专辑简介

The band was formed in the mid-70's while some of the members were attending college in Ohio. In 1976, after playing the bar circuit in Dayton and other Midwestern cities, the Freelance Vandals moved to New York to pursue its larger and potentially more lucrative music scene. In 1978, the band was signed to RCA records and recorded a full length album which was eventually shelved and remains unreleased. In 1979, the band recorded a pair of singles on their own Dog Record label as their reputation based on their frenzied live performances and original songs began to grow. Their single, "Last Call for Alcohol", in particular, garnered extensive radio play on college stations across the United States. During this same period, the band's single, "Holiday", was featured in the Rate-A-Record segment on the popular teenage dance television show, Dick Clark's American Bandstand, and, in the time honored tradition of such things, was rated as "having a good beat 'cause you can dance to it!" Several regional tours followed as the band performed as the opening act for such artists as NRBQ, John Hiatt and Dr. John. Over the next several years, there were personnel changes within the band as they added a saxophonist and broadened their musical range with hints of jump blues and swing jazz. In 1984, the band released a well received live album, "Yer Money or Yer Ears" which received positive reviews in such publications as Creem Magazine. The group disbanded shortly after the release of the live album due to the band's lead vocalist, Johnny Pierre, experiencing problems with his voice. Over the next 10 years, the band reunited for a series of reunion concerts. In the summer of 1996, the Freelance Vandals returned to a regular performance schedule and released "Songs That Never Made Us Famous", a compact disc compilation in celebration of the band's 20th anniversary of making music together. After two years of shows, The band disbanded once again and returned to performing occasional reunion shows. In 2016, the Freelance Vandals celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the band with the release of the anthology album, Vandalogy: Demos & Studio Tracks 1976 - 1981.