Guttermouth | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Huntington Beach, California |
Genres | Punk rock, [1] skate punk [2] [3] |
Years active | 1989–present |
Labels | Dr. Strange, Hopeless, Nitro, Epitaph, Volcom, Rude |
Members | Mark Adkins Justin VanWestbroek Matt Wills Taylor Beckemeyer AJ Condosta |
Past members | Tim Baulch Barry Burnham Derek Davis Paul Fang James Nunn Scott Sheldon Stever Rapp Donald Horne Hunter Munich Ryan Farrell Brandon Zinkil Chad Billhook Dave Brandon Smith Armstrong Kevin Clark Chubby (twice) Adam the Woo (Adam Williams) Donnie Barnes |
Guttermouth is an American punk rock band formed in 1989 in Huntington Beach, California. They have released nine full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour. They are infamous for their outrageous lyrics and behavior which are deliberately explicit, offensive and intended to shock, though usually in a humorous and sarcastic manner. This behavior has sometimes resulted in high-profile problems for the band, such as being banned from performing in Canada for eighteen months and leaving the 2004 Warped Tour amidst controversy over their political views and attitudes towards other performers. [1] [4]
The members of Guttermouth began playing music in various parts of Orange County, California in the early 1980s. Singer Mark Adkins performed in the La Habra punk rock band Republic in 1982 with guitarist and classmate Scott Sheldon. Adkins has remained the sole permanent member of Guttermouth over all its iterations; some of the songs written by Sheldon and Adkins at this time would later be used in Guttermouth and would remain in their live set throughout their career. [5] Republic broke up in 1984 and the two moved on to other projects: Sheldon played in a band with drummer James Nunn while Adkins tried various other musical projects, including one with Nunn. Adkins joined guitarists Eric "Derek" Davis and Barry Burnham, bassist Paul "Fang" Denis, and drummer Tim Baulch in their band Critical Noise. Baulch suggested the name Guttermouth for the new lineup, and this early incarnation of the band played shows, parties and skateboard demo's during 1988 until Davis relocated to nearby Huntington Beach in 1989, effectively dissolving the group. About a year later Adkins and Nunn also moved there. Adkins approached Burnham and Baulch about starting the band back up but the two declined. Adkins and Davis recruited Sheldon to replace Burnham and Nunn to replace Baulch. They also recruited an early fan of the band, bassist Clint Weinrich to join them. This solidified the "original" lineup of the band with Mark Adkins on vocals, Scott Sheldon and Eric Davis on guitars, Clint Weinrich on bass and James Nunn on drums, a lineup which would remain consistent over the next six years and two albums. [5]
By the summer of 1989, Guttermouth began performing in Huntington Beach and Orange County, building a small but enthusiastic local following. Their music was heavily influenced by the Los Angeles and Orange County punk rock scenes of the 1980s which included bands like the Adolescents, The Vandals, Social Distortion, Fear, the Descendents, Angry Samoans, Bad Religion and Black Flag. [5] From these influences Guttermouth developed their own style of fast punk tempos with humorously sarcastic and offensive lyrics coupled with equally outrageous and offensive behavior, developing a reputation for chaotic live shows. [5] In 1991, they were approached by local record label Dr. Strange about putting out an album, and entered Westbeach Recorders to record and release their first 7-inch record, Puke . Later that year they released another 7-inch, Balls , and finally their first LP, aptly titled Full Length LP . [5]
Full Length proved to be a success for the band, expanding their fan base and giving them opportunities to perform throughout southern California alongside other popular punk rock bands. The album was soon re-released in CD format by Dr. Strange and an animated music video was made for the song "1, 2, 3…Slam!" to be played on local punk rock and skateboarding video programs. The band continued to play locally, developing friendships with fellow Orange County punk bands such as The Offspring and the Vandals. They played a show opening for the Vandals at the Ice House in Fullerton which was filmed for the Vandals live album Sweatin’ to the Oldies . Guttermouth continued to promote Full Length over the next few years and also released 7-inch vinyl singles for the new songs "Veggicide" and "P.C." In 1993, they recorded the 7-inch EP 11oz. as the first release put out by newly formed label Hopeless Records.
By 1994, Full Length had been available for almost four years and the members of Guttermouth were preparing to write a second album. They originally considered releasing the album themselves, but were soon approached with an offer from Offspring singer Dexter Holland, who in the wake of his own band's success was starting an independent record label and wanted to put out Guttermouth's next album as his first release. [5] They agreed and recorded the album Friendly People as the first release on Holland's new label Nitro Records, and filmed an independent music video for the song "End on 9." Guttermouth would remain with Nitro over the next five years, releasing an album each year on the label.
