Pleasant Dreams , the band’s sixth album, was released in 1981. It continued the trend established by End of the Century , taking the band further from the raw punk sound of its early records. As described by Trouser Press , the album, produced by Graham Gouldman of UK pop…
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The band members grew up in Orange County , California. Rodney Sheppard played in several reggae bands and worked with future Good Charlotte drummer Dean Butterworth . In the late 1980s, prior to Sugar Ray, Sheppard and Stan Frazier played together in a band under the name The Tories. Later…
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In the late 1980s while attending El Molino High in Forestville , California, friends Marty Gregori and Larry Tinney bonded over a mutual admiration for rock band AC/DC and began teaching each other guitar chords. After joining up with schoolmates Zack Charlos and Ray Castro they formed High Output, an…
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Prior to forming Everclear, frontman Art Alexakis struggled through a number of hardships that would later shape the course of the band and its music. As a child, Alexakis recounted that he suffered child abuse and child abandonment from his father at the age of five, struggled with drug addiction…
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producer Phil Spector became interested in the Ramones and produced their fifth album End of the Century (1980). There is a long-disputed rumor that during the recording sessions in Los Angeles, Spector held Dee Dee at gunpoint, forcing him to repeatedly play a riff. Although it was to be the…
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which was released in April 1979
The Boys released a second album on NEMS, titled Alternative Chartbusters , and toured in support of it with the Ramones . The Boys then signed with Safari in 1979, and two albums and five singles followed before the band broke up in the summer of 1981. Each Christmas, the…
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After the band’s movie debut in Roger Corman ‘s Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
Along with the Sex Pistols and The Damned , the Automatics regularly played the Marquee Club in London and toured clubs around the U.K. and Europe. Their hit song “When the Tanks Roll Over Poland Again”, (released on Island Records in 1978) was number one on the punk/new wave charts.…
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Later that year, the band released their fourth studio album, and first with Marky, Road to Ruin .