"Then the vampirates played and proceeded to absolutely beat the shit out of eachother and simultaniously amaze and confuse the audience with the ferocity of the music and the barroom brawl vibe they have with eachother. Bass player loses his strap and takes a knee mid-song so as to finish playing. Singer sees this and proceedes to barrel right into him with his shoulder and then, just in case that wasn't enough, kicks him while he's trying to play. Guitar player sees it and any rational person would go stop this violent mayhem with his band mates. Does he stop it? No, he runs and jumps right into them with the same abandon one would when one cannon balls into a pool. Only this isn't a pool. It's people and they're in your band." - Ryan Stark
Vampirates started in early 2003 with original members Pat Mayfield, Chris Fox, Eddie Condon, and Geoff Huber. From the begining we have been very ambitious towards creating the music we love. Staying true to our DIY roots we played our first show in Pat's dorm room, and continued to play as much as possible over the next few months. Roughly five months after we started, we recorded "Shitpanzimps" with A2K as engineer at our practice studio, which also doubled as a Tofu Factory during normal business hours.
Shortly thereafter, we took a break for summer. During that break Eddie decided that punk rock wasn't for him (or something...), so we enlisted Dave Masud (of Reno, Nv's Painting Gala/Twice) to take over the vocal duties. This line-up lasted for two shows, until Geoff was forced to quit, and move to Eugene where he currently resides and rides his bike.
In 2004 Eddie decided that punk rock was again right for him, and became our singer once more. Dave, being the multi-talented bad-ass that he is, took over the drumming duties, and this line-up lasted for one and a half shows (Chris Tufino played half of a set...).
Dave was busy with Twice and school, so we enlisted Chris Tufino (of Reno's Twelve Gauge Facelift) as our full-time drummer. Our one year anniversary show in Yreka, California, was one of three shows we played with this line-up. Then, Eddie again decided that he needed to pursue something else. In turn, Dave rejoined Vampirates as vocalist.
In the Summer of 2004, the Ashland half (Chris/Pat) moved to Reno, Nevada so we could write and function as a normal band. What resulted was the self-produced Summer Ale EP and a handful of shows around the area. After summer, Pat and Chris moved back to Ashland for schooling, and we played as many shows as possible throughout the school year.
In Summer of 2005 Pat and Chris moved back to Reno to write a new record. What resulted was Muffstache, which finally was demoed and released in 2007.
During 2006, the band remained half in Reno, and half in Ashland. We recorded two live records, one of which will come out on a later dvd release. The other was the last of a few original line-up reunion shows in Ashland, called Oh Anal! Live at the LFAG. Which was also split with two Vampirates side projects Edepit and Butthak.
In the spring of 2007, we embarked on our first real tour of Oregon, Northern Nevada, and Northern California.
In the summer/fall of 2007, we began to write some new material for a new full-length. We also played some of our biggest shows ever with the Adolescents and the Duane Peters Gunfight.
In 2008, we have opened for the Circle Jerks, and have continued to work on the new material. We finally entered Pus Cavern Studios in Sacramento to professionally record "Muffstache" with engineer Joe Johnston (Deftones, Cake, Cobra Skulls) on July 6th. The CD will officially be released in December. We have also been working on demoing songs for what will be our next full length record, with hopes to be released by Summer '09.
In 2009, after Pat returns from South America, we have plans to tour the
Southern US on the Punish Your Buick Tour in May. We are also planning on
going back to Pus Cavern in the summer to record the next full length.
| Vampirates Are: | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Previous Members of Vampirates: | |
 |
 |