1994 also found the band playing to a much larger audience. The success that year of The Offspring's album Smash and Green Day's Dookie had brought the southern California punk rock scene into the national spotlight. Thanks to their friendship with The Offspring and their new record deal with Nitro, Guttermouth found themselves embarking on their first national and world tours opening for larger punk bands. [5] However, their typically outrageous behavior would often find them at odds with the other bands, audiences, and venues at which they played. After about six months of touring with this reputation the band found themselves banned from performing in numerous cities and clubs and blacklisted by many of the bands with whom they had hoped to tour. To the band, however, this behavior was typical and in keeping with the anarchic ideals that were at the core of the punk movement. [5]
At one point, the band found themselves ejected from a tour while in South Carolina, where they booked themselves at a club and recorded a performance which would later be released as Live From the Pharmacy . [5] Adkins was arrested and briefly jailed in 1995 on charges of inciting a riot during a Guttermouth show at the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion in San Bernardino, but evidence was insufficient to file charges. [6] [7]
The following year found the band returning home to California and experiencing a lineup change. Clint Weinrich married in the spring of 1995, and to fill in for him on a European tour the band recruited Steve "Stever" Rapp, a college friend of Nunn's who was playing in a band called The Grabbers. Things worked out well with Rapp on this tour and he soon became the band's permanent bass player. [5] The new lineup entered the studio and recorded their third album Teri Yakimoto . By all accounts the recording process was plagued with problems, and at one point most of the recordings were scrapped and re-recorded with a new producer. The result was an album that continued the fast and sarcastic Guttermouth tradition but was more melodic and pop-influenced than their previous albums. [5] The band continued to tour and expand their fan base, and filmed a music video for the song "Whiskey." With their popularity growing Nitro Records re-released Full Length in CD format with bonus tracks under the title The Album Formerly Known as Full Length LP .
In 1997, the band recorded Musical Monkey , an album which captured their chaotic energy and sharp sense of humor. It is considered by many to be the best representation of their "classic" sound, and songs such as "Lucky the Donkey," "Do the Hustle," "Lipstick" and "Perfect World" became staples in their live set. [8] The following year they released Live From the Pharmacy , a recording of a live show from 1994 that also included four new songs engineered by Vandals guitarist Warren Fitzgerald and liner notes written by Nunn recounting the band's history. In 1998 Guttermouth was banned from performing in Canada for one year on charges of public indecency after Adkins exposed himself onstage in Saskatoon. [6] [7] [9] [10] According to Adkins: "oh, I was guilty [...] What I would do is grab two young girls out of the audience and I would have them hold up this sheet in front of me, and Jamie, the drummer at the time, would say this magical incantation, if you will, and I would be standing there stark naked." [11] Combined with a drunk driving charge from the United States, the incident led Adkins to be arrested on immigration charges, detained for five days, and then deported, though Guttermouth would return to Canada a few years later. After obtaining a full pardon from the Canadian judicial system, no record remains on file. [10] [11] [12] [13]
Rapp left the band in 1999, at which point Nunn moved from drums to bass and new drummer William "Ty" Smith was brought in. [1] That year the band recorded and released Gorgeous , their most aggressive album to date and their final album for Nitro.
In 2000, Guttermouth appeared performing in the Kung Fu Films movie That Darn Punk, an appearance which stemmed from their longtime friendship with the Vandals. That year the band also signed to Epitaph Records, the label operated by Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz which had grown throughout the 1990s into one of the largest independent labels in the country. For their 2001 album Covered With Ants the band combined their punk rock sound with instruments they had not used on albums before, including organ, banjo and fiddle. A music video was filmed for the song "She's Got the Look" and the band continued to tour.
