Death Sandwitch is the latest sensation out of Iowa, a band that combines edgy lyrics with minimal production to create a sound unlike anything you've ever heard before....unless, of course, this isn't your first encounter with the Sandwitch.
Death Sandwitch originated as a quartet consisting of Ralph Marson on guitar, Crowbar on vocals, Louis "Fruity Lou" Fruitson on percussion, and Dru Manchu on bass. But the story of Death Sandwitch actually begins before the band even existed.
Ralph Marson was a struggling guitarist still living with his parents at the age of 28. His first band (The Ralph Marson Endeavor) had failed to catch on, and he was unable to pay his child support bills and gambling debts. To earn some kind of income, Marson ended up taking a job a grocery store in the small Iowan town he grew up in. Things were looking bad for Marson.
"That wasn't the happiest time of my life," Marson admits. "I did some heavy drinking to ease the pain."
But Marson had no way of knowing at the time that his life was about to change forever due to a chance encounter with a celebrity whose work Marson was already familiar with.
Dru Manchu had been an American icon in the 1970s and early 80's starring in such famous porn flicks as "Anus of the Apes" and "The Dick And Dyke Show," among many others. But the porn industry, it turns out, is a harsh mistress.
"By the mid eighties, I was pretty much yesterday's news," Manchu recalls. "They were looking for young penis and I simply didn't qualify anymore. It's a shame really."
That's when Dru Manchu picked up the bass for the first time. It was love at (however many times Manchu had seen a bass before) sight. For Manchu, the move from a porn star to a basist was a natural one.
"Sex and the bass have a lot in common," says Manchu. "Both are all about keeping a rhythem."
Manchu provided bass lines for a number of famous acts over the years, but most of them will deny it if you ask them now. Few want to be affiliated with pornography, but it's safe to say many of these same bands would never have made it without Manchu's skill.
One day, in 1998, Manchu took a brief vacation and found himself in what was essentially the middle of nowhere: northeast Iowa. He found a quiant little hotel room and decided to go shopping for some beer and girlie magazines at the local grocery store. While Manchu had been out of the spotlight for awhile, the old time celebrity did not escape the notice of a certain struggling guitarist and grocery boy.
"I was a porn buff," Ralph Marson laughs. "Not because of the sex itself, I just see it as a form of art. A form of art with a lot of sex. Dru saw it the same way and I guess that's why we naturally clicked."
Marson was hesitant to approach Manchu, but in the end decided it was an opportunity he couldn't afford to pass up. He was even more amazed when it turned out the two of them had even more in common that just porn: they were both also into music. Marson invited Manchu back to his parent's house to jam out for awhile, and the result of these now-lost recordings was a huge success and the foundation for what would become the underground funk sensation The Blowing Buffalos.
Not wanting to be associated with his past failings, Marson adopted the moniker Dr. D Funk. The pair added a drummer to the mix, an old friend of Marson's from high school named Louis Fruitson. Fruitson was quick to abbreviate his name and soon enough was simply known as "Fruity" Lou. By the end of the year 2000, the trio had released their first and only EP, which was self-titled. The album never achieved any mainstream success, but it did garner quite a cult following.
"I was just some guy working in a grocery store," Marson says. "All of a sudden, people were recognizing me in places I'd never been before. It was all a little daunting."
Though the trio was proud of what they'd accomplished, it soon became apparent that not everyone in the band wanted to labelled a "funk" band.
"I just felt we were capable of so much more," Manchu insists. "Ralph liked the band the way it was, and for awhile, that was that."
Fan favorites such as "I Just Got Off the Funk Train" and "The Axe Body Spray Song" made their way onto commercial radio, but the band still saw very little profit falling into their pockets.
"It was the age of Napster," Marson recalls angrilly. "I mean, bands like Metallica were complaining about people downloading their music, but then they'd go back to their mansions and their luxuriant lifestyles. Meanwhile, music downloading really hurt the Blowing Buffalos."
That was true for a time. But all things, it seemed, had a purpose and singer/song writer Crowbar just happened to download "I Just Got Off the Funk Train" and knew right away that he had to work with the guys.
