Artist description Ska and Rocksteady in a more "traditional" vien, but leaning now and then to 60's and 70's soul and motown.

Music Style Ska, Rocksteady, Soul

Musical Influences The Slackers, Toots and the Maytals, The Skatalites, Hepcat, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding

Similar Artists Hepcat, The Skatalites, The Adjusters, The Pietasters, The Slackers, Stubborn All-Stars

Artist History This is going to come and slap me in the face, I know it is, so I'll address this first. Yes, there is a Ska band from CHIGAGO, Illinois that is ALSO called "The Stand". We were from CHICO CALIFORNIA, and as far as we know, we came up with the name first. We have local records that can attest to this, but no real proof. Anyway, we broke up in 1999 before the Chicago Stand put their first CD out, and we're not trying to make money, so I don't want to hear any complaining. If I get any emails mistaking our band for them, I will be more than happy to direct them to the proper source, since you couldn't pay me enough money to get me to play in this band again. Okay, now that we're past that point, we started out as a "for fun" band that was all work and torture for two members and a hedonistic hayday for the other two, but the thing was that we thought that we were good, so we went around Chico State and Butte College looking for more members, and we ended up with a nice round eight people. This took place between November of 1997 and February of 1998. We went into Chico State's 24-track recording studio, cut two songs and made a demo out of it, turned it in to the Brickworks (a local bar/venue) and before we knew what hit us (or had a definate lead singer, as most of the singing was done by me, but I had trouble singing and playing trombone at the same time), we were slated to open for THE SKATALITES AND LET'S GO BOWLING!! Our guitarist dragged his new-found friend from Chior class, one Miguel Higinio, along to practice one day. Miguel grabbed the baton and ran with it, memorizing all the songs with only a week and a half before the gig! We played well and, aside from our marvelous "rudeboy" suits, had the stage presence of eight frightened sheep. We went back in and recorded 3 more songs with Miguel singing them, and then scored a gig opening for the Toasters. After that, we did a string of parties and not-so great shows, kind of floundered around for a while, then we got to play with LGB again, then Monkey in late 1998. There were a handful more local gigs, notably those with Suburb'n Roots, whose guitarist and leader we absorbed by then, then we did one last gig for a St. Patrick's Day pancake breakfast for Chico State, and then agreed to call it quits. We did try to start things back up in September of 1999 because we were informed by our friend who worked at a radio station and sometimes acted as our manager that the Hippos were coming to town and that they wanted us to open for them. After two practices and no set date yet, an email to the Hippos revealed that somebody (it's still not clear who or where along the chain they sit) was bullshitting and just trying to get locals stirred up. The Hippos had never heard of us, and the only bit of Chico they'd be seeing was buzzing up highway 99 to Redding. That was the Stand. It was mostly fun, and I just wanted to get these five songs up somewhere so that somebody might listen to them and maybe like them, since we never got to release an album. There's nothing that can be done about it, though, this band will never be again, so just listen and enjoy.

Group Members Brian Jackson - Guitar/Keyboards; Miguel Higinio - Vocals/Percussion; Ryan Laine - Bass; Alan Ward - Drums/Percussion; Christopher Olsen - Trombone/Vocals; Jacob Morgan - Tenor Sax (Bass after Ryan Laine quit); Dug Warrender - Baritone/Tenor Sax; Darby Lamprecht - Trumpet; Later members that never recorded with us: Chris Simpko - Guitar/Keyboards/Vocals; Kyle (I'm going to hell for forgetting his last name) - Trumpet; John Mahoney - Tenor Sax

Instruments Vocals, drum kit, electric and upright bass, guitar, piano and keyboards, trombone, trumpet, tenor and baritone saxophones.

Albums None, just a

Press Reviews Chico Sythnesis, Volume 4, Issue 28, show review: "The Skatalites, Let's Go Bowling & The Stand The Brick Works A big name ska show is the perfect excuse to break out my zoot suit, and what better headliners than the legendary Skatalites, the ones who began it all? A capacity crowd at the Brick Works showed that, on this night in Chico, there was no finer place to be for three generations of ska to be appreciated. Some people might have been wondering who those guys were on the stage when they walked in; those people were the good fellas of The Stand, a band of local two-toners who appeared a bit nervous as the evening got underway. Their anxiety was understandable, considering who they were playing with; then a rumor made its way through the crowd: this was their first show! The Stand has only been practicing together for a month and a half, but the only vestiges of that which showed was the fact that the crowd banter from the singer seemed a little high-strung. Other than that, it was effective second-wave ska that was reminiscent of the Specials: heavy on the guitar and saxophone, drummer mixing up the beats as he went. Good ska is now available locally. Book them at your party and invite me, please. Let's Go Bowling from Fresno took the stage after a heartfelt round of applause for our local heroes. Unfortunately, Let's Go Bowling was a little disapointing. Maybe a lot, depending on how you felt that night. As one of the prime movers of the highly energetic "third wave" of ska (emphasizing fast beats and bouncy rhyrhms), Let's Go Bowling seemed flat by comparison to the neophyte opening act. Having seen them before, I can assure you that they're usually excellent; so maybe it was because they were nervous having to share the stage with the legendary Skatalites." Okay, the article goes on, but all they talk about from then on is the Skatalites, and I don't think anybody who cares to know needs any convincing that they're great. Anyway, sorry about the LGB bashing, they really weren't that bad that night, and I think the reviewer was just surprised that there was a non-punk Ska band playing in Chico. We didn't do THAT well, and my (I guess I got elected lead signer even though I sang less than half the songs) crowd bantor was horrible. I have a videotape of the performance, and if I weren't me, and I was there, I'd have told me to shut up. Also, the revier is a tad not quite up to par in reviewing Ska, I guess. The Specials didn't have any saxophones, and we really didn't sound that Two-Tone. I don't have a copy of our review of the show we played with the Toasters, I'll try and get that if anybody cares. Okay, another review from the Synthesis: Chico Synthesis - Fall 1998 issue This issue was called "A Practical Guide to Chico" and walked newcoming freshmen through the local "scene", so we got reviewed simply for existing. This is what they wrote: The Stand: Chico's only ska outfit, the future of The Stand is uncertain right now. After a short stint and few well-done shows, the band seemingly disappeared, only to resurface in our office one day to place an add in the classifieds for new musicians. We the add worked, 'cause a ska band is one of the only things this town is missing. Ouch. Thanks, guys. I never found out what they meant by "few good shows" did they mean we did a few shows, and that they were good? Or that of the ones we played, only a few of them were good? Well, by this time, we had only done like 3 or 4 gigs at actual venues, so if only a few of our shows were good, then we're looking at one or 2 out of four. Crap. I'd like to think that we were better than THAT! Heh heh. Oh well. This review was somewhat misinformed, too. We put out an ad for ONE tenor sax player, since our bass player quit, and our tenor player took over on bass. We didn't break up, and we proved it by opening for Let's Go Bowling a few weeks later.

Additional Info Some of us have real jobs now. I might not be one of them.

Location Chico, California - USA

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