The All Star Band no one gave a crap about.
After their original drummer Joe left, I auditioned for the band Battleship. I hadn’t played drums for a band since the Popular Shapes, which I left in 2003; this was three years later. By that point I had been dying to play in a band and Battleship were one of the only bands in the Bay Area I actually liked.
It had been months since I spent any time behind a kit. Though I still brimmed over with natural talent (ha!), when it came to playing the parts Joe wrote for their songs, I stumbled and apologized more than I played proficiently.
Suffice to say, I didn’t get the job — it went to a much faster, talented drummer named Drew. Instead, Battleship’s singer/battery (that guy is “go, go go!” all the time) Aleks offered to start a side project with me.
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Oakland has lost its most chaotic band
Oakland’s Battleship is no longer. Singer Aleks and guitarist are both moving away, leaving a pretty big void in Oakland’s punk rock scene. Battleship was probably the only punk band in the East Bay that wasn’t either: A. a crusty, Discharge ripoff, or B. An angular, no wave dance-punk band. (For East Bay music scenesters, those types of bands are you only two options now, so if you want to hear something different, start your own band now!!!)
For me though, I loved Battleship because their live show was almost a revival of the greatest live band to ever exist, Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live. Seriously, if Battleship had a violinist and Aleks was more open with his homosexuality (ZING), their shows would be time portals to Seattle/Olympia, between the years 1996 and 1998. They would’ve been regulars at the Capitol Theater and the Velvet Elvis.
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