Rough Francis

Last updated
Rough Francis
Origin Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
Genres
Years active2008present
Labels Riot House Records
MembersBobby Hackney Jr.
Julian Hackney
Urian Hackney
Tyler Bolles
Past members Dylan Giambatista
Paul Comegno
Steve Hazen Williams
Dan Davine

Rough Francis is a rock band from Burlington, Vermont consisting of Bobby, Julian, and Urian Hackney, along with Tyler Bolles. The Hackney brothers originally formed the group in 2008 to pay tribute to the music of their father's (and uncles') early 1970s proto-punk band Death. [1]

Contents

History

In 1973, three brothers, David, Bobby, and Dannis Hackney, formed the what many consider the first punk rock band, Death. The trio recorded several demos in a spare bedroom and in a studio in their home city of Detroit, Michigan. Inspired by the Beatles, The Who, and Alice Cooper, their music did not find a warm response in Detroit's Black community, and the band's foreboding name prevented them from garnering much airplay or landing a record deal. In 1976, they pressed 500 copies of a single on their own Tryangle record label to give to friends and radio DJs. Many copies of the record remained undistributed. [2]

The Hackney brothers moved to Burlington, Vermont in the late-1970s and changed their band's name to The 4th Movement, turning to Christian Rock. They released two albums under that name in the early 1980s, which were not successful. Disheartened by his band's lack of success, guitarist and band leader David Hackney returned to Detroit while Bobby and Dannis stayed in Vermont to continue playing music together, eventually finding success in the reggae band Lambsbread. David continued to make music on his own under the pseudonym Rough Francis, and with the help of his brothers, released one single before passing away in 2000. [2]

As Rough Francis

Bassist and vocalist Bobby Hackney's three sons all became interested in punk rock without knowing anything about the rock group that their father had formed with their two uncles in the early 1970s. In 2006 the three younger Hackneys briefly formed a band to cover songs by seminal afropunks the Bad Brains. [3] Meanwhile, Death's 1976 single began to resurface, falling into the hands of ex-Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra and many other record collectors who played it at parties and posted it on the Internet. [2] These tracks eventually reached the younger Hackneys, who instantly recognized their father's voice. Excited to discover this music, the younger Hackneys learned the songs and formed a band to cover their father's and uncles' music. [3] They named themselves Rough Francis in tribute to their late uncle David, who was largely responsible for Death's direction. [1]

Rough Francis's first show was in Winooski, Vermont in 2008. Having enlisted two friends to fill out the band, they played seven of Death's songs for an enthusiastic crowd that included their own father and mother. [2] The following year, Death's original 1975 recordings of these songs were released as ...For the Whole World to See by Drag City, and Rough Francis supported the release by touring and continuing to play the songs live along with some original material. When an article in The New York Times moved Death from obscurity into the limelight, [1] Bobby Sr. and Dannis Hackney reformed Death with Lambsbread guitarist Bobbie Duncan, and Rough Francis moved on to write, perform, and record more original music. [3] They released a four-song EP in March 2010, followed by their debut album, Maximum Soul Power in March 2013. The final track on the album, "Comm to Space," features recordings of their late uncle, David Hackney, making prank phone calls in the early 1970s using homemade analog delay effects. [2] [4]

The experience of the three younger Hackneys, in discovering their family's music and forming Rough Francis, is documented in the 2012 film A Band Called Death . In 2020, their song "Deathwire" was featured in the soundtrack for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 . [5]

Drummer Urian Hackney has played drums for numerous hardcore bands including Trash Talk and Converge. He is also the drummer of The Armed. [6] In January 2021, the band announced that bassist Dan Davine had been fired after it was discovered that he attended the January 6 United States Capitol attack. The band announced that any support of white supremacism would not be tolerated. [7]

Band members

Former members

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Adverts</span> English punk rock band

The Adverts were an English punk rock band formed in 1976 that existed until late 1979. They were one of the first punk bands to achieve mainstream success in the UK; their 1977 single "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" reached No. 18 on the UK singles chart. The Virgin Encyclopedia of 70s Music described bassist and founding member Gaye Advert as the "first female punk star".

The music of Michigan is composed of many different genres. The city of Detroit has been one of the most musically influential and innovative cities for the past 50 years, whether in Michigan or anywhere else in the United States. Impressively, for 48 straight years (1959–2007) a greater Michigan-area artist has produced a chart-topping recording. Michigan is perhaps best known for three developments: early punk rock, Motown, and techno.

The music of Florida has diverse influences, with roots in rock, jazz, blues, country, and Latin music. Cities such as Tampa, Gainesville, Orlando, and Miami developed influential rock, punk, and metal scenes in the 1970s–2000s. Miami in particular has a rich tradition of Latin and Caribbean music, which has influenced mainstream pop and hip hop in the 2000s and 2010s.

Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1970s built upon the new forms of music developed from blues rock towards the end of the 1960s, including folk rock and psychedelic rock movements. Several important and influential subgenres were created in Britain in this period, by pursuing the limitations of rock music, including British folk rock and glam rock, a process that reached its apogee in the development of progressive rock and one of the most enduring subgenres in heavy metal music. Britain also began to be increasingly influenced by third world music, including Jamaican and Indian music, resulting in new music scenes and subgenres. In the middle years of the decade the influence of the pub rock and American punk rock movements led to the British intensification of punk, which swept away much of the existing landscape of popular music, replacing it with much more diverse new wave and post punk bands who mixed different forms of music and influences to dominate rock and pop music into the 1980s.

