 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(February 2015) |
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(August 2014) |
The Last Drive is a Greek punk garage rock group, which was formed in 1983, broke up in 1995, and reunited in January 2007.
The Last Drive began performing as "Last Drive" in late 1983, with their debut show at Rodeo Club on December 27 of the same year. They adopted the name "Last Drive" after noticing a cocktail by that name at a bar menu. During 1984, Yiorgos Karanikolas joined the group under the role of the lead guitarist. Their music blended garage rock mixed with rockabilly and surf rock music genres. They began performing at underground clubs during that era, while some band members played with Blue Light (group) at their first live performance at Pegasus club. Their first release, the 7" single "Midnite Hop", came out in 1985 and is now highly coveted by collectors in Greece. They also participated with a song in a compilation tape by Dikaioma Diavasis records, Live at the Kyttaro Club. In 1986, they released their full-length LP album Underworld Shakedown. The content and the quality of production (by the Drive themselves) was considered unusually high for the standards of the independent scene of that time. Their LP included covers of garage standards like Misirlou and Night of the Phantom, along with their original compositions.
They continued to appear live in Athens and many other cities in Greece, and in the spring of 1987 they toured abroad for the first time, in Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands. They performed alongside the Fuzztones, the Creeps, the Stomachmouths, the Dizzy Satellites and others. In 1988, having replaced Nick "Pop Mind" with Panos Kasiaris on rhythm guitar, they released Heatwave, which was produced by Peter Zaremba of the Fleshtones. That was the album that brought them to the attention of Music Maniac Records, a German label specializing in garage-rock releases, which re-released it with a new cover. This release brought them to Germany, where they participated in the Berlin Independence Days festival and also recorded the Time EP.
By this time the garage sound of the group had started to shift, becoming harder and speedier and moving towards stoner rock and neo-psychedelia. The band also caught the eye of Paul B. Cutler, of Dream Syndicate fame, who would produce their next two records.
Their 1990 LP, Blood Nirvana, signified a shift in their sound. This change disappointed some of their dedicated garage fans and resulted in the end of their collaboration with Music Maniac. During the early 1990s, they were perceived as a part of the "explosion" of the hard rock/indie Greek scene, which led to increased popularity among rock fans in Greece. The same year, they were voted "band of the year" by readers of the leading music magazine, Pop & Rock. They played as a support act for the Wipers, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Gun Club, and toured Germany with Dead Moon. Their most mature work, the F*head Entropy album, was released in 1992. The Last Drive commemorated their 10th anniversary and completed a tour in Spain with a live performance (including a pie fight) at the "West Club" on December 23, 1993. Their contract with Hitch Hyke Records, their long-time record label, ended in 1994. They signed with the multinational BMG Hellas and released Subliminal, an album featuring songs with a slower tempo than previous works. In 1995, Karanikolas departed from the band and relocated to the United States. Several months later, the Last Drive disbanded after twelve years of touring and establishing a strong fan base in Greece and other countries with their dynamic live performances.
Yiorgos Karanikolas created the band Blackmail, who generally picked up from where the Drive had stopped, but with a greater emphasis on neo-psychedelia, and became quite popular at the time.
Alex Kalofolias and Thanos Amorginos created The Earthbound in 1998, a band with a completely different orientation around ethnic/Latin/desert rock. There have been rare instances in which The Earthbound were joined on stage by former Drive members. Kalofolias and Amorginos also co-wrote the music for Stratos Tzitzis' film Sose me (Save me). Amorginos also wrote music for theatrical plays.
Chris Michalatos played with The Speedballs a rockabilly act, for a while.
In early 2007, the band announced on their official website their reunion for some gigs. They performed live in Athens on May 11, 12 and 13th -all three dates being sold out- in Thessaloniki on the 19th and in Larissa on June 2.
Their first record ("Midnite Hop") was re-released by Greek DIY label Blind Bastard Records. They also played at the "Open Air Festival" in Athens on July 6. Finally, they were the headliners on the first day of the "Indie Rocket Festival 2007" (along with the Devastations, Acid Cobra and The Cesarians) that took place in Pescara, Italy on June 22 . In May 2008, the band did another Greek tour, while a live CD-DVD covering their reunion shows in Athens was released by Blind Bastard Records. In 2009, a documentary film titled 20000 Miles Ahead: A Last Drive Story was released, which covered their story leading up to the reunion gigs. That same year, a new CD called "Heavy Liquid" was released. In September 2009, Inner Ear released it as a limited edition LP (500 black vinyls and 500 red vinyls). In April 2010, an art and comics anthology titled "At The Drive Ink" was published, featuring artwork by 31 Greek artists inspired by the songs from "Heavy Liquid". In October 2010, the band contributed the track "Love & Terror" to the CD/booklet "Horror & Romance." The compilation consisted of songs and music inspired by Stefanos Rokos' art exhibition. In June 2012, the band released a new EP titled "News from Nowhere." Shortly after, the guitar player, Thanos Amorginos, was replaced by Stefanos Flotsios. Since reforming, the band has been touring Greece annually.
ex-members
Singles/EPs
LPs
Contribs
Singles/EPs
LPs
Contribs
The Miracle Workers were a rock and roll band in the 1980s, who began as a garage rock revival band in Portland, Oregon.
