The Joneses (band)
The Joneses were an American punk rock band from Southern California, United States. Founded in 1981 by guitarist and singer Jeff Drake and professional skateboarder, Steve Olson. The band included numerous players over the years with Drake being the only consistent member The incarnation of the Joneses that was voted "Most Loved Band" in the 1983 L.A. Weekly Reader's Poll included, in addition to Drake, Scott Franklin Cramps, Paul Black LA Guns & Johnnie Sage Christian Death[1]
The Joneses | |
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Origin | Southern California, U.S. |
Genres | Rock, punk rock |
Years active | 1981 - 1991, 1994 - Present |
Past members | Jeff Drake Steve Olson Steve Houston Mitch Dean Scott Franklin Johnnie Sage Paul Mars Black Ron Emory Johnny Nation Mike Sessa Mike Occhiato |
[2]Background
The Joneses' first seven-inch, 45 rpm single was "Criminals in My Car" b/w "Jonestown". They next released a pair of songs, "Graveyard Rock" and "Pillbox", on the 1982 BYO Records compilation, Someone Got Their Head Kicked In. The EP, Criminals, was the Joneses next released recording. Hell Comes to Your House Volume 2, included the two Joneses tracks: "I'm Bad" and "She's So Filthy". The BYO compilation was made up of predominantly hardcore bands. Even though The Joneses style differed greatly, they were still included because then guitarist Steve Huston was in a number of early Hardcore bands before that. The Joneses ended up receiving more hate mail than all the other bands combined got fan mail. Their only full-length LP Keeping Up With, was released by Doctor Dream Records in 1987. Although the record was promoted to be released in July 1986 and popular on college radio stations, legal delays kept the album from being available until well into 1987. Jeff Drake and a new incarnation of the band recorded a demo for RCA Records that was passed up and ended up becoming the Tits and Champagne EP, released in 1989 by Trigon Records. It was around this time that a band from Boston wanted to use the name "The Joneses", Drake settled out of court over the rights of the name, and for a brief time Drake's band was known as "The Hollywood Joneses".[3]
After serving a three-year prison sentence for bank robbery, Drake reformed another incarnation of The Joneses and recorded the Anita Fix EP in 1995 released by Cabeza de Tornado Records. A compilation entitled Criminal History, was released by Sympathy for the Record Industry in February 2000, it is a 20 track retrospective of The Joneses' recorded material. The Criminal History compilation caused a resurgence in popularity in the late 2000s, as a new generation of fans were introduced to the band. All of The Joneses previous albums were re-released by Full Breach Kicks starting in 2006. The songs "Big Boy" and "Pill Box" [4] were featured on two different Season 2 episodes of the MTV show Nitro Circus, "Hydro Circus" (episode 2) and "Mud and Guts" (episode 6), respectively.
Music videos
A music video was recorded for the song "Black Cat Bone" in 1987, but was never finalized and released.
References
- "The Joneses Halloween 1984". YouTube. Retrieved 24 September 2002.
- "Nitro Circus".
- "You'll Have to Alter Name to Keep Up With Joneses : Litigation: Orange County band signs away moniker to Boston-based group for a 'considerable' cash settlement". Los Angeles Times. 15 February 1990. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PuxnS187D8zRDyKPGoxxD?nd=1