ADZ
Biography Information
ADZ
Biography Information
Pre-History: Before there were Adz there were the Adolescents. Tony Reflex was known as Tony Adolescent back in those days it was truth in advertising cuz all the guys where still in high school. Tony started the original band with bassist Steve Soto, who went on to be in Joyride an is currently in 22 Jacks. Rikk and Frank Agnew were the guitar tag-team, and Casey Royer was the drummer. These OC delinquents cranked out the seminal hit "Amoeba," which was featured on theequally-seminal (dontcha hate that word) Rodney on the Rock Volume One punk rock collection, as well as Adolescents, the band's debut LP on Frontier Records. These hit the streets in 1981, and the band hit the road. Adolescents was produced byThom Wilson (Offspring, TSOL) and has been cited by critics and players alike as one of the most influential punk LP's ever. The EP Welcome to reality came next, but the band splintered after that. Most of the original line-up came back together for Brats in Battalions in 1987, but by Balboa Fun Zone (both on Triple X Records) a year later, Tony had left the band, and Adolscents were more or less a Joyride blueprint at this point.
ADZ: While some bands re-unite to bask in their past glory, when Tony Adolescent (now Tony Reflex), Casey Royer and Rikk Agnew of the original Adolescents reformed in '91, the first thing that went was the bands name. After all, it'd been ten years since high school, "Adolescents" seemed a bit silly. Shortened to ADZ, the band recorded a new disk for Lethal Records entitled Where Were You?, produced by Jim Goodwin (Face to Face). Local shows followed, but soon Royer returned to fronting DI full-time, while Agnew went AWOL. Reflex decided to keep the band going and did so with new recruits. Meanwhile, Bitzcore records in Germany offered to record the band and bring them over for a European tour. The band recorded in '95 with Sister Goddamn (Tony's other band) bassist Bruce Duff producing. The new record, Piper at the Gates of Downey, was released in Europe in Summer, '95.
PIPER AT THE GATES OF DOWNEY: The new record featured ADZ mach two, with Matt Young on drums, Kirk Mosher on guitar, and since departed guitarist Roger Ramjet (went on to record with the X-Members for Priority, but quit that band too). Mike Rouse on bass, and of course Tony. Bruce produced the record back-to-back with Sister Goddamn, and both bands toured Europe together with a revolving line-up, sort of a punk rock version of the R&B roadshow review.The Piper LP was tracked at Westbeach Recorders, home of Bad Religion, where back in the '70s it was called Producers Workshop and was a favored studio of Bob Ezrin, who cut Pink Floyd's The Wall there. The Westbeach sessions were engineered by Steve Kravak (Total Chaos, Ten Foot Pole, Wayne Kramer), who tought Bruce cool recording tricks learned from Mick Ronson (David Bowie, Mott the Hoopie). Overdub sessions and mixing took place at City Lab Recorders with Geza X (Magnapop, 1000 Mona Lisas, Dead Kennedys), and featured guest appearances by Josie ("Johnny are you Queer") Cotton and original Adolescent Frank Agnew on Guitar. The new record is on Amsterdamned, which facilitated the writing of this bio and the promo copy that accompanies it. For the U.S. release, the CD remains the same but the artwork is an all-new creation by poster artist Emek known for his poster work Butthle Surfers, Danzig, Helmet, and LP covers for Pearl Jam and Neil Young.
MEET THE ADZ: The current band features Tony Reflex, who followed his Adolscents stint with recording the Flower Leperds, Sister Goddamn (both available on Triple X and Biitzcore), and the Abandoned (newly re-issued on Grand Theft Audio). Tony is a part time zine geek who publishes Nikita (named after his dog), teaches mentally handicapped kids (for real, we're not referring to the ADZ), and most recently, the author of "I Hate Children" became a father daughter Mia Victoria. Mat Young has been with Tony since the Abandoned days, played in the Leperds and Sister GD, and cut his teeth with Channel Three. The Chinese fireball drummer is also into Karate, sushi, and various forms of Eastern Meditation. The band's producer, Bruce Duff, got demoted to bass player following Rouse's hasty retreat upon returning from Europe. Besides Sister GD, Bruce played with Jeff Dahl, Kieth Morris' Bug Lamp, Jester of Destiny (metal blade), and even 45 Grave. Session work for Redd Kross, Wayne Kramer and Fifi has helped make Duff a household name. Newest member "Slippery" George Paras had been in MaximumRNR heroes Bonecrusher, and in his spare time bets on horses (or anything moving), and is invloved with various insurance scams. Last but not least Frank Agnew is back on guitar.
CURRENTLY: The Adz are making a one-off CD ROM for Amsterdamned. Tentatively called Transmition from Planet Speedball, the LP's theme is addiction, and will feature a "How to Tour Europe" board game on the CD ROM. They recently toured the East Coast in conjunction with the US Piper release, and continue to be the Hardest working band in punk rock.
Amsterdamned
Post Office Box 862558
Los Angeles, Calif. 90086-2558