"Back then, downloading was legal," says Crowbar. "It was one of the few legal things I was doing. How the fuck do you think I earned a name like Crowbar?"
It was true. Crowbar had a history of crime. Like Marson and Fruitson, Crowbar was from Iowa. Shortly after his graduation, he'd found himself in jail for attempting to steal a guitar from a small-town music store. Shortly after that, he was arrested again for cocaine possession. By 1999, Crowbar was out of prison and had decided that it was time to turn his life around. That same year, he worked on a couple of projects: a freestyle rap group known as Tha Hott Doggs, and an underappreciated Death Metal outfit known as the Zebras. To soften his convict image, he briefly joined the world famous boy band CrazyNLove, but the more experienced boy-banders were not happy with his bubblegum lyrics about dildos and masturbation. By 2002, it was clear Crowbar was a man who would never have a soft image. That same year he would approach Ralph Marson and Dru Manchu of the Blowing Buffalos.
"We liked his style," Marson tells us. "You know, he sang about things that were gross but also kind of erotic."
"Crowbar wanted to work on a side project with us," Manchu recalls. "He'd been impressed with our music. That was how it began. But what was intended to be a side project grew into something else entirely."
There was still an on-going battle between Manchu and Marson about whether the group should have remained a funk band or not. But all were agreed that the side project would take a different direction.
"It was just a side project," Crowbar recollects. "No one took it too seriously and as a result it turned out to be pretty funny."
That studio session was productive and several definitive tracks came out of it, the most important of which was a strange new take on Dio's "Holy Diver."
"We went a different direction with that song than Dio did," Marson says proudly. "Most of the song was actually pretty awful, but there was one moment where it all came together beautifully. Moments like that are what makes coke worth snorting."
We're pretty sure he was just kidding about that last part, as there is no evidence to suggest any members of the band were on drugs. Unfortunately, before the side project could even be completely finished, tragedy would strike. Louis "Fruity Lou" Fruitson would die of a drug overdose on January 3rd, 2003. It was a combination of heroin and morphine and wine coolers that finally did Fruitson in.
"That was quite possibly the worst day of my life," Manchu tells us. "In addition to Fruity Lou dying, I could not seem to get my hair combed that day. It was bad."
With Fruitson out of the picture permanently, it no longer seemed appropriate to keep performing as The Blowing Buffalos. Ralph Marson and Dru Manchu decided to welcome Crowbar into the band as a permanent member. The new trio eventually settled on the moniker Death Sandwitch. Marson decided he no longer wished to go by Dr. D Funk, since it quickly became obvious to all concerned that the new band was not going to be a funk band at all.
"The Blowing Buffalo fans were outraged," says Marson. "Frankly, I was a little pissed myself. Crowbar had some interesting ideas, but the Buffalos had always been my band and at this point there was this struggle for creative control. At this early stage, no one really said anything but everyone felt it."
The group did not yet have a drummer, but were eager to continue their work on their first album. Among the first songs penned were "Pussy Melody" and "Love Is Nirvana," a loving ode to both the band Nirvana and to an ex-girlfriend of Crowbar's.
In the summer of 2004, Death Sandwitch went on their first world tour. However, they did not receive a warm reception from the indie rock world and most of the shows they played were not exactly high profile. Since the band was not yet finished with their first album, throughout most of the tour, they played covers of songs by the Frogs or Guided By Voices.
"We would do shows at 3:30 in the morning at crappy all night diners with no one to listen to us but a janitor and a chain smoking waitress," Crowbar recalls. "There were definitely times when we wanted to quit, but thankfully we stuck it out."
The tour was not a complete failure. Marson finally earned enough money to move out of his parent's house and Manchu ended up getting into a drunken brawl after a late night show which ultimately cost him his eye. The new patch might not have been good for Manchu's vision, but his new look definitely intrigued the one or two fans the band had at this point in their career. After wrapping up the tour, the group returned to Marson's new apartment studio and resumed working on their first album.
"After the first tour, things really got ugly and I'm not just talking about Crowbar," says Manchu.
Indeed, what was merely uncomfortable before was downright vicious now. Crowbar had been fronting the band throughout the tour, and Marson was furious about what was rapidly becoming (in Marson's opinion) the Crowbar band.
