Fastbacks were a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington, punk rock band. Formed in 1979 by songwriter/guitarist

Kurt Bloch Kurt Bloch (born August 28, 1960) is an American songwriter, guitarist, engineer and record producer. Music career Bloch is best known as songwriter and lead guitarist of Fastbacks, and is a member of The Young Fresh Fellows. Record Production ...

(born August 28, 1960), and friends Lulu Gargiulo (guitar and vocals, born October 12, 1960) and

Kim Warnick Kim Warnick (born April 7, 1959Fastbacks on SubPop Records
Accessed online 2017-03-31.) i ...

(bass and vocals, born April 7, 1959), they disbanded in 2001. Their sound mixed a generally punk rock approach to vocals and sound textures with poppy tunes and strong musicianship. Although these three band members remained fairly constant, they went through numerous drummers, including

Duff McKagan Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964), sometimes credited as Duff "Rose" McKagan, is an American musician. He played bass for twelve years in the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late ...

, later of

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's web page on the Fastbacks says that estimates at the number of Fastbacks drummers "range from 12 to 20." For most of the band's last decade, Mike Musburger filled this role, but other Fastbacks drummers before him (or when he took occasional breaks) included Bloch himself,

Richard Stuverud Richard Allen Stuverud Jr. (born September 26, 1969) is an American drummer from Seattle, Washington. He lives in Oakland, California where he writes, arranges and produces songs. He plays drums in the Oakland based bands, REQ'D, Slow Phase and L ...

(perhaps best known from

War Babies War children are those born to a native parent and a parent belonging to a foreign military force (usually an occupying force, but also military personnel stationed at military bases on foreign soil). Having a child by a member of a belligerent ...

Fifth Angel Fifth Angel is an American heavy metal band from Bellevue, Washington. Biography Fifth Angel was formed in the suburbs of Seattle in 1983, specifically, in the Bellevue area. The band's initial lineup consisted of Ted Pilot (vocals), James B ...

and his collaborations with

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guita ...

Jeff Ament Jeffrey Allen Ament (born March 10, 1963) is an American musician and songwriter who is best known as the bassist of the American rock band Pearl Jam, which he co-founded alongside Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder. Prior to his wo ...

, including

Three Fish Three Fish was an American rock band formed in 1994 by Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament. The lineup featured Ament, Robbi Robb of Tribe After Tribe, and Richard Stuverud of the Fastbacks and War Babies. History The band was formed by bassist Jeff Ame ...

, Tres Mts. and

RNDM RNDM is an American alternative rock band formed in 2012, consisting of Pearl Jam's bassist Jeff Ament, singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur and drummer Richard Stuverud. They released their first album, ''Acts'', on 30 October 2012. Their second albu ...

), Nate Johnson and Rusty Willoughby (both of whom also played in both

Flop In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...

and

Pure Joy Pure may refer to: Computing * A pure function * A pure virtual function * PureSystems, a family of computer systems introduced by IBM in 2012 * Pure Software, a company founded in 1991 by Reed Hastings to support the Purify tool * Pure-FTPd, ...

John Moen John Moen is a musician and member of The Decemberists, Black Prairie, Boston Spaceships, Eyelids, and Perhapst. Moen has played the drums since he was 15 years old. Prior to joining The Decemberists, Moen played with over 20 bands including s ...

(of the Dharma Bums, later of Steven Malkmus's Jicks and

The Decemberists The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Colin Meloy ( lead vocals, guitar, principal songwriter), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion), Nate ...

), Jason Finn (of the Presidents of the United States of America),

Dan Peters Daniel Joe Peters (born August 18, 1967) is the drummer for Mudhoney, having played with them since their formation in 1988. Prior to Mudhoney, he joined Bundle of Hiss when he was fifteen years old. He was also briefly the drummer for Nir ...

Mudhoney Mudhoney is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988, following the demise of Green River. Its members are singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison and drummer Dan Peters. Orig ...

, and Tad Hutchison of the

Young Fresh Fellows Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an American roc ...

. Several of these people also served at times as drummers in

The Squirrels The Squirrels are a novelty pop band based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1984 by lead vocalist Rob Morgan (founder, as well, of the ''Poplust'' zine), the band went through numerous lineups, but has stuck to the aesthetic that Peter Blecha ...

, a similarly long-lived band, and the Fastbacks' sometime label-mates on

PopLlama Records PopLlama Records is an independent record label founded by record producer Conrad Uno in Seattle, Washington, in 1984. After making several of his own demos in his basement studio, Uno would produce The Young Fresh Fellows' debut album ''The Fab ...

