Ugly kid joe

Early History (1989-1991)

Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eychstadt showed interest in music while they grew up in Palo Alto , California. In 1989, Eychstad joined Crane’s band in Isla Vista, California, after two demo recordings with another fellow countryman, record director Eric Valentine. After several changes of the group members, the team was formed from Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lara and Cordell Crockett.

The group received the name 'Ugly Kid Joe' (Russian freak Joe) as a parody of the Los Angeles glam group Pretty Boy Floyd (Russian Handsome Floyd), but only for one night show in Santa Barbara with Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd decided not to participate in the show and cancel the performance, but the group decided to leave the name 'Ugly Kid Joe'.

The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Their emblem was the painted incarnation of 'ugly baby Joe' in a baseball cap backwards and showing the middle finger. Experienced by Black Sabbath , Ugly Kid Joe recorded covers for several songs by this veteran group, including “ Sweet Leaf ” and “ NIB. ” The group performed several tours in the United States, organizing their second tour in support of Scatterbrain and later performing as the opening act for the former Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne .

The band released their mini-album, “As Ugly As They Wanna Be,” in October 1991 , gaining success in 1992 with the single “Everything About You,” which reached number three on the UK singles chart, making it one of the top ten. Later that year, the song was used in Wayne's World (Wayne's World). In the United States alone, over a million copies of As Ugly As They Wanna Be were sold, making it the best-selling debut mini-album of all time.

Commercial Success (1992-1996)

The group spent 2 months in the studio recording America's Least Wanted. During the recording process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical disagreements and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992 . Judas Priest Rob Halford was a session vocalist for Goddamn Devil. The group accelerated the process of recording their album to get the team's place to warm up on Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears tour. In the end, the group took part in the tour, but only Crane flew several times to Los Angeles to complete the editing of the album. The album was completed with one exception. The cover, as it seemed to some music chain stores, was too aggressive towards American conservatives, because it depicted a “freak” in the pose of a statue of liberty showing the middle finger with his raised hand and holding a porn magazine instead of declaring independence in another. The group decided to make an alternative cover with the band’s mascot gagged and chained to symbolize that it was a “cleaned version” of the album.

America's Least Wanted appeared on the US charts on the 27th line with 600 thousand copies sold at the time of release. The album received gold status in Canada and Australia, silver in the UK and became platinum in the United States. A cover version of Harry Chapin ’s song “Cat's in the Cradle” was subsequently released by the well-received single, which was sold in more than half a million copies only in the United States and at the peak occupied the seventh line of the UK singles chart.

Later, the group continued the tour with the opening act of Ozzy Osbourne and later for Def Leppard in the European part of their tour, tickets for which were sold out in six weeks. The group also took part in the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards . The group also spent 3 weeks performing in Australia and Japan with concerts, all tickets for which were sold out. Ugly Kid Joe received the Reader’s Choice Award for Best New Artist according to voting results in Metal Edge and Raw magazine.

At the 1993 American Music Awards , they presented the Best Metal / Hard Rock Band award to Metallica . There, the group was nominated as "Best New Metal / Hard Rock Performer", but lost to Pearl Jam .

After a tour in support of the 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the group sought a replacement for the drummer as Mark Davis left them in search of life away from the spotlights. They tried new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez, who played only in a cover version of Black Sabbath's NIB song in an album called ' Nativity In Black ' dedicated to the same group. He also performed with a band in Brazil at the 1994 Hollywood Rock Festival as headlining artists along with Aerosmith , Poison, and others. After attending a Souls at Zero concert in Colorado, Crane was impressed by the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later invited Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe, and Larkin agreed. The group soon wrote some new songs and went on a short tour called 'Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour' with invited Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger . Larkin's contribution led to a dirtier sound on Menace to Sobriety's second album, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded at the Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.

The band went on tour in support of this album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour, performing as an opening act for Bon Jovi and Van Halen . The group excluded “Everything About You” from the list of songs in order to show fans their fresh material. At a concert at Wembley Stadium in London, the band was invited to the stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack Osbourne in front of Black Sabbath's "NIB".

Menace to Sobriety received a lot of praise from the press and fans, and the British rock magazine Kerrang! "Rated him as a contender for the title of the album of the year. Despite a successful foreign and European tour, the album received little encouragement from the record company Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.

Being abandoned by Mercury Records, Ugly Kid Joe formed their own independent label, Evilution Records, to release the band's next album. Supported by Castle Communications label distribution, Motel California was released in late 1996, and the band again went on tour in Europe for small parties. The tour was called "Tour - Late Departure", emphasizing the group's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album that lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as “heavy, funky and has everything in it,” initially got a little warm reviews and sold poorly, although it has gained little popularity recently.

Decay and consequences (1997-2009)

Ugly Kid Joe broke up in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while vocalist Whitfield Crane took the lead vocalist in the New York rock band Life of Agony , whose former singer Kate Caputo left the band in 1997. After his quick breakup with Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on new projects called Medication (1999-2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006-2009).

In 2005, an unreleased clip for the song “Bicycle Wheels” was posted on the Ugly Kid Joe website forum. An official Myspace page was created in 2007. Old photos of the group, various promotional materials were published on it, the footage was also uploaded and another previously unreleased clip “Sandwich”. Some of the other footage included footage from a performance at the University of California Santa Barbara campus prior to receiving the contract. Soon the videos were uploaded to YouTube by fans, some including live recordings from their concerts and television recordings. At the same time, the band’s homepage contained live recordings and rare songs, including the CUST demo and several tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.

Reunion (2010-present)

In December 2009, Klaus Eishtadt, in an article in the German edition of the metal magazine Metal Hammer , stated that Ugly Kid Joe members intended to reunite in the summer of 2010, although they did not say whether they intended to release a new album or just to get together. However, rumors of reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also states that the reunited roster will be the same as the last one before they disintegrate.

In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, the new album was completed. He told about the state of this album in an interview with The Bone 107.7 California radio at the Mayhem festival, saying: “This is a fun band, it's fun, you listen to these songs and they make you laugh. Just a rock band for a good time, you know. ”

On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band’s official Facebook page that said he was on 107.7 The Bone radio a day earlier and played a new track called “Love Ain't True,” and said that a mini-album of 6 songs was mixed and completed. According to the official website, “there is also an EPK in the works and the most recent recording of the sessions along with other rare, old excerpts from the interview, post-performance material, and live performances.”

The new Stairway to Hell mini-album was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while a physical version appeared a month later, on July 9. To promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support group for Guns' N Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, as well as Alice Cooper on his Raise The Dead tour in October 2012.

Ugly Kid Joe began a joint European tour with Skid Row in October 2013, starting in Southampton , UK.

• Official site
• MySpace official site
• Official Facebook site