"I would write songs too," Marson insists. "A lot of them didn't make it onto the album, and the ones that did were the ones Crowbar wanted to sing himself."
Indeed, Marson had penned "Sweet Tasty Delights" but it was Crowbar who took center stage on that track. Other tracks had Marson on vocals, but never made it onto the album. Some noteworthy tracks that Marson fronted include the Gwar Cover "Baby Raper" and Marson's own "Sundae Skool," both of which would surface later that same year on a b-sides release.
By the end of the summer, Death Sandwitch had wrapped their first record. They had taken on a new member temporarily, providing the percussion on the track "Infant Tsunami." He was known simply as Super Rad Al. However, Al and Crowbar did not get along, and as quickly as he'd joined the Sandwitch, Super Rad Al was out.
"Ralph wasn't happy that I kicked Al out of the band," Crowbar laughs. "I didn't ask him. Ralph had brought Al into the studio one day without asking us. He was like, this is my buddy Al. He's going to be our new drummer. But Al was a prick. More importantly, his style just didn't fit with the Sandwitch."
The growing rivalry between Crowbar and Marson resulted in Crowbar relocating for the year to Iowa City to concentrate on meeting hookers and relaxing. Manchu soon followed.
The band's first single "Pussy Melody" was moderately successful. It even enjoyed a brief stint in the infamous Fluffycrunch Top Ten list, an honor that has yet to be matched by any subsequent Sandwitch release. The second single "Drugs For Children" also found it's way into the hearts of the listeners. But neither of these tracks were the one to truly put Death Sandwitch on the map. In fact, the song that made the boys famous, wasn't in actuality even a Death Sandwitch song.
"That summer," begins Manchu, "we went to a concert in Iowa City. A lot of Iowa Comedy bands were trying to break through at that time. The Dairy Airs were getting big, and opening for them was a no-name band called Death Leprechaun. They blew our minds, and in Ralph's case, something else besides the mind."
Death Leprechaun played an outrageous (and racist) song entitled "Way Down In Mexico." They'd been booed off the stage by the crowd, but the guys in Death Sandwitch had been intrigued. Here was a song guarenteed to spark contraversy. So, the guys had done a cover of the song and had tacked it onto the album as something of an afterthought. A few months later, after the first couple of singles failed to capture a widescale audience, the guys decided to release the song as a single.
"We didn't even write that song," admits Crowbar. "But no one has even heard of the band Death Leprechaun, and it turns out they weren't eager to take credit for the song so everyone who heard it basically thought it was a Sandwitch original. If they'd read the liner notes, they'd know otherwise."
Critics and music fans alike denounced Death Sandwitch for the song. But the same people verbally condemning the song were buying copies of the album and listening to it privately. The first album was finally starting to make some serious money.
In November of 2004, the members of Death Sandwitch reunited at Ralph's apartment studio. While they didn't necessarily have to time to record an immediate follow-up to "Hard To Swallow," the guys did have an urge to write some new material.
"It had been a few months since all of us had been together," says Marson. "We were kind of hoping that the tension had cooled. I was over Crowbar firing Super Rad Al, but I still didn't really like the guy. But, hey, I'm a professional."
The idea was to create an album of improvisational tunes. The guys had experimented with improv before and the results had been stellar. No one can deny the sheer power of "Cap'n Nasty" or the furious thunder of "One Minute of Rock." Thus, an improvisational album seemed like a good idea. It would allow the band to cash in on it's booming popularity and it wouldn't require a lot of fine-tuning so Dru and Crowbar wouldn't need to remain at Ralph's studio for long.
Several songs were recorded in this session. The most notable include "Sgt. Clone's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Time Keeps On Slipping...Into Your Ass." Unfortunately, the album never got finished and most of the songs recorded during this session never saw the light of day.
The contraversy of "Way Down In Mexico" hadn't died down. In fact, several groups had organized boycotts of Death Sandwitch shows and merchandise. The cereal Berry Berry Death Sandwitch saw it's sales slip 500%. It was becoming clear that while the song had put Death Sandwitch on the map, it was also about to the tear the band apart."
"We needed a fall guy," Crowbar recalls. "Someone to blame the entire ordeal on, so that the band could get back to doing what it does best: masturbating."
