Bullet LaVolta

Lucky for me, Bullet LaVolta, a fairly new band playing around Boston was losing their guitar wiz, Corey Loog Brennan. The Targets were on another hiatus and Dredd Foole and the Din were winding down. I always tried to be in at least two bands at once and I was facing the prospect of being a free agent. Corey was Harvard grad and he had a chance to study in Italy for two years. Word on the street was, the were looking for a replacement. I went to check them out at a downtown bar that was way overcwowded. All I could see was guitarists Clay Tarver's cherokee hair spinning in the air and the occasional sighting of lead singer Yukki Gipe whenever he climbed atop a table. I thought they sounded great, a mix of punk and hard rock with some serious attitude. I asked for a shot at the soon to be vacant slot, and they gave me a seven song cassette they were selling at the show.

Corey was quite a guitar player, kind of a cross between Captain Sensible form the Damned and Randy Rhodes with a finger missing from each hand. Not my style exactly, but I thought I could adapt. I learned the songs, passed the audition, and asked to join the band. They were about to enter the stdio with Tom Hamilton to record more material for a forthcoming E.P. I showed them "Get it together" from my first band Iron Cross. Yukki wrote some new lyrics and renamed it "Dead wrong". Clay and I had an almost telepathic way of playing together, like a punk/metal version of Ron Wood and Keith Richards. The rhythm section of drummer Chris "Cougar" Guttmacher and bassist Bill Whelan were like an amplified rhino smashing through a liquor store, with a hint of melody. Chris was the engine of the band, unleashing a stream of 16th notes on his ride cymbal like a proffesional boxer. The thing should have taken a restraining order out on him. Bill hadn't been playing bass very long, but he was a natural, getting better with every rehearsal.

Bullet LaVolta was such a great band to be in. I really looked up to Yukki (real name: Kurt Davis). He was a phenomenal frontman, and a real down-to -earth nice guy. While I was partying and whoring it up at every opportunity, he was hanging out with the fans and fending off the advances of cute girls. The band grew in in stature from gig to gig until it was time to record our first full length L.P. We were also offered the chance to go to Europe in a few months with the Lemonheads. During the mixing of the record, Chris told us he would be leaving the group and heading to the west coast to live. He gave us fair warning, and played a handful of shows while we started looking for a replacement. Since we were gaining a bit of local buzz, we had a few suspicious characters show up. Full on Rock dudes, classic Rock aficionados, and assorted bozos. What is it with drummers? I called Todd Phillips from the fake Moving Targets and invited him down for a shot. It came down to Todd, and this guy named John. John was a great drummer, but he and his girlfriend were expecting their first child. We didn't want to have any part of his first words being "where's Daddy", so we went with Todd. It eneded up being the right decision. I applied for my first passport.