Big Drill Car is a punk rock group from Costa Mesa, California, formed in 1987. While the group never gained a mainstream audience, they provided an influence on their contemporaries – most notably

ALL All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All al ...

, Chemical People and

Dag Nasty Dag Nasty is an American punk rockGreenwald, p. 14. " Ian Mackaye was such a huge Rites of Spring fan that he not only recorded what was to be the band's only album in 1985 and served as a roadie for them while on tour, but his own new band, ...

– alongside they are considered early pioneers of

melodic hardcore Melodic hardcore is a broadly defined subgenre of hardcore punk with a strong emphasis on melody in its guitar work. It generally incorporates fast rhythms, melodic and often distorted guitar riffs, and vocal styles tending towards shouting and ...

. Big Drill Car released an EP, ''

Small Block The Chevrolet small-block engine is a series of gasoline-powered, V-8 automobile engines, produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors between 1954 and 2003, using the same basic engine block. Referred to as a "small-block" for its size ...

'', in 1988 before being signed to

Cruz Records Cruz Records was an offshoot record label of SST Records, owned by the Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. The label was founded in 1987. Its roster consisted mainly of pop punk and grunge bands, along with Ginn's solo records. The label has rema ...

(owned by former Black Flag guitarist

Greg Ginn Gregory Regis Ginn (born June 8, 1954) is an American guitarist, bassist, singer and songwriter, best known for being the leader, primary songwriter, and the only continuous member of the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led ...

) and releasing two studio albums. The band eventually parted ways with that label and signed to

Headhunter Records Headhunter Records is an American rock music record label distributed by Cargo Music.Hustwit, Gary (1995)Hard Work and Non-Hype Characterize The Bands And Labels In A Super-Active Underground, '' Billboard'', February 25, 1995, p. 82,86, retrieve ...

, who released '' No Worse for the Wear'', the band's last album to date. Big Drill Car broke up in 1995, but reunited for a one-off series of shows in 2008 and 2009, with the classic original lineup. The band reunited with this lineup again in 2016, and they have continued playing shows sporadically since then.

History

"Classic" original lineup-era (1987-1991)

Big Drill Car was formed in 1987 while Frank Daly and Mark Arnold (musician) were still in the seminal OC punk band M.I.A. Frank and Mark had written some songs that were not M.I.A.-style songs so they got together with some friends (Bob and Danny) and started playing around. Their first shows were a mix of covers (like the

Descendents The Descendents are an American punk rock band formed in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, California, by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson. In 1979, they enlisted Stevenson's school friend Milo Aukerman as a ...

' "I'm Not A Loser" and

Dead Kennedys Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing p ...

' "Too Drunk to Fuck") and these new originals songs. After M.I.A. broke up, Big Drill Car entered the studio in 1988 to record the EP ''

''. They were a hard working hard touring band who were rough on their tour vans. While touring with M.I.A., Frank and Mark met and played with

The Descendents The Descendents are an American punk rock band formed in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, California, by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson. In 1979, they enlisted Stevenson's school friend Milo Aukerman as a s ...

. After M.I.A. broke up and the Descendents became

the bands started playing locally and touring together. After "signing" with

's newly formed

, Stephen Egerton (guitar ALL/Descendents) and Bill Stevenson (drums ALL/Descendents/Black Flag) started up working with Big Drill Car in the studio to record their debut album, '' Album/Tape/CD Type Thing'', which was released in 1989.

Final years (1992-1995)

After the release of their second album, ''

Batch Batch may refer to: Food and drink * Batch (alcohol), an alcoholic fruit beverage * Batch loaf, a type of bread popular in Ireland * A dialect term for a bread roll used in North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Coventry, as well as on the Wirra ...

'', Big Drill Car parted ways with the now-"classic" original line-up. Bob had announced that he was leaving the band to play in another band, Xtra Large, who was on the verge of a major label deal. The show was at the PALACE in Los Angeles. It was the biggest of the "VIVA CRUZ" shows (annual shows, show casing the Cruz bands ALL, Big Drill Car and Chemical People). Bob was more active and animated on stage that night than ever before. Bob was replaced by Darren Morris. Darren fit in perfectly - he was a big fan, a super nice guy and he knew all the songs already. Not long after Darren joined the band, Danny left. Danny was replaced by a few drummers including Jamie Reidling (Cadillac Tramps/

US Bombs U.S. Bombs are an American punk rock band, formed in 1993 in Orange County, California by Duane Peters and Kerry Martinez. For much of the band's career, the U.S. Bombs consisted of Peters and Martinez, with bass guitarist Wade Walston and dru ...

) and Keith Fallis (former drummer for Carnival Art). They went on to release 2 more records with Keith in the band Cargo Records, '' Toured (A Live Album)'' which was an earlier recording with the original lineup and '' No Worse for the Wear'', which Keith plays on. While ''No Worse for the Wear'' still never broke the band into mainstream audiences, the release of the album would gain Big Drill Car a little success and supporting slots on national and world tours with bands such as

The Offspring The Offspring is an American rock band from Garden Grove, California, formed in 1984. Originally formed under the name Manic Subsidal, the band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland, lead guit ...

(who had just released '' Smash'' to unexpected success and acclaim) and

Guttermouth Guttermouth is an American punk rock band formed in 1988 in Huntington Beach, California and currently recording for Rude Records. They have released nine full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured extensively, including perfor ...