, who bring a similar mix of strong musicianship and punk attitude to even poppier material. Contributing to the band's breakup was Kim Warnick's move to the band Visqueen in 2001 through 2004. In summer 2010 Kim Warnick started a new band with Mikey Davis (

Alien Crime Syndicate Alien Crime Syndicate, often abbreviated to ACS, were a rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1997. From 1999 to the band's breakup in 2005, the lineup consisted primarily of Joe Reineke (vocals, guitar), Jeff Rouse (bass, backing voca ...

Tommy Stinson Thomas Eugene Stinson (born October 6, 1966) is an American rock musician. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the bass guitarist for The Replacements, one of the definitive American alternative rock groups. After their breakup in 1991, Stins ...

) called Cali Giraffes. The Fastbacks reunited for a one-off live performance 8 July 2011 at the West Seattle Summer Music Festival, featuring the core trio of Bloch, Warnick, and Garguilo, along with Mike Musburger on drums, their first official show together since their break-up a decade ago. They later reunited in September 2018 for a benefit concert, in aid of fellow Seattle musician Andrew McKeag.

Discography

Albums

* 1987: ''...And His Orchestra'' ( PopLlama) * 1990: '' Very, Very Powerful Motor'' (PopLlama) * 1991: ''Never Fails, Never Works'' (Blaster!) - UK compilation of EPs * 1992: ''The Question is No'' (

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

) - compilation * 1993: ''

Zücker ''Zücker'' is the third studio album by the Fastbacks, released in 1993 on Sub Pop. ''Pitchfork'' wrote that it "was as close as they came to an alt-rock breakout." The twelfth track, " Please Read Me", is a cover of a Bee Gees song from the ...

'' (Sub Pop) * 1994: '' Answer the Phone, Dummy'' (Sub Pop) * 1996: ''New Mansions in Sound'' (Sub Pop) * 1999: ''The Day that didn't Exist'' (

spinART SpinART Records was a New York City-based independent record label that released recordings by The Apples in Stereo, Clem Snide, Black Francis, Frank Black, and Michael Penn. The label was started by Joel Morowitz and Jeff Price in 1991. SpinART ...

) * 2016: ''Now is the Time'' (No Threes) compilation * 2018: ''If You Want To Slow Down, Step On The Gas'' (

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

) compilation recorded between 1985-1990

Singles

* 1981: "It's Your Birthday" / "You Can't Be Happy" (No Threes) * 1989: "Wrong Wrong Wrong" / "In America" - (Subway) - UK * 1989: "In The Winter" / "It Came To Me In A Dream" (Subway) - UK * 1990: "Lose" (Steve Priest Fan Club) - split with

Gas Huffer Gas Huffer was an American garage rock band from Washington. They were known for their informal and comical lyrics and their antic-laden stage presence. History Gas Huffer classified themselves loosely in the garage punk genre. The band crea ...

* 1991: ''The Answer Is You'' ("My Letters"/"Whatever Happened to ?"/"Impatience"/"Above the Sunrise") (Sub Pop) 2-single set * 1992: "Run No More" / "Really" (Who Cares?) * 1992: "Now Is the Time" / "Sometimes" / "Was Late" (Ded Beet) * 1993: "They Don't Care" / "Out of the Charts" - (PopLlama) * 1993: "Gone to the Moon" - "Go All the Way" (Sub Pop) * 1994: "Wait It Out" / "The Jester" (Munster) * 1995: ''Rat Race / I Live In A Car / Telephone Numbers'' (Gearhead Records) - Split with The Meices * 1996: ''Just Say'' (Sub Pop) * 1996: ''All In Order'' / ''Answer The Phone, Dummy'' / ''Allison'' (Birdtime Bird Co.) * 1996: ''And After All'' / ''Marionette'' (Birdtime Bird Co.) * 2011: ''Come On Come On'' / ''I Can't Hide'' (Super Fan)

EPs

* 1982: ''Fastbacks Play Five of Their Favorites'' (No Threes) * 1984: ''Everyday Is Saturday'' (No Threes) * 1989: "In The Summer/You Can't Be Happy/Everything I Don't Need/Queen of Eyes" (No Threes/SPFC) * 1993: ''Gone To The Moon'' (Sub Pop) * 1996: ''Alone In A Furniture Warehouse Scaring You Away Like A Hotel Mattress'' (Munster) - Spain * 1998: ''Win Lose or Both'' (PopLlama)

Contributed tracks to

* 1981: '' Seattle Syndrome Volume One'' (Engram) track 6, "Someone Else's Room" * 1986: ''Let's Sea'' (

K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent music ...

