Ten Foot Pole is a U.S. melodic punkrock band, formerly on Epitaph Records. The band was founded in 1983 as Scared Straight. They renamed themselves in the early 1990s while on tour in Europe, not wanting to be mistaken for a “straight edge” punk band.
Before changing their name to Ten Foot Pole in the early 1990s, the band included nardcore punk members Scott Radinsky and Dennis Jagard. The band released two albums under their new name with the old lineup: Swill and Rev. After the release of Rev and a split EP with Sweden’s Satanic Surfers, Scott was forced to leave the band due to his professional baseball commitments and Ten Foot Pole’s desire to be a full-time touring band. The next album, Unleashed, featured Jagard on guitar/vocals and was a hit with fans. The follow up was Insider before the band was dropped by Epitaph. The band rebounded after the death of a band member to release Bad Mother Trucker on Victory Records. Here they teamed up with Kevin Ruggeri, their new drummer. However, he soon left the band due to his teaching commitments. Kevin currently teaches high school in Pennsylvania. After parting ways with Victory, they were signed to Go-Kart Records and released Subliminable Messages. Bass player Mike Levy is currently a high school baseball coach and middle school Social Studies teacher in Culver City, CA. Dennis Jagard went on to work sound for a year with Prince and has since focused on sound tech. |