Initially, the band planned on publically condemning the song and the song's composer's Death Leprechaun who still hadn't been heard from during this ordeal. In the end, that wasn't what happened. That wasn't at all what happened.
Death Sandwitch performed a show at a small club in Waterloo, Iowa whilst these protests were going on. Naturally, there were picket signs and a mob outside of the building. Performing that same night was a talented young guitar player with a sense of style and humor not all that far removed from that of Death Sandwitch. In fact, his music was so similar to Death Sandwitch's music, a saying developed.
"If it's not Death Sandwitch, it's just Walt Handstitch," Walt Handstitch recalls with a laugh. "That's what people would say for awhile. And I guess it really makes a lot of sense, because my music was very similar to the music they were making. I even sound and look a lot like Ralph Marson."
Handstitch was a guitar prodigy. By the age of 3 and a half, he was able to play most of the music in Jimi Hendrix's catalogue. By the age of 8, he'd released his first album, "A Hard Day's Cock Fight." With over 340 solo albums under his belt (not all by him, most were just there to help hold up his pants), Handstitch was ready to branch out and work with new people. In 2002, he'd hooked up with a talented drummer by the name of "Zoomy" Zach Morris. The two of them had both been performing in Waterloo on that fateful night."
"The guys from Death Sandwitch came up to me and were like, 'wow, that was amazing work'," Handstitch says proudly. "We kind of got to talking. You know, those guys are good shit. And good shit is hard to find these days because it goes bad so quickly."
Ralph Marson had no way of knowing, but Crowbar had secretly spoken to Handstitch that night about the possibility of joining Death Sandwitch in Marson's spot. Handstitch had been receptive to the idea. Two weeks later, Crowbar met with Marson at a gay bar Marson frequented just down the street from Blockbuster. It was there that Crowbar told Marson to pack up his gear. Marson was out. Handstitch was in.
"That really pissed me off," Marson says, his face burning with the fury of an old man whose cane isn't within reach. "Crowbar didn't even discuss this with Dru. He just kind of made up his mind and took action. And you, this band started with Dru and myself. Crowbar had no right to kick me out of the band."
For Manchu's part, he found himself conflicted.
"It was true that Ralph had been there since day one," says Manchu, "and I wasn't happy that Crowbar had taken it upon himself to fire Ralph. Still, I had a choice to make right then. Ralph hadn't wanted to take the music to a new level. He was content where we were, or even to back-track to our funk days. Handstitch had a vision, which is more than I had in one of my eyes. So, in the end, I sided with Crowbar and Walt."
In addition to adding Walt Handstitch into Death Sandwitch as lead guitarist, Death Sandwitch also welcomed "Zoomy" Zach Morris into the band as their first full time drummer since the death of Lou Fruitson.
"I felt really out of place for awhile," Morris admits. "For one thing, those guys were all really bad-ass and had really shady pasts. Crowbar was an ex-con. Manchu had been a porn star. Walt is the only person in history to have played Hendrix in diapers. I could make no such claims. I mean, sure I got into a lot of trouble in High School with my two best pals-a gay jock and a straight nerd- but it just doesn't compare."
As if kicking Marson out of the band wasn't enough, the guys also blamed the entire "Way Down In Mexico" ordeal on Marson. In an interview that took place one day after Marson's firing, Dru Manchu told the press that the idea for the song had been Marson's and that everyone else in the band had been strongly opposed to doing the song. However evil the ploy had been, it worked. Death Sandwitch stopped receiving hate mail, and to this day, Marson's career has not recovered. His latest record, "I Just Got Off the Funk Bus," only sold 3.5 copies in the U.S.
In early 2005, the new Death Sandwitch got together in a brand new studio for the first time to record new tunes for an upcoming album. Any doubts Morris had about his place in the band died right there.
"Zach is the best drummer I've ever heard," Manchu says honestly. "The guy's a machine."
The first song the band recorded that year was the new Cajun classic, "The Turducken Shuffle." It was a step into new territory for the band, but it was a natural move to make since Manchu was 1/35 Cajun. Even the band's harshest critics, such as Jay Jefferson of Pella, Iowa were impressed with the results.
