Red Tyger Church was born in the winter of 2002 as a side project.
I sang for a Sacramento punk band at the time called The Pretty Girls with Tristan Tozer and had just gotten off a tour playing drums with the LA fuzz band The Warlocks. Other bands I'd been in were The Payback, The Minstrels, The Mean Reds, The Steady Ups and The New Strange.
When I got home I began to write some songs and recorded them on my 4 track. I was influenced by all the bands i'd been a part of as well as music i'd been listening to like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Oasis, David Bowie, the Ramones, the Who, Blue Cheer, Supergrass, Dead Moon, John Lennon, the Stooges, Fairport Convention, Allman Brothers and the MC5, as well as lots of great and rare 6ts and 7ts soul like Edwin Starr, King Curtis and Nina Simone.
I had this idea to form a family band that played heavy psychadelic music with male and female harmonies backed up by a wall of Black Sabbath-like sound.
I was in a cult at this time that was devoted to the teachings of the British magician Aleister Crowley and the strange films of Kenneth Anger. We dressed in robes, called eachother 'brother' and performed our rituals in Freemason halls.
I'd been a part of the 9ts mod/rocker scene in San Francisco for a long time working in the Marina District in the day and partying in the Mission at night and one night while at a rock club called "16", hosted by djs Omar and Jenny, I saw these awesome bands John the Conqueror with Steven and Aaron Richards and the Richmond Sluts with Shea and Chris.
Sweaty strippers, coked out trannies and pretty junkies pounded the dancefloor and all the mad denizens of the Tenderloin were there, it was like watching the New York Dolls at the Mercer Arts Center in the early 1970s. And the image stuck.
An opportunity arose after I got off tour in the form of a BrianJonestown song cover project, so i enlisted the help of my friends Tatiana and Brian from the Sacto band Daisy Spot, Curtis and Jerry from Sonic Love Affair, my friend Paula, and a talented recording engineer named AJ Willhelm. Together we rehearsed and recorded a couple of songs by BJM called "My Man Syd" and "Lantern" at the famous Hangar studio, where i combined the 2 songs into one and renamed it "My Man Lantern." This was the first incarnation of RTC. John B. from TapeOp magazine helped out and though the cover album never materialized, the project came off well. cheers BJM! But as the musicians had their own bands it was just a singular affair But now I had the songwriting bug and decided to quit my current commitments with the Pretty Girls and the Warlocks and start the Red Tyger Church as it's own entity.
The name I derived from a poem I liked by the 18th century mystic William Blake, as well as my fascination with the colour red and my desire to start a punk rock church of my own. I was really influenced by rock operas of the 1970s like the Who's Tommy, plus Calvin and Hobbes said 'people pay more attention to you when they think your up to something.'
In the past while I'd been singing for the young, loud and snotty Oakland band the New Strange, i'd developed some lame ringing in my ears and decided i was gettin old and needed to do something quick. My bandmates Jessie and Ronnie recommended a hearing aid center in Sac that made specialized earplugs and while sitting in the waiting room, the receptionist Melanie Berlin and I struck up a conversation. She told me she sang and later when I called her she sang me a Velvet Underground song over the phone. It was rad and she was good. Mel hooked me up with some earplugs and I dropped her off a tape of my 4 track songs and suprisingly she agreed to be in my band.
At a bar around that time called the Distillery, I was having a pint and struck up a conversation with this long haired rough looking dude named Sean Kehoe who looked like he wanted to beat me up and used to beat up his drums with the punk bands he'd been in The Invalids and The Upsets. He said he'd be interested to hear some songs and also would ask this guy he'd been jamming with to come over too. That guy turned out to be the John the Conqueror guitarist Steven who'd just migrated from SF to Sac.
With 3 people interested in the project, or maybe just wanting to watch a trainwreck, I rang up AJ, knowing he'd played music in a ton of bands and asked if he'd be into playing some bass. He said ok and i got them all tapes.
We booked a practice slot at Tortellini Studios run by the great band Nevada Backwards, and there the 2nd lineup of RTC was born: Mel on vox, Steve and me on guitars and vox, AJ on bass and Sean on drums.
After some harassment from us, bartender Jim at the Distillery finally gave us our first show in early 2003 and well, a band never cleared the floor so quick. People left with their fingers in their ears probably wishing they'd gone to work instead.
Despite the truth which was obvious to all those in attendance, we actually thought we had something and kept practicing and soon AJ took us into the Hangar and we recorded our first ep "Her Name is Nibiru" which was about an escaped 12th planet that is coming back in 2012 to wreak havoc and usher in the Age of Aquarius. What can I say I've listened to a lot of late night radio with Art Bell - cheers Art!
So we put out the first RTC ep with the help of the Tortellini gang. It had the BJM cover 'My Man Lantern' as well as 5 originals which were Nibiru, The Texas Beat, Angie Vampire, Cat People (sung great by Mel) and Methadone Blue - a dope sick song i wrote in a Hollywood bungalo while nursing a bottle of methadone left by Pete Kemper from Spaceman 3, I know its a wierd world.
At a show at our friend Kim Kanelos's club Old Ironsides we sold our first ep for 2 bucks, probably so we could get more Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Soon AJ became very busy, or perhaps smart, and quit the group. But to his dismay we didnt quit him.
At the time Mel had another band she sang for called the Pat Benatards that would play hilarious Pat Benatar covers at the legendary punk house The Loft and their guitarist was this smart looking chap named Chris Loental. Mel asked the unsuspecting lad what he was doing Saturday nite and if he'd like some free beer and the poor guy got roped into playing bass for us. This was the 3rd incarnation of RTC: Chris, Steve, Sean, Mel and Mike.
