Artist description Powerful combination of stupidity and lack of practice creates sometimes amusing, sometimes confusing music.

Music Style Funny goof-rock

Musical Influences Spot 1019, They Might Be Giants, Ween, Camper Van Beethoven, Dead Milkmen, Too Much Joy, Bicycle Face, Kiss

Similar Artists Spot 1019, They Might Be Giants, Ween, Camper Van Beethoven, Dead Milkmen, Too Much Joy, Bicycle Face, Anna to the Infinite Power

Artist History Started in 1994 as Reluctant Beating, a comedy duo comprised of bass and guitar. In 1996, with the addition of another bastard guitar player and a strangely dressed freelance drummer, the band recorded its first album RESEPECT AND TEAMWORK, which sold nearly 17 copies in the United States alone. The latest release, THE MONKEYLUNG ALBUM, featuring the Reluctant All-Stars, serves as a monument to how obscure a joke can be.LETTER FROM THE BAND:Our Music Pays the BillsHere at RBi headquarters, we know that time is money. And in the competitive world of Arena Rock, we?re not about to go on a frenzy of consumption, spending our fans? time frivolously. In fact, RBi spends very little if any time writing, recording and mixing our songs. And you know we pass the savings right back home to you, the Avid Fan.You see, if we are to remain America?s Favorite Band for the fifth year in a row, we have to understand basic Economics. She is our ally. Supply and Demand. They are our two closest friends, and if we had more time, we?d invite them to dinner.That?s how our music pays the bills. We write each song in less than 10 minutes, saving YOU money. Then we collect 24 of them at random (not squandering the precious moments it would take to hand-select them the old-fashioned way). We record them in a storage shed, mix them down, and publish them without time for the Recording Industry to perk an attentive ear.The savings to you, the Avid Fan? And RBi album costs about $0.78 less than the Leading Brand, The Spin Doctors.Why pay more?THE SENIOR EXECUTIVES OF RELUCTANT BEATING, INC.Dr. Barlow Jenkins, CEO.Mr. Dr. Jenkins brings 6 years of experience in operating a bulldozer into his guitar playing and singing. He also wrote the hit Alannis Morrissette song "Ironic." He hails from Carrolton, Texas, home of the Growth Stunt Massacre of 1983."To me, RBi is more than a band. It?s also a thing that you want to collect a lot of when you?re a baseball player."Wade Blanchard, Founding Father and Front Desk Manager.Mr. Blanchard comes from a family of bassists that includes standouts Flea Blanchard, Sting Blanchard and That Chick From Concrete Blonde Blanchard. His specialty, however, is singing like a little bitch."We?ll call it the World Wide Web, and people everywhere will be able to look at my ass through a special camera."Jonathan Bennett, Director of New Product Development, Head Researcher ? Hair Loss Division.Mr. Bennett played his first drum set when he was only 22 years old. He is currently conducting focus groups to determine whether or not RBi should drop its current format and just play Closing Time over and over again."We believe in music that is as easy to write as it is difficult to listen to."Charles "Breakdown" Metcalf, Facilities Manager, Director of Well-Being.Mr. Metcalf joins us via satellite from the Planet Crouton, a suburb of Cary, North Carolina. He graduated from Leslie?s Beauty College with a Masters in Psychology in 1936."I don?t think I want to be in this band anymore." Thanks again for helping to make Reluctant Beating, Inc. America?s Favorite Band four years straight.(C)1997-1999 Reluctant Beating, Inc. All rights reserved.

Group Members Kevin Jenkins: Lead vocals and guitarMatt Blanchard: Bass, keyboards and vocalsMitch Bennett: Guitar and vocalsand featuring Crazy John Metcalf as Billy the Kid: Drums and vocals

Instruments guitars, keyboards, drums, horns, subtle whispers

Albums Respect and Teamwork, The Monkeylung Album

Press Reviews RBi Makes Humorous Hit on Albumby Melissa Milios "Eggplant Dickman." "Beer Belly." "Vanilla Ice 4 Ever." "Hokey Pokey, The." With song titles like these, the Carrboro-based band RBi is not asking you to take them seriously - but the 24 tracks on their new self-released CD Respect & Teamwork do invite serious contemplation. Lines like "Rick Fox has no reflection" and "It hurts me in the side/to brush against that very sharp guy" occur at about nine per minute, sometimes the result of inspired songwriting and sometimes because "hiney" rhymes with "oil refinery." One can't help being amused to the point of blissful confusion by RBi's off-kilter humor and genre-cutting music. Or maybe genre-satirizing is a more accurate way to describe many of the songs on Respect & Teamwork, like "Surf Machines" (which includes a customized cover of "My Boyfriend's Back"), "Sharp Guy" (RBi's "hair band" track), and "Cosmo" (the Devo song that never was). The band also targets specific artists; lead vocalist and UNC senior Mitch Bennett sings with angst on "Canine Inch Nails" and gives wails Adam Duritz would be proud of in "Counting Rusty Bacon." I'm not sure if "Refried Beans" is a parod y of Bush's "Glycerine" or of Weird Al Yankovich. But Respect & Teamwork is more than just an anti-tribute album. Even with a borrowed lyric here, a borrowed tune there, RBi tackles themes the likes of which have probably never even been considered before - themes like life inside the video game, "Warcraft," the ramifications of excessive alcohol consumption, and the thoughts of a frustrated gumball machine. The best song is the epic "Island of the Dolphin People." Go see RBi live tonight at the Union Cabaret to see what it's about. -The Daily Tar Heel, November 20, 1997

Location Chapel Hill, NC - USA

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