1. Grunge band formed in Seattle, Washington, United States.|Kevin Wood (brother of Andy Wood, and former guitarist for Malfunkshun) and Dan McDonald (former bassist for Native Messiah and Strait Face) began jamming together at the end of the summer of 1991. Within a couple of months, they had put together a few song ideas and began the quest for a drummer. This quest probably lasted about a day…Kevin immediately suggested trying out his friend Chad Channing (Chad had just left Nirvana after their European tour, and he was more than happy to join a band that welcomed his song writing talents). Then came the insanity of trying to find a vocalist…after trying out four or five victims, it was decided to try Kevin’s brother Brian Wood . Brian was eccentric, had intense stage energy, and could write lyrics with ease…plus he could sing with a maniacal passion…Brian Wood passed his audition, and the Fire Ants began putting together an amazing repertoire of moody-bluesy-metallish tunes. All members of the band had song ideas floating around and the band had an uncanny ability to improvise. Once they hit the stage, they began blowing away the crowds. At first they opened for bands such as Sweet Water, Blind Horse, Willard, and Love Brother Nine…but being an “opening band” did not last! The Fire Ants were just excessively and insanely powerful and twitchy, which made them a difficult act to follow. Their biggest break came when they were asked to open for Soundgarden at the RKCNDY for an unannounced show. After a few months of heavy gigging, the band made a deal with Dekema Records and recorded an EP of six songs (engineered and produced by Jack Endino). Fire Ants also tapped an amazing video of five songs at Eastern Washington University’s Audio Video lab. The only known copy of this video tape exists in the hands of Jack Endino. The band also appeared in a radio interview at KXRX with Scott Vanderpol. When The END (107.7) first started out, they played a lot of local bands…one of the bands that was showcased was the Fire Ants and their song “100 Wives” was played frequently. Fire Ants were courted by major labels, and showcased for BMI…to stay away from the ensuing nasty politics of the this once great band, let’s just say they split up and “lived happily ever after”. Kevin and Brian Wood went on to form “Devilhead” (Dan McDonald plays on their 1st CD), which signed on Stone Gossard’s Sony backed label “Loose Groove Records”…releasing 4 CD’s. Dan and Chad went on to form a power pop band “The Methodists”, which released a CD titled “Cookie”, on their own label “Mock Records”. |Kevin is currently playing again with Regan Hagar (old Malfunkshun mates). And Shawn Smith with Corey Cane.|Chad Channing is involved with a band called “Before Cars” where he is playing the guitar and singing.|Dan McDonald is playing and writing songs at home with his 32 track studio…he is also currently showcasing his songs as “Dan Ho” |2. A Rock band based out of New York City.|Fire Ants were born out of a project Mark Hermann had begun with his bass player friend, Eric Massimino, whom he had brought out to L.A. from New York to play on the Five For Fighting CD, Message for Albert, which Mark was producing for EMI with their president, Davitt Sigerson. Eric and Hermann had grown up playing music together and while Eric was staying with Mark during the FFF sessions, they started to jam like the old days. Only they came up with four songs that were pretty good. So they recorded them in Mark’s crib on his mobile studio. They needed a singer and Eric knew a guy, JJ Appleton, a singer/guitar player back in New York, who he thought would be a great fit. They flew back to New York to audition J.J. and he was just what the doctor ordered. After recording his vocals and mixing the four songs, the demo found it’s way into the hands of Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records. One day, Eric got a phone call from the man himself, asking what this Fire Ants thing was that came across his desk and whether it was real or not. Mark had been waiting for a sign from God to escape from L.A. for quite some time and this was close enough for him. He packed his things and headed back to New York to finish this CD and start a new life. Fire Ants had quite a bit of indie success at the cusp of the internet explosion around 1997. They had a number one song on MP3.com, Save The World, which led to some amazing free PR. First, CNN called to see if they could interview them for their Science & Technology program on how people were using the internet to further the careers. Then Rolling Stone called and interviewed Mark for an article titled, ‘Is MP3 the End of the Music Business?’ Matt Hendrickson, who interviewed Mark for the Rolling Stone article, asked him off the record if all this internet stuff really translated into tangible success. Mark said, ‘Hey Matt, we’re an unsigned band and you’re a major writer for Rolling Stone and you called me. What do you think?’ Wired Magazine followed after that with another interview. Not bad for a total PR budget of ZERO! The Fire Ants CD, Save the World, has elements of pop, rock, blues, punk, soul and psychedelia. |
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