These photos of Sick & Wrong are from when the band played live at the Fantagraphics Warehouse September 20th, 1992. I have to admit, the first time we listened to Sick & Wrong's debut single "Wesson Oil" in the 10 Things office (AKA my old apartment on The Ave), I didn't get it and gave it a bad review. Then I saw the band live and holy shit... costumes, dildos, nudity, and the songs were actually really funny. We actually re-reviewed the single in the next issue to give it the praise it deserved! "Wesson Oil" became mandatory on the playlist at every party, we'd have a room full of drunk people singing along (although this was not really an uncommon occurrence, but "Wesson Oil" is a GREAT party song).
The band formed in 1990 and seemed to have a somewhat rotating cast of musicians (Adam, Johnny Abortion, Muddy, Static and Jim Anderson among them), but always up front were Farrah and Mr. Wendy (with her trademark strap on dildo). Two brushes with the media help propel Sick & Wrong's popularity. The first came one night at The Storeroom Tavern when a BBC camera crew, in town to get some footage on "Seattle's Grunge Scene" caught the band live and were blown away. When they were later filming at Sub Pop Records, they asked owners Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman why Sick & Wrong weren't on their label. It must have seemed like a good question, because a few months later Sub Pop put out their debut "Wesson Oil" single. The band's second brush with the press was when Sick & Wrong became the inspiration for the band featured in Peter Bagge's comic "Hate," published by Fantagraphics. "Hate" centered around a lazy grunge kid named Buddy who lived in Seattle in the '90s. Buddy managed a band very much like Sick & Wrong. Bagge ended up doing the cover art for their first album when it came out on Vagrant Records.
The Sub Pop and Fantagraphics connections, along with the outlandish live show, helped Sick & Wrong have a pretty good run for probably six years of releases and live shows. Mr. Wendy and Johnny Abortion went on to be in the band Rot13 for many years, and today Mr. Wendy can be found skating as "Elle Incarnate" for Rat City Rollergirls 2007 champions Grave Danger.
3 comments:
Yeah! It was a good time. free beer and cheap rent... all I really needed then. But now that I'm running for office, I formally request that you cease and desist publishing any evidence of our existence. This blog over-exaggerates what "might" have happened at a private gathering that was NOT a pubic event.
I hope you are running under the Wesson Oil party! All formal cease and desist requests should go to our massive team of lawyers, but I seem to have misplaced their contact info, I'll have to get back to you.
Sick & Wrong's CD "Hot Beef Injection" is still available on Vagrant Records of Seattle Washington.
Who woulda thought Static had Political Ambitions? (gasp!) That really is Sick & Wrong!
Post a Comment