Red Animal War
Website
Members
- Jeff Wilganoksi - drums
- Matt Pittman - voice, guitar
- Jeff Meaningless - voice, bass
- Justin Wilson - voice, guitar
Biography
From their website:
In 1998, France was kicking Brazil in the World Cup (3-0, suckahs!) and Elliot Smith was releasing XO (you know, the good one). Hello Nasty was thumping my best friend’s big brother’s system, and our goal (did we really have goals back then?) was to create a new style of dissonant punk noise in a 1950’s clinic-turned-rehearsal space (ER) in Grand Prairie , T X. Ah, those were the days. We didn’t play any shows that year; just paid $150 a month to sweat our asses off in a small, stained, carpeted room. Nevermind the bottle of syphilis we found in the laboratory, or the x-ray of the man with a spike through his head. We were there to have fun and we had it.
Early the next year, we recorded 3 songs at Deedle’s Room Recording and sent out cassette tapes to labels with bands who did not play as loud as we did. We garnered the attention of New York City’s Deep Elm Records and appeared on the 4th edition of their infamous Emo Diaries compilations, entering "what have we done?" phase of our "career" full-on. There was a flurry of local shows and the creation of a 6-song recording at Deedle’s Room. Local upstart Texas Records offered to release our songs as an EP, but soon folded due to money constraints. Deep Elm bought the songs from Texas for a grand (what a deal) and asked us to record 6 more songs to make a full-length. Jamie was starting his family, re-finishing his house, working on bad-ass cars, and getting addicted to tattoos when he saw his opportunity to take hiatus. We were bummed but after watching Bottlerocket for the 70th time we all felt better.
After DOOM2K passed, everybody was stoked that we were all still alive and not abducted by aliens or eating out of tin cans, so we got Brian to join our band and went on tour. “Breaking in an Angel� was released in 2001 and we were happy as pie to have an album, even if Deep Elm refused to release it with the artwork we worked on for 6 months. (Note to kids: It’s your music and your artwork. Don’t change it, even if you’re told it “doesn’t fit the aesthetic of the label�).
In 2001, we recorded 3 new songs at the Red House with Ed Rose (Coalesce, Get Up Kids, William S. Burroughs). Deep Elm released a Slowride/Red Animal War split CDEP, and since the ‘Ride were our best buddies in the world, we decided the folks at Deep Elm weren’t such assholes after all.
In 2002 (GER 0:2 BRA), we recorded 12 songs with Ed that would become Black Phantom Crusades and toured the States. We played the FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS 3 benefit show in Dallas with Dixie Witch and toured 12 countries in Europe . We toured the States more and released two 7-inches. I’d moved to Austin only to realize if I stayed there I’d join a hippy commune, so after 7 months I moved back.
2003 saw us take part in Deep Elm’s “Too Young to Die� tour, and proceeds went to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Summertime blistered its way through Dallas and Deedle recorded 15 songs at Mad River . We hit Europe again in the fall. After being there for 8 days, Brian needed to go back home. This, as you might guess, left us in a bit of a bind. Lucky for us, our pals Settlefish were also on tour and heard about our situation. Bruno, their guitar player, offered to fill in on bass for the rest of our tour as soon as the Settlefish tour was over. What a guy!!! SF had gone on the TYTD tour, so Bruno picked up our little rock anthems ever so quickly. I traveled with 5 crazy Italian guys (Paul, Philippe, Emilio, Bruno, Jonathan) to Slovenia , attempting to teach Bruno Pho’s basslines. We met back up with the War in Germany and proceeded to Spain , Italy , France , Belgium , Holland and the UK. At the end of the tour, Jeff tried to stow Bruno in his duffel, but it didn’t work so we said our goodbyes and headed back to the States.
When we got home, we sulked for about a week and then called Jeff Meaningless. After thinking about it for 0.5 nanoseconds, he became the 4th and final member of our band. Right in time for Christmas! We rehearsed fifteen new songs and enlisted J. Robbins (The Dismemberment Plan, Jets to Brazil, Kerosene 454) and Matt Barnhart (The New Year, Little Grizzly) to record them at the Echo Lab in Denton, TX. J. put his blood into making our record... literally. The crazy guitar loop you hear on “Helicopters� is J. beating Matt’s guitar until his knuckles bled. We’ve ripped off his old bands (Jawbox, Burning Airlines) unmercifully for 5 years, so it was way past time for us to give something back.
