Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Breakout Bands
Anna Beaty Kerr
The Daily Sentinel
Out and About entertainment section (cover story)
December 17-23 2004
A new band aims to pump up the Grand Valley music scene. Loaded .45 , a self proclaimed “no coast punk ‘n’ roll” band, will blow crowds away this weekend at Quincy Bar.
The bar is hosting a breakout band showcase featuring Loaded .45 and End of Story (EOS), a rock/punk band from Carbondale.
Loaded .45’s “no coast” sound can’t be pigeonholed into a specific genre. The band plays almost all originals ad a couple rewritten covers, including a punk version of Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places.”
It doesn’t care to fit into a genre. The members’ goal is to stay true to themselves, said Josh Roberts of Loaded .45. “We wanted to become a hard-core band,” he said. “But we decided to play are style and hope people like it. Plus, I can’t sing that hard-core metal.”
Loaded .45 is:Roberts,23,lead vocals and guitar; Ryan Willard, 28, drums; John Tonic, 31 bass and backup vocals; and Christopher Boyd, 32, guitar and backup vocals.
The band formed last August. All of the members have been playing music separately since they were teenagers. They discovered their music connection at work. Roberts, Tonic and Boyd are sushi chefs at Suehiro Japanese Restaurant. Willard is an independent tattoo artist and a frequent patron of Suehiro’s. The members practice in the restaurant’s basement.
This is also where they recorded a three-song dem CD they also distribute at their shows. They hope to release an all-original album someday, but for now they’re focusing on live shows.
“We’re trying to create something,” Willard said. “ We need to get the word out. The venues are great about booking the shows. We just need to get people to get to them. We need a downtown scene.”
The band members don’t care when or where they play. They want local shows to create a camaraderie among local musicians to develop a healthy, facilitating atmosphere, Boyd said.
“We’re not interested in fame or fortune, we just want to have a good time,” he said. “If anyone is interested in playing they should let us know.”
Quincy’s will temporarily transform to host the concert, which will be played in the rear of the building by the jukebox. The pool tables will cover plywood so patrons can dance on the tables if they want, Willard said.
“It’s going to be great, it’s like a local hangout,” he said. “ And everyone is welcome. Their crowd is so diverse. Plus, it’s really cheap.”
This two-band concert is free.
Loaded .45 will also play the Spotlight Lounge Jan. 29.
Form more information about the band, e-mail loaded45@hotmail.com.They are working on a Website which will be up in the near future at www.myloaded45.com. - The Daily Sentinel
Your Valley Source
December 31- January 27, 2005
Interview with John Tonic of Loaded .45
Name: Loaded .45
Age: Josh Roberts 23, Christopher Boyd 32, John Tonic 31, Ryan Willard 28.
Occupation: Josh, a sushi chef does vocal guitar. Christopher , sushi chef and restaurant manager, does guitar and backing vocals. John, sushi chef and bartender plays bass guitar and does backing vocals. Ryan, a tattoo artist, is our drummer and does backing vocals.
Hobbies: Josh likes comics. Chris is into SCUBA diving. John likes scooters, and Ryan has no time for hobbies.
Favorite Restaurant: Suehiro Japanese Restaurant ( shameless plug)
Goals: To take the band as far as we can and to have fun playing punk rock.
How long has the band been together?
since August of 2004
Is punk music the best way to describe this band, for someone who has never heard Loaded .45? Yes, however we prefer the term “ No Coast Punk ‘ n Roll.” we try to add more to our music than the basic 3-chord punk rock, but the style and attitude of our music is definitely punk.
What punk bands have influenced your band?
This is by far the hardest question for a single member of a band to answer, because each of us draws from different influences. I myself prefer the punk bands of the late 70's and early 80's- bands like Stiff Little Fingers, the Clash, the Business, Social Distortion- but those bands are only musical influences for me personally and don’t necessary reflect on the band. I know that, starting out, Josh was looking to create something similar in sound to No Use for a Name; but , as the band started to play, I think it became obvious that we where creating our own style of punk rock.
Will you be playing all original or a mix of originals and covers?
We play mostly originals, but we currently have two covers in our live set- a cover of the Pixies’ “Wave of Mutilation” and a punk rendition of Garth Brooks “Friends In Low Places.”