We started playing shows around Sacto, SF, Oakland, San Jo etc. We had an LA show but no one could do it due to work so I drove down and played it by myself with Jeff Davies from the BJM playing tambourine. Needless to say we fell off our stools and it was bad.
Despite the obvious troubles I was beginning to have the songs kept coming and soon we recorded our first full album at a studio called Retrofit with our friends JR and Tony Cale. I played a sitar and chimes, Steve played some mean harmonica and crazy leads, Sean hammered at the drums like Thor, Chris laid down some serious bass riffage and Mel belted out the songs like she was sinking in quicksand. Our friend Celeste Moreno even came in and blew her sax, Tony played some congas and I performed a Ritual of the Pentagram behind the song The Texas Beat (aka Wolves of Sunshine), you might be able to hear it I dont know. Despite our ups and downs one thing the band has always had is heart and soul.
During the recording a record label in Spain called Holy Cobra Society was interested to put out a couple of our songs on 45 but they ended up putting our song 'Angie Vampire' out on a compilation instead called 'We Hate the Underground.' It was rad to be on a comp with the band Cherry Valance.
At the same time a record label in LA called Alive Records, which was an affiliate of the legendary Bomp! Records, got interested in putting out our record and in 2004 they released RTC's first offering to the world "Free Energy."
A friend of mine who did great mod posters for SF concerts Doug Avery did the artwork and another friend and talented fashion designer Tyrus Wilson took some pics, along with Tom Davenport and Curtis Franklin. Our friends Amy, Andrea, Josh Gibson, Channa and Zephyr were our models. Mad love homies!
The album came out to pretty good reviews and we continued to play shows to support it but around this time we began to fall apart, maybe too many moths trying to block out the lone candle. I began to wrestle with old demons, our guitarist Steve left to join the killer bands SLA and the Hotwire Titans, Mel split to start DJing in SF and Chris left to play with the awesome Sacto band Evening Episode and only Sean and I were left.
Well, we still had a West Coast tour booked so we recurited our friend Josh Gibson to play bass and the 4th lineup of RTC motored on: Josh, Sean and me and our gyspy rocker girlfriend Lauren DeVine who drove the tour van like a 12 round champ.
We played some good and bad shows, I was too loaded and forgot our songs at an LA industry show hosted by our label, we got paid $20 in Portland and Canada wouldnt even let us in to play Vancouver. But it was still fun as far as I can remember.
When we got home though I was in bad shape so i checked myself into a place and the group kept on for as long as they could bless their hearts. This was the end of 2004.
For the next 2 years I played up the old and useless rock star life, soon the dream was over and I was in and out of rehabs, detoxes, mental wards, holding cells, homeless shelters or on the streets of Oak Park and South Sac doing no good and none of it music. The tour van got shot up, all the instruments got sold, the label dropped us and in the spring of 2006 i came in from the cold with nothing but the tore up shoes on my feet and the blues in my head.
But, some guy i met at a halfway house I got into gave me a beat up acoustic guitar and i started writing songs again.
Call it the drugs or my mental disease but I wanted to do a soundtrack for a rock opera i'd written while i was out there, so i got on a community computer and emailed Chris and Sean not even knowing if they were still alive or even remembered me.
To my suprise they did and they were into recording some songs again. Josh had another band now but Chris got ahold of Lauren and Steve and we all met up at Matt Erich's studio in downtown Sac to practice. It was like coming home to a warm family fire after being out in the selfish snow of loneliness.
The rock opera got put on hold but we recorded like 26 songs, often with the band just having learned them and recorded them on the third take. This became the 5th lineup: Lauren and I on vocals, Steve and me on guitars, Sean on drums, Chris on bass and Steve and Chris on keyboards. Our friend Becki Wolf came in and lent some vocals too.
The recording went well and the band wanted to take it further and play shows so Steve enlisted the help of his old JTQ bandmate Aaron Richards to replace me on guitar and him and Steve ripped it up.
I saw AJ at a cafe around that time and he wanted to work with us again too so he took us into Pus Cavern and there recorded 'Summer's Coming,' 'Submarine' and 'Miranda Jean.'
AJ took the songs we recorded at Matt's and put them together with the ones he'd done and in 2007 we self-released our 2nd album "Magic" with 18 songs. Our friend and local club promoter Sean Slaughter did the artwork, AJ and Samantha Pollock took some pics and Lauren, Jamie, Chelsea and Karen were our models.
During 2007 and 2008 we played lots of fun shows with lots of great bands and I wrote lots of new songs. We put out some songs that got left off Magic in another ep called 'The Earl King'.
Now it is 2009 and theres been some changes again but that's life right? I can appreciate it all now and thank everyone who has been part of our journey through the landscapes of our minds.
Steve and Chris have left to pursue other things, my daughter has turned 13, Lauren has moved to Big Sur and me and Sean and Aaron have decided to keep on jamming and record a 3rd album.
Brad from the awesome Sacto band Ancient Sons has come in to play bass with us and my girlfriend Karen from the old Sacto punk band NoKillI is gonna sing some on the new album and Aaron has welcomed a new baby rocker into the world and his name is Michael.
sunny joy balfour is also coming in on vocals and nate corey will be doing the album art.
We're also working on our first film which we'll post soon on the site and me and my friend Scotty Valentine continue to put out our homeless comic strips around the streets.
So that's that as of early 2009, the world has got the blues and it needs its music makers more than it knows so dont you even think of giving up. Get out there and add to or support your local scene as Sac is a real special place.
We hope you like this website, our friend and awesome fashion designer Tracy Mitchell has put it together - cheers Tracy!
So thank you for all your continued love and support and we look forward to bringing you our 3rd album and playing for you again soon whether it be live or on a dusty old record long after we're gone.
In Love and Light,
Mike/RTC