Proto-punk is rock music from the 1960s to mid-1970s that foreshadowed the punk rock movement. A retrospective label, the musicians involved were generally not originally associated with each other and came from a variety of backgrounds and styles; together, they anticipated many of punk's musical and thematic attributes. The tendency towards aggressive, simplistic rock songs is a trend critics such as Lester Bangs have traced to as far back as Ritchie Valens' 1958 version of the Mexican folk song "La Bamba", which set in motion a wave of influential garage rock bands including the Kingsmen, the Kinks, the 13th Floor Elevators and the Sonics. By the late 1960s, Detroit bands the Stooges and MC5 had used the influence of these groups to form a distinct prototypical punk sound. In the following years, this sound spread both domestically and internationally, leading to the formation of the New York Dolls and Electric Eels in the United States, Dr. Feelgood in England, and the Saints in Australia.

Necros was an early American hardcore punk band from Maumee, Ohio, although they are usually identified with the Detroit music scene. They were the first band to record for Touch and Go Records.

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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Robinson Band</span> British rock band

Tom Robinson Band (TRB) are a British rock band, established in 1976 by singer, songwriter and bassist Tom Robinson. The band's debut single "2-4-6-8 Motorway" was a top five hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1977, and their third single, "Up Against the Wall", is seen by some as a classic punk rock single; while their debut album, Power in the Darkness (1978), is regarded as a definitive late-1970s punk album. Their song "Glad to Be Gay" is considered a British national gay anthem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobby Steele</span> American guitarist (born 1956)

Bobby Steele is an American punk rock musician. He is the current guitar player, singer, songwriter, and sole original member of the horror punk band The Undead. He has been a member of multiple other bands, most notably the second guitarist of The Misfits. He married Diana Viar who joined The Undead in November 2014.

The Static Age is an American post punk band originally from Burlington, Vermont and now based in Chicago, IL. The band's style blends elements of post-punk, alternative, shoegaze, synth pop and indie rock and they have released five albums and a handful of EPs and singles as well as toured extensively across both North America and Europe.

DC3 was an American rock and roll band formed by singer, songwriter and guitarist Dez Cadena in 1983 and active until 1988.

Scott Morgan is an American rock and roll and soul musician, most known for his work with the Sonic's Rendezvous Band, the Rationals, The Solution as well as his solo work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death (proto-punk band)</span> American rock band

Death is an American musical group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1971 by brothers Bobby, David (guitar), and Dannis Hackney.

<i>...For the Whole World to See</i> 2009 studio album by Death

...For the Whole World to See is a studio album by the Detroit band Death, released in 2009 and consisting of various demos originally recorded in the mid 1970s.

When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water was an American experimental psychedelic rock band from New York City active from 1986 to 1996. Their three albums and several EPs consist of experimental cover versions of songs from various genres of popular music.

<i>A Band Called Death</i> 2012 American film

A Band Called Death is a 2012 American documentary film directed by Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett. The documentary is about the 1970s Detroit rock band Death and their new-found popularity decades after the group recorded their music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Punks</span> American proto-punk band

The Punks were an American proto-punk band from Waterford, Michigan near Detroit, who were active from 1973-1977. They specialized in a hard-driving, sometimes thrashing sound that anticipated much mid-to-late 1970s punk rock and 1980s hardcore. The group came out of the last vestiges of the Detroit rock scene that produced bands such as MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, and Death, and with these acts they formed a musical bridge between the garage rock bands of the 1960s and the later punk movement that emerged in New York and London during the mid-1970s. In 1977 they changed their name to the End and moved to New York with hopes of making their mark in the burgeoning punk rock scene there, but were unsuccessful, and broke up shortly thereafter. Though relatively unknown outside of Detroit and New York in their day, they have more recently garnered the interest and accolades of underground rock enthusiasts who consider them to be pioneers in the early development of punk rock. Parts of their song "My Time's Comin'" were used in the soundtrack of two March 2016 episodes of the television series, Vinyl, co-created by the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and director Martin Scorsese.

<i>Spiritual • Mental • Physical</i> 2011 compilation album by Death

Spiritual • Mental • Physical is a retrospective album by the Detroit proto-punk band Death consisting mainly of demo tracks recorded in their home rehearsal space between 1974–1976. Many of the songs on the set display a raw and spontaneous character, which anticipates the punk rock movement that was just around the corner in New York and London. Death's ranks consisted of brothers David, Bobby, and Dannis Hackney, who were African American, and came at the tail end of the Detroit rock movement which had produced powerhouses such as MC5 and the Stooges. In addition to the group's home demos, they also went to Detroit's United Sound Studios to record seven tracks, which now appear on the album, ...For the Whole World to See, however, it is the band's demos that are spotlighted on this outing.

The Dogs are an American three-piece proto-punk band formed in Lansing, Michigan, in 1968. They are noted for presaging the energy and sound of the later punk and hardcore genres.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rubin, Mike (12 March 2009). "This Band Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Corvino, Mark Christopher and Howlett, Jeff (2012). A Band Called Death. Drafthouse Films.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. 1 2 3 McCardell, Reade. "Rough Francis on Fewsh". G-Town Radio. Archived from the original on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  4. "A Band Called Death". IMDb .
  5. "Prepare to Shred to New Music in Tony Hawk's™ Pro Skater™ 1 + 2".
  6. Glenney, Brian (2021) Urian Hackney Interview, RAZORBLADES & ASPIRIN #13: 41 [[]]
  7. "Rough Francis Fire Bassist for Allegedly Attending 'Terrorist Insurrection' in D.C." Seven Days. Retrieved 2021-01-17.