Do you think that Grand Junction has a lot of fans of punk music?
I do. The music is well over 30 years old., so it’s not just the music of youth anymore. A punk from the 70's would most likely argue that today’s mainstream punk is a far cry from what it was 30 years ago. But to me there are no rules in this music. Either way, it doesn’t matter with Loaded .45, because I feel our music is a solid mix of the past and present and should appeal to anyone who’s ever been a fan of punk. - Your Valley Source
Discography
Loaded .45 have recorded two demos and are currently recording an official EP.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
When you walk into an unassuming restaurant a stone's throw from small-town Mormon churches and family farmers' markets, you don't normally expect to find bodies in the basement.
Tattooed and pierced bodies playing guitars and drums so loud you need earplugs to keep your head from dddringgging.
Unless of course, you visited the bar upstairs earlier. Then that dddringgging is simply understandable.
In fact, it's almost a requirement, if you ask Grand Junction, Colorado-based band Loaded .45.
The band, which bills itself as "No Coast Punk 'n' Roll," started in the Japanese joint when lead singer and bassist Josh Roberts walked through the door to become a sushi chef the summer of 2004.
Christopher Boyd, lead guitar and backup vocals, was ready to teach him the wasabi-lined ropes as the two became friends.
Roberts, who grew up in the tiny Colorado snow-town of Craig, had been in a band before and was looking for a new group to start. Boyd, born in Japan, had been in several bands, and played for years, was also interested in playing again.
"We started talking about music while we were working, and then Josh mentioned he had been in a band," Boyd said. "Next thing I knew, we were clearing all the broken tea cups out of the restaurant's basement for a practice space. We decided to go for it."
The two still needed a drummer, so they started watching the customers at the sushi bar closely.
Maybe it was a sign when tattoo artist Ryan Willard walked through the door, not particularly liking sushi.
Willard, a Michigan native, was new in town. A little bored. And he didn't mind the noodle-like dishes.
Boyd and Roberts got to talking with Willard about music, got him a little whiskey and lured him down to their basement lair.
Normally a bass player, Willard decided to learn the drums for the band with the promise that the job would be short-term.
Over a year later, he's still hittin' the high hat, but he doesn't mind.
Since the band's inception, the ideas, like Ryan's place behind the drums, have stayed the same.
"80 percent of the world is bitches, and people don't want to try shit. You just got to go for it and have fun," Willard said.
So, why not arrive to band practice by sliding down the stairs to the restaurant's basement in a laundry basket?
Why not book a show when you have been together for all of a month?
Why not reconcile musical interests from The Cure, A Wilhelm Scream, Social Distortion, the Clash and Green Day?
And why not put something a little louder in the ears of a western Colorado cow town?
Roberts, who writes most of the lyrics for Loaded .45's songs, brings it all when trying to rock a show.
Maybe that's why the band likes to play at Quincy's Bar. (You can call it The Q if you're a local, or thinking of becoming one. You can call it the "gay bar" if you're Reverend Wilson at the Baptist church on 7th Street.)
The band was the first live act to ever attempt to play the place, breaking down stereotypes and transforming the local scene in the process.
Suddenly transvestites and cowboys were mixing with EMO and punk kids, gloriously bouncing about to one of 15 original songs most fans now scream for by name.
If you were a snobby English-major type, you could say the whole Q experience was a microcosm for the larger elements of punk rock. Wax poetic about how playing a gay bar most kids wouldn't enter was the ultimate Grand Junction example of barrier-breakage of CBGB proportions.
Shit like that.
For most of the kids in town, it's simply one other reason to love the band and its members.
At the moment, Loaded .45 is still about fun and providing a good time for anyone lucky enough to listen, but they're also about doing what they love.
Loaded .45 has played with its fair share of national and international acts, including Love Me Destroyer, Link (Japan), Los Kung Fu Monkeys (Mexico), Voodoo Glow Skulls and Authority Zero.
And as long as the band can stay out of Mexican prison, stop breaking hands or cutting fingers with chef knives, they'll plan to keep playing the local, state and national scene.
"This is what we love," Roberts said. "If we can play out of town, pay our bills and play our own music, we'll be happy. That's what doing this is all about."
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