Dead Sevens

by Mike Goehring

The Dead Sevens rocked the Boobie Trap Saturday, June 5th playing three new original songs as well as crowd favorites "45 miles" and "South to Summer." This was a tough show for the Dead Sevens since there were two other big shows going on the same night in Topeka. Regardless loyal fans of the Dead Sevens came out to support the band and purchase new merchandise sold by Scottie Griffin, brother of the lead singer Doug Griffin. The band will be playing another show at the Boobie Trap in Topeka Kan. on July 11th. To keep up to date with the Dead Sevens visit their Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/deadsevensrock.
- OriginalPro Films

by Michelle Boltz

Local band Dead Sevens made its Topeka debut Friday night at The Boobie Trap Bar, Sixth and Washburn. The group was the headliner in the show, and was joined by local bands Notable Shame and Delirium.

Members of Dead Sevens are Doug Griffin on guitar and vocals, Jesse Ells on bass, lead guitarist Chuck Mioni, and Dave Morse on drums. Griffin is also a Washburn student. Dead Sevens is from St. Marys, Kan., and began to form in 2003. Griffin and Ells went to high school together, and later met Morse through a mutual friend. Mioni came along when he came to one of the group's practices when they were looking for a new lead guitarist.

"He was the best of what we had left," said Ells about Mioni's place in the group.

The name for Dead Sevens, which meant good luck, came from Griffin, but Ells offered his own definition for the name.

"Bad luck with crap casino games," he said.

Dead Sevens originally had two other names before deciding on Dead Sevens in 2006. The other names were "Short Lived Sanity" and "Third Wheel Therapy."

Dead Sevens has performed in Manhattan, and a couple of times in Lawrence. This was the group's first time playing in Topeka. A frequent stop for the band used to be PJ's in Aggieville before it closed. The band plans on expanding to other locations to perform, like Kansas City.

Dead Sevens is currently building its own recording studio. They have some older recordings, but want to have better sounding equipment to record with, and prefer to record it themselves. Once the studio is completed, they plan on adding more singles to their MySpace page. This past summer, they went to record their first single, "South of Summer" at a recording studio in Collins, Iowa. You can hear it on their MySpace page, though it is difficult to compare to the live performance.

Right now, Dead Sevens only has a Facebook and a MySpace page, but the group is currently working on a Web site, which will be up and running in the near future.

Nick Perry, Dead Sevens' artwork designer, is a good friend of the band, and is in the process of designing T-shirts that will soon be available at shows, or by special request. Examples of Perry's work is available on Dead Sevens' MySpace page. Once the band decided on the name of Dead Sevens, it made Perry's job much easier as he set out to design a logo for the band.

Dead Sevens has a unique sound, which makes it difficult to compare the group to other bands. They play modern rock, as well as industrial punk. Favorite songs that fans request are "45 Miles," "South of Summer," and "Scanner." Another popular favorite is a Guitar Hero cover by Priestess that's called "Lay Down." They don't really have any particular favorites that they like to perform.

"I have a love/hate relationship with all of our songs," said Griffin.

For a fresh look at today's modern rock, visit the group's Facebook page or check out the MySpace page at myspace.com/deadsevensrock.

- Washburn Review