As the band prepared to work on their next album in 2002, founding member James Nunn left the group. While original bassist Clint Weinrich filled in on tours, guitarists Eric Davis and Scott Sheldon played bass for the album's recording along with studio bassist Hedge. [14] The musical direction shifted to territory the band had not hitherto explored, and the resulting album Gusto was substantially different from their previous efforts, with a slower speed and more melody and pop influence. Though the band's irreverent sense of humor remained intact, the music was much less characteristically "punk" than anything the band had played before. [15] Response to the album was mixed, and the band members would later look back on it as something of a failed experiment. [15] [16] [17] [18] In 2003 Weinrich again rejoined the band for a series of shows including a performance at the House of Blues in Anaheim which was filmed and released by Kung Fu Records as a live concert CD and DVD package. The show's closing performance of "Perfect World" was removed from the DVD release of the show because a minor could be seen drinking alcohol on stage with the band. However, on the packaging of the DVD itself it is said that it was edited due to a frenzied crowd that damaged equipment, although the audio portion was preserved on the CD. [19]
The band's next album Eat Your Face , released jointly through Epitaph and Volcom Entertainment in 2004, was hailed as a return to form. Founding guitarist Eric Davis had left the band and been replaced by Donald "Don" Horne, while former Slick Shoes bassist Kevin Clark filled the vacant bass position. [1] Musically the album returned to the fast, loud punk rock style the band was known for, with many of the songs recorded in just a few takes. Lyrically it retained the band's sense of biting sarcasm and expressed dissatisfaction with the U.S. electoral system and the current state of punk rock in the mainstream, amongst other topics. [20] [21]
In the summer of 2004, Guttermouth embarked on the Vans Warped Tour, playing on the Volcom side stage. In keeping with their reputation for outrageous and offensive behavior, Adkins would often openly insult other acts from onstage, declaring that bands such as Simple Plan and My Chemical Romance cared more about their fashionable clothing and popularity than about the quality of their music. The band members also mocked what they saw as an uninformed political display of many bands on the tour by selling T-shirts and displaying banners that jokingly proclaimed support for President George W. Bush (many of the bands and media booths supported an anti-Republican stance in the months leading up to the 2004 presidential election). After several weeks on the tour Guttermouth was "politely" asked to leave, fueling rumors that other performers had petitioned to have them ejected. [4] Eventually, however, Adkins issued a statement apologizing to Warped Tour manager Kevin Lyman and admitting that the band had left the tour voluntarily, due in part to his distaste for the political atmosphere surrounding it. [1]
In 2005, drummer Ty Smith left Guttermouth and was replaced by Ryan Farrell. Bass player Kevin Clark departed the following year and founding member Clint Weinrich returned to the group. [1] This lineup recorded the band's tenth album Shave the Planet , released in 2006 by Volcom Entertainment. The album found the band once again using their brand of humorous punk rock to poke fun at a number of subjects. [22] Although Weinrich remains a member of the band, Clark has since rejoined the group and handles most of the touring. [23] In June 2008, Farrell announced that Sheldon had left the band to focus on his family, having recently had a fourth child. [24] The band's official Myspace profile lists Sheldon's replacement as Dave Luckett, with Donald Horne being replaced by Hunter Munich. [25] In December 2008, Adkins announced that the band had returned to Hopeless Records, one of their first record labels, in celebration of their 20th Anniversary, and that Guttermouth is working on a new album. [26] A further line-up change occurred in 2009, when Munich was replaced by Brandon Zinkil. [27]
After a hiatus and further controversy on a 2013 tour, singer Adkins moved to Mexico and reformed the band in 2015. [28] [29]
Guttermouth with Bird Attack Records and Rude Records released Got it Made, a six-song EP, on July 15, 2016. The band followed up with another studio EP titled New Car Smell in 2017, along with a live recording titled The Whole Enchilada. Those two releases were also under the Bird Attack Records and Rude Records labels.
Guttermouth completed a successful tours of Australia in 2023 and 2024, and returned to touring in Florida and both Northern and Southern California.
Current members
Past members
Former touring musicians
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Gusto is the seventh album by California pop punk band Guttermouth, released in 2002 by Epitaph Records. It found the band taking their style of fast, abrasive punk rock in new directions, experimenting with elements of pop and other styles. Their usual tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcastic lyrics remain intact, but the album's overall sound is quite different from any of their others. This was due partly to a lineup change: founding member and frequent songwriter James Nunn had left the group the previous year, leaving guitarists Scott Sheldon and Eric Davis to fill in on bass, along with studio bassist Hedge. The album received generally poor reviews from both critics and longtime fans, and would later be regarded by the band as somewhat of a failed experiment.
Eat Your Face is the eighth album by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 2004 by Epitaph Records and Volcom Entertainment. It was hailed as a "return to form" after the stylistic experimentations of 2002's Gusto, going back to the band's tried-and-true style of fast, abrasive punk rock with tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcastic lyrics. The album marked a period of transition for the band, whose founding guitarist Eric Davis had left the group early in 2004 and been replaced by Donald Horne. It was also their only album with bassist Kevin Clark, and their last with longtime drummer Ty Smith. Lyrically it retained the band’s sense of biting sarcasm and expressed dissatisfaction with the U.S. electoral system and the current state of punk rock in the mainstream, amongst other topics.
Rufio was an American rock band from Rancho Cucamonga, California, United States, in 2000. They released four studio albums: Perhaps, I Suppose (2001); MCMLXXXV (2003); The Comfort of Home (2005); and Anybody Out There (2010).
Teri Yakimoto is the third album by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1996 by Nitro Records. It was their first album with bass player Steve Rapp and continued the band's style of fast, abrasive punk rock with tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcastic lyrics. This time, however, the band experimented with more melody and pop influence. By all accounts the recording process was plagued with problems, and at one point most of the recordings were scrapped and re-recorded with a new producer. A music video was filmed for the song “Whiskey” and the album became the band's only to reach the Billboard Heatseakers chart, reaching #33.
