Deadbolt (band)
Encyclopedia
Deadbolt is a rock
band from San Diego, California
, U.S.A.. They describe themselves as "The Scariest Band in the World." The band often features two bass players, who are called "The Wall of Thunder."
The band originally formed in 1988 as a trio, featuring guitarist and vocalist Harley Davidson, bassist and vocalist Robert "RA" MacLean and drummer Les Vegas. Vegas eventually left the band. Vegas' departure is chronicled in the song "Po' Boy" on the album Hobo Babylon. The other current member of the band is bassist Gary "3rd Degree" Burns (part of the band's "Wall Of Thunder") and drummer Tank Johnson. Former members of the band include The Phantom (bass and guitar), Claymore Mines (bass), The Coroner (bass), Coffin Boy (bass), and Moose Cutter (bass). Vocalist/guitarist Diana Death occasionally contributes.
Deadbolt's music combines surf rock, goth
, psychobilly
and blues
sound with unusual and offbeat lyrics, a style the band dubbed "voodoobilly." Besides the release of several CDs, the band has toured both North America and Europe extensively.
The band is known for its use of power tools during their live sets, and it is customary to be showered with sparks of red-hot metal during their live shows.
Three members of the band were also in a short-lived offshoot group called The Strangers 1800, which performed music from Spaghetti Western
films and TV westerns and released one EP, When Men Were Men and the Sheep Were Scared.
Singles
Videos
Compilation Albums Featuring Deadbolt Tracks
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band from San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, U.S.A.. They describe themselves as "The Scariest Band in the World." The band often features two bass players, who are called "The Wall of Thunder."
The band originally formed in 1988 as a trio, featuring guitarist and vocalist Harley Davidson, bassist and vocalist Robert "RA" MacLean and drummer Les Vegas. Vegas eventually left the band. Vegas' departure is chronicled in the song "Po' Boy" on the album Hobo Babylon. The other current member of the band is bassist Gary "3rd Degree" Burns (part of the band's "Wall Of Thunder") and drummer Tank Johnson. Former members of the band include The Phantom (bass and guitar), Claymore Mines (bass), The Coroner (bass), Coffin Boy (bass), and Moose Cutter (bass). Vocalist/guitarist Diana Death occasionally contributes.
Deadbolt's music combines surf rock, goth
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
, psychobilly
Psychobilly
Psychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, trashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
sound with unusual and offbeat lyrics, a style the band dubbed "voodoobilly." Besides the release of several CDs, the band has toured both North America and Europe extensively.
The band is known for its use of power tools during their live sets, and it is customary to be showered with sparks of red-hot metal during their live shows.
Three members of the band were also in a short-lived offshoot group called The Strangers 1800, which performed music from Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
films and TV westerns and released one EP, When Men Were Men and the Sheep Were Scared.
Discography & videography
Albums- Creepy World (cassette only) - Mondo RecordsMondo recordsMondo Records is a trance record label created and owned by Darren Tate. It was set up in 2000 to help promote young producers of electronic music as well as find the best unknowns. Some of the most famous names on the label include Flash Brothers, The Green Martian, Hemstock and Jennings, Corderoy...
, 1992 - Shrunken Head - CargoCargoCargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
/Headhunter RecordsHeadhunter RecordsHeadhunter Records is a record label distributed by Cargo Music, Inc. Headhunter records is based out of San Diego, California. It was launched in 1989.-Other Notable Artists:*Creedle* Slap Of Reality*Inch*Deadbolt*Drive Like Jehu*Fishwife...
, 1994 - Tiki Man - CargoCargoCargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
/Headhunter RecordsHeadhunter RecordsHeadhunter Records is a record label distributed by Cargo Music, Inc. Headhunter records is based out of San Diego, California. It was launched in 1989.-Other Notable Artists:*Creedle* Slap Of Reality*Inch*Deadbolt*Drive Like Jehu*Fishwife...
1994 - Tijuana Hit Squad - CargoCargoCargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
/Headhunter RecordsHeadhunter RecordsHeadhunter Records is a record label distributed by Cargo Music, Inc. Headhunter records is based out of San Diego, California. It was launched in 1989.-Other Notable Artists:*Creedle* Slap Of Reality*Inch*Deadbolt*Drive Like Jehu*Fishwife...
, 1996 - Zulu Death Mask - CargoCargoCargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
/Headhunter RecordsHeadhunter RecordsHeadhunter Records is a record label distributed by Cargo Music, Inc. Headhunter records is based out of San Diego, California. It was launched in 1989.-Other Notable Artists:*Creedle* Slap Of Reality*Inch*Deadbolt*Drive Like Jehu*Fishwife...
, 1998 - Voodoo Trucker - CargoCargoCargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
/Headhunter RecordsHeadhunter RecordsHeadhunter Records is a record label distributed by Cargo Music, Inc. Headhunter records is based out of San Diego, California. It was launched in 1989.-Other Notable Artists:*Creedle* Slap Of Reality*Inch*Deadbolt*Drive Like Jehu*Fishwife...
