Attitude Adjustment is an American

crossover thrash Crossover thrash (often abbreviated to crossover) is a fusion genre of thrash metal and hardcore punk. The genre lies on a continuum between heavy metal and hardcore punk. Other genres on the same continuum, such as metalcore and grindcore, ma ...

band from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Their debut album, ''American Paranoia'', is considered to be an early "crossover" between

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk ...

and

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

Formation

The band was formed by

Chris Kontos Christopher T. Kontos (born December 10, 1963) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Kontos is best known for his nine goals in 11 playoff games while he was a member of the Los Angeles Kings and his franchise opening night four-go ...

, Eric Smith and Rick Strahl in early 1985, with Nick Koljian briefly on vocals. The lineup was changed with the addition of Kevin Reed on vocals. This lineup played a number of initial shows at Ruthie's Inn, the New Method, the

Mabuhay Gardens The Mabuhay Gardens, also known as The Fab Mab or The Mab, was a former San Francisco nightclub, located at 443 Broadway Street, in North Beach on the Broadway strip area best known for its striptease clubs. It closed in 1987. History The Ma ...

and other

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

venues. Several months later, Kevin Reed was replaced by Andy Andersen on vocals and Chris Scaparro joined as a second guitarist. They shortly went into the studio to record the "Dead Serious Demo" in 1985. The demo was recorded by Doug Piercy at the Turk Street Practice Pad.

Early tours and recording

In 1986 and 1987, Attitude Adjustment played frequent gigs throughout

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. They played alongside bands such as Forbidden (Known as Forbidden Evil at that time),

Vio-lence Vio-lence is an American thrash metal band formed in 1985 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Throughout its existence, they released demo tapes, one EP and three studio albums. Vio-lence is best-known for their association with the 1980s Bay Area ...

Sacrilege Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy, and when physical ...

Possessed Possessed may refer to: Possession * Possession (disambiguation), having some degree of control over something else ** Spirit possession, whereby gods, demons, animas, or other disincarnate entities may temporarily take control of a human body *** ...

Hirax The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) is an interferometric array of 1024 6-meter (20 ft) diameter radio telescopes, operating at 400-800MHz, that will be deployed at the Square Kilometer Array site in the Karoo regi ...

Death Angel Death Angel is an American thrash metal band from Daly City, California, initially active from 1982 to 1991 and again since 2001. Death Angel has released nine studio albums, two demo tapes, one box set and three live albums. The band has gone ...

, R.K.L., Dr. Know,

Suicidal Tendencies Suicidal Tendencies is an American crossover thrash band formed in 1980 in Venice in Los Angeles, California by vocalist Mike Muir. Muir is the only remaining original member of the band. Along with D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity, and Stormtr ...

Corrosion of Conformity Corrosion of Conformity (also known as COC) is an American heavy metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina, formed in 1982. The band has undergone multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with guitarist Woody Weatherman as the sole const ...

, D.R.I., Discharge,

UK Subs U.K. Subs are an English punk rock band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. They were also one of the f ...

Neurosis Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...

The Exploited The Exploited are a Scottish punk rock band from Edinburgh, formed in 1979 by Stevie Ross and Terry Buchan, with Buchan soon replaced by his brother Wattie Buchan. They signed to Secret Records in March 1981,Operation Ivy Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after '' Tumbler-Snapper'' and before '' Upshot–Knothole''. The two explosions were staged in late 1952 at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall Is ...

, among others. The band finally released their debut album, ''American Paranoia'', released by Pusmort Records, is considered to be an early "crossover" between

and

Line-up changes

* In 1987, Andy Anderson, Chris Scaparro and Rick Strahl joined up with former Condemned to Death Bassist /vocals Keith Chatham, after his return from Australia playing in bands Death Sentence and

Vicious Circle A vicious circle (or cycle) is a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop, with detrimental results. It is a system with no tendency toward equilibrium (social, economic, ecological, etc.), at least in the short r ...

. With Vicious Circle guitarist-Les Rumincik/Guitar, Dave Ross/Drums(Vicious Circle/Civil Dissident) and Keith Chatham Bass/Vocals they record "Condemned?-Humanoid or Biomechanoid?"(Reactor Records/Nuclear Blast). When Keith returned to San Francisco Slade Anderson/Drums (Mercenary/Mordred)joined Condemned? This is when the 3 Attitude Adjustment members from the East Bay merged with Condemned? in San Francisco at Turk St studios this became "Condemned Attitude". They recorded first at Peter Miller's two songs with Slade Anderson then Paul Birnbaum/Septic Death joined to finish the "What's Yours?" Demo and record "Kein Schlaf bis Deutschland" (We Bite Records)which would have Rick Strahl on guitar and Keith Chatham back on Bass the band was later renamed just Attitude. Keith and Paul left the band in 1987. Keith formed Something Scaley 1988–98. 2009 Condemned? Record Jungle fever demo with Rick Strahl/Guitar returning and Slade Anderson/Drums, 2011 Condemned? record a double disc on Nuclear Blast-Condemned 2 Death/C2D2, 2015 SteamedPunks EP * Attitude released an LP and an EP, taking a more

