Deth Specula is a Santa Cruz "neo-bronto" five-piece rock band. Deth Specula was one of the first ten bands on The Internet Underground Music Archive and used the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

to broadcast a live music concert from the Cowell Courtyard at the

SCO Forum SCO Forum was a technical computer conference sponsored by the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), briefly by Caldera International, and later The SCO Group that took place during the 1980s through 2000s. It was held annually, most often in August of ea ...

held on the University of California in Santa Cruz on August 23, 1994. This was the first time a live music concert was broadcast over the Internet and the second netcast ever. The first song ever broadcast in a live concert over the Internet was "Internet Band", a Deth Specula parody of the

Grand Funk Railroad Grand Funk Railroad (often shortened to Grand Funk) is an American rock band formed in 1968 in Flint, Michigan, by Mark Farner (vocals, guitar), Don Brewer (drums, vocals), and Mel Schacher (bass). The band achieved peak popularity and succ ...

song "We're An American Band".

Genre

Deth Specula was a 1990s band with roots in early 1970s hard rock and style drawing on 1980s punk pop. They began as a punk parody band and later developed into "neo-bronto" rock.

Band members

The bassist, Jon Luini is one of the three founders of the

Internet Underground Music Archive The Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA) was an organization that provided a venue for unsigned artists to share their music and communicate with their audience. IUMA is widely recognized as the birthplace of on-line music. IUMA's goal was to ...

(IUMA), a pioneering

online music A digital music store is a business that sells digital audio files of music recordings over the Internet. Customers gain ownership of a license to use the files, in contrast to a music streaming service, where they listen to recordings without ...

website formed in 1993.

History

Deth Specula formed in 1989 to create a rock video parody of the Sex Pistols song Anarchy in the U.K. called " Anarchy at SCO" for use in the SCO

Follies ''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Fol ...

, a company sponsored musical comedy revue produced each year by the employees. Deth Specula continued to make video parodies for the SCO Follies in subsequent years and branched out into playing at local night clubs. On March 9, 1994

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

used the Deth Specula original "Careening Continental" as the lead in and out for their "Showbiz News" segment on

IUMA The Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA) was an organization that provided a venue for unsigned artists to share their music and communicate with their audience. IUMA is widely recognized as the birthplace of on-line music. IUMA's goal was t ...

. On August 23, 1994 the band broadcast a live concert over the

Mbone Mbone (short for " multicast backbone") was an experimental backbone and virtual network built on top of the Internet for carrying IP multicast traffic on the Internet. It was developed in the early 1990s and required specialized hardware and s ...

. In 1995 they played in the UniForum Battle of the Bands in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

. Over time Deth Specula became more of an original rock and ballad band than a parody group although they retained their sense of humor as evidenced by originals like "Baboon Liver", "Crop Killer", "Reagan Mask", "Gutterslut", and "Get Even More".

Current status

Deth Specula performed at the Cocoanut Grove in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...

on February 2, 2008 for the Bruce Steinberg memorial.

It's A Beautiful Day It's a Beautiful Day is an American band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1967, featuring vocalist Pattie Santos along with violinist David LaFlamme and his wife, Linda LaFlamme, on keyboards. David LaFlamme, who as a youth had once p ...

opened for them. Deth Specula is currently not performing.

Discography

*''Weasels and Cream'' - an 8-song cassette *A 3-song demo tape *''The Deth Specula Compilation Video'' - music videos including " Anarchy at SCO", a parody of the Sex Pistols song " Anarchy in the U.K."

References

{{Reflist

External links

Deth Specula Band WebsitePromotional compilation video
Rock music groups from California American parodists Musical parodies Parody musicians