"I smashed my guitar after we finished recording that one," Handstitch claims. "And I was like 'we've just recorded our first number one!'"
Unfortunately, the album would get delayed when charges would be brought up against Manchu that May. A ten year old boy and his family were claiming that Manchu had attempted to rape the boy. It wasn't true, but it did manage to hurt the band.
"It hadn't been that long since Michael Jackson had been found not guilty," Crowbar recalls. "And people were just looking for the next black pedophile, or in Dru's case, the next white pedophile."
Manchu appeared in court in his pajamas, and the media made a big deal out of it. Shortly afterward, Manchu would be found not guilty of all charges.
"I was really relieved," Manchu tells us. "I made a day of it. You know, played the bass, ate some Frankenberry, the works."
Due to the trial, Manchu was unable to appear on several of the tracks recorded for the new album. He is MIA on such notable tracks as "Home Sweet Lovin' Home," and "Dru ManSpew."
The second official Death Sandwitch record, "Billy Crystal Is Amazing" was released on August 16, 2005. Shortly after the release, the album tripled the sales of its predecesser. The guys ended up getting a lot of publicity just for rocking so hard. Handstitch made the cover of GAY TIMES while Crowbar would appear on the "What's Wrong With Our World Show?" alongside Saddam Hussien and Richard Simmons.
"Things were really looking up for us," Manchu recalls. "Hey, lay off. I don't have anything else clever to say. I didn't ask to be interviewed. Do I ask you to be on 24 hours a day. I don't ask you for shit. Fuck you."
Unfortunately, what comes up must come down (except for pilot chicks who refuse to go down on a guy). Fame went to Zoomy Zach's head (metaphorically speaking, since the guy doesn't actually have a head), and he began to show his fellow bandmates a great deal of disrespect.
"Zach got out of control," says Handstitch. "He kept talking about how the Sandwitch would be nothing without him. That's just not true. The guy isn't in 'Actin' the Pella' and I think that is one of our funniest tracks. I don't think I'm alone on this one."
A couple weaks later, after a night of heavy drinking, Crowbar rolled over and discovered he was not alone in his bed. He had slept with former Death Sandwitch drummer Super Rad Al.
"You do crazy things when you're drunk," Crowbar insists. "Take that night I slept with Al. I don't really remember most of the night, but I understand I actually flirted with women. Crazy."
Super Rad Al and Crowbar managed to put their past differences behind them, as well as putting each other behind them. They really didn't want anyone to know about the incident, so we'd appreciate it if you'd keep it a secret. Anyway, Crowbar was forced to concede that maybe Marson had been right all along and Super Rad Al was the best drummer for Death Sandwitch. "That left us with the unpleasant task of firing Zoomy," says Manchu. "But since we don't like to do unpleasant things, we just didn't tell him he was out of the band."
Mere months after the release of "Billy Crystal is Amazing" was released, the guys were back in the studio beginning work on the third Death Sandwitch album.
"We had to act quickly," Handstitch informs us. "For the first time ever, we were number one on the charts. It seemed only fitting that we brag about it."
"View From the Top" was the first new track recorded for the album, and it is unquestionably the best thing the band has done yet. It is better than Better Than Ezra. It is in no way less than Less Than Jake. And it is about as good as good as Nirvana.
With the new track, the legacy of Death Sandwitch lives on, and there is no end in sight. Expect even bigger things from them in the future, and I'm not just making reference to that penis enlargement kit Handstitch ordered last Tuesday.
Questions? Comments? Discarded vegetables? E-mail the band at thecheat_32@hotmail.com
*******DISCLAIMER**********
This is a fan site, and I am in no way affiliated with the band, aside from having written most of their lyrics and having sang most of their songs.
Why listen to the Sandwitch?
Links To Sandwitch Related Stuff
Free Death Sandwitch tunes at download.com
The band's message board at Soundclick.com
Ask Crowbar
Death Sandwitch Reviews
Some popular Death Sandwitch lyrics
The Upcoming Tour
Walt Handstitch's Journal
The Death Sandwitch Trivia Game
Death Sandwitch at Myspace
The Death Sandwitch Dating Site