Drunken Bastards

Drunken Bastards

Started in:	1995
Started By:	Darrell Clark - Guitar, and Jerf - Drums
Based In:	Louisville
First show:	Llamapalooza in July of 1998 at the New Albany Ampitheater
Band Members:	Darrell Clark-Guitar (1995-2001), Jerf-Drums (1995-2001), Graeme Springer-Bass (1999-2001), Fitz-Vocals (1999-2001), Matt Ramone-Bass (1996-1999), Fargon-Vocals (1998-1999), Leroy Spectre-Vocals (1996-1997), Drew Watkins-Bass (1995), Eric Walker-Vocals (1995)

Drunken Bastards were a catchy old-school punk rock band with vicious, in-your-face, and sometimes offensive lyrics in the vein of, (both musically and lyrically), GG Allin & The Murder Junkies and The Dwarves.

Since the beginning in 1995 until the end in 2001, the Drunken Bastards had pretty much a revolving door of bassists, vocalists, and even a couple second guitarists over their 6 year existence. With an almost perfect record of getting kicked out of every practice space we played in due to loud music and general drunkenness. And always ended up going into a forced hiatus every few months after losing a practice place, and usually having to replace the vocalist and bassist after every hiatus. And there was a rule that they would always practice drunk, (or at least drinking).

The lineup history, as best I can remember it: 1995: The original lineup (which lasted only a few months) was Jerf on drums, Darrell on guitar, Drew Watkins on bass, and Eric Walker on vocals. We practiced a few times in a rental storage space alongside local punk band Charisma Society (which Darrell and Drew were also members of). This would be the beginning of the Drunken Bastards' long history of sharing band members with Charisma Society. We lost storage shed rehearsal space because of the loud music, and lost Eric and Drew as well.

1996 - 1997: Reformed with Matt Ramone on bass and Leroy Spectre on vocals, (both also with Charisma Society. And let it be noted that Spectre had the distinction of being the only sober member of the band ever). We started practicing again for a few months in an old school that had been converted into band rehearsal studios. Then get kicked out of there because of a party we had where a friend of the band got drunk and destroyed some shit in the building. We practiced every now and then at various people's houses, but lost Spectre somewhere during this time.

1998 - 1999: Fargon joined on vocals. We practiced at a few different people's houses, but ended up getting kicked out of all of them for loud music and drunken behavior. During this time we played our one and only show ever: July 1998 at Llamapalooza, (which was a local Punk band festival put on in New Albany, Indiana). We weren't even on the bill for the show, we all just happened to be there that day and played on borrowed equipment. Sometime in 1999, we lost both Matt and Fargon.

1999 - 2001: Fitz and Graeme Springer's band Perilous Derelicts split up and both join Darrell and Jerf in what would be the last version of Drunken Bastards. We started practicing at Graeme's apartment until he lost his lease. We went on hiatus for a few months and reformed in late 2000 with the same lineup and started practing at Mom's Music in Jeffersonville, IN. Several rehearsal recordings were made and things were going very well for once. A set of 13 songs was ready, plans were made to start playing out and get some studio recordings done, and eventually tour. We even had King from Hellstomper lined up to do guest vocals on a cover of the David Allan Coe tune "Three Biggest Lies" that we were planning on recording, and we had a good shot of getting on the bill at the 2001 Confederacy of Scum Supershow in South Carolina. Then everything pretty much fell apart really quickly around April of 2001. A couple of band members were struggling with drug and drinking problems (hard to imaging that happening in a band called Drunken Bastards), which lead to one member eventually going to prison, while another ended up in AA. Another had a new family to support. After the last lineup fell apart, there was some talk of reforming the band with different members, but nothing ever materialized. There was also an attempt to put out a fake live cd in late 2001 on Drew Watkins' label Capitalism Records Incorporated using rehearsal recordings from 2000. Vocal overdubs were done and crowd noise was edited in, but the project fell apart before any mixing could be started and the songs were never released.

Members

• Darrell Clark - Guitar (1995-2001)
• Jerf - Drums (1995-2001)
• Graeme Springer - Bass (1999-2001)
• Fitz - Vocals (1999-2001)
• Matt Ramone - Bass (1996-1999)
• Fargon - Vocals (1998-1999)
• Leroy Spectre - Vocals (1996-1997)
• Drew Watkins - Bass (1995)
• Eric Walker - Vocals (1995)