Lizard Skynard

I totally agree with Erik “Lizardman” Sprague. “The world needs freaks,” he states in our recent e-mail exchange. “We explore the boundaries and show people that most limits are actually false. Freaks challenge society and provide a reflection for growth and exploration.”

The area for our reflection today will be the new band that he is fronting called ‘Lizard Skynard.’ It is sort of an underground supergroup made up of guitarist/songwriter Mossy Vaughn (The Heavils), bassist Russell Gillespie (Mothertrucker), drummer Johnny Baker (Waco Jesus) and Mossy’s brother, Eric Vaughn on keyboards.

Regardless of the others in the band, the focus of the group will always swing back to the renowned freak, comedian, author and vocalist for the band, Lizardman. If you somehow haven’t heard of him, he is easy to spot with his green tattooed scales, his bifurcated (split) tongue(“I have independent control of both tongues and can do some neat little manipulations with it.”), sharply filed teeth, and the teflon ridges implanted sub-dermally above his eyes. Plus he has worked with and been in several sideshow groups, appeared at many” Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” activities and has hosted many events.

After being involved in so many potentially dangerous endeavors I had to wonder if he had ever been permanently injured from a sideshow type performance. He filled me in, “I have some scars but nothing too serious.  One of my nipples is now noticeably different than the other due to a tear while lifting a car battery.

Absolution

Over the last several years, a group of five musicians from PA (with two Indie CD’s under their belts) have caused some curiosity and commotion throughout the Northeastern US and now they’re spreading abroad. One city, one state, one hotel after another in support of the current TAPROOT tour, Absolution is continuing their DIY journey. After heavily promoting themselves in support of their critically-acclaimed EP Theory Of Existence from one side of the USA to the other, they’ve gained an impressive following. Delivering an adrenaline pumping performance night after night is just one of many reasons for the band’s continued success. Now, with the arrival of their 3rd CD, The Other Side of Nothing, we were excited we could steal away some time with singer, songwriter, Mark Wojtkiewicz.

MAXINK:  Your CD, THE OTHER SIDE OF NOTHING hits the shelves on May 3rd. Collectively, as a band, you guys are on the road, you’re pretty much going to be tour dogs until June, kicking it off for Taproot. How do you guys kick back between shows, after the adrenaline rush quiets down, or when you get to a new city? What do you do to keep it real within the group?
MARK:  We talk with each other; share the experience as a family. Through all the ups and downs, we’ve become so much tighter as a group, offstage as well as onstage.  We were driving through the Colorado Rockies on the way out, and a couple of us were sleeping, but we smacked ‘em on the head to wake them up.  There are a lot of things out here that some of us have never seen. My first time in Vegas was this last year, and everyone else, they’d never been there.  So driving in, we’d wake up everyone so we could see it coming in. 

Art of Dying

Art of Dying began in Canada, building an international following since releasing their breakout hit, Get Through This, in November of 2006.  The band, Jonny Hetherington on vocals, Jeff Brown on drums, Cale Gontier on bass and guitarists Greg Bradley and Tavis Stanley, found themselves beginning their whirlwind ride when Get Through This was selected for the World Wrestling Entertainment’s Pay Per View Survivor Series and used in a trailer to promote a podcast of “Port City P.D.”  The song is one of the official theme songs of the WWE NXT.  The band released their self-titled debut in February of 2007, and although the band has claimed that they will not release any more copies of the debut, the album is available as an import at Amazon.com.

Straight Line Stitch

There really seems to be a trend happening of having females as lead vocalists in the hard rock and the metal scene. This trend makes perfect sense considering the industry is completely saturated with males. Therefore, put a pretty face on stage for all the fans to enjoy, and if she can sing a little, that’s a bonus. Luckily, there are also a select few that just bring it. It doesn’t matter if they are a male or female because they are going to bring it night in and night out. After all is said and done, no one will be left questioning their talent. Straight Line Stitch is one of the lucky few that have a female vocalist, Alexis Brown, who breaks hearts with her smile and impresses with her voice. She definitely has the pretty face, but she also has a vocal range that hangs with the best of the best on the scene today. She has pushed the bar higher for vocalists, male or female.

Maximum Ink: Tell us a little about where you’re from and where you grew up. What type of family did you have growing up?
Alexis Brown: Basically, my family comes from a military background, so I was always here and there. My family was definitely from a musical background. My dad played saxophone, my mom sang in church, and I always knew I wanted to sing.

Divyded

Making successful hard rock or metal music today is basically about three things:
1) Music with a hook
2) Lyrics fans can feel and relate to
3) Kick your ass guitar play.

Maximum Ink was lucky enough to come across a local band that literally matched up to all of the aforementioned, even though they tell us they’ve only been together since early 2010. If you haven’t heard of them, plan on hearing their name many times in the near future. Chuck Diesel (Vocals, Guitar), Jason “Das” Radosevich (Drums) and Ryan Trainor (Bass) have formed a force to be reckoned with as Divyded.

Ari Mihalopoulos

It seems like Iowa is good at producing two things: Tons and tons of corn, and kick-ass metal bands. Maximum Ink has come across yet another of the latter in the band Destrophy. The Iowan quartet based out of Des Moines started all the way back in 2002 by highly-respected and enormously talented producer and singer/songwriter Ari Mihalopoulos. At the time Ari scouted the entire state in search of his perfect combination of musicians. After all was said and done, Ari had found Joe Fox (Drums), Eric Tisinger (Guitar), and Phil T (Bass) to complete his musical war party. Nine years, three albums and one EP later, Destrophy prepares for their second release under Victory Records titled Cry Havoc. Maximum Ink took some time to sit down with Ari and talk about their upcoming album.