"Celebrity Roast was an NYC progressive thrash band that existed from 2000-2003.
The band began in the first weeks of 2000 in Albany, NY. As The Disenchanted, and our college careers were coming to a close, I proposed that Disenchanted drummer R.E.A. and I get together with good buddy, housemate, and former Hail Mary bassman Ben Chasse and see what happens. As anticipated, there were fast beats, moshy breakdowns, Van Halenic arrpegiations, distorted Black Flag bass howls, and of course lyrics about the things that bothered us. We wrote 10 songs over the next few weeks of mega-decibel practicing in our tiny kitchen and only a few weeks after The Disenchanted finished its final full length at Creep Studios in PA, "The Roast" came in and thrashed out our first EP's worth of songs. We dubbed the record "They Wondered A
bout The Knife", a random quote from a Tarzan comic that had been floating around our apartment. That summer we toured the US with Creep's own Super Hi-Five and after that, in succession over a few months, all moved southward to NYC with shiny new degrees to present to employers who would not give a shit.
Our friends in the band I Farm were kind enough to lend us their home practice space beside the Williamsburg Bridge for, well, a few years as we adjusted to living in the hipster sprawl of Brooklyn. When the EP actually came out we were shocked to see on the CD jacket the label had accidentally renamed it "They Misunderstood The Knife", written in some sort of court jester font. This seemingly random act of artistic cruelty seemed to sum up the whole spirit of the band in a single, Spinal Tap-esque moment.
We did another 3 week US tour in Spring 2001, this time alone, with a van we bought the night of the first show. We met a lot of weirdos and the kind of strange degenerates only tiny towns in the midwestern US seem able to supply. A few weeks after that we did a 3 week tour of Europe courtesy of the Gate To Hell booking agency in Germany. I was terribly excited, it being my first time to the continent, and it proved to be an adventure and a half, rich with the kind of "waking up on the floor of a Berlin sqaut with wild dogs licking my face" stuff we've come to expect from DIY European tour journals.
We got back and R.E.A. got married. A few days later there was 9/11. Soon thereafter R.E.A. opted to leave the band to focus on his family and business ventures. Saddened but deciding to press on, Ben and I started to search for a new drummer. The answer presented himself in the form of stately skater/web designer Greg Pymm, a friend of a friend who brought a slamming dynamic groove to the sound to the band. The heavier songs got heavier, the melodic songs got more melodic, all the while not breaking our allegiance to the thrash.
We retightened old songs, continued writing for a full length, and played in the northeast US until Gate To Hell reigned us back in for a mammoth 6 week European tour in May-June 2002. I think we lost, found, and relost our minds a few times over on this one, and it stands as the band's most ambitious undertaking. We got back, finished writing over the remaining months of summer, and blasted out "Truly Outrageous. Truly,Truly, Truly Outrageous" at Creep Studios over 4 days in September 2002. It was planned to be a split release between several labels in several countries, due out sometime in early 2003.
In October we went out with Brooklyn greats Books Lie for what would be our final US tour . We had a great time travelling as a wild pack of 7 NYC punks in my van, but by the time we got back the love of the thrash was competing with the desire for healthy relationships, healthy jobs, and healthy health insurance. That spring my van was stolen. Greg quit. We ran out of steam and the record never came out. Burnt out on the DIY punk hardcore scene an burnt out on each other, we each retreated to our respective caves.
I went on to do a softer indie pop band called The Isles, Ben Chasse continued his solo work under the moniker Ghetto Blaster, R.E.A. reappeared in the searing Kung Fury, and Greg Pymm later drummed for shoegazing lovelies 4 Volts. We do have a fully mastered full length just sitting here waiting to come out, but for now enjoy the songs on the page."
Members:
Ben Haberland- guitar, voice
Ben Chasse- bass, voice
R.E.A- drums (2000-2001)
Greg Pymm- drums (2002-2003)
Labels:
Creep Records [US], Gate To Hell [EU]
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL....
READ MORE
