Better Off Dead
VD
King - guitar/vocals
Don Kenny -
guitar
Carl Lorentzen -
bass
Mike Kenny -
drums
Eric Heilner -
piano & organ
Tim Cassidy -
eternal harmonica
A Little History
Besides holding claim
to having a luxury condominium complex built upon a toxic waste dump,
Jersey City, NJ is also the car theft capital of the world, has some
of the nation's highest property taxes, has virtually no school system,
and has been called everything from an "armpit" to the "anti-zeitgeist."
The members of Better Off Dead just call it home.
The origins of the band go way back to when guitarist/vocalist VD
King first ran into guitarist Don Kenny
loading musical equipment on the Jersey City streets. " I figured
he was either stealing it, or he was in a band, or both," explains
VD. The two subsequently struck up a long lasting musical friendship
that has led to Better Off Dead.
Joining VD and Don are Professor Eric Heilner
on harmonica and the chain smokin' rhythm section of Mike
Kenny on drums and Carl Lorentzen
on bass. All five had previously put time in a variety of other groups,
playing everything from pop, punk and soul to rockabilly and swing.
"The band's existed since 1995, but for the longest time we didn't
consider ourselves a band, more like a social gathering," offers
guitarist Kenny.
Lifting their name from an obscure Bill Withers 45 that VD found in
the trash (no, they aren't named after the John Cusack movie), the newly
christened Better Off Dead headed for the clubs. The band got
their first big break when a live cassette tape landed in the hands
of a Canadian concert promoter. This led to the band playing three nights
at the 1996 Montreal Blues Festival.
Meanwhile, back in the
states, Better Off Dead played long and hard over the next year,
performing dozens of shows in Delaware, New York, and New Jersey, while
mixing a wild sonic concoction from virtually every era of American
music and in the process, creating a musical margarita all their own.
In summer of 1997, the band locked themselves up in VD's tiny bedroom
and an adjoining bathroom to record a couple of songs. The result was
Better Off Dead, a full-length album that delivered on all the
raw exuberance of the band live. Well received by both fans and the
press, including LIVING BLUES, BLUES REVUE, and BLUES ACCESS magazines,
the debut CD garnered airplay as far away as Greece and Belgium, and
helped to land the band a slot at the NXNE festival in Toronto in 1998
and 1999 and New York's Blues 2000 festival.
Returning once again to the bedroom, Better Off Dead cut the tracks
that would become their second recording -- Girl With A Job!
Featuring 14 tunes penned by VD King, Better Off Dead also rips
through the Treniers' "Rockin Is Our Business," turns in a
shakin' and stirring version of the mighty Rex Garvin's "Sock It
To 'em JB," and gives Bo Diddley's "Mama Keep Your Big Mouth
Shut" a healthy punch.
In 2006, VD King called in some musical favors from a few
friends and produced A King Family Christmas, a charity
Christmas CD that raised over $10,000 benefitting displaced musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans. Recorded over few hours
in a living room and a NJ club, A King Family
Christmas features fourteen heaping hot helpings of holiday
hits from top NY area roots artists including the spirit-swigging swizzle of Better Off Dead’s double shots “All I Got
for Christmas Was Drunk” and “Alcoholiday.”
Girls, Guns and Money, Better Off Dead's latest album is 28, count 'em, twenty eight powerful shots of tuneful Tanqueray 'n' tonic that'll have you out on a mighty musical bender way past last call and into the next morning. A triple length record, GG&M features live fave "Twister In A Trailer Park," the gritty garage rocker "Yellow Cadillac" (featured on NPR's "Car Talk"), the righteous, rootsy pop of "San Antone," and VD's loving lament on aging, "What Happened?" Additionally, there's plenty of rockin' room for "Bad Credit," a tex-mex shout out to the late Doug Sahm, and "Porn Star," a swinging tribute to the late Candye Kayne.
Like an old sponge on the counter of a musical greasy spoon, Better
Off Dead manage to sop up almost every musical influence around
them until the whole thing smells down and dirty. Yet when you wring
it out, you can't help but exclaim, "Mmm, that sure is some tasty
soup!" OK, maybe that's the wrong metaphor, or is it a simile?
Ah forget it, these guys are just plain cookin'!
Order CD's online at
CDBaby
Contact:
Garageland Records
32 West Hamilton Place
Jersey City, NJ 07302
(201) 792-6071
e-mail: vdking@aol.com
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