Bl'ast
|
|
Bl'ast! were a hardcore/punk/rock band from Santa Cruz, California, California. The band added the hyphen and exclamation-point to their name in order to make it stand out from other bands of the same name. Their sound, a unique mix of bands like Black Flag, SSD and Black Sabbath, is quite hard to categorize, lying somewhere in the void between hardcore and hard rock.
Although they largely considered themselves a live band, and never felt their sound was adequately captured on record, they released 3 LP's, 'The Power Of Expression' (WishingWell, 1986), 'It's In My Blood' (SST, 1987) and 'Take The Manic Ride' (SST, 1989). They also released a 7" EP entitled 'School's Out', the title-track being a cover of the Alice Cooper classic, and also contained the song 'Your Eyes' and 'The Slave'.
Singer Clifford left the band sometime in the early 90's. The rest continued on without him, guitarist Mike Neider taking over vocal duties. They eventually changed their name to Blackout (releasing two 7" EPs under that name) and then again to Lab (who also put out a 7" EP, as well as a hard-to-find 4-song CD you could only get along with a Santa Cruz Skateboards order), continuing into the late 90's.
Bl'ast! briefly reunited in 2001, playing a handful shows on the West Coast. They were also planning to record again, but unfortunately the band fell apart before that materialized. Clifford is currently with Southern Lord (http://www.southernlord.com) recording artists Spaceboy and Neider is working on his new band Ghetto-blast.