The Pandoras were an American all-female garage punk band from Los Angeles, California, active from 1982 to 1991. The band is among the first handful of all-female rock bands to ever be signed. From the beginning, the band found a strong following in the Hollywood garage rock and Paisley Underground scene, making the gossip pages almost weekly. The Pandoras enjoyed strong radio support from DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. The band graduated from the garage rock sound to a more contemporary, hard rock style in later years, spawning the off-shoot band The Muffs. The Pandoras founder/singer/songwriter, Paula Pierce, died of a brain aneurysm on August 10, 1991, at the age of 31. The Muffs frontwoman/founder Kim Shattuck, who played bass in the Pandoras from 1985 to 1990, appeared as lead singer/lead guitarist of the reunited Pandoras until she died of complications from ALS on October 2, 2019, aged 56.
The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk-psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone and drummer Dan Palenski. The group was named after a GI slang term for the rockabilly-inspired Korean street toughs who sold black market goods to American soldiers.
The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York, United States, formed in 1976.
The Fuzztones are an American garage rock revival band formed in 1982.
The Barracudas are an English surf rock band formed in late 1978. The band's original line-up consisted of Jeremy Gluck (vocals), Robin Wills, Starkie Phillips and Adam Phillips (drums). Before the band recorded its first single, Starkie and Adam Phillips left the band.
The Surf Trio was a surf rock band which formed in Eugene, Oregon, in 1984.
The Sound Explosion is a Greek garage rock revival band formed in 1991 in Athens, Greece. Its line up is John Alexopoulos, Dimitrios Dimopoulos, Stelios Askoxylakis and Stavros Daktylas. The group has played several concerts in Greece alongside other bands such as The Fuzztones, Dead Moon, Sick Rose, Cynics, the Others, the Marshmallow Overcoat, and more. The band went on a hiatus in 1997, during which time the members played separately in different acts, before reuniting in the early 2000s to perform live once again. In early 2018 the group partnered with Lost in Tyme Records to release their sophomore album, The explosive Sounds of... The Sound Explosion, marking their first new material in nearly 24 years.
The Stomachmouths were a Swedish garage punk band from Stockholm active in the 1980s. Formed in 1984, they were one of the earliest 'pure' garage bands in the European garage revival of the 1980s. Along with local colleagues the Crimson Shadows they pioneered the notion of a garage punk band that strove for authenticity in replicating the sound and the look of the original '60s inspirators, primarily from the US. The Stomachmouths received immediate international attention with their self-released debut 45, which raised interest on the independent music scenes in England and the US. The band toured extensively in Europe, appearing on German television and receiving major newspaper coverage in Italy.
DMZ was a first-wave American punk rock/garage rock bands from Boston, Massachusetts, strongly influenced by 1960s garage rock.
Eric Friedl, also known by his stage name, Eric Oblivian, is a musician and the founder and owner of Goner Records, an independent music label and record store located in Memphis, Tennessee.
Spinalonga Records is a self-organized, not-for-profit effort to promote the alternative and heavy rock of the Greek underground. It is based in Athens, Greece and was formed in late 2004. Its first release, titled In The Junkyard Volume 1, was a compilation consisting of tracks by unsigned Greek bands came out in late Spring 2005.
The Gravedigger Five – often shown as Gravedigger V – was an American garage rock revival band, formed in 1984 in San Diego, California, United States. The band was part of the Paisley Underground, a musical movement centered on Los Angeles, California, which referenced 1960s West Coast pop and garage rock. The band's lineup consisted of Leighton Koizumi on vocals and sound effects, Ted Friedman on lead guitar, John Hanrattie on rhythm guitar and backup vocals, Dave "The Animal" Anderson on drums and percussion, and originally Chris Gast, who was replaced on bass and backing vocals by Tom Ward. When the Gravedigger Five broke up, members of the band went on to form The Morlocks and Manual Scan.
Nightstalker is a Greek stoner metal band from Athens.
Sex Museum is a Spanish rock band from Madrid, formed in 1985.
Deus Ex Machina is a popular Greek hardcore punk band from Athens formed in 1989 by Dimitris Spyropoulos and Dimitris Manthos, with Spyropoulos and Yiannis Venardis having already been early Greek punk scene's 'veterans'.
The Haunted were a Canadian garage rock band from Montreal, Quebec. The band was formed by Jurgen Peter (guitar) in 1965, and went on to release several records before finally disbanding in 1971. They were among the first Canadian bands to achieve a level of success in their musical genre.
Chrisavgi "Kristi" Stassinopoulou is a Greek singer, lyricist, and fiction writer. A native Athenian, she is an internationally known artist of the world music circuit. She is accompanied by composer, arranger, co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Stathis Kalyviotis. Their music combines traditional Greek rhythms and sounds, Byzantine vocal lines, rebetiko music, psychedelic rock, ambience and electronica.
Miners of Muzo are a Dutch-based rock band that started out in 1983, founded in the city of Tilburg by singer and songwriter Leon Lemmen.
Libido Blume were a post punk/new wave band from Athens, Greece. They were part of the Athenian underground rock scene of the '80s and '90s. The band was founded by Akis Boyatzis, Dimitirs Bouroussas and Yiannis Drenoyiannis in 1985, from the remnants of Akis Boyatzis' Cpt.Nefos. Later on Tasos Katsaris joined the band.
| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|