We finished the recording and, like clockwork, got into an argument with our label on how things should go. We decided it was time for us to head somewhere else, so we asked the guys in Tendril to release our album on their label, Ice Planet Records. We bought our way out of our contract with Deep Elm and released Polizida on August 3rd, 2004.
2004 has completely slayed. We toured the Florida beaches and clubs with Mock Orange in August, and we’re heading to NYC later this month to record 2 new songs at the Hit Factory with Adam Schueremann (Bomb Squad, Coldplay). In the fall we play a few rock ‘n roll clubs in Europe.
Early the next year, we recorded 3 songs at Deedle’s Room Recording and sent out cassette tapes to labels with bands who did not play as loud as we did. We garnered the attention of New York City’s Deep Elm Records and appeared on the 4th edition of their infamous Emo Diaries compilations, entering "what have we done?" phase of our "career" full-on. There was a flurry of local shows and the creation of a 6-song recording at Deedle’s Room. Local upstart Texas Records offered to release our songs as an EP, but soon folded due to money constraints. Deep Elm bought the songs from Texas for a grand (what a deal) and asked us to record 6 more songs to make a full-length. Jamie was starting his family, re-finishing his house, working on bad-ass cars, and getting addicted to tattoos when he saw his opportunity to take hiatus. We were bummed but after watching Bottlerocket for the 70th time we all felt better.
After DOOM2K passed, everybody was stoked that we were all still alive and not abducted by aliens or eating out of tin cans, so we got Brian to join our band and went on tour. “Breaking in an Angel� was released in 2001 and we were happy as pie to have an album, even if Deep Elm refused to release it with the artwork we worked on for 6 months. (Note to kids: It’s your music and your artwork. Don’t change it, even if you’re told it “doesn’t fit the aesthetic of the label�).
In 2001, we recorded 3 new songs at the Red House with Ed Rose (Coalesce, Get Up Kids, William S. Burroughs). Deep Elm released a Slowride/Red Animal War split CDEP, and since the ‘Ride were our best buddies in the world, we decided the folks at Deep Elm weren’t such assholes after all.
In 2002 (GER 0:2 BRA), we recorded 12 songs with Ed that would become Black Phantom Crusades and toured the States. We played the FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS 3 benefit show in Dallas with Dixie Witch and toured 12 countries in Europe . We toured the States more and released two 7-inches. I’d moved to Austin only to realize if I stayed there I’d join a hippy commune, so after 7 months I moved back.
2003 saw us take part in Deep Elm’s “Too Young to Die� tour, and proceeds went to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Summertime blistered its way through Dallas and Deedle recorded 15 songs at Mad River . We hit Europe again in the fall. After being there for 8 days, Brian needed to go back home. This, as you might guess, left us in a bit of a bind. Lucky for us, our pals Settlefish were also on tour and heard about our situation. Bruno, their guitar player, offered to fill in on bass for the rest of our tour as soon as the Settlefish tour was over. What a guy!!! SF had gone on the TYTD tour, so Bruno picked up our little rock anthems ever so quickly. I traveled with 5 crazy Italian guys (Paul, Philippe, Emilio, Bruno, Jonathan) to Slovenia , attempting to teach Bruno Pho’s basslines. We met back up with the War in Germany and proceeded to Spain , Italy , France , Belgium , Holland and the UK. At the end of the tour, Jeff tried to stow Bruno in his duffel, but it didn’t work so we said our goodbyes and headed back to the States.
When we got home, we sulked for about a week and then called Jeff Meaningless. After thinking about it for 0.5 nanoseconds, he became the 4th and final member of our band. Right in time for Christmas! We rehearsed fifteen new songs and enlisted J. Robbins (The Dismemberment Plan, Jets to Brazil, Kerosene 454) and Matt Barnhart (The New Year, Little Grizzly) to record them at the Echo Lab in Denton, TX. J. put his blood into making our record... literally. The crazy guitar loop you hear on “Helicopters� is J. beating Matt’s guitar until his knuckles bled. We’ve ripped off his old bands (Jawbox, Burning Airlines) unmercifully for 5 years, so it was way past time for us to give something back.
We finished the recording and, like clockwork, got into an argument with our label on how things should go. We decided it was time for us to head somewhere else, so we asked the guys in Tendril to release our album on their label, Ice Planet Records. We bought our way out of our contract with Deep Elm and released Polizida on August 3rd, 2004.
2004 has completely slayed. We toured the Florida beaches and clubs with Mock Orange in August, and we’re heading to NYC later this month to record 2 new songs at the Hit Factory with Adam Schueremann (Bomb Squad, Coldplay). In the fall we play a few rock ‘n roll clubs in Europe.
