THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After a lull of 25 years, the old band got together and made an album!” say The Fastbacks. “And you know what? It turned out pretty great. Everyone played and sang their hearts out, just like the olden days. Fun and loud and proud!”
The Fastbacks were a pioneering Seattle band, formed in 1979 by songwriter/guitarist Kurt Bloch and friends Lulu Gargiulo (guitar and vocals) and Kim Warnick (bass and vocals). Their sound mixed a generally punk approach to vocals and sound textures with poppy tunes and strong musicianship.
Although these three band members remained constant, they went through numerous drummers, including Duff McKagan, later of Guns N’ Roses. MTV’s web page on The Fastbacks estimates the number of Fastbacks drummers “range from 12 to 20.” For most of the band’s last decade, Mike Musberger filled this role, but other Fastbacks drummers before him (or when he took occasional breaks) included Bloch, Richard Stuverud (Three Fish with Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament), Nate Johnson and Rusty Willoughby (Flop, Pure Joy), John Moen (Dharma Bums, Steven Malkmus & The Jicks, Decemberists), Jason Finn (Presidents of the United States of America), Dan Peters (Mudhoney), and Tad Hutchison (Young Fresh Fellows). Several of them also served as drummers in The Squirrels, a similarly long-lived band, and The Fastbacks’ sometime labelmates who bring a similar mix of strong musicianship and punk attitude to poppier material.
The Fastbacks disbanded in 2001, following Warnick’s move to the band Visqueen. Bloch, who also ran the label No Threes Records, went on to form Sgt. Major with bassist Jim Sangster (Young Fresh Fellows, Picketts), drummer Willoughby (later replaced by Musberger) and vocalist Carmella. They released a record entitled Rich Creamery Butter on Bloch’s Book Records.”
