Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
Group Members: Ben Weasel, Robert Blake / Erik Petersen, Dr. Bob
All Music Guide:
The Vindictives were one of the many groups to perform poppy punk rock in the underground throughout the '90s. They began their career in 1991, cutting their first 7" record later that year with the lineup of Joey Vindictive (vocals), Johnny Personality (bass), Billy Blastoff (guitar), Dr. Bob (guitar), P.J. Parti (drums), and Erik Elsewhere (drums). The band would end up releasing 12 albums until July of 1996, when Joey Vindictive revealed that his health issues would prevent the band from going on. Luckily for him, he overcame his ailments to re-form the band in 2000, cutting a new album and overseeing the re-release of a significant part of their catalog.
Wikipedia:
The Vindictives were a Chicago-based punk rock underground group during the 1990s. They were peers with Screeching Weasel and other bands from the era, they were also heavily-influenced by the Ramones. Joey Vindicitive's characteristic nasal melodies often told the story of alienation, psychosis, social-ills, and continually rejected rules of politeness. Intertwined with sweet intricate contrasting harmonies it made for an interesting balance. Also the band mixed metal, rock blues and early punk rock roots so as to make their own hybrid sound that would influence bands to come such as Green Day, Blink 182 amongst others. The lyrics were often intelligent outrages communicated through intentionally immature self-defeating soliloquies.
History
They began their career in 1991, cutting their first 7" record later that year with the lineup of Joey Vindictive (vocals), Johnny Personality (bass), Ben Weasel (guitar) (soon to be replaced by Billy Blastoff), Dr. Bob (guitar), and Erik Elsewhere (soon to be replaced by P.J. Parti) (drums). The band would end up releasing 12 EPs and albums until July 1996, when Joey Vindictive revealed that his health issues would prevent the band from going on.
Guitarist Robert "Dr. Bob" Nielson died of a heroin overdose on February 22, 2003. After Dr. Bob's death, The Vindictives released a pair of records containing material previously unavailable on CD and two new re-recordings; Muzak for Robots which was recorded and performed by Billy Blastoff solely with instrumental versions of their songs and Unplugged with acoustic versions.
The Vindictives' song "The Invisible Man" was covered by Ghoti Hook on their cover album Songs We Didn't Write.
The Vindictives' song "In the Corner" was covered by Apocalypse Hoboken on their Inverse, Reverse, Perverse.
In 2004 Billy Blastoff left the Vindictives of his own accord took a year off music joined Lucky Savage in Chicago, Il as their drummer eventually forming the Gornys and switching over to bass in 2005 eventually renamed the John Doh's in 2010 and currently on hiatus.
In 2006, Shot Baker and Vacation Bible School released a limited edition of 500 pressing Split 7" on Chicago's Underground Communique Records featuring The Vindictives' "Future Homemakers of America", "Glad to Be", "Assembly Line", and "Automoton".
In 2006, Joey Vindictive and Johnny Personality start to demo material under Joey Vindictive & The Personality Crisis. To this date, no material has ever surface but has been reported in vein of Queens of Stone Age.
In additional to possible new material surfacing, Joey Vindictive launched a new theatre art program called The 19091 Gallery Theatre with long time girlfriend, Jenny, and band mate, Johnny Personality.
In 2011 Billy Blastoff joined Magatha Trysty a culmination of power pop and punk rock sensibility http://www.magathatrysty.com as Bass player.
In 2011, Joey Vindictive revamped the official website at www.vindictivesmusic.com allowing any user to download all previous released, as well unreleased material, of the Vindictives, free as long as you become a registered user on the website's Forum.
