Monster Truck rose from the ashes of Slow Fire (yes, it is a stupid name) in the early months of 1993. The Slow Fire project, which had started as a country band, had gone horribly wrong (ie became a pop band) and was mercifully allowed to burn itself out at the peak of its success in the wee hours of the morning of Jan 1, 1993. Trying to get it right one more time, we (Owen and Giff) set out this time just to play good music the right way, without regard to style or genre.
We began playing as a duo under the name, Monster Truck, in Lucky’s Piano Bar in Augsburg, Germany. There was a definite country vein throughout the music and it seemed to catch on somewhat with the local crowd; enough so that we wound up with the coveted Saturday night slot for the rest of our time in Germany.
After Daniel joined the group on drums, the band put the final touches on its sound. Daniel had recently come to Germany from previously East Bloc Rumania, and he was unfamiliar with almost all of the songs This gave him the opportunity to pretty much do whatever he wanted, unencumbered by any preconceptions of how particular songs were “supposed to sound.” With complete freedom and a blank slate, he often took the music in unexpected directions and made an enormous contribution to defining our style.
The first show with the full lineup was in the Spring of 1993, performing for the US Army in Augsburg. We were fairly well received, and people seemed generally amused (perhaps even entertained) by our offbeat humor and the eclectic mix of our music, whether it was the disjointed pairing of AC/DC with Johnny Cash, butchered “classics” like “Hey Jude’” or a rocked out “Ballad of Gilligan's Island.” Soldiers in the audience were even moved to dance to a countrified rendition of YMCA (while others looked on in disgust... you can't win 'em all). Still, it was pretty progressive for the Army in 1993, and it was a good time. (Unfortunately no recordings of our cover songs are included on this website. This is because YouTube was forced by SCORPIO MUSIC S.A. / CAN’T STOP PRODUCTIONS INC to pull YMCA from Giff's page over copyright issues, and we'd like to avoid any similar problems. Don't those people have anything better to do...?)
Anyway, since the Army doesn’t pay well (or at all in some cases) and can require soldiers (like us at the time) to help in clean up after events, that wound up being the last show we played for them. After that the band moved on to the German venues, playing in Augsburg and Munich. The final show was played at Lucky’s Club in Augsburg (don’t look for it; it’s not there anymore) on August 6, 1994. By that time Scott had joined us and rounded out the sound with his amazing voice and bluegrass guitar style, just in time for it all to end. For the time, at least...
We began playing as a duo under the name, Monster Truck, in Lucky’s Piano Bar in Augsburg, Germany. There was a definite country vein throughout the music and it seemed to catch on somewhat with the local crowd; enough so that we wound up with the coveted Saturday night slot for the rest of our time in Germany.
After Daniel joined the group on drums, the band put the final touches on its sound. Daniel had recently come to Germany from previously East Bloc Rumania, and he was unfamiliar with almost all of the songs This gave him the opportunity to pretty much do whatever he wanted, unencumbered by any preconceptions of how particular songs were “supposed to sound.” With complete freedom and a blank slate, he often took the music in unexpected directions and made an enormous contribution to defining our style.
The first show with the full lineup was in the Spring of 1993, performing for the US Army in Augsburg. We were fairly well received, and people seemed generally amused (perhaps even entertained) by our offbeat humor and the eclectic mix of our music, whether it was the disjointed pairing of AC/DC with Johnny Cash, butchered “classics” like “Hey Jude’” or a rocked out “Ballad of Gilligan's Island.” Soldiers in the audience were even moved to dance to a countrified rendition of YMCA (while others looked on in disgust... you can't win 'em all). Still, it was pretty progressive for the Army in 1993, and it was a good time. (Unfortunately no recordings of our cover songs are included on this website. This is because YouTube was forced by SCORPIO MUSIC S.A. / CAN’T STOP PRODUCTIONS INC to pull YMCA from Giff's page over copyright issues, and we'd like to avoid any similar problems. Don't those people have anything better to do...?)
Anyway, since the Army doesn’t pay well (or at all in some cases) and can require soldiers (like us at the time) to help in clean up after events, that wound up being the last show we played for them. After that the band moved on to the German venues, playing in Augsburg and Munich. The final show was played at Lucky’s Club in Augsburg (don’t look for it; it’s not there anymore) on August 6, 1994. By that time Scott had joined us and rounded out the sound with his amazing voice and bluegrass guitar style, just in time for it all to end. For the time, at least...
The Monster Truck Story
