Date Bait "I Split on Your Grave" 1990

Once upon a time, a dude named Kim Kane spent 15 years playing in a popular garage band called The Slickee Boys. (Popular, that is, in Washington, D.C. and parts of Germany.) In 1987 he approached Brian D. Horrorwitz with the idea of starting a new side band…
...The 2 things they both agreed on was that the group had to: 1. Be "fun", and 2. Have no socially redeeming value whatsoever. They succeeded. Thumbing through the "Psychotronic" encyclopedia of movies, Horrorwitz jokingly suggested the name "Date Bait" (if you've ever seen ‘em you know why it was a joke), saying it would help them meet more girls. A short time later, when quitting The Slickee Boys, Kane told local papers about his new band Date Bait. Not having ever officially agreed on the name, Horrorwitz and the other band members were stunned to read this announcement in The Washington Post and other local rags! Oh well, looks like they were stuck with it! Their first ever gig was a Halloween party on October 30th, 1988, at a very cool little shithole club called D.C. Space. I mainly remember their early gigs as being a chaotic menagerie of drunk go-go girls, streams of thrown toilet paper, balloons, glitter, "Silly String" and lots of fake blood. Not to mention some of the best damned garage punk I had ever heard! Usually the stage was too crowded resulting in the singer Gutterboy slipping on some fake puke or something and knocking Horrorwitz's flimsy drum kit over. Often the inebriated panty-less dancers would fall down in their mini-skirts treating those in the front to a free little peep-show. Most local clubs wouldn't let the band gig there unless they agreed to clean up after their set was over. Their Halloween shows were unmatched, with on-stage spook shenanigans, bizarre costume contests, and screenings of short horror movies between sets. On average the band and dancers would get paid about $100 a show. No, not each person, that's TOTAL. Early on the boys were reportedly fronted a tidy sum to record an LP / CD for France's New Rose label. For some reason they thought they could get away with spending only a smidgen of the bread on the actual recording, and save the rest for their own use. No one really knew what the hell they were doing, least of all the studio technician! The best cuts on their debut release were the ones hastily mixed whenever the studio guy would leave the mixing room to take a dump or whatever! Well, the low-budget low-fidelity recordings were shipped off posthaste, the guys assuming that the label would "bump-up" the sound in the mastering. Nope, no such luck. "I Split On Your Grave" was issued as was, with the added coffin-nails being that the CD version had 2 wanky "bonus" cuts that never shoulda' been heard by ANYBODY, and that the cheap bastards at the label screwed up Kanes' beautifully ghoulish color cover artwork, printing it instead as a sorta' 2-color urine-looking dayglo thang. Not wanting to become kings of the cut-out bins, the band has since attempted to make sure all their later records sounded raw and rockin', the way the good lord intended. In 1991 a lot of material was recorded for a follow-up LP, but the curse of the first would follow them around like a fowl-smelling body odor, making it difficult for anyone not having seen them live to believe that these losers could really rock-out! Hard to believe, the same debut slab of smegma was reissued on a Japanese label without the group even knowing about it until a Japanese fan mailed them a copy! (They're pretty desperate for things to reissue in Japan it seems.) Tired of shopping around demo tapes and recording at "professional" studios whose engineers were weaned on Toto, Kane and company formed their own Maryland based DeCeased label. Their attitude was "Rock-N-Roll is DEAD, but WE DON'T CARE!" (echoing the sentiments of an old Rubinoos song), and often their 45 labels proudly stated this. "This is Maryland music!" they exclaimed, letting the rest of the world know that just ‘cause they were stuck playing in a sceneless city that couldn't freakin' enjoy themselves if everyday was freakin' Saturday at freakin' Disneyworld, they were still gonna tear it up!! Most recordings were made in makeshift basement studios that allowed them the freedom to experiment a bit. After 4 years, singer Gutterboy decided to chuck it in, so Horrorwitz was the natural replacement, what with him knowing all the lyrics. Little did he realize as he scrawled out the lyrics to "Goin' Nowhere Fast" back in 1990 that this unknowingly prophetic title would ring all-too-true. In their time Date Bait have released 2 CDs (1 is also on LP), 6 singles, 1 VHS videotape, and been on numerous compilations. They've opened for Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Cramps, The Fleshtones, Wreckless Eric, and have even played twice on The White House lawn! Yes, Date Bait was the band every Washingtonian had heard of but never heard! - A FEW NOTES ABOUT DATE BAIT'S START AND RECORDINGS ~ by steamed musicologist Dr. Penis
Date Bait's Line Up:
Kim Kane ~ Rhythum Guitars, Lead Guitars, Electric Sitar, Keyboards, Back Up Vocals / Brian Horrorwitz ~ Drums, Percussions, Effects, Back Up Vocals / Gutter Boy Baiter ~ Lead Vocals, Back Up Vocals / Jeff Zang ~ Bass, Keyboards, Mellotron, Back Up Vocals / John Stone ~ Lead Guitar, Back Up Vocals / Karl Straub ~ Lead Guitar / Lustina "Animal" Gulledge ~ Back Up Vocals on "Animal Man"

trax:
01 I'm Outta Here 02 Evolution Revolution [Lancelot Link and the Evolution Revolution cover] 03 Poker Chips [White Boy cover] 04 Didn't Know I Loved You [Gary Glitter cover] 05 Bog Baby 06 Skull Diggery 07 Crawdaddy Simone [Syndicats cover] 08 Strange Movies [Troggs cover] 09 Master Race Rock [Dictators cover] 10 I Got a Right [Stooges cover] 11 Graveyard Stomp 12 College Kids 13 Snakeskin Summer 14 Master Race Rock [Dictators cover] 15 Do Anything You Wanna Do [Eddie & the Hot Rods cover] 16 The Pagoda Mystery 17 'Till the Following Night [Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages cover] [bonus track] 18 Animal Man [Kim Fowley cover] [bonus track]