Punky Bluester was born, in it's extreme earliest incarnation at the "break area" at Holbrook Junior High, the same pantheon of rock Gods that gave us...well, no one else really. The junior high in question at the time had a variety of so-called musical "talents." Among these were David Willis, guitar player, Ben Hale, drummer, Matt Smith, guitar player, Justin Cates, guitar player, Chris "Bum" Bumgarner, bass and guitar, and Eric Newsom, guitar player. It was a land of 500,000 guitar players, ripe with broken strings, battered cheapass Fender Squires and barre chords.  The "talents" in question met at the house of Justin Cates, where a bratty kid brother, an impromptu "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and a set of electronic drums that barked like a dog became the only real standout memories.

The group split from there, the Cates brothers going on to multiple other 80s-type bands (and somehow managing to acquire several thousand dollars worth of awesome audio crap along the way), Matt going on to the punkass Dickens (See the upcoming history of the now slightly defunct Dickens for more info), and Bumgarner/Hale/Willis/Newsom forming the phenomenal supergroup Subject to Change. Weekly band practices in drummer Hale's bedroom let the band merge their musical "talents" (there's that word again...why's it always in quotations?  Listen to our early stuff, and you'll leave feeling sick, rest assured) into a number of cover songs. The members were mostly unexposed and un-unifed in their preferred types of music, so they played everything from Bush(ack!) to Bluegrass.

The next year, the band was shaken up again. Bum moved to Greenville, S.C. to avoid FBI inquiries as to why he loved Bush so much, and why, exactly, he had that Bush toboggan down his pants. Chris "Bum" Bumgarner was rarely heard from again after calling in to report that he went to the gayest high school in the history of man, and that he'd discovered a little-known band from the area called Limp Bizkit (Bum, if you're out there, drop us a line!).

The band continued as a bassless trio for awhile, although various bassists were auditioned and played with the band for short periods. One of these was Ross ****er, a convicted arsonist who offered to play for us if we'd buy a bass and bass rig for him and teach him how to play.  In fact, this was the stipulation of most auditionees, arsonists or not.  Another of those was Mike Todd, who played along with the band at their first real gig (er...who said open mike nights aren't real gigs?), at a local biker bar, Tabloids Live! By now, the band had developed into a sort of blues-rock band. Soon after, Todd was dropped, and the band broke up over the summer because of artistic differences and mutual hatred.

Junior year came, and they were back in action, this time with recent changes of heart bringing them all to their current love, punk and power pop. They wrote songs and became the current entity known as Punky Bluester. They played Ashbrook High School's Battle of the Bands, with Dickens member Matt on bass, and got second place (damn cheating rap/R&B fans!). Eric took over the bass chores, and the power trio was complete. They played a local comedy club called the Perch, and were a big success, playing such songs as "Baywatch" and "Falwell" along with the Perch's lovely and hilariously funny (just for Josh and Matt) staff. With the Dickens, 7 Devils (now Blastula), Censorshi* and others, established a Gastonia punk scene.

Then it fell apart again, but hey...we're having to rework from the ashes people.  Give us some time.  G-Town punk will rise again like the great phoenix of Japan or something.  And who will be standing on the very tip of the burning beak? Punky Bluester, of course (and I'm sure that the Dickens will be in there somewhere too, and also Trey, number one fanboy).

Until then, may God have mercy on your souls,
Eric.