. After this, Big Drill Car broke up in 1995.

Post-breakup (1996-2007)

After breaking up, Frank Daly (vocalist) and Mark Arnold (guitarist) joined forces with John Kastner (

Doughboys Doughboy was a popular nickname for the American Infantry, infantryman World War I#Entry of the United States, during World War I. Though the origins of the term are not certain, the nickname was still in use as of the early 1940s. Examples inclu ...

/ Asexuals) to form the band All Systems Go!. Arnold is currently working as a sound engineer, recently working for Lemonheads/

Jesus and Mary Chain Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

Breeders A breeder is a person who selectively breeds carefully selected mates, normally of the same breed to sexually reproduce offspring with specific, consistently replicable qualities and characteristics. This might be as a farmer, agriculturalist, ...

/ Rocket from the Crypt/

Band of Horses Band of Horses is an American rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle, Washington. Led by singer-songwriter Ben Bridwell, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes, the band's current line-up also inclu ...

. Daly worked as a guitar tech for Rocket from the Crypt for a while, then went on to tour manage

Reel Big Fish Reel Big Fish is an American ska punk band from Orange County, California. The band gained mainstream recognition in the mid-to-late 1990s during the third wave of ska with the release of the gold-certified album ''Turn the Radio Off''. Soon af ...

before settling down, getting married and having a family.

Reunions (2008-2016)

On May 23, 2008, it was reported on Punknews.org that Big Drill Car (with the classic ''Small Block'' lineup) was reuniting for a series of reunion shows in August, taking place at

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

's Fitzgerald's Pub and two Southern California dates on the 2008

Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touri ...

. Big Drill Car also headlined

Riot Fest Riot Fest is an annual three-day punk rock music festival based in Chicago, Illinois, at Douglass Park. It is known for booking reunions, guest performances, and full album performances. Riot Fest remains one of the largest independently owned m ...

2008, which took place on October 10–12 in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Asked in August 2008 what was next for Big Drill Car, bassist Bob Thomson stated, "I can 100% guarantee there will be no tour, we're all dads with jobs. It is not easy to co ordinate shows as Frank lives in Indiana, so the best we can hope for is a show here and there." This led many to believe that Big Drill Car could be ending their reunion. Despite the statement Bob made, Big Drill Car reconvened in the summer of 2009 for shows with

All All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All al ...

. Also in 2009, they released a rarities album called ''A Never Ending Endeavor'', which also featured some new material. 2008 also marked the first time any of their music was available on iTunes. In January 2016, Big Drill Car played a one-off reunion show in Costa Mesa. They are still active as of November 2017, and play shows mostly around Southern California.

Line-ups

Discography

Studio Albums and EPs

*''

'' EP (

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), Varient Records! (re-issued on

in 1990) *'' CD Type Thing'' (

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, Cruz Records) *''

'' (

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, Cruz Records) *'' Toured (A Live Album)'' (

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, Cargo/Headhunter Records) *'' No Worse for the Wear'' (

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, Cargo/Headhunter Records) * ''A Never Ending Endeavor'' ( 2009, Varient Records!)

7" Singles

*''"

Surrender Surrender may refer to: * Surrender (law), the early relinquishment of a tenancy * Surrender (military), the relinquishment of territory, combatants, facilities, or armaments to another power Film and television * ''Surrender'' (1927 film), an ...

/Getaway"'' (split w/ Chemical People) (1991, Cruz Records) *''"The Snapperhead E.P."'' split w/ Thud! ( 1992, Blackbox Records) *''"No Worse for the Wear/ Black Country Rock"'' (1994, Stab You in the Back/Truk Records) *''"Nothin' At All/Trash the House"'' (1994,

Goldenrod Records Goldenrod Records was a record label formed by Tod Swank in 1991 in San Diego, California to release the first 7" record by Custom Floor, a band consisting of skateboarders Garry Davis, Phil Esbenshade, and Miki Vuckovich. After the release of the ...

)

Compilation Appearances

*''Cruz Sampler 7"'' (1991) - "Restless Habs" *''The Big One: City of L.A. Power'' (1991) - "A Take Away" *''Something's Gone Wrong Again: The Buzzcocks Covers Compilation'' (1992) - "I Don't Mind" *''13 Back-Ordered Hits'' (1993) - "16 Lines" *''Blackbox Sampler'' (1993) - "

Big Shot Big Shot may refer to: Fiction * Big Shot, an animated superhero character on the television show '' The Tick'' created by cartoonist Ben Edlund in 1986 * Big Shot, the former mascot of the Philadelphia 76ers until 1996 * ''Big Shot'', a fiction ...

(live)" *''Case Closed? An International Compilation of Husker Du Cover Songs'' (1993) - " Celebrated Summer" *''By The Banks of the Mighty Santa Ana, Vol. II'' (1994) - "Song No. 40" *'' Super Mixer'' (1996) - "Nothin' At All" *''Keep the Beat'' (1996) - "Celebrated Summer" *''O.C.'s 5400 Day Revolution'' (1999) - "Big Shot (studio version)"

Known Associates

*Darin Oosthuizen - road manager/roadie *Greg Jacobs - Manager * Stormy Shepherd - Booking Agent *Doug Mann - road manager/ batch tour

References

External links

The Official WebsiteThe Unofficial MySpace Page
{{Authority control Punk rock groups from California Musical groups reestablished in 2008