Speedball Baby

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Speedball Baby

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SPEEDBALL BABY come at you all tumble-grind and twang-beat like thunder in a blizzard. Fusing the primordial slurp of rockabilly with a broken-homegrown hybrid of gospel testimony and punk mayhem, the group cuts a swath through the rotting cane fields of the contemporary music scene. Live, they harness hysteria - pounding out a thrown drink conniption fit as exuberant as a St. Vitas dance. Their shows have earned them the loyalty of music lovers and emergency room ghouls on both coasts and between. The notoriously fickle crowds in their home parish of NYC have stuck to SPEEDBALL BABY like feathers on a tarred heretic.

SPEEDBALL BABY were conceived at singer Ron Ward,s wedding reception. Among the assembled guests treated to an impromptu mauling of standards by the well lubricated groom was Madder Rose bass player Matt Verta-Ray. The virus of inspiration - to bring the then Blood Oranges drummer and Wobbly Organist Ward up to the front seat to drive and return Verta-Ray to the guitar chair - became as irresistible as the punch. It even made sense the next day.SPEEDBALL BABY have outlasted the marriage.

SPEEDBALL BABY were perfected with the addition of former Kelly Township mouthpiece Ali Smith onbass and UK transplant Martin Owens on drums. They have festered together in the most fertile music hothouse of all: the New York City apartment. Far from Israel Zingwell’s “Melting Pot” New York has functioned more as a microwave for SPEEDBALL BABY - annealing them as individuals and broiling them, inedibly hot on the inside, as a band. SPEEDBALL BABY have a sound. Martin works the traps like a cocktail forge, loading syncopated coal like the port town native he is.
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  • Skygazer1

    Such an amazing live band back in the mid and late 90s.

    30 Jan 2:53am Reply

  • JPirulainen

    I have downloaded The Blackout record. I red the biography of The Speedball Baby and i was looking if this band has anything to do with Jon Spencer, but couldn't find anything else related but Verta Ray. It sure does sound in many songs that Jon Spencer is at mic...

    29 Aug 2008 Reply

  • brainwash79

    do you wanna get heavy? nti nti nti ntou ntou ntou.. do u wanna get heavy.. lala lala lala..

    12 Sep 2007 Reply

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