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Japanther

Japanther

Ian Vanek
Matthew Reilly

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Japanther

It all started in my bedroom late one summer night, 2001. After a brief practice period we played a noisey seven minute show opening for Lightning Bolt and Pink & Brown. It was after that first show that Rob Barber recorded our demo and the first US tour was booked. We were dead convinced that we had the best punk band. It turns out were mainly blasted beats off a tape player and fell down/screamed a lot.

After two more tours my brother Matt Vanek put up some money for us to record onto 2 inch tape in Cleveland @ Invisible City. The resulting 5 song ep, "South Of Northport" was released on Tapes Records June 2002. Matt was later listed as Key Player on the EP without even touching an instrument. Later, In the midst of the the Aug. US tour supporting SNP we recorded in San Antonio, TX @ Tribal Studios. Hence the "Leather Wings" LP. This is were Marc Weitz enters the story.

After another lengthy U.S. tour we invested our tour profits in an 8 track and made "Dump The Body In Rikki Lake" with Devin Flynn at the controls. We did a few pieces with Claudia on guitar in Devin's garage too, Big Chunks of "Rikki Lake" are Matt and I four tracking in our Carrol Gardens apartment before the Leather Wings tour. Now that we are gearing up for our biggest tour yet (Dump Japanther In Rikki Lake) We are excited but confident. We've had a chance to work on our music a bit and we hope to play it for you and your friends someday soon. We recorded with Aron Sanchez right before the Leather Wings tour and the resulting one sided 12 will be out on Tapes and Menlo Park later in 2004. Special art by UFO 907!