Toothless George (born Yurgi F. Šiugždinis; June 1, 1973) is a Lithuanian-American punk rock musician. He is best known for his work with The Halflings, Toothless George & His One-Man Band, and Percocettes. George is a former professional skateboarder [1] and currently lives in Tokyo, Japan. [2]
Šiugždinis was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, and raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania. His father worked at a gas station, and his mother was a truck driver. He was turned onto punk rock in 1985 accidentally, while attending North Coventry Elementary. He said in Scratched Magazine, “Me becoming a punk rocker had nothing to do with the music. I listened to New Edition, and L.L. Cool J. No one would let me sit at their lunch table except the punk rock kids. That why I’m a punk rocker. I got into the music later.” [3]
One of the first bands that Toothless George played in was the straight edge hard core band Bound By Blue with Matt Summers (Shark Attack) and Matt Smith (Shark Attack, Rain on the Parade). After Bound By Blue disbanded, he and Smith performed in the punk rock group Mao & The Chinese Revolution from their beginning in 1987 until they disbanded in 1993. They released one 7” on Creep Records. Soon thereafter, George founded the Halflings with Matt Drastic (Teen Idols, The Queers) and Donnie Switchblade. They ultimately broke up in 1996. They had released four 7” vinyl records, and were featured on twelve various artist compilations. Shortly thereafter, George put the band back together one last time with Steve Ferrell (Kid Dynamite) and Dave Sausage (The Boils) but never played out with that line up.
In 2001, George joined The Bedrockers, with his older brother Ed Rocker. While with The Bedrockers, George started performing as a one-man band on the side- playing guitar, bass drum, snare drum, two tambourines, harmonica, and singing simultaneously. When The Bedrockers broke up in 2003, the one-man band became his full-time band. He has released two e.p.’s , one full album, and has been featured on three compilations. Toothless George, and girlfriend, Cole Della-Zucca started The Percocettes together in 2006. They released two c.d.’s and performed hundreds of shows in The United States, Europe, and Japan.
In 2007, Toothless George was awarded Barrymore Award for a theatrical musical he wrote with Brat Productions. [4]