MENACE TO SOBRIETY
official biography, released in 1995 by Mercury Records NY, USA, written by Geoff Barton

Whitfield Crane - Vocals
Cordell Crockett - Bass
Shannon Larkin - Drums
Klaus Eichstadt - Guitars
Dave Fortman - Guitars

Ugly Kid Joe are back - and they've grown up. It ain't a pretty sight...or sound, for that matter.
The band first signed to Mercury Records in mid-1991 - their advance was $60,000. Back then, the Ugly Kids very much lived up to their name; they were little more than a bunch of zit-encrusted surf brats from Santa Barbara who got their kicks playing Black Sabbath cover tunes at college parties. At a Concrete Foundations Forum showcase in Los Angeles later that same year, one reporter noted how Ugly Kid Joe acted "like a bunch of punk kids at a party...they play dirty, smelly street funk, but don't pose 'cause they don't know how."
On their debut mini-album As Ugly As They Wanna Be (released in the Spring of 1992), the funked-up track "Whiplash Liquor" summed up the UKJ approach in a vodka-soaked nutshell: "Suburban white alcoholic trash/We ain't Glam and we ain't Thrash/We're victims of a society/That fucks with me about sobriety." And therein lies Ugly Kid Joe's appeal. Writing songs and sipping Bud from behind closed garage doors, they freely admit to being "typical American upper-middle class suburban kids" whose idea of rebellion is to total dad's Chevy on a drunken rampage and then spend six month working in McDonald's to pay for the damage. Indeed, when the 'Joe first started out, they were likened to a cross between Bill and Ted's outfit Wyld Stallions and Spinal Tap. And, as lead singer Whitfield Crane says "We're not about to pretend we've grown up in the gutter, because we haven't. But at the same time, we ain't fabricated. We've grown up with our share of shit." Way to go dude!
The roots of the band go back to Northern California in 1989, when UKJ guitarist Klaus Eichstadt asked his mate Whitfield Crane to sing on a demo he was recording. At the time, Whit was vocalisin' in another group which also featured drummer Mark Davis. The three of them decided to put a new band together and recruited college kid Roger Lahr as second guitarist. Bassist Cordell Crockett joined in early '91, thus completing the line-up that recorded the As Ugly As They Wanna Be mini-album.
And the band's name? Well, legend has it that they guys were once offered the chance to play with cheesy glam rockers Pretty Boy Floyd - and came up with the malefic moniker Ugly Kid Joe to take the piss! When the dumbfuck anthem called "Everything About You" was lifted from As Ugly As They Wanna Be and released as a single, it all began to happen very quickly for Ugly Kid Joe. On one hand a sneering, signaling nursery rhyme, on the other a spoof on those sex metal ballads you used to hear all time. "Everything About You" sold a million; the mini-album twice that number. Ugly Kid Joe were on their endearingly obnoxious way - but at what price?
While enjoying their new-found success, the Ugly Kids wanted to be known as more than just another bunch of West Coast bleach-hags. Purposely, they began to distance themselves from "Everything About You", branding it a novelty hit and urging people to check out the full Bubblegum-Funk-Thrash-Rap-Pop-Metal picture. As bass player Cordell Crockett said in May 1992: "I've worked hard at playing bass since I was twelve. I'm now 27, I'm really not into this frat-party image of the band anymore."
The band's first full album, America's Least Wanted, surprised a lot of people. Released in the Autumn of 1992, ...Wanted impressed with its solid slabs of humorous, hyperactive rock ("Goddamn Devil", "So Damn Cool") and more considered '70s-tinged jingly-jangly numbers like "Busy Bee" and "Mr. Record Man." With guitarist David Fortman (formally of LA grungester Sugar Tooth) replacing Roger Lahr, Wanted had a bigger set of balls than anyone would have thought possible. Suddenly, UKJ were much more than some stupid beach town bar band with cut-off shorts and airhead expressions...
Following the release of America's Least Wanted, the Kids worked their Ugly butts off. A bunch of no-nonsense, shit-faced suburban terrorists - with Whitfield Crane in particular - having developed a delightfully demented stage persona - they were soon dubbed "the best crap band in the world." Rejoicing in this dubious accolade, they traveled around the world twice, playing with the likes of Def Leppard and Ozzy Osbourne along the way, finally finishing up in Australia in October 1993. Time to take stock and pick up a few pieces. Drummer Mark Davis quit the 'Joe to get married and the band played the "Hollywood Rock" festival in Rio in January 1994 with temporary replacement Bobby Fernandez (ex-electric Love Hogs) beating the skins.
Returning to their homes in Santa Barbara, the band spent some time enjoying the fruits of their labors: "Getting apartments, buying our first television, our first stereos, things like that," said guitarist Klaus Eichstadt. "Now it's time to look back, feel good about things, start writing some new songs." And time to start looking for a new drummer. After various fruitless and frustrating auditions, Whit decided to take a break. Snowboard in hand, he traveled to Vail, Colorado, to carve powder in some newly-fallen white stuff. It was to prove a fateful trip. While hangin' with the grommits and gapers at a local venue in Vail, Whit came across a band called Souls at Zero and was impressed with their drummer Shannon Larkin (ex-Wrathchild America). The club's promoter started talking to Whit and got him to jam with the band on an AC/DC track. After the show, Whit suggested that Shannon travel down to Santa Barbara and try the UKJ drumstool for size. As it turned out, it could have been made for him.
Renting a ranch miles from anywhere in Santa Ynez, California - a reputedly once owned by Dean Martin - Ugly Kid Joe spend the remainder of 1994 laying down tracks fo their second full album, an unwitting Oliver Reed tribute entitled Menace to Sobriety (released June 13, 1995).
With producer GGGarth Richardson (Rage Against the Machine, Melvins) at the controls, Whitfield Crane proclaims Menace to be "really fat and heavy with killer melodies." He ain't far wrong. Gold Top single "Tomorrow's World" (released May 22, 1995) sets the slambang scene: massively memorable as in-your-face as a shattered pinta, it's a whole wide world away from "Everything About You" - and Ugly Kid Joe wouldn't want it any other way. Whether it's on religious rabble-rouse "God", the snarling "Suckerpath", the mega-menacing "10/10" or the curiously colossal "Oompa", Whitfield Crane comes across less of an Ugly Kid and more of a hideously deformed child of Satan. Spitting out the lyrics with more venom than a baskeful of cobras, Whit is ably backed up by an incredibly chunky rhythm section and some of the nastiest, most aggressive guitar work head this - or any other - century. All the credit to producer Richardson, show has concocted a sound as thick and bloody as a 16 oz. American steak waiting to hit the barbeque coals.
With the wistful "Cloudy Skies" and the super-sensitive "Candle Song" providing much-needed respites from the ongoing dementia, Menace to Sobriety shocks, stuns, amazes and entertains in equal measures.

Ugly Kid Joe haven't just grown up, they've come of age. There goes the neighborhood.

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