Banzai Fuzz Kings
The Banzai Fuzz Kings were a punk band formed in 1987. The band consisted of Kenny Miller, Vernon Walker, and Craig Green. Vernon was dating Kenny's sister when they decided that they were to start a band, they brought Craig Green in on vocals.
They're first album First Fuzz (Bad To Worse Records 1988) had a solid punk sound, with such songs as "Cigs", "I'm Back", "Black Harvest" and "I Know". It had Craig on Vox, Kenny on guitar and bass, and Vernon on guitar. The Banzai Fuzz Kings didn't have drums, they felt that they really didn't need them. After the release of this album, Craig enlisted in the military, leaving the band as a twosome.
Kenny and Vernon continued with the follow up, Sophomore Jinx (Bad To Worse Records 1989) which showed the band's sound already evolving, they still had songs with the original punk sound like "Just Say No" and "Misunderstood" but they strayed from that sound quite a bit, mostly with the abundant instrumental tracks, but also with the metal song "Metal Man" and the much slower "Now That I'm A Man" which ponders "Now that I'm a man/I really don't understand/how I'm suppose to feel". Sophomore Jinx had Vernon and Kenny rotating on instruments with Kenny doing most of the vocals and Vernon doing most of the guitar work, and bass and piano were distributed between the two. Craig was still credited as part of the band on this album.
1990 was a big year for The Banzai Fuzz Kings, both good and bad. The early part of the year had the band releasing a concept album titled $uckcess (Bad To Worse Records 1990) which told the story of metal band from Bad Axe, Michigan named Glaze, and their rise to and fall from fame. $uckcess showed the band straying even further from their punk roots for a more poppier punk sound with songs like "Tinsel Town", "Knife In My Back", "Road Home", and "Succe$$". "Mr. Worm" showed the band's experimental side. $uckcess showed the return of Craig Green who played bass on "You Can't", this album would serve as foreshadowing for what was to come for the band.
Later that year the band released their fourth full length album Must Be Stopped! (Bad To Worse Records 1990) which showed the band were completely distancing themselves from any of their punk roots. The first half of the album is full of ballads such as "Dog Patch" and "Not The Same" and full fledged pop songs such as their minor hit "Brand New" and "Crazy Me, Crazy You", the second half of the album was littered with strange instrumentals and cover songs and the poppy "I'll Be Your Monkey" sang by Kenny's sister. The band was finding minor success with this album and the lead single "Brand New". Internal problems followed after this album as Vernon and Kenny's sister broke up and Vernon released his first solo album.
The internal problems increased as the band released their third album in 1990 and their fifth full length titled V: Damn Good Coffee (Bad To Worse Records 1990). "Over The Wall", the first song on V: Damn Good Coffee opens up with...drums, this album found the group adding a drum machine to their recordings. V: Damn Good Coffee also brought a new guitarist to the group named Calvin Cook. After this album's release Vernon left the group and joined the military, and Calvin and Kenny formed the acoustic band The Dumb Waiters.
The band got back together for a short time in 1992 and were rumored to be working on their 6th album which was going to be titled Upside The Head and it was going to bring the group back to their punk roots, but the internal problems persisted and the group broke up for good before it's completion. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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