Hammerhead
[[[image: Hammerhead.jpg|thumb|right]]Someone can probably do a better job explaining this than I can (and please do)... the band got their start in Fargo, hooked up with Amphetamine Reptile Records somewhere along the way and then moved to Minneapolis, toured like mad, released a bunch of records and broke up. Paul Sanders started a band called moreRAM (which released a 7-inch on Meat Records) and Paul Erickson and Jeff Mooridian started up Vaz.
Members
- Paul Sanders (guitar, vocals)
- Paul Erickson (bass, vocals)
- Jeff Mooridian (drums)
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- Hungness, Brannon (guitar)
- Andy Bahn (guitar)
- Joel Longtine (vocals)
Testimony Andy Bahn
Okay, let me give the rundown.
Hammerhead was an idea that was borne in the mind of Paul Erickson. But, first, I should give a little history.
For my part, it all began outside of Fargo at a party in Minneapolis in 1984. I was carrying a record of The Rollingstone's Out of our Heads. I put it on the record player and struck up a conversation with Steve Mann who was an admire of the Stones also, but an even bigger fan of The Who. By the end of the night we had decided to go buy some guitars and form a band. I was 19 years old, Steve was 18 and had just graduated from High School.
Steve went up to Moorhead State University for his freshman year where he met Paul Erickson. I worked at a Sinclair Gas Station. My guitar teacher was a book. Steve learned how to play from Paul Erickson. We met up the next summer and Steve had mastered playing with five strings on his guitar after beginning with 3 under the tutelage of Paul. I knew a few chords and scales, so we convinced a couple of high school guys to play bass and drums (Jeff Hoelscher and Rob Bernham) and started a band called The Mess. By the end of the summer we had made a recording on a cassette tape called "Skinny."
Steve went back to Moorhead and I enrolled at St. CLoud State University. Steve and Paul met Moorhead residents Paul Sanders and Jeff Mooridian and formed December's Children. The next summer Paul Erickson moved to Mpls and Steve Mann stayed in Fargo. Paul took Steve's place in The Mess's lineup and the first version of Floored was born. We played 7th Street Entry in August and a recording was made. I think I have a copy somewhere.
In the fall, Paul Erickson went back back to Moorhead and I went to St. Cloud. More December's Children (Paul Sanders goes to Madison and Mark Schroeder fills in on Bass while he's away) and a year goes by. I leave St CLoud in the spring of 1988 and move to Moorhead to join my mates for Rock-n-roll. Diddy Wah Diddy is formed with Paul Erickson on Drums, Paul Sanders on bass, and Steve and I on guitar(Jeff Mooridian moves somewhere and is gone for a time from Fargo -so December's Children days come to an end). We play all summer and as young people are want to do, dramatics happen and somehow the band disintegrates in the fall and Steve Mann moves to Mpls leaving Paul, Paul and I to form the next version of Floored as a three-piece, although we originally called ourselves "Geeks." We are just getting going until the winter and Paul Sanders and I move away from Moorhead (to Utah and California, respectively). We come back in the summer and Floored gets some steam. Many recordings are made and several shows happen that only a handful of people ever witnessed. We develop many songs and dream of making it, but we never manage to gain an audience.
Meanwhile, Paul E spends his freetime plunking around on the bass and smoking pot while talking with his good freind Joel Longtine aka Moleman. Mostly, they listen to music all day long, but over many bowls the idea of Hammerhead is born among heavy bass licks and the story of the Gremlin Brothers Roky and ROlly (Get it? Rock and Roll...). Paul is Roky and I am his brother Rolly. Jeff Mooridian is Renny and Paul Sanders is the younger brother Rummy who just gets to sit around and watch his older brothers rock. Roky, Rolly and Renny are playing in the basement and suddenly out the dirt floor emerges Moleman. Joel was a budding cartoonist and the story has a comic book plot and was talked about more than actually drawn or written. There are plans of long haired wigs and platfrom shoes (Floored was banned from Ralph's and Kirby's for long periods of time because we were too loud - thus incognito) Anyway, the culmination was a show at 7th street entry on Tuesday new band night in the spring of 1990. December's Children opened, followed by Diddy Wah Diddy, and then Hammerhead's first show. Floored closed out the night. Hammerhead was the highlight of the evening, although all bands put on great shows, although Floored's set was shortened due to personality breakdowns from a long, drunk and drug filled evening.
Let me see...more dramatics, and Floored is still going through the summer in Fargo. Diddy Wah Diddy reforms and disbands over more dramatics. Paul E is forced to move out of his small home on the North West edge of Moorhead which had been established as the practice place and late night party house. I suddenly get a sense of the futility of it all and tell Paul E and Paul S, that my time in the band is coming to a close. "Wait," they tell me, "we have a gig at the Uptown in Minneapolis opening for a band called 'The Cows!'" "Sorry," I reply, "I'm out of here." Well, the rest is history. Paul, Jeff and Paul throw together the new Hammerhead with Paul S taking my place on guitar and without Moleman on vocals. There are a few shows bringing back Moleman, but the bright lights are not for him. I observe from afar as my old friends enjoy success I once craved. It was all good times and I think we all made some great music that not many people ever had a chance to hear. Oh well, Vaz is still going strong and Paul S is playing with some guys in Mpls at the moment (Herione Sheiks - I believe). I strum my guitar in the basement a couple times a month for my six year old son and try and convince him I was once a rock-n-roll star. Who was I kidding?
-Andy Bahn
Highlights
- There was a show in the early 90s at the Elk's Lodge in Fargo that was just insane. The place was packed and the band threw down like there was no tomorrow. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that Hammerhead was involved with the wrecking-ball that took down the Elk's Lodge. -ryan
- Yes - Orange 17 opened that show and godheadsilo played right before Hammerhead. That show was pretty much the most fun I've ever had at a show. -joe
Shows
Hammerhead performs at the CBGB on July 23rd 1993, video here
== Fly 1000 ers == Derek Hess did some awesome posters for the band in 1994 and 1995.
http://www.derekhess.com/images/gallery/1994/hammerhead9402.jpg http://www.derekhess.com/images/gallery/1996/hammerhead.jpg -doug
Discography
- "Peep" 7-inch, Amphetamine Reptile
- "Load King" Tour-only 7-inch, Amphetamine Reptile
- "Evil Twin" Tour-only 7-inch, Amphetamine Reptile
- "Earth I Won't Miss" Tour-only 7-inch, Amphetamine Reptile
- Split 7-inch with godheadSilo, Oxo Records
- Split 7-inch with Halo of Kittens, Amphetamine Reptile Records
- "Ethereal Killer" Amphetamine Reptile
- "Evil Twin" EP Amphetamine Reptile
- "Into The Vortex" Amphetamine Reptile
- "Duh, The Big City" Amphetamine Reptile
- V/A "Dragon Tracks 4" MSU Music Production Class compilation
- V/A "Dü Hüskers: The Twin Cities Replay Zen Arcade" Synapse Records
- V/A "Jabberjaw No. 1" 7-inch, Mammoth Records
- V/A "Jabberjaw No. 5 Good To The Last Drop" Mammoth
- V/A "Amrep Equipped" Amphetamine Reptile
- V/A "Dope, Guns 'n' F*cking In The Streets volume 6" 7-inch Amphetamine Reptile
- V/A "Dope, Guns 'n' F*cking In The Streets volume 4-7" Amphetamine Reptile
- V/A "Amphetamine Records Sampler 1993" Amphetamine Reptile
- V/A "AmRep Motors 1995 Models Sampler" Amphetamine Reptile
- V/A "Screwed-The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" Amphetamine Reptile
