Epic History
The Band History
A photo Essay by Matador
The Planets aligned on a day in September and one of the most Epic Bands in music history was forged (yeah right). Fight Music removed the mythological punk rock sword from the granite stone defined as the Chico music scene and proceeded to wield it high above their heads. A blood curdling howl rang out in the valley as the ground began to rumble. Erik, Matador, And Logan Stood upon the highest mountain in the Land and began shredding. The Rock was so epic that Animals scattered, women swooned and Destruction ensued. And then Logan broke a string.
I remember returning to Chico after Living in Washington for a year looking to start a new band and being denied hard. I jammed with 2 different drummers that I used to be in bands with and they were over it. I had no band, no girl and no prospects. Then I got an E-mail form a dude named Pete. He and this other guy had practiced a few times and were looking for a Bass Player. I had nothing going on and was pumped on the idea. The place was near my house and I showed up and Logan was drinking. We jammed on some Jaw Breaker cover and one of his songs and drank beers. Beers+ Punk Rock I was in and part of band #7. We practiced at Logan’s mom’s house in a vacant apartment below Logan’s apartment. I think this lasted well until our first show on Halloween in my back yard. We played like 8 songs and drank many kegs. Right after that the neighbor called the police and we could no longer practice in the vacant apartment. We rented a practice space out by the Chico Air port and soon after had our first real show at Off Limits in Chico Ca. We had not decided on a name yet and had various lists of crappy names when we decided on Fight Music. I made a flier and the next day we all decided that we should be called Formerly Known As. I was down and thought Fight Music was kind of lame too.
In 2006 we played pretty consistently at bars in Chico and started not sucking, although we still kind of sucked. We played on Logan’s B-day that year and got a terrible review from Dirty Uncle Brad from the band Gruk. It was our first review and we were pumped until being compared to a turd Sandwich. Ironically 2 years later Uncle Logan would replace Dirty Uncle Brad and join Gruk (Uncle Stage names are really that popular?). The next summer we recorded for the first time in the hills of Chico with Dale Price. He had mastered one of my old bands albums and just built a new studio. I had the money and we did like 15 songs in 22 hours. I was a studio Nazi and we rushed through all the songs and did the vocals in 2 hours. The Sound quality is still decent but the performances are pretty rough. Within a month we had “We don’t Like us either”. That got us a bunch of shows and we played pretty often for the next year. We switched practice spots for the biggest one they had and shared it with 2 longhaired dudes who were in the drummers other band. The Rent would be cheaper because there were more dudes (yeah right). We had practicing conflicts and all sorts of bull shit and were nearly evicted from the practice spot.
I rented a 2 bedroom house in the summer of 07 near Train Tracks on the outskirts of Chico so we could ditch the practice space. There was a gunsmith, a recording studio, and the house, Later the gunsmith had a kid and shot out the recording dude’s speakers and got deported back to France. Peter Something said he was going to quit unless we changed our name back to Fight Music so we did. In the Summer of 07 Fight Music went back to Dale to record another CD except Logan had the money this time and we were all paying him back. We took our time, but the sound quality is way worse for some reason. Thousands of Dollars and three months later we had “Say Uncle” which we didn’t do anything with. There were tensions in the studio and 2 months later Peter something quit the band to travel to Europe. So Logan and I needed a new drummer a month later we got Chris. We never really got that tight and Chris didn’t really play punk rock. On St. Patty’s day of 08 Chris and his Chilean friends came over and we got trashed on Irish Car Bombs. He got a DUI and quit the band. We had no drummer and were bummed. A month later we practiced with Erik and he already knew 3 songs. We had the perfect drummer and played all over Chico and beyond.
We recorded Poster Boys for Birth Control from December 08 to February of 09 and took our time and it turned out great. Then about a year later we decided to make another album on our own and I bought a bunch of recording shit. We kinda rushed through it to get it ready before going on tour in April 2011 and it didn't turn out so well. In april of 2011 we had never go full retard or recorded in logans apartment. Then we went on a 3 week tour through texas and other states and had fun. We decide to add a second guitarist named sam when we got back. We played a hand full of shows and then Erik Shunn quit via text message. We had a month of non jamming and Erik quit. The vibe was gone and I wanted to go back to a 3 piece so Sam was out also. We tried out some dudes and found Mike a 41 year old nurse (pretty punk rock). We just had our first show and are approaching year 7 (I have no life). So if you actually read this I commend you. Fight Music is stronger than ever and ready to rock a city near you Erik Shunn come pick up your Drums ITS BEEN FOUR MONTHS.
Keep Rocking,
Matador
