Sinclair (guitar) and Danny Benair/Don Romine (drums).
Curry and Lasken were founding members of The Flyboys, a punk rock group that received comparisons with early U2, [1] and recorded the first album ever released by Frontier Records, a small independent label started by Lisa Fancher in 1979. [2]
Thames Sinclair joined the Flyboys after the death of David Wilson in a car crash in 1978, and Denny Walsh joined on drums. Curry, Lasken and Sinclair then went on to form Choir Invisible with the addition of Danny Benair on drums. [3]
The band was essentially put together by the founder of Frontier Records, Lisa Fancher. After the break-up of The Flyboys, Lasken and Sinclair recorded a demo with the singer Maicol Sinatra and gave it to Fancher for possible release on Frontier. Fancher agreed to put out an album if Curry returned as vocalist and she was instrumental in finding Benair to play drums. Benair had formerly played with The Quick and The Weirdos and went on to drum with The Three O'Clock. [3]
The band split up after the release of their Choir Invisible album, but reformed later with Don Romine (San Francisco's Instamoids and Quiet Room) replacing Benair, recording the Sea to Shining Sea EP, released on PVC in 1984. [3]
Curry and Lasken retired from the music business until Curry briefly resurfaced in the mid-1990s to play guitar in a short lived group called Polar Bear formed by the ex-Janes Addiction bass guitar player, Eric Avery, which had the drummer Biff Sanders from Ethyl Meatplow. Sinclair went on to form Wonderwall. [3]
The Flyboys also came out of retirement to play reunion shows at the LA Weekly 25th Anniversary Party in 2003 and the recent release party for Brendan Mullen's Photo Book of The Masque, the first punk rock club in Los Angeles, where they played some of their earliest shows.
In 2009, Curry and Lasken started performing again as "The Edwardo Show", with Curry singing and playing ukulele, guitar and piano and Lasken playing acoustic bass guitar. They have performed Curry's compositions influenced by 1920s and 1930s music but with a decidedly glam/punk vibe. The band sometimes includes the percussionist Joe Berardi, formerly of the seminal LA band, The Fibonaccis, and Jim Lang, who has played with Todd Rundgren and Eels.
Sham 69 are an English punk rock band that formed in Hersham in Surrey in 1975. They were one of the most successful punk bands in the United Kingdom, achieving five top 20 singles, including "If the Kids Are United" and "Hurry Up Harry". The group's popularity saw them perform on the BBC’s Top of the Pops, and they appeared in the rockumentary film, D.O.A.. The original unit broke up in 1979, with frontman Jimmy Pursey moving on to pursue a solo career.
The Dils were an American punk rock band formed 1976 and active until 1980, originally from Carlsbad, California, United States, and fronted by the brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman. They appeared as the second act in the "battle of the bands" sequence in Cheech and Chong's film, Up In Smoke, where they can be heard before being seen performing "You're Not Blank".
Nomeansno was a Canadian punk rock band formed in Victoria, British Columbia and later relocated to Vancouver. They issued 11 albums, including a collaborative album with Jello Biafra, as well as numerous EPs and singles. Critic Martin Popoff described their music as "the mightiest merger between the hateful aggression of punk and the discipline of heavy metal." Nomeansno's distinct hardcore punk sound, complex instrumentation, and dark, "savagely intelligent" lyrics inspired subsequent musicians. They are often considered foundational in the punk jazz and post-hardcore movements, and have been cited as a formative influence on the math rock and emo genres.
Poison Idea was an American punk rock band formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1980.
The Quick were a mid-1970s power pop band based in Los Angeles. The Quick were influenced by 1960s British Invasion bands and 1970s British glam bands, as well as by fellow Angelenos Sparks.
The Soviettes were a punk rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in 2001. The group is composed of Annie (guitar), Sturgeon (guitar), Susy, and Danny (drums), all of whom share singing duties.
Sonny Vincent is an American Rock musician. He has been active in music since the 60s and in particular the mid-1970s, when he was part of the New York City punk rock scene with his original band, Testors. Vincent is currently active in music, film, multi-media art, and writing. His pedigree includes mid-70s Testors' performances at C.B.G.B. and Max's Kansas City. Always active in his own bands, Vincent also spent time touring and recording for 9 years as Maureen "Moe" Tucker and Sterling Morrison's guitar player Members of Vincent's bands include a vast range of players/characters, from the drummer of the Stooges, Scott Asheton, to Charles Manson's one-time guitar player, Ernie Knapp.
The Plugz were a Latino punk band from Los Angeles, California that formed in 1977 and disbanded in 1984. They and The Zeros were among the first Latino punk bands, although several garage rock bands, such as Thee Midniters and Question Mark & the Mysterians, predated them. The Plugz melded the spirit of punk and Latino music.
The Three O'Clock is an American alternative rock group associated with the Los Angeles 1980s Paisley Underground scene. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio is credited with coining the term "Paisley Underground" to describe a subset of the 1980s L.A. music scene which included bands such as Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green on Red, the Long Ryders and the Bangles.
Thin White Rope was an American rock band fronted by Guy Kyser and related to the desert rock and Paisley Underground subgenres. The band released five albums.
Michael Quercio is an American musician. He is the founder, bassist and lead singer of The Three O'Clock, and coined the term Paisley Underground as the name of a musical subgenre.
Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Sun Valley, Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways.
The Pagans were an American punk rock band from Cleveland, Ohio, United States, that was originally active from 1977 to 1979. They reformed several times, from 1982-1983, from 1986-1989 and again in 2014-2017. Along with fellow Cleveland band The Dead Boys, the Pagans were part of the first wave of American punk music, and were also part of the second wave of Cleveland proto-punk and post-punk bands such as Pere Ubu.
The Flyboys were an American pioneering Californian punk rock band, founded in 1975 before the first wave of American punk. The act was prominent in the Los Angeles punk rock scene around 1976 and 1977. Their second release was the debut output for Frontier Records. The band broke up in 1980.
The Leaving Trains were an American indie rock band from Los Angeles, California. The Leaving Trains were founded in 1980 by Falling James Moreland, a frontperson who became known for her chaotic performances and penchant for (male-to-female) cross-dressing. Falling James had previously been a member of punk rock bands the Mongrels and the Downers before assembling the group with guitarist Manfred Hofer, bassist Tom Hofer, keyboardist Sylvia Juncosa and drummer Hillary Laddin. They played locally for three years before releasing their first album, Well Down Blue Highway, in 1984.
Evacuate is an American six piece punk rock band from Southern California, founded in 2007. With influences ranging from the Sex Pistols, Chelsea, U.K. Subs, Broken Bones, Negative Approach and the English Dogs, Evacuate's releases and live sets cover a wide range of the punk rock spectrum.
Levi and the Rockats are a British rockabilly revival band originally from Essex but currently based in New York City. They are recognised as one of the pioneering neo-rockabilly groups of the 1980s.
Danger Zone is the debut EP by the American hardcore punk band China White.
Flesh Eaters, also known as Disintegration Nation after the title of its opening track, is the four-song debut EP by American rock band the Flesh Eaters.
Political Asylum was a Scottish anarcho-punk band formed in Stirling in 1982 and active until 1993. One of the most popular bands within that scene, they played hundreds of gigs across the U.K., Europe and America and were, according to author Ian Glasper, "an integral part of the fiercely independent underground that existed at the time."
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