Brutal Juice is an American acid punk band from Denton, Texas. The band formed in 1990 and officially disbanded in February 1997, although they held several reunion concerts between 1999 and 2012, which usually took place at Fry Street Fair in Denton. They officially reformed in 2012 and released their latest album, titled "Welcome to the Panopticon," on October 28, 2016. Brutal Juice still performs a few times a year, typically playing shows in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, or in Austin.
History
The band was formed by singer/guitarist Gordon Gibson and drummer Ben Burt, who added classical/jazz-trained guitarist Ted Wood, and later Sam McCall (bass guitar, who had recorded the band's early demos prior to joining the group) after their first three bassists had come and gone, this lineup recording the How Tasty Was My Little Timmy? tape before Craig Welch joined, initially as a dancer, but soon becoming co-vocalist. They took the name Brutal Juice, which according to some sources was taken from a Hertz commercial featuring O. J. Simpson and Arnold Palmer,
The band's first studio album proper, Mutilation Makes Identification Difficult, was released in 1995 after the band had signed to Interscope Records. Mark Jenkins, for The Washington Post, described the songs as "cannily structured and sometimes even catchy".
They were dropped by Interscope, Their most recent album, the David Icke-inspired Welcome to the Panopticon, was self-released in late 2016, described by Welch as "an acid-fueled excuse to turn amps to 11 and play with feedback loops",
Wesley Willis wrote a song about Brutal Juice after seeing them perform in New York City. It appears on his 1996 album Fabian Road Warrior.
Band members
- Craig Welch - lead vocals
- Gordon Gibson - lead vocals, guitar
- Sam McCall - bass
- Ted Wood - guitar, vocals
- Ben Burt - drums, vocals
Discography
Albums
- How Tasty Was My Little Timmy? (1991), Homus Boyus
- I Love the Way They Scream When They Die (1994), Alternative Tentacles
- Mutilation Makes Identification Difficult (1995), Interscope
- Welcome to the Panopticon (2016), Homus Boyus
Singles / E.P.s / demos
- Brutal Juice (demo) (1992), Homus Boyus
- "Cannibal Holocaust" (1992), Direct Hit
- "Black Moment of Panic" (1993), Alternative Tentacles
- "All American City" (1996), Man's Ruin
Compilation appearances
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!Title
!Song
!Label
|-
| 1993
| Get It Through Your Thick Skull
| "Eastern Cat"
| Idol Records
|-
| 1993
| Tales from the Edge Vol. 7
| "Cannibal Holocaust"
| KDGE FM
|-
| 1993
| We're from Texas
| "Pull the Plug"
| Scratched Records
|-
| 1994
| Welcome to Hell's Lobby
| "Cannibal Holocaust"
| One Ton
|-
| 1994
| The Futility of a Well Ordered Life
| "Galaxy"
| Alternative Tentacles
|-
| 1996
| Show and Tell: A Stormy Remembrance of TV Themes
| "Paid Programming" ("I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing")<br />"Bewitched" (theme song)
| Which?
|}