Fear (band)

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This article is about the band. For the emotion, see fear.

Origin	Los Angeles, California
Country	USA
Years active	1977 – Present
Genres	Punk Rock
Labels	Slash/Rhino Fear Records Sector 2 Records
Members	Lee Ving Philo Cramer Spit Stix Derf Scratch Lorenzo Buhne Michael "Flea" Balzary Scott Thunes

Fear is a punk band from Los Angeles, California that formed in 1977 and still performs. The band started out as part of the early California punk rock scene, and gained national prominence after an infamous 1981 performance on Saturday Night Live. Throughout their history the band has included such noteable members as Flea and Chuck Biscuits.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early Years 1.2 The Saturday Night Live affair 1.3 New Line-ups 2 Members 3 Discography 4 Covers of Fear 5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early Years

Fear formed in 1977 with Ving and Derf Scratch searching for a drummer and eventually a guitarist. They received notoriety for their stage presence and eventually signed a recording deal with Slash Records. As part of the Los Angeles punk scene, the band was featured in Penelope Spheeris' 1980 documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization. The film showed them angering members of the audience with personal attacks and offbeat humor. Singer Lee Ving asked one member of the audience "This is 1980—can't you afford a fucking haircut?" The bass player Derf Scratch tells the joke: Q:"Why do girls have their two holes so close together?" A:"So you can carry them like a six-pack!" The cult classic movie included other well known acts like Black Flag, X, and The Germs.

Spheeris met Ving and drummer Spit Stix when they were hanging handbills on telephone poles. After talking with the two, she abruptly asked if they wanted to be in her film. [1] The band achieved notoriety through the movie and even attracted attention from actor John Belushi while being an unsigned act. The mixture of humor and music demonstrated in the film gave the band a unique personality, which seemed to lack in the later years with several member changes.

[edit] The Saturday Night Live affair

Their most famous performance was on the 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Donald Pleasence. The band was booked at the insistence of John Belushi who was a huge fan. Belushi initially offered them the soundtrack for his major motion picture Neighbors. The movie studio eventually forced Fear off the project and to make up for it Belushi got them the spot on SNL. Among the politically incorrect nature of Fear's songs, the band's appearance included a coterie of dancers, several of whom had been contacted for the event by both Penelope Spheeris (another avid Fear booster) and Henry Rollins (contrary to popular belief however, he was not in attendance himself); among them were Belushi, Ian MacKaye, Harley Flanagan of The Cro-mags, and John Brannon of Negative Approach, causing destruction of the set. During rehearsals the director wanted to prevent the dancers from participating, so Belushi offered to be in the episode (it had been many years since he left SNL) if the dancers were allowed to stay. [2] The end result was the shortening of Fear's appearance on TV. The band first performed "I Don't Care About You", during which, Lee sang the words "fuck you" (albeit away from the microphone) on live television. The band started their second performance by saying it's great to be in New Jersey, to which the audience booed (the show was filmed in New York). Fear then played "Beef Bologna", "New York's Alright...If You Like Saxophones," and started to play "Let's Have a War" when the audio and video of the telecast faded into commercial.

[edit] New Line-ups

After the band's 1982 debut release "The Record," Ving fired long time friend and bass player Derf and replaced him with Flea (who later joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers). Next to leave was guitarist Philo "The Foot" Cramer and drummer Spit Stix after the band's 1985 effort "More Beer." The two members cited financial disputes with Lee Ving and his attempt at acting as well as personality conflicts with Ving's "right wing" beliefs. With Fear sidelined, Ving continued his acting career in the late 1980s. Eventually, Fear completed two more recordings in the 1990s, "Have Another Beer With Fear" in 1995 and "American Beer" in 2000. While the most recent albums aim to respark the magic on "The Record," without the original members they did not achieve the success Ving hoped. The band currently performs and plays their classic songs, but Ving is the only original member. Philo Cramer has started a new band, Fighting Cocks, in 2004.

In a 2004 interview with former drummer Spit Stix, it was mentioned he would participate in a Fear reunion tour if Philo was part of it. [3] He noted, "Well, Philo and I together can overpower Lee, you know? We can be enough.... Because it used to be Philo, me and Derf too in the beginning." Stix further stated that Philo, who has a degree in physics, is politically far left and balances out Lee's far right philosophy. Without this balance, Lee's political point of view is too overwhelming to deal with on the road for a reunion tour.

[edit] Members

Fear was composed of:

• Lee Ving (vocals / guitar) 1977-Current
• Philo Cramer (guitar) 1977-1986
• Spit Stix (drums) 1977-1986
• Derf Scratch (bass) 1977-1982
• Lorenzo Buhne (bass) 1982-1986
• Michael "Flea" Balzary (bass) 1982-84
• Scott Thunes (bass) 1990s "Revival Tour"
• Chuck Biscuits

[edit] Discography

• I Love Living in the City b/w Now Your'e Dead (Single, 1978, Criminal Records)
• The Record (LP, 1982, Slash, reissued on CD in 1992 on Slash/Warner Bros. and in 2001 on Slash/Rhino)
  • The CD reissues include Fear's 1982 single "Fuck Christmas" as a bonus track.
• More Beer (LP, 1985, Fear Records/Restless)
• Live...For the Record (LP, 1991, Fear Records/Restless)
• Have Another Beer with Fear (LP, 1995, Fear Records/Sector 2 Records)
  • All three of the releases issued by Fear Records were reissued by Hall Of Records in 2001.
• American Beer (LP, 2000, Hall of Records)

[edit] Covers of Fear

• Guns N' Roses covered Fear's "I Don't Care About You" on their The Spaghetti Incident album.
• A Perfect Circle covered Fear's "Let's have a War" on their eMOTIVe album.
• From Autumn to Ashes covered Fear's "Let's have a War" for the Tony Hawk's American Wasteland soundtrack released by Vagrant Records.
• Stormtroopers of Death (S.O.D.) covered "I Love Living in the City" on their Live at Budokan album.
• Turbonegro covered Fear's "I Don't Care About You" released on their Small Feces box-set.
• Sacred Reich covered Fear's "Let's have a War" on their A Question EP and "Beef Bologna" on the Japanese version of their Heal album.
• Method of Destruction (M.O.D.) covered "I Love Living in the City" on their Gross Misconduct album.
• Blatz covered "I Don't Care About You" on the Shit Split.
• Poster Children covered "Let's Have a War" on their On the Offensive CD EP.
• Hellbillys covered "I Love Livin' in the City".
• Dog Eat Dog covered "More Beer" on their If These Are The Good Times EP.
• Soundgarden covered Fear's "I Don't Care About You" on their Fresh deadly rarities album.
• Course of Empire covered "Let's Have a War" as a b-side on their 1993 single Infested!

[edit] External links

• Fear: The official site
• Interview with Fear bassist Derf Scratch Derf remembering the early years of Fear.
• Interview with Fear drummer Spit Stix Stix recalling the band on SNL and Lee's brief acting career.
• Spit Stix chronicles his time with Fear From Spit Stix's personal page.