Tuff Darts was an American punk rock band. They were one of the first bands to establish an audience at

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...

. They reached their greatest fame in the mid-late 1970s with such songs as "Slash", "(Your Love Is Like) Nuclear Waste" and their biggest single, "All for the Love of Rock and Roll", which was originally recorded by

Ram Jam Ram Jam was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1977, predominantly known for their hit single " Black Betty". Overview The band consisted of Bill Bartlett (guitar and lead vocals) born 1946 in South Harrow, London, England, Ho ...

. The band appeared at popular

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

clubs like

Max's Kansas City Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City, which became a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s. It was opened by Mickey Ruskin (1933–1983) in Decem ...

and CBGB and featured Robert Gordon (vocals), Jeff Salen (guitar), Bobby Butani (guitar), John DeSalvo (bass), and Jim Morrison (drums). This was the original band that was on the ''Live at CBGB's'' compilation record in 1976. After parting ways with Gordon, John Morelli (an Ian Hunter protégé'), replaced Jim Morrison on drums and the band eventually found new lead singer Tommy Frenzy (Frenesi). In 1978, the group released their debut album ''

Tuff Darts! ''Tuff Darts!'' is a 1978 album by Tuff Darts and was released on the Sire Records label. Mick Rock was responsible for the sleeve design and photography. Track listing # "Rats" (Butani, Salen) - 2:59 # "Who's Been Sleeping Here?" (Mikael Kirke, ...

'', on

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehre ...

, produced by

Bob Clearmountain Bob Clearmountain (born January 15, 1953) is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Toto, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, with whom he has a ve ...

and

Tony Bongiovi Anthony C. Bongiovi (born September 7, 1947) is an American record producer and recording engineer. He is the cousin of musician Jon Bon Jovi. Career Bongiovi has produced records by Gloria Gaynor, Talking Heads, Aerosmith ('' Classics Live''), ...

, shortly before disbanding. Tuff Darts reunited in 2002 to play a gig upon the release of ''Tuff Darts!'' on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in O ...

. They subsequently played several additional shows and recorded one more album, 2007's ''You Can't Keep A Good Band Down''. It was only released in Japan. In 2009, Spectra Records released two albums worldwide, ''Here Comes Trouble'' and ''You Can't Keep a Good Band Down''. ''Tuff Darts!'', ''You Can't Keep a Good Band Down'' and ''Here Comes Trouble'' are now available as

downloads In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

. Jeff Salen, founder and lead guitarist of the band, died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

on January 26, 2008, at age 55. Tuff Darts have been performing since 2011 with a reformed lineup in and around New York City.

References

External links

www.tuffjeffsalen.com

VH1 Tuff Darts Bio
Punk rock groups from New York (state) {{US-punk-band-stub