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In the early years of Los Angeles punk, one of the premiere hardcore bands was T.S.O.L., which stood for True Sounds of Liberty. Offering poppier music than many of their contemporaries and featuring an image that appealed to punks who wanted to dive deeper into the gothic subgenre already being offered by many British punk bands, T.S.O.L. became hugely popular on the local scene but never translated that success to national exposure because of their ever-shifting lineup and sound.
Formed in 1978 by four pasty-faced youths with a passion for the emerging hardcore scene, T.S.O.L. was originally based in Huntington Beach, CA. Featuring the lineup of vocalist Jack Grisham, guitarist Ron Emory, bassist Mike Roche, and drummer Todd Barnes, the band burst onto the local club scene with an image that included white face paint and dark, energetic anthems about alienation and troubled youth. A few members had already tried their luck with a band called Vicious Circle, so gigs in the South Bay and Orange County were easy to get despite many of those shows ending with riots that would ban them from the very same clubs. A politically fueled eponymous EP would be the band's first official release, and its emotional sound and vicious attitude were enough to ensure their standing as a major force in the scene.
Playing around California with contemporaries like the Damned and the Dead Kennedys, they managed to write enough material to finally release a full-length record. A brief visit to the studio resulted in Dance with Me, a phenomenal gothic punk record that paved the way for bands like the Misfits and the Lords of the New Church to make similar music. Finding their niche, the band began headlining major shows with young bands like Bad Religion, Suicidal Tendencies, and Social Distortion often opening. The self-described "Orange County Invasion" had begun, and they were the first band to reap the benefits of the new sound. The group moved to Jello Biafra's fledgling Alternative Tentacles label, which promptly released the Weathered Statues EP at the end of the year. Despite its melodic leanings, no one could have predicted the next step.
Beneath the Shadows was released in 1982 and blew away all the preconceived notions about the group's sound. T.S.O.L. had put out a record that equaled Meat Loaf when it came to sheer sonic pomposity but still retained their gothic punk leanings. Fans were mildly confused, but the band garnered rave reviews and was featured in director Penelope Spheeris' Suburbia documentary as a result. But internal troubles were brewing, and their ever growing popularity was tempered by the loss of both Grisham and Barnes. Pausing only briefly, T.S.O.L. trudged on with new singer Joe Wood (Grisham's brother-in-law) and drummer Mitch Dean.
The Dead Kennedys lent the band their van to tour with, and they began traveling around the U.S. with their new members. Finding that their new material reflected the growth of the British goth genre they had admired, 1984's Change Today? came out on Enigma Records with a different flair than the group had in the past. The guitars were gloomier and more focused, while Wood's melodramatic croon sharpened the whole affair into a unique L.A. goth sound. Becoming quite big in Southern California, their increased exposure began to influence the tone of the band. By the time of 1986's Revenge, a general poppiness began to creep into their sound that was more along the lines of the hard rock scene that was growing around them.
Still, excellent tracks such as "Nothing for You" (which was featured in the punk rock horror classic Return of the Living Dead) still displayed an edgy obsession with dark sounds and moods. But 1987's Hit and Run was a sudden departure for the group, seeing them adopt a persona that was in tune with bands such as Poison and Faster Pussycat. This was not only evident in the forced and awkward pictures adorning the album, but more unfortunately in their sound as well. Alienating their audience in vast numbers, Emory and Roche were clearly uncomfortable with this new direction and their contributions began to suffer because of it. Tours with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns N' Roses only emphasized the dual personalities the band had developed during this period. A live album practically documented the sound of the two sides of the band splitting, and Emory was gone before they stepped up to record their next record.
They first attempted to plug in his spot with San Diego guitarist Scotty Phillips, but he quit before they could record with him, and they eventually ended up hiring L.A. guitarist Marshall Rohner. By then a hair metal band in every way, the superficial Strange Love was met with indifferent sales and a shrinking audience in 1990, a poor fate for the ailing band. Roche was the next to go; his growing discomfort with the direction of his band sent him packing and he was the last original member to leave. To show how vastly out of the loop the band had become, a greatest-hits album was issued in 1992 with an emphasis on their late-'80s material. Proudly boasting the "evolution" of the group, the inside liner notes were a detailed description of what had gone wrong with the band but written with the exact opposite intentions. The resurgence of underground music into the mainstream would have made a collection of their early-'80s material a more sensible way to promote the band, but the lack of original members clouded any insight T.S.O.L. had into their own history.
Meanwhile, the original members had started playing shows under the less-than flattering moniker T.S.O.L.: The Original Members since Wood and Dean owned the rights. They released a solid live album under this name but stopped playing together soon after. Drugs kept them from maintaining any sort of regular music gigs, while the new version of T.S.O.L. was dropped from their label and relegated to performing clubs. By 1996, T.S.O.L. fans Slayer did the band an enormous favor and covered a few early songs for an all-covers album. As the original members began to sober up, they realized that they still had a passion for their music and there was still an audience for their brand of hardcore. Pulling together in 1999, they fought a rough battle with Wood for rights to the name until they finally wrestled it from him and hit the road with the annual Warped Tour. Barnes had passed away in the time away from the band, but the remaining members recruited drummer Jay O'Brian and released the hardcore "Anticop" single to announce their re-formation.
