Music
Press
"Imagine the raunchiness of rock, the power of heavy metal and grunge...The GhettoBillies displayed all the stage posing of Spinal Tap and movements that could have been "choreographed" for Status Quo. But their songs are loaded with surreal images, very funny lines and equally bizarre themes (mostly about sex) including what it's like to have VD, falling in love with a one-legged girl, dressing in women's underwear, making out with your girl's best friend, getting tattooed and the story of a beauty queen called Steve." - Keith Clark, The Evening Post (Bristol, UK)
"...their blend of funk, country, bluegrass, midwestern radio rock, and even sweet balladry is raucous, infectious, sexy, and genuinely funny. Their unlikely style meshings are so seamlessly executed that they make perfect sense." - -Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader
"this four piece is an outfit simply defying the norms of music...outlandishly clever!" - -Luke Smith, The Michigan Daily
"The Ghettobillie's shows are a scream." - -Erick Trickey, Current Magazine
"...they seem to be influenced by every artist ever recorded..." - -Melody Baetens, The Detroit News
"...Ghettobillies really are that good..." - -Alan Behler, Orbit magazine
Discography
Cockpit - 2005
Bootlegs (Live) -2004
Still in the Pink -2003
Butterface - 2000
EP - 2000
Some Rezeev - 1998
Photos
Bio
Ghettobillies Biography 2006
Hailing originally from Ann Arbor Michigan, the band Ghettobillies have seen and done it all. Reverend C. Cobb (AKA: Robbie Conaway) and Pope D' Licious (AKA: Derek Kramer) moved to Chicago to seek out better opportunities for their band. From working the mean streets of Chicago as bike messengers to working the old, bitchy women of advertising on Lasalle street with massage oil, the GB's have earned their rightful place as a band that has stood the test of time. Except perhaps for a brief stint in Bogota Columbia where one of them worked as a gun runner for Juan Garcia Abrego (an infamous South American drug cartel who smuggled some of the largest shipments of pure Columbian snow into North America), touring nonstop over the past 6 years has brought this band to a skill level and maturity rarely seen on the local level anymore. Once the 5th and final drummer, Holy Maloney (AKA: John Maloney), joined the not so well known supergroup back in 2002 and rythm section "life partner" and child prodigy bassist Bong (AKA: Matthew Longbons) jumped on the preverbial bandwagon, the circle of ridiculousness was complete. Masters in each of their chosen fields, the band Ghettobillies knew no musical boundaries and in the words of one famous writer from Rolling Stone magazine, "...Those guys play whatever the hell they want!...It's ridiculous."
And so it is.
Ridiculous that a band might play 2 songs that don't sound exactly the same. And ridiculous that they make a conscious effort not to gear their entire image, lyrics and sound towards 1 specific microcosm of teenage subculture. Ridiculous that they refuse to bow to the obvious might and glory that is the magnificent recording industry. Utterly ridiculous that they continue on their hopeless quest of recognition, quality, and artistic integrity.
Since that time, the band Ghettobillies have tirelessly toured all over the midwest, east coast and United Kingdom and succeeded in creating their own enormous underground cult following without the help of any record labels, supergroup managers, well known promoters, or really anyone actually legitimately involved in the music industry at all. They have been largely ignored by every major and independent record label that exists from time immortal and most likely will continue to be. But "why?" you might ask-
Why do these men of genius not receive what seems to be so rightfully theirs? Why is the world so unfair to men who work so hard and deliver so much to so many?
Why?
Because "@!%&*$ 'em", that's why.
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