) track A-4, "Don't Eat That, It's Poison" * 1986: ''Monkey Business: Green Monkey Records 1986 Compilation'' (Green Monkey) track 8, "Time Passes" * 1988: '' Sub Pop 200'' (Sub Pop) track 10, "Swallow My Pride" (

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

cover) * 1991: ''Another Damned Seattle Compilation'' ( Dashboard Hula Girl) track 18, "Hit or Miss" ( The Damned cover) * 1992: on ''

International Pop Underground Convention The International Pop Underground Convention (or IPU) was a 1991 punk and alternative rock music festival in Olympia, Washington. The six-day convention centered on a series of performances at the Capitol Theater. Throughout August 20–25, ...

'' (

) track 19, "Impatience" (live) * 1992: ''International Pop Underground Convention (

) track 19, "Impatience" * 1992: ''Hodge Podge & Barrage from Japan'' (1 + 2 Records) track 9, "Trouble Sleeping" * 1992: ''Estrus Gearbox'' (

Estrus The estrous cycle (, originally ) is the set of recurring physiological changes that are induced by reproductive hormones in most mammalian therian females. Estrous cycles start after sexual maturity in females and are interrupted by anestrous ...

) track 2, "Hot Rods To Heaven" * 1992: ''20 More Explosive Fantastic Rockin' Mega Smash Hit Explosions!'' (Pravda) track 2-6 "Rocket Man" * 1993: ''...And The Fun Just Never Ends'' (Lost And Found) track 8, "You Can't Be Happy"; track 8, "Love You More" - Germany * 1993: ''Say Hello To The Far East'' ( Sony Records) track 1, "Go All The Way" * 1994: ''13 Soda Punx'' (Munster / Top Drawer) track 5, " I'm Cold" * 1994: ''"Whole Wide World" - The Subway Organisation Label 1986-1990'' (Midi Inc.) track 14, "In The Winter" * 1994: ''The World of

The Zombies The Zombies are an English rock band formed in the early 1960s in St Albans and led by keyboardist and vocalist Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group had a British and American hit in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the US, two fu ...

'' (PopLlama) track 6, "Hung Up On A Dream"; track 9, " Just Out Of Reach" * 1995: ''20 Supersonic Mega Explosive Hits'' (Runt) track 19, "Rocket Man" - Italy * 1995: ''Oh Canaduh! (A Collection of Canadian Punk Rock Covers)'' (Lance Rock) track 8, "Won't Have To Worry" * 1995: ''Screaming Life'' (Sub Pop) track 9, "What's It Like" - included with the book ''Screaming Life: A Chronicle of the Seattle Music Scene'' (HarperCollins) * 1996: ''Bite Back / Live at the Crocodile Cafe's'' (PopLlama) track 5, "Always Tomorrow" * 1996: ''Home Alive - The Art of Self Defense'' ( Epic) track 1-3, "Time & Matter" * 1996: ''Hype! The Motion Picture Soundtrack'' (Sub Pop) track 1, "K Street" (Live); track 22, "Just Say" * 1996: ''Paydirt'' (Sub Pop) track 7, "I Can't Win"; track 17, "No Information" * 1997: ''Dictators Forever Forever Dictators Vol. II'' (Roto) track 16, "Exposed" - Spain * 2001: ''Give the People What We Want : The Songs Of The Kinks'' (Sub Pop / Burn Burn Burn / Right Now) track 12, "Waterloo Sunset" * 2004: ''Truth Corrosion and Sour Bisquits'' (Book Records) * 2013: ''What Have We Wrought? A Mike Atta Benefit Compilation'' (Burger / Gasatanka / Munster) track 1-6, "Fast Enough"

Live

* 1988: ''Bike • Toy • Clock • Gift'' - self-released as a tape in 1988, re-released on No Threes Records in 1989, CD released in 1994 on

Lucky Records Lucky Records is the name of several different record labels. Lucky Records - Tokyo Lucky Records of the 1930s was a record label based in Tokyo, Japan, which specialized in issuing American popular music to the Japanese audience. Lucky was foun ...

. * 1991: ''In America'' (Smilin' Ear) (2x7") * 1996: ''Here They Are... Live At the Crocodile...'' (Lance Rock) - Canada

Video

* 2004: ''Hype! The Sound of a Musical Explosion'' DVD (Republic)

References

External links

on the ''Trouser Press'' site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fastbacks, The Musical groups from Seattle Pop punk groups from Washington (state) PopLlama Records artists Sub Pop artists SpinART Records artists