U.S. Chaos

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U.S. Chaos
U.S. Chaos - First American Oi! Band
U.S. Chaos - First American Oi! Band
Background information
Born 1981
Origin New Jersey
Flag of the United States United States
Genre(s) Hardcore Punk
Streetpunk
Oi!
Years active 1981 – 1987;
1995 – present
Associated acts The Front Line
The Radicals
The Chosen Few
Fahrenheight 451
Johnny and The Barflys
The New York Violators
The Pickles
The Undead,Blanks 77
Members
Jack Gibson
Rene "U.S. Chaos" Wasted
Glenn "Spikey" Maer
Allan "Skully" Skolsky,Rene Wasted
Former members
English Ron, Brian Daily, Eddie Enzyme, Mark Beers, (Frank) Buddy Vern, H.C., "Hotshot" of The "NY Violators"

U.S. Chaos are an American hardcore punk band from New Jersey, formed in early 1981.

Formed from the remainders of late 1970s punk rock group The Radicals, U.S. Chaos created the first legitimate streetpunk or Oi! style bands in The United States. The band was originally based in Passaic and Bergen counties, New Jersey. U.S. Chaos is one of few punk bands of their time to author, produce, record as well as publish music with an ironic as well as satirical, overzealous pro-American stance, both in lyrical content as well as attitude and some histories of rock music dismiss Oi! as racist. "You never know what they're going to do with your music once it's released to the public." Said U.S. Chaos founding member Gary Reitmeyer.

Their first release was We've Got the Weapons. This vinyl EP is highly collectible and has been priced in the range of $500.00 at the highest time of an offer, during the 1990s in goldmine magazine per early Ebay and Bleecker Bob's record store in New York City.[1]

They are considered extremely controversial with a non-politically-correct approach for their time in the early 1980s. They loved to taunt and harass their audiences with military marching cadence, air-raid sirens and polyphonic sound assaults, before going on stage that were "likened to the propaganda rallys in the 1930's created by Germans". They often employed bodyguards with loaded sidearms. Audiences appeared in the thousands regularly, at many venues looking for trouble: the most historic being The Ritz with The Exploited and in 1983 at The Showplace 1984 in Dover, NJ with Iron Cross several times in Washington DC.

U.S. Chaos has played constantly with constituent groups, at venues that hosted legendary performances. CBGB's,Ritz (rock club), in New York City in the 1980s The Pepermint Lounge, Great Guildersleves, The Noname, The 9:30 Club, A-7 Club with bands Kraut, Cro-Mags, The Worst, Iron Cross, Major Conflict, Black Market Baby, The Exploited, Discharge, 999 and a host of other infamous musicians of the era.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] The Front Line

Made up of members that eventually form The Radicals. The known members consisted of Gary Reitmeyer, Glen Mayer (both U.S. Chaos) and other members from Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. They held together for a short but consistent amount of time until their parting, shortly before forming The Radicals in 1979.

[edit] The Radicals

In 1979 members of the band The Front Line disbanded to move onward. Members Alex Kinen and Gary Reitmeyer formed The Radicals, an endeavor which lasted until about 1981. Afterwards, Alex Kinen moved on to form Cause For Alarm, which would later become New York hardcore supergroup Agnostic Front. Meanwhile, Gary formed the band U.S. Chaos.

[edit] U.S. Chaos

U.S. Chaos had been writing songs and rehearsing in the basement for months, but never playing out, in 1981, when their singer (Ron) quit and they needed a replacement. Jack Gibson asked Allan Skolsky if he wanted to be in a punk band. He knew of U.S. Chaos but had never seen them play. Skolsky had listened to a few songs that they recorded during practice on a portable tape deck a few weeks earlier and thought they were pretty good. At first he declined, but when Gary asked him again, Allan agreed to try out. The audition was unimpressive, but due to lack of interest (no one else tried out), the band took Skolsky on. That's where U.S. Chaos started to really come together.

It was the winter of 1982-83 and we practiced and wrote a few more songs and in March of 1983 we were asked to play at a party at Aldo's Hideaway in Lyndhurst, NJ That was our first gig. The lineup was Skully on vocals, Jack on bass, Gene on the drums, Gary on guitar and Brian (HC) on the other guitar. Steve Hotshot from the prominent group The New York Violators soon joins. Oh yeah, let us not forget Freddy L. our manager for years and years.

[edit] 1987: The Chosen Few

After Gary's departure from U.S. Chaos in order to focus on his career, the only original member of the band was Skully. With that, the band decided to change their name to The Chosen Few and write new material. This change coincided with the end of the first wave of US hardcore punk, with many bands changing their sounds or calling it quits altogether. With The Chosen Few, U.S. Chaos lived on, albeit in a different form.

