Biography
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Years Active
1982 – 1990 (8 years)
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Founded In
Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California, United States
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Members
- Mike Neider
- Steve Borek
BL'AST! formed in 1982 as a hardcore/punk/rock band from Santa Cruz, California known as M.A.D., which stood for Mutually Assured Destruction. The original line up consisted of Clifford Dinsmore on vocals, Steve Stevenson on guitar, Dave Cooper on bass, and Bill Torgerson on drums. Circa 1984, Mike Neider joined the group on second guitar and they changed their name to Blast. To make their logo visually "more dynamic," they added an apostrophe to fill in the gap between the letters L and A and tacked an exclamation point on to the end. This doesn't affect the actual pronunciation of the word. Their sound, a unique mix of bands like Black Flag, SSD and Black Sabbath, is quite hard to categorize, lying somewhere in the void between hardcore and hard rock.
Although they largely considered themselves a live band, and never felt their sound was adequately captured on record, they released 3 LP's, 'The Power Of Expression' (WishingWell, 1986), 'It's In My Blood' (SST, 1987) and 'Take The Manic Ride' (SST, 1989). They also released a 7" EP entitled 'School's Out', the title-track being a cover of the Alice Cooper classic, backed with 'Your Eyes' and a cover of 'The Slave' by The Germs.
Stevenson left the group at some point between the release of The Power of Expression and the recording of It's In My Blood. He was briefly replaced by Kip DuVall, former guitarist of Atlanta, Georgia's Neon Christ. DuVall contributed a small bit of song writing to the second album (credited as "Dr. Twang") but left the band before the recording sessions took place. Blast continued with Neider as the sole guitarist from that point on. Stevenson remained friends with his former bandmates and even went on the road with them, serving as a roadie.
Cooper left in 1989 and was replaced by a string of newcomers. Over the course of the next few years, Blast recorded a series of demos which showcased a new sound for the band as they began to dabble in funk.
Dinsmore left the group sometime in the early 90's and co-founded the band Spaceboy. The rest continued on without him, with Neider taking over vocal duties. They eventually changed their name to Blackout (releasing two 7" EPs under that name) and then again to Lab (who also put out a 7" EP, as well as a hard-to-find 4-song CD you could only get along with a Santa Cruz Skateboards order), continuing into the late 90's.
Blast briefly reunited in 2001, playing a handful shows on the West Coast. They were also planning to record again, but unfortunately the band fell apart before that materialized. Dinsmore is now the lead vocalist of the band Gargantula. Neider is working on his new band Ghetto-blast.
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