Nitro Records reissued the albums featuring the original lineup, and by 2001 Disappear marked the first full-length album with Grisham behind the microphone in almost 20 years. Then during a November 2002 show at West Hollywood's House of Blues with the Adolescents, two people were shot backstage and subsequently sued both the venue and band over their injuries. T.S.O.L. was later cleared of any blame surrounding the incident, but high legal fees (over $13,000 worth) kept the guys from doing any kind of extensive touring over the few years it took to settle the case. They did, however, use the time to record what would become their final record, September 2003's Divided We Stand. After two final shows at Long Beach's the Vault in the fall of 2006, T.S.O.L. officially called it quits.
from Wikipedia:
T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty) is an American punk rock band formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California. Although most commonly associated with hardcore punk, T.S.O.L.'s music varies on each release. They have also released music in the styles of deathrock, art punk, horror punk, and other varieties of punk music.
History
Formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California, T.S.O.L. originated as a hardcore punk band, developing from earlier bands Johnny Koathanger and the Abortions, and SS Cult. Later on Vicious Circle would form and T.S.O.L. would take a brief hiatus.
Featuring the lineup of vocalist Jack Grisham (who has been credited as Jack Greggors, Alex Morgan, Jack Ladoga, Jim Woo and James DeLauge), guitarist Ron Emory, bassist Mike Roche, and drummer Todd Barnes, the band's first release was a harshly political eponymous EP featuring tracks such as "Superficial Love," "World War III" and "Abolish Government."
Evolved sound
After their debut 4 song T.S.O.L. EP in 1979 and 1980 they released Dance with Me. They later signed to independent label Alternative Tentacles, for which they released the Weathered Statues 7" extended play and the Beneath the Shadows album which featured, for the first time, keyboard player Greg Kuehn.
Amid personal turmoil, Jack Grisham and Todd Barnes left the band and were replaced by singer Joe Wood (Grisham's brother-in-law) and drummer Mitch Dean. This new line-up released the album Change Today? in 1984 on Enigma Records, which continued the post-punk direction and finished this era with Revenge in 1986, which featured more polished production but still kept some punk and hardcore tunes.
Grisham has gone on separately to a lengthy recording career.
Metal experimentation
The band became friends with Guns N' Roses and T.S.O.L. t-shirts can be seen in the GNR video for "Sweet Child o' Mine", most notably on drummer Steven Adler. They followed up with an album in a similar style, titled Hit and Run. Before it was released, original guitarist Ron Emory quit the band, leaving Mike Roche as the sole original member.
T.S.O.L. were joined briefly by guitarist Scotty Phillips, who quit before the band started recording the follow-up to Hit and Run. They eventually hired former Dino's Revenge guitar player and actor Marshall Rohner. They released a blues-metal album titled Strange Love in 1990. Mike Roche quit shortly before the album release, leaving no original member in the band. A compilation album entitled Hell and Back Together 1984–1990 was issued in 1992 with an emphasis on their metal era. Murphy Karges, later of Sugar Ray, briefly replaced Roche on bass as did Josh Also.
This late-eighties lineup was popular enough to invite bookings in Brazil and Argentina, where the Grisham-led band hold no legal rights to prevent Wood from gigging as T.S.O.L. Since 1996, Wood has been joined by guitarists including Mike Martt and Drac Conley, drummers Steve "Sully" O’Sullivan and Mitch Dean and bassist Dave Mello, who joined the band near the end of its Enigma years run. Additionally, Wood has pursued musical work in Joe Wood and the Lonely Ones and Cisco Poison.
Original T.S.O.L. reform
Meanwhile, the original members started playing shows featuring the band's early material under the name T.S.O.L., often playing the same cities, the same nights as the other T.S.O.L.. Since Joe Wood and Mitch Dean now owned the rights to the name T.S.O.L., they threatened to sue the original members, who released a live album of their early material under the name "Grisham, Roche, Emory and Barnes" but stopped playing together soon after because of drug problems. They also did some gigs during this time as "LOST," T.S.O.L. backwards.
In 1996, most of the original members settled down and realized that they still had a passion for their music and that fans wanted them to reunite. In 1999, they fought with Wood for rights to the name and won before joining the Vans Warped Tour, playing for the first time in years under the name T.S.O.L.
Todd Barnes died of a brain aneurysm on December 6, 1999, at the age of 34. The remaining members recruited drummer Jay O'Brien and released the "Anticop" single and the albums Disappear and Divided We Stand on Nitro Records, the latter of which featured Greg Kuehn back on keyboards. The original T.S.O.L. recorded two more full length albums. In September 2007, Cider City Records released the posthumous live album Live From Long Beach, recorded in November 2006 on the weekend of the band's two "farewell" performances.
Their departure was short-lived, however, as they returned to perform a couple of local shows in late 2007. They also headlined the "Fuck the Whales, Save a Chckn" benefit in Feb. 2008, held to help with cancer treatment bills for guitarist Craig "Chckn" Jewett of D.I.
They are an independent band under the Nitro Records banner, which was started by Offspring vocalist Dexter Holland, for whom T.S.O.L. is cited as an influence.
In December 2008, the band, in cooperation with Hurley International, entered the studio to record Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Free Downloads which was, as the title suggests, made available as a free download through Hurley's website on January 8, 2009.
Film
In 1981, director Paul Young made Urban Struggle: The Battle of The Cuckoo's Nest, a film which features live performances by T.S.O.L., as well as several other Orange County punk and hardcore bands. Dave Markey's 1982 film The Slog Movie also features live T.S.O.L. performances. Their music is also featured in the 1984 movie Suburbia, the 1985 version of popular horror movie Return of the Living Dead, Summer Sessions (Skateboarding Video) in 1985 and Dangerously Close in 1986. They were also mentioned in the documentary Punk's Not Dead. The 1986 Billabong's legendary 'Surf into Summer 86' featured T.S.O.L. and Agent Orange on a soundtrack.
