Artist description Power pop with a penchant for sensationalistic expressions of love with reckless abandon.

Music Style Kissinger is a Pop Juggernaut

Musical Influences The Cars, Archers of Loaf, Faces, Beatles, Joan Jett, The Kinks, The Clash

Similar Artists The Cars, Beck, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Cracker, Green Day, Blink 182, Filter, Stone Temple Pilots

Artist History Front man, Chopper spent his teens in Oregon, obsessed with jazz, playing trumpet and double bass. After high-school, he moved to Texas then DC, going to school and making his living playing bass until, at 19, he latently discovered punk rock and alcohol. He left school and wandered back to Texas where he worked the graveyard shift at a truckstop in Denton. He played drums in the legendary country-punk band Cornhole and bass in a Dallas metal band. Fans knew him for his captivating drum solo played with corncobs, and his penchant for drinking beer from a gasoline can. In 1994, an old band mate, Matthew Scannel, lured him back to DC where he traded the corncobs and gas cans for a three-year stint touring and recording as the original bassist for Vertical Horizon (RCA). After the band secured their deal in 1997 Chopper left to form Kissinger.He moved to Austin, picked up the guitar, pulled off one of the strings (plays 5 strings only still) and wrote an impressive catalog of pop songs. He met up with old friend in drummer o3 (short for Otto Von Foxrock III) and they began interspersing trips to the bar with trips to the rehearsal room. O3’s many years spent as a metal drummer in LA proved a solid backdrop for the streamlined pop songs. The two posted an ad answered by bassist Lucky, who was fresh off a European tour with the punk band Choreboy, and Kissinger played their first show in the summer of 1998. After cutting their teeth live, the trio found producer John Croslin (Pavement, Guided by Voices, Spoon), and recorded a self-released 7” single: Consider Bridgette. The song received local radio play, and quickly earned the band a following. Croslin signed Kissinger to his newly conceived label, WCI Records, and they began recording.The album was a labor of love. Poverty limited studio availability, and there was no way to predict when someone else’s cancelled session would afford some precious hours for Kissinger. “I lived like a fireman,” recalls Chopper, who temped as a librarian and secretary during the two years that it took to record Charm. “I’d get a call from Konrad (Croslin) at work, drop everything and be at the studio an hour later in full office garb. We’d record until seven the next morning, then I’d splash water on my face and go to work in the same clothes I’d left in.”As the album crept somewhat odorously toward completion, Kissinger matured. Croslin, who fronted The Rievers, lent his stage experience, playing guitar with the group for nearly a year before moving to San Francisco, where the album was mixed and mastered. When he left, he introduced them to Steve Garvey a songwriter and guitarist whose own band, Girling is also slated to be a WCI artist. Garvey, who was already working on the Kissinger project as an engineer, quickly made the guitar parts his own, and the current cast was set. The four-piece played a SxSW 2000 show to a packed crowd that flowed into the street, and since then has toured Texas relentlessly including playing a sold-out show opening for, ironically enough, Vertical Horizon. In August 2000, while Croslin mastered the album in San Francisco, Kissinger filmed a video for “Rock n Roll Asshole.” The video, directed by Chris Roldan, was featured at the NxNW Digital Shorts Festival in Portland, OR, and will be included on Charm, viewable on home computers with a CD ROM drive.As the album’s release date nears, Kissinger has two showcases under its belt, a critically acclaimed video for “Rock n Roll Asshole,” and a burgeoning collection of fans, ready to be charmed.

Group Members Chopper [ front ] Otto Von Foxrock III [ back ] Lucky [ bottom ] Steve Garvey [ science ]

Instruments Vox, guitar, bass, drums

Albums Consider Bridgette 7"; Charm

Press Reviews Sometimes you come across a record by accident that is so good, so "of the moment" that you know, in some small way, this record will be one that will define a particular moment in time in your mind. Well, this record is one of those. Kissinger isn't really doing anything new; they are, however, taking the best parts of all that is "right" with indie/underground/whatever these days, and making it their own. Consider Bridgette is straightforward pop cheese, but in a good way. Imagine Sloan, if they were from Austin, Texas instead of Canada, and were not as concerned about the quality of the recording, as they were playing for the hell of it. Yet while Kissinger doesn't care, they still make better pop records than 95% of the bands out there. The B-side, Testostoner, shows a more experimental, abrasive, yet strictly pop side to Kissinger. Top it off with a questionable "live" recording from Germany, Rock & Roll Asshole, and you've got a reason to start buying seven inches again. Like I said before, Kissinger isn't reinventing the wheel, but who cares. If it is this easy to make rock and roll sexy again, then why the hell isn't anybody else doing it? One to watch. (Chip Lundy) - Pop Squealer

Additional Info Video for Rock n Roll Asshole

Location Austin, TX - USA

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