Murder city devils

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The story of the Murder City Devils started back in 1996. A band called the Hookers were an early hybrid of the Devils. They consisted of Spencer Moody (vocals), Derek Fudesco (bass), Dann Gallucci (guitar), and Andrea Zollo (drums). The Hookers had a real basic garage rock sound and a few of their songs would later become MCD songs. Sometime in late 1996 Andrea left the band and was replaced by Nate Manny (2nd guitar) and Coady Willis (drums), and thus the Murder City Devils were born. Coming from the sheltered punk and hardcore scenes of Seattle, WA., the Devils had no idea that there was already a rock revival scene in existence. They naively thought that they were doing something new and different by bringing back the rock of The Stooges and the Dead Boys. This ignorance gave the band a clean musical canvas to draw from and in 1997 the Devils refined their sound and released 2 seven inches, “Three Natural Sixes” on Hopscotch Records and “Dance Hall Music” on Empty Records. These releases garnered the attention of Jonathan Poneman and his notorious label, Sub Pop. Jonathan was starting an imprint label called Die Young, Stay Pretty and he wanted the Devils to be the first band on the roster. The band soon recorded their first self titled record for the label and began an extensive West Coast Tour. The record incorporated keyboards on a few songs which added an additional creepy vibe and solidified the band’s skull and crossbones image. In 1998 the band recruited “Gabe the Roadie” to manage them while on tour. Gabe grew up with Nate and they both were in The Cleavers and the Unabombers. Gabe was a formidable character who looked like he just came back from a five year drinking and bar fighting binge with Motörhead, Nashville Pussy, and The Hell’s Angels. His leather vest, long hair, southern mustache, and trucker hats quickly became a trademark, but underneath all that was a caring and loyal person. The band was slowly gaining a larger audience and in July 1998 they played 3 stadium concerts opening for Pearl Jam. Also around this time the band released another seven inch, “Dancin’ Shoes b/w Tokyo Gold”, for Die Young, Stay Pretty. This would be the band’s last release for the label. Due to their success they were moved to Sub Pop’s main roster and went into the studio with producer Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Zeke) to record “Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts”. The record was released in September 1998 and was followed by a huge national tour with bands like Modest Mouse and At the Drive-In. It was also after the release of “Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts”, that the band decided to recruit Leslie Hardy to play the keyboards full-time. Leslie was a Seattle fixture who previously played bass with Hole, Juned, and Love As Laughter. Switching from bass to farfisa organ was a nice change of pace for Leslie and added a much more haunting effect to the band’s already ghastly sound. She took to the Devil’s dark image quickly by incorporating lit candles on her organ during live shows. Leslie’s first recorded appearance came in December 1998 for the “Christmas Bonus Single” 7” for Jeff and Amy’s Paper Bag Series. This unique release included “364 Days” and a Hanoi Rocks cover of “Dead By Christmas”. Most of 1999 saw the band touring the West Coast and Canada. They also released 2 split seven inches, one with Glucifer on Sub Pop and the other with Botch on Excursion. The latter was 7” given out to cast and crew who worked on “The Edge of Quarrel”, a film made by Excursion owner David Larson. The film featured Dann and had appearances by Derek, Spencer, and a who’s who of the Seattle punk and hardcore scenes. Another film during this period was “For the Cash” that featured Coady and once again had Dann and Spencer trying their hands at acting. In early December 1999, the Devils went back in the studio with producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Jawbox, The Breeders) to record their masterpiece, “In Name and Blood”. With Leslie on keyboards, the Devil’s sound was never more complet