Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
Hit and Run EP (featuring "Elevator")
Vomit America EP
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
WHO ARE THESE PUKING FREAKS THE POOR EXCUSES???!!
A lot of really dumb motion pictures begin this way, but the truth is true... The Poor Excuses started in Hollywood somewhere. Mike Whiteside was a surfer who used to hang out and record punk guitar in Australia, Miami, and New York. Andrew Lynch was a writer and piano player from Alaska who used to make short films in San Francisco. When they would meet up at a British pub on Sunset Boulevard in L.A., they quickly discovered they had a chemistry for drinking together---which led them to question why they hadn't yet played some music. Archimedes says: Eureka!
Somewhere in Nashville, Tyler Whiteside (Mike's brother) was playing drums
for a country cover band and frying for benefits at America's beloved McDonald's. Lynch's Lebanese-British friend Karim Atalla was playing bass in a metal band and framing art for LACMA and the ilk. Ever the older brother, Mike commanded Tyler to move to Los Angeles to play drums in the band. Lynch and Karim aren't brothers, so Lynch asked nicely if Karim wouldn't maybe enjoy playing with them. The rhythm section was in place. Hi-ho!
What could the aforementioned freaks possibly sound like, with their scattered influences and contrary pedigree? Is the sound as booze-soaked as one might guess? Is there an aim to The Poor Excuses? Yes. The initial writing sessions with Whiteside and Lynch included many conversations about MC5, The Stooges, The Rolling Stones, and The Minutemen. Their idea was to fuse Ginsberg and Bowie---the vocals would be hyperbolic spoken word, brought back to earth only in the slightest by defiant guitars that need no special effects. On the stage, The Poor Excuses would be obligated to make loud energy the focus of their live performances, aspiring to the visceral heights of AC/DC and Black Sabbath.
"Elevator," the band's first song, has already been played on Los Angeles's Indie 103.1 FM, where Music Director Mark Slovel lovingly referred to the song as "kick-ass." They have played crowded shows at The Troubadour, Spaceland, and The Echo, and will soon be taking their raw sound to San Francisco and New York City, where the band hopes to drink in British pubs.
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