The Freak Accident
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The Freak Accident

San Francisco, CA | Established. Jan 01, 2004 | SELF

San Francisco, CA | SELF
Established on Jan, 2004
Band Rock Punk

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"allmusic ((( The Freak Accident"

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:a9fyxqwsldae

The new project from singer/songwriter/provocateur Ralph Spight, formerly head of the long-running art punks Victim's Family, is a bit of a surprise from the first track on. Said opener, "Ex-Wife," is by some distance the poppiest song Spight has ever been a part of, a downright catchy slice of fuzzed-guitar power pop that wouldn't sound out of place on a Guided By Voices album. From there, Spight and an ever-changing cast of backing musicians run the gamut from piano-based singer/songwriter territory ("You're the Reason," which later reappears as a punky pop rave-up) to Jonathan Richman-meets-LMNOP faux naif (the charmingly bilious "Spring Fever") to tongue-in-cheek hard rock ("Never Going Back to Petaluma"). None of it should be taken very seriously, but the eclecticism and general sense of relaxed fun make The Freak Accident one of Spight's most enjoyable albums. - allmusic.com


"The Freak Accident"

The Freak Accident/ www.TheFreakAccident.com(Alternative Tentacles)
I expect a lot from a solo record, perhaps too much. I expect more than I do from a band's record, to be honest. I want to it to be a tour-de-force. It is one person, after all, asking me to spend an hour with him while he uses music to express his thoughts and feelings. If I am to spend an hour with someone they better be interesting. Ralph Spight is interesting. For the past 20 years he has been the head of Victim's Family, a fascinating band from Santa Rosa who defy description. Striking out on his own as The Freak Accident, Spight has decided to see what he can do with the pop song. It's the story of a marriage gone sadly bad. The story of one of those relationships where both parties seem to be speaking another language that defies translation. In fact, that's how he characterizes it in the power-pop "Chinese Phrasebook". Listening to these songs you can feel how just wants to bang his head against the wall he is so frustrated. To keep it interesting Spight unravels his sad tale with straightforward Rock, a little surf and marimba, some stark jazzy numbers, some synth tunes and so on. Spights bag of tricks seems to have no bottom. His session players range from local stalwarts (Ed Ivey, Larry Boothroyd, Jon Weiss, etc) and San Francisco's The Black Furies. Two of my favorite Solo records of all time are Steve Wynn's Kerosene Man and Lloyd Coles's Bad Vibes. I place this right up there with them. A great work.-Greg Trout - Magnaphone


Discography

The Freak Accident-S/T (Alternative Tentacles Records) December 2004
"Tissue Sample" (Nerve Center Recordings, Out Now!!!)

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Bio

The Freak Accident
Guitarist/ Vocalist Ralph Spight has spent over twenty years traversing the world playing a tight brew of kinetic punk with his band Victims Family and it's offshoots Saturn's Flea Collar and Hellworms . The Northern California trio put out numerous albums (six on the Alternative Tentacles label) and toured repeatedly through the US and Europe and garnered a rabid cult following worldwide.
Following the most recent disbanding of Victims Family, Ralph put together a record with an eclectic bunch of Bay Area musicians which became the basis for "The Freak Accident" (Alternative Tentacles Records, 2004), a stylistic rollercoaster ride through punk, pop, latin surf, blues, piano ballads and more. Assembling a live band for this material proved difficult but the live shows began to include freakish improvisational deconstructions of the albums diverse tracks and the band toured the Northwestern United States and played Alternative Tentacles 2006 South by Southwest showcase to an enthusiastic response. Parting ways with several members of the group Ralph and drummer Mike Branum (Hell's Kitchen, Capitol Punishment) pressed on recruiting their old Plainfield teammate Kimo Ball to do hold down bass duties and returned to Ralph's more noisy math punk direction.
The resulting sophomore effort "Tissue Sample" (out now, on their own new Nerve Center Recordings label) is a tight sinewy set of eleven new brash, satirical rock songs that take on heavyweight topics such as, the teaching of evolution (we're for it), torture (we're against it), suicide, cross-dressing, hero worship, consumerism, human cloning, unrequited love, religious fanaticism and the relative merits of various poisonous substances. Musically the band is tight as a drum with giant grooves, a crushing bass tone and moments ranging from raging hardcore to shimmering beauty to garagey blues.
The band recently completed a month long European tour opening for Canadian legends No Means No and are currently playing regional shows in the Pacific Northwest in support of the new album. "Tissue Sample" is available on CD direct from thefreakaccident.com, CD Baby.com and in fine stores everywhere. The album is distributed in Europe through De Konkurrent, is available on vinyl on our web site as well as gatetohell.net. and is downloadable through iTunes and other internet sites.

Band Members