Full Length LP is the debut album by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1991 by Dr. Strange Records. It introduced the band's style of fast, abrasive punk rock with tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcastic lyrics. The album was originally released as an LP but was repackaged the following year as a CD including tracks from the band's first 2 EPs Puke and Balls, as well as the previously unreleased tracks "Malted Vomit" and "Ghost." It was re-released again in 1996 by Nitro Records under the title The Album Formerly Known as Full Length LP.
Look What I Almost Stepped In... is the eighth studio album by the southern California punk rock band The Vandals, released in 2000 by Nitro Records. It was recorded in April 2000. It was the band's final album for Nitro, as they moved to their own label Kung Fu Records the following year.
Covered with Ants is the sixth album by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 2001 by Epitaph Records. It was the band's first album for Epitaph, having ended their contract with Nitro Records the previous year. The album continued the band's style of fast, abrasive punk rock with tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcastic lyrics, but found them experimenting with instruments they had not used before such as organ, banjo, and fiddle. A music video was filmed for the song "She's Got the Look." Covered With Ants would be the band's last recording with founding member James Nunn, and after his departure their music would take a different direction on 2002's Gusto.
Balls is the second EP by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1991 by Dr. Strange Records. It is currently out of print, however all of the tracks were re-issued on the CD re-releases of the band's debut album Full Length LP in 1992 and 1996.
Friendly People is the second album by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1994 by Nitro Records. It was the first release for the label, which was founded by Dexter Holland of The Offspring. The album continued the band's style of fast, abrasive punk rock with tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcastic lyrics.
Musical Monkey is the fourth album by the Huntington Beach, California, punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1997 by Nitro Records.
Shave the Planet is the ninth album by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 2006 by Volcom Entertainment. It continued the band's style of fast, abrasive punk rock with tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcastic lyrics. The album was their first to feature drummer Ryan Farrell, and also marked the return of founding bassist Clint Weinrich, and was the final album to feature founding member Scott Sheldon and guitarist of four years Don Horne.
Live from the Pharmacy is the fifth album by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1998 by Nitro Records. It was the band's first live album and consists of a live concert performance from 1994 and 4 new tracks recorded in 1998.
Gorgeous is the fifth album by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1999 by Nitro Records. It was the band's most aggressive album to date, due in part to a lineup change: bass player Steve Rapp had left the group and drummer James Nunn had taken over his position, making room for new drummer Ty Smith. It would also be the band's last album for Nitro, as they moved to Epitaph Records the following year.
Live at the House of Blues is a live DVD and CD by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 2003 by Kung Fu Records. It was released in 2 packages, one a DVD with a bonus concert CD, the other a CD with a bonus DVD. Both packages contain the same discs and material, merely packaged differently so that it could be stacked on both CD and DVD shelves. Although it is the band's second live album, it was intended as a video release and is therefore usually not included in their overall count of albums.
Puke is the debut EP by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1991 by Dr. Strange Records. It is currently out of print, however all of the tracks were re-issued on the CD re-release of the band's debut album Full Length LP a year later.
P.C. is a split 7-inch vinyl single by Guttermouth and BHR, released in 1993 by Signal Sound System Records. It is currently out of print. P.C. is both the title of Guttermouth's side of the record and their track. The song was re-recorded for their 1994 album Friendly People.
11oz. is an EP by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 1993 by Hopeless Records. It was the first release put out by the label and is currently out of print. The song "Just a Fucking Lounge Version" is a lounge-singer-esque recreation of their song "Just A Fuck" from the band's debut 7" Puke, while "Sid Vicious Was Innocent" is a song originally performed by the Exploited, with altered lyrics written by Guttermouth. The EP's title and artwork are based on 11oz. bottles of Lucky Lager, which bore cryptograms inside their bottlecaps. The cryptogram on the cover equates to "fingerbang Guttermouth piece of shit."
Beyond Warped Live Music Series is a Dualdisc DVD/CD by the Huntington Beach, California punk rock band Guttermouth, released in 2005 by Immergent Records. The DVD side of the disc contains a 9-song live performance by the band on the 2004 Warped Tour, filmed in high definition and mixed in 5.1 Dolby surround sound. It also contains audio tracks of the studio album versions of each song from the setlist. The CD side of the disc contains the studio album versions of all 9 songs from the setlist. Some of the songs are mistitled on the album sleeve and DVD menus.
Smith: 'God, after Gusto I think we should make about three good records.'...Adkins: 'Well, we all make mistakes in life.' Smith: 'Some worse than others.' Adkins: 'Some people have kids, some people make a record called Gusto.'
Usually we end the set with "Perfect World," but we couldn't have it on the videotape because there was like 200 kids on stage and we broke all the monitors and that's the bill I was talking about earlier, like $800, $1,800 dollars or something like that. All the little jacks broken off, it was pretty chaotic and a good time for everyone.
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