The Rock*A*Teens
Justin Davis Hughes - guit - piano - org - bkgvox
William Joiner - bassguit - bkgvox
Ballard Lesemann - the drumset
Christopher Lopez - vox - guit - keybrd

The Rock*A*Teens came together on April Fool's Day of 1994 in the spare bedroom of a Cabbagetown, GA, mill-house. The band at the time was Lopez, Hughes, Kelly Hogan on the Red guitar and Chris Verene on the drums. They released 2 LPs for Daemon Records: the eponymous debut ('96) and the Cry album ('97). Shows were played and tears were shed when Hogan moved to Chicago to resume her career as a world class singer. Verene moved to Brooklyn, NY, to continue his career as a world class photographer. 1998 saw the introduction of Lesemann on the drumset and W. Brandon on the bass. The Baby, A Little Rain Must Fall LP was released that year on Merge. The following year was the release of Golden Time. Many many concerts were played, appearances made, only to lead up to the year 2000. W. Brandon has moved on and William Joiner signed on as Bassman for the making of Sweet Bird Of Youth: recorded in a small storeroom on the edge of Cabbagetown the past spring by the band themselves, months of latenight ruminations and early morning revelations. Summer was met by the Fiery Jack, a "tribute" to The Fall that includes Lesemann and Joiner as well as Jeffrey Wiggens who also will be accompanying the R*A*Ts on the road and in the band as keyboardist, utility man and wit. So the story goes anyway.

The Rock*A*Teens were nothing short of a force of nature. Roaring out of Cabbagetown, GA, Sweet Bird Of Youth serves as an undeniable crowning achievement for this criminally under-rated band. In these days of neatly packaged, generic cookie cutter, style-over-substance flashes in the pan, it's refreshing to hear something this vital, this urgent, this powerful. Chris Lopez and the boys create music full of passion and integrity that is quite unlike anything else you are likely to hear on your hi-fi. The Rock*A*Teens have a swagger, an attitude of surly defiance, straight from the wrong side of the tracks. Yet they can be warm and inviting (if not downright cuddly) as well, lacking any sense of Pretension. They have blended a unique mixture of dark, swampy, rock influences into a thick primordial stew, that defies categorization ... Pop? Blues? Jazz? Rock-a-billy? Garage? Theirs is music of passion and lust; love and heartbreak; hope and despair; triumph and failure; heat and humidity. Distortion pedals buzz with washes of reverb; organ whines and piano rolls; drums pound with tribal intensity; and the vocals wail and ache and rejoice wrapping around themselves in a feverish embrace. A cool wash of emotion and grit. A cleansing of your tired and battered soul.

Sweet Bird Of Youth is the 5th long player from these time tested and true underground heroes. It is a record of epic proportions.

Christopher Lopez now performs in Tenement Halls.

The Rock*A*Teens [cd] (Daemon) 1996
Cry [cd] (Daemon) 1997
"Leave What's Left Of Me" b/w "Bloodhound" [7"] (Merge) 1997
Baby, A Little Rain Must Fall [cd] (Merge) 1998
Golden Time [cd] (Merge) 1999
"What Took You So Long" on Oh, Merge comp. [cd] (Merge) 1999
Sweet Bird of Youth [cd] (Merge) 2000