Asphalt Ballet is an American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band formed in
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
.
Their style is rooted in
blues rock
Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes w ...
and incorporates elements of
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
and
Southern rock
Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar speculat ...
.
The band's name was derived from descriptive terminology used to depict a motorcyclist, crashing and skidding along an
asphalt concrete
Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parkin ...
road at high speed.
The band consists of vocalist Gary Jeffries, bassist Terry Phillips, drummer Mikki Kiner, and guitarists Danny Clarke and Julius J. Ulrich,
although by 2019 the status of the band is unknown. Jeffries fronts the Gary Jeffries Band. When was asked about a reunion with his former bandmates and said, "I wouldn't be opposed to it, but man, I haven't talked to them guys in about 20 years, their MySpace is no longer available."
History
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...
signed the band and released their
self-titled debut album in 1991.
Jeffries left due to pressure from the label to change their style to sound more like grunge.
Their second album, ''
Pigs
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...
'', was released in 1993,
with Tommy Dean on lead vocals.
The band split up shortly after the release of ''Pigs''.
Information about recording new material may be on the band's MySpace web page, but the most recent was reportedly in February 2011.
Membership
*Gary Jeffries – vocals. harmonica
*Terry Phillips – bass
*Julius Ulrich – guitar
*Danny Clarke – guitar
*Mikki Kiner – drums
*Tommy Dean – vocals
Discography
Studio albums
EPs
Singles
References
{{Authority control
American blues rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Virgin Records artists