[edit] The 90's to present-day: reunited

In 1992, U.S. Chaos decided to do a "reunion gig" at a party. The band continued this tradition every year until 1995 when they decided to fully bring U.S. Chaos out of hiatus. Marty Munsch took over as the band's manager during this period. This led to several more releases for the band and several appearances in movies. From 1996 to 1997 the line up was Gary guitar, Jack bass, Spiky drums and Skully vocals. They then kicked Spiky (Glen) out of the band AGAIN and convinced Eddie Enzyme, whom also had played in Fahrenheight 451 and former Misfits member Bobby Steele's band The Undead, to rejoin and that's where they stand today. The band continues to exist and release new material into 2007. Unfortunately, in 2007 Gary passed on. Prior to his death, he recommended Buddy Vern Backseat Driver,Cherry 13,Crash Street Kids, 25 PILLS to fill his place. U.S. Chaos will resume theie normal performance schedule as of September 15th. 2007 at THE MEATLOCKER, 8 1/2 Park Street, Montclair, New Jersey at 8:00 PM EST. The Current lineup is Jack- Bass, Skully- Vox, Spikey- Drums, Buddy Vern- Guitar. It has also been known that during Gulf War I and Gulf War II the entire discography has been played numerous times on Armed Forces Radio. Military personnel have regularly spray painted the band's name upon demolished and destroyed enemy targets after battle siege; photos have been sent to the band as proof.

[edit] Discography

  • We've Got the Weapons EP (1983)
  • Eye For An Eye / Don't Wanna Live 7" (self-released, 1984 - later reissued by punkcore records) [1]
  • Complete Chaos LP (1996)
  • You Can't Hear a Picture LP (Punkrockrecords/Razorwire E.U., 1997)[2]
  • We Are Your Enemy - split 7" single with Portland, Oregon's Statch and the Rapes Remixed and Mastered by Marty Munsch Rel. 1999, Punkrockrecords.[3]

[edit] Compilation appearances

  • Stinkbox Records Compilation LP (1996)
  • Pins and Skins CDLP (1996) [2]
  • Punk Dwellings: New York's Finest Vol. 1 CD - songs "For Being You" and "Last Call For Alcohol" (Dwell, 1996)[3]
  • No More Heroes: A Tribute To The Stranglers song "Shut Up" (Elevator Music, 1998) [4]
  • Broken Bones And Power Chords Vol. 1: New York's Finest CD songs "For Being You" and "Last Call For Alcohol" (Crosscheck, 2005) [5]
  • The Punks EP (Punkrockrecords, 2007)

[edit] Filmography

  • Pariah - movie soundtrack inclusion (1996)
  • Punk's Not Dead - movie soundtrack inclusion (2006)-(Susan Dyner)
  • All Grown Up The Movie[6]- A documentary movie soundtrack, full inclusion, lengthy verbal video interview (2006) - (Andrea Witting)
  • Love and Bullets - movie soundtrack inclusion (1999)-(Matthew Brown)

[edit] Members

  • 1982 Gary guitar, HC (Brian Daily) guitar, Jack bass, Spiky drums, Ron vocals
  • 1982 Gary guitar, HC guitar, Jack bass, Gene drums, Skully vocals
  • 1983 Gary guitar, HC guitar, Jack bass, Spiky drums, Skully vocals
  • 1984 Gary guitar, Jack bass, Spiky drums, Skully vocals
  • 1984 Gary guitar, Hot Shot guitar, Jack bass, Spiky drums, Skully vocals
  • 1984-85 Hot Shot guitar, Jack bass, Spiky drums, Skully vocals.
  • 1985 Gary guitar, Hot Shot (Steve) guitar, Jack bass, Eddie Enzyme drums, Skully vocals.
  • 1986 Gary guitar, Mark Beer guitar, Jack bass Eddie Enzyme drums, Skully vocals.
  • 1986 Gary guitar, Mark Beer guitar, Jack Bass, Jade drums, Skully vocals.
  • 1987 Mark Beer guitar, Gary guitar, Tim Taylor bass, Jade drums, Skully vocals.

U.S. Chaos Reunited

  • 1996 - Gary guitar, Skully vocals, Spiky drums, Jack Bass, Spiky drums.
  • 1997 - Skully vocals, Gary guitar, Jack bass and Eddie drums.
  • 8.30.07 - Present Skully vocals, Buddy guitar, Jack bass, Spike Changes place with Eddie Enzyme. The lineup currently consists of 3 founding members.

[edit] Others

  • Freddy L. - manager during first incarnation
  • Marty Munsch - Band manager from 1995 to present.
  • Matthew Brown filled in on drums while drummer Eddie Enzyme seriously injured his hand.
  • Rene Wasted, guitarist of punk band Blanks 77 is Gary U.S. Chaos' younger sister and is a full time contributing member of U.S. Chaos.
  • Jack Gibson, U.S. Chaos' bassist, is the owner of "Mad One Jacks", a prominent hair salon, in Hoboken, New Jersey

[edit] Related bands

[edit] References

  1. ^ The production of the E.P. with recording and printing by Ross Eliss, at the time cost them an unheard of $5,000.00 in 1983, setting a precedent for future bands. The second to be released, was the Kill The Killers b/w Suicide that immediately sold out.
  2. ^ LP (Punkrockrecords/Razorwire E.U., 1997)
  3. ^ "Blame It On Sam"Remixed and Mastered by Marty Munsch Rel. 1999, Punkrockrecords Reviews in RazorCake Fanzine

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Chaos"
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