-like style, with Andy Andersen returning to his initial style of singing. Rick Strahl and Chris Scaparro became the new guitarists with Eric Brecht on drums during this time. * Chris Kontos, Eric Smith and Kevin Reed continued on with Attitude Adjustment and in 1988, this new lineup released the EP ''No More Mr. Nice Guy'', again on Pusmort Records, which is very different from ''American Paranoia''. * By 1990, former members Andy Anderson, Chris Scaparro, and Rick Strahl formed a new band with former Piranha guitarist Ron Shipes that had a more

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 ...

direction. The band was called Two Bit Thief they released an LP "Another Sad Story...In the Big City" They kept it alive until 1995. Subsequently, Ron Shipes forged Fueled. * Kontos and Reed returned to the name "Attitude Adjustment" in 1991, but with another new lineup to record their last studio album, ''Out Of Hand'', again mixing hardcore with thrash metal. * In 1993, the ''American Paranoia'' LP and the ''No More Mr. Nice Guy'' EP were re-issued on CD. The LP version includes the "Dead Serious" demo. * Chris Kontos joined

Robb Flynn Robert Conrad Flynn (born Lawrence Matthew Cardine; July 19, 1967) is an American musician who is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for heavy metal band Machine Head. Flynn formed the band along with Adam Duce, Logan Mader and Tony Cos ...

(who left ''Vio-lence'') in 1993 to form the

post thrash Groove metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that began in the early 1990s. The genre achieved success in the 1990s and continued having success in the 2000s. Inspired by thrash metal and traditional heavy metal, groove metal features raspy ...

band

Machine Head A machine head (also referred to as a tuning machine, tuner, or gear head) is a geared apparatus for tuning stringed musical instruments by adjusting string tension. Machine heads are used on mandolins, guitars, double basses and others, and ar ...

. * The band reformed in 2007.

Current lineup

*Walter Ryan (drums) *Kevin Reed (vocals) *Eric McIntire aka Eric "Bobo" Smith (guitar) *Ray Vegas (guitar) *Greg Orr (bass)

Former members

*Andy Andersen (vocals - Condemned Attitude, Attitude, Two Bit Thief) * Paul Birnbaum (drums) *Tezz Bones (guitar - Discharge,

Broken Bones A bone fracture (abbreviated FRX or Fx, Fx, or #) is a medical condition in which there is a partial or complete break in the continuity of any bone in the body. In more severe cases, the bone may be broken into several fragments, known as a '' ...

) *Eric Brecht (drums -

Death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

, D.R.I.) *Keith Chatham (guitar/bass/vocals- Attitude/Condemned Attitude, Condemned to Death/C2D, Condemned?, Something Scaley) *Nick Koljian (vocals - Scoopy's Clownhouse Revenge) *

(drums -

Verbal Abuse Verbal abuse (also known as verbal aggression, verbal attack, verbal violence, verbal assault, psychic aggression, or psychic violence) is a type of psychological/mental abuse that involves the use of oral, gestured, and written language direct ...

) *Keith Medeiros (bass) *Chris Scarparo (guitar) *Bryon "Yapple" Ruelas (guitar) *Rick Strahl (Bass/Guitar - Condemned Attitude, Attitude, Two Bit Thief) *Sean Sutton (guitar) *Ray Vegas (bass -

, Social Unrest)

Bands influenced by Attitude Adjustment

Napalm Death Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in 1981 in Meriden, West Midlands. None of the band's original members has been in the group since 1986. But since ''Utopia Banished'' (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch ...

recorded "Dope Fiend" off of "American Paranoia" for '' Leaders Not Followers: Part 2'' *

Municipal Waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Dead Serious'' - Demo 1985 * ''American Paranoia'' - LP 1986 * ''The Good, The Bad, The Obnoxious'' (12", as Attitude) - EP 1987 * ''No More Mr. Nice Guy'' - EP 1988 * ''Out of Hand'' - LP 1991 * ''True to the Trade'' - EP 1996 * ''The Collection'' LP 2010 * ''No Way Back'' - 2011 - Taang records * ''Terrorize'' - EP 2016 - Beer City Records

Compilation albums

* ''Rat Music for Rat People, Vol. 3'' (

CD Presents David Ferguson was an American international outsider-culture impresario, activist, music producer and concert promoter. Over his career, most of which has been spent on the West Coast, he worked with musical acts such as the Avengers, John L ...

, 1987)

References

External links

MyspaceRick Strahl's site
{{Authority control Thrash metal musical groups from California Crossover thrash groups Musical groups established in 1985 Hardcore punk groups from California 1985 establishments in California