, 1999 - Hobo Babylon - CargoCargoCargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
/Headhunter RecordsHeadhunter RecordsHeadhunter Records is a record label distributed by Cargo Music, Inc. Headhunter records is based out of San Diego, California. It was launched in 1989.-Other Notable Artists:*Creedle* Slap Of Reality*Inch*Deadbolt*Drive Like Jehu*Fishwife...
, 2002 - Haight Street Hippie Massacre: The Best of Deadbolt (compilation) - CargoCargoCargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
/Headhunter RecordsHeadhunter RecordsHeadhunter Records is a record label distributed by Cargo Music, Inc. Headhunter records is based out of San Diego, California. It was launched in 1989.-Other Notable Artists:*Creedle* Slap Of Reality*Inch*Deadbolt*Drive Like Jehu*Fishwife...
, 2003 - I Should Have Killed You - CargoCargoCargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
/Headhunter RecordsHeadhunter RecordsHeadhunter Records is a record label distributed by Cargo Music, Inc. Headhunter records is based out of San Diego, California. It was launched in 1989.-Other Notable Artists:*Creedle* Slap Of Reality*Inch*Deadbolt*Drive Like Jehu*Fishwife...
, 2005 - Live at the Casbah - Re:Live, 2005
- Friday the 13th Massacre (Live) - Hod Rod Surf, 2009
- Voodoo Moonshiner - Voodoobilly Records, 2010
- Live In Berlin at The Wild At Heart 21st November, 2009 (3 disc album) - Knockout Records (Import), 2010
Singles
- "Down in the Lab" - Smells Like Grease for Peace, Standard Recordings, 1992 (split with Rocket from the CryptRocket from the CryptRocket from the Crypt was an American rock band led by John Reis, formed in 1989 in San Diego, California and disbanded in 2005.The band gained critical praise and the attention of major record labels after the release of their 1992 album Circa: Now!, leading to a recording contract with Interscope...
's "Cha Cha Cha") - "E Frank" - Trip 3 - Trademark Records, 1993 (split with CreedleCreedleCreedle is an avant-jazz-punk-art-damaged band based in San Diego, California which released three full length albums on Cargo Music/Headhunter Records in the 1990s along with numerous 7" singles. The band was primarily composed of Devon E. Levins a.k.a. Devon Goldberg , PieBoy a.k.a. Tim...
's "Bicycle Moto-Cross") - "Cockeyed" - Goldenrod RecordsGoldenrod RecordsGoldenrod Records was a record label formed by Tod Swank in 1991 in San Diego, California to release the first 7" record by Custom Floor, a band consisting of skateboarders Garry Davis, Phil Esbenshade, and Miki Vuckovich. After the release of the Custom Floor record, Swank's other project,...
, 1995 (split with Strangers 1800's "Rawhide") - "One Day I Will Kill You" / "Rockabilly Funeral" - Ewing Records, 2001
- "Telephone the Dead" - TKO Records, 2007 (split with Demented Are GoDemented Are GoDemented Are Go are a Welsh psychobilly band that was formed around 1982 in Cardiff. They were one of the earliest in the initial wave of bands to mix punk rock with rockabilly, and as a result, are considered to be highly influential to the psychobilly scene....
's "Sickness in Truth")
Videos
- "Down in the Lab" (Shrunken Head)
- "Who the Hell is Mrs. Valdez?" (Tiki Man)
- "Last Time I Saw Cole" (Tijuana Hit Squad)
Compilation Albums Featuring Deadbolt Tracks
- Staring at the Sun, Vol. 2 (Blindspot Records, 1992) - "Who the Hell is Mrs. Valdez" and "Edie"
- Musica del Diablo: Live from the Casbah (Cargo Records, 1993) - "You Don't Want to Know Me"
- Staring at the Sun, Vol. 3 (Blindspot Records, 1993) - "Listen to the Messages"
- Saint Doug: San Diego Local Music Soundtrack (91-X, 1994) – "I Saw the King"
- 91-Xmas (91-X, 1994) - "Post Office Christmas Party" and "I'm the One Who Gunned Santa Down"
- Secret Agent S.O.U.N.D.S. (Mai Tai Records, 1995) - "James Bond Theme/You Only Live Twice"
- Halloween Hootenanny (Zombie-A-Go-Go RecordsZombie-A-Go-Go RecordsZombie-A-Go-Go Records is the music artist and film director Rob Zombie's record label. It has released CDs from such artists as The Bomboras and The Ghastly Ones, together with the compilation CD of various artists - Halloween Hootenanny.-Albums:...
, 1998) - "Psychic Voodoo Doll" - Tigermask: Trash Au Go-Go (Dionysus Records, 1998) - "Magimbu"
- Hotter Than Hell: An Injection of Psychobilly Madness (Hairball 8 Records, 2000) – “The Interview”
- Monster Party 2000 (MuSick Recordings, 2000) - "Billy's Dead"
- That's New Pussycat! Surf Tribute To Burt Bacharach (Om Om Records, 2003) - "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head"
- Dear Johnny... A Tribute to CASH (Hairball 8 Records, 2004) - "Orange Blossom Special"
- Kicked out of Purgatory (Hairball 8 Records, 2004) - "Billy's Dead"