The Gone Jackals
Encyclopedia
The Gone Jackals was an American rock
band formed by frontman Keith Karloff in 1984 and based in San Francisco, California
. Originally named "Keith Gale's Parallel Universe", the original lineup consisted of Charlie Hunter
, Rudy Maynard and Mark Berdon and played in the local San Francisco club scene. In 1989, after Hunter and Berdon left to pursue other projects, the band was rebranded with the addition of Judd Austin and Trey Sabatelli as "The Gone Jackals", releasing their first album Out and About with the Gone Jackals in 1990.
The band's music generally consists of hard
, garage
and blues rock. Their next album, Bone to Pick (1995) also incorporated heavy metal
. The band collaborated with Peter McConnell
of LucasArts
to produce the soundtrack to the biker-themed adventure game Full Throttle; tracks from Bone to Pick were adapted for this purpose. Blue Pyramid
(1998), their third and final album, included experimentation with psychedelic rock
. In addition, the band released two extended play
s
The band broke up in 1999, though not before signing up a new label for distributing in Europe. In late 2001, Karloff started working on a new musical project. Led by a passion for the old style rock music, Karloff formed the Bonedrivers, a blues rock power trio
which has since then toured the United States and published a locally acclaimed full-length album named Roadhouse Manifesto.
by multi-instrumentalist
Keith Karloff, a talented drummer/guitarist and songwriter who used to play as a solo artist in New York City
since the early eighties, under the stage name "Keith Gale".
After moving to San Francisco in 1984, Karloff begun to search for supporting musicians to form a new band. Bassist Rudy Maynard and guitarist virtuoso
Charlie Hunter
were the first to join him. In addition to them, drummer Mark Berdon came to complete the line-up. Together they formed a band called "Keith Gale's Parallel Universe" and started to play regularly at local clubs. Soon, they signed to Blue/Black Records and released their first EP
, a promo cassette named Five Piece Screwdriver Set.
In the subsequent years, Charlie Hunter decided to leave the band and was replaced by rock guitarist Judd Austin. After a while, Mark Berdon left the band too. Drummer Trey Sabatelli came in his place and with the strength of this new line-up, Keith Karloff managed to gave birth to "The Gone Jackals", the final incarnation of the band. It was then that "Keith Gale" decided to change his name to "Keith Karloff".
In 1990, The Gone Jackals released their official debut album, Out and About with the Gone Jackals. The songs were a mix of classical sounds and styles of rock music, and had a moderate success on independent radio stations throughout California
, Washington
and San Diego. Following the release of the album, The Gone Jackals began to tour the state from town to town.
Their second full-length album, Bone to Pick, was published in 1995. Its songs were chosen by Peter McConnell
, music director of the LucasArts team, to be featured as the soundtrack of the new video game they were working on, Full Throttle. Keith Karloff also helped McConnell to compose some original tracks for the game.
Thanks to Full Throttle, Bone to Pick became the most famous and acclaimed album of the band, even gaining considerable attention outside of the United States. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, and its great success induced Blue/Black Records to produce a new run of Out and About with the Gone Jackals, the band's previous album.
In 1998 a third album came out. It was called Blue Pyramid
and was the band's most ambitious project. With this album, Karloff consolidated his American-style hard rock attitude while trying to experiment in a few new directions, such as psychedelia
. Some of the songs from the album received radio airplay in various national stations, while the band promoted Blue Pyramid with a new tour that brought them from Texas
to South Carolina
, as well as all over California.
During the year 1999, The Gone Jackals signed to the international record label Raspberry Records, with the intent of publicizing and distributing their music in Europe
. Raspberry Records provided to re-release all of their albums, in addition to two previously unreleased singles, the song Faith Healer (which is a cover of the famous Alex Harvey Band's hit) and a re-edited version of No Sign of Rain (an original audio track from Blue Pyramid).
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band formed by frontman Keith Karloff in 1984 and based in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Originally named "Keith Gale's Parallel Universe", the original lineup consisted of Charlie Hunter
Charlie Hunter
for the New Zealand racehorse trainer and driver see: Charlie HunterCharlie Hunter is an American guitarist, composer and bandleader....
, Rudy Maynard and Mark Berdon and played in the local San Francisco club scene. In 1989, after Hunter and Berdon left to pursue other projects, the band was rebranded with the addition of Judd Austin and Trey Sabatelli as "The Gone Jackals", releasing their first album Out and About with the Gone Jackals in 1990.
The band's music generally consists of hard
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
, garage
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
and blues rock. Their next album, Bone to Pick (1995) also incorporated heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
. The band collaborated with Peter McConnell
Peter McConnell
Peter N. McConnell , also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game music composer who worked for LucasArts for nearly ten years. He studied music as an undergraduate at Harvard University in 80s under Timothy Vincent Clarke, Curt Cacioppo and Ivan Tcherepnin...
of LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
to produce the soundtrack to the biker-themed adventure game Full Throttle; tracks from Bone to Pick were adapted for this purpose. Blue Pyramid
Blue Pyramid
Blue Pyramid from 1998 is the third studio album of the hard rock group The Gone Jackals. It was produced by Keith Karloff, who also provided the lead vocals.- Track listing :# "Covering Hallowed Ground" – 4:01# "Business As Usual" – 2:55...
(1998), their third and final album, included experimentation with psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
. In addition, the band released two extended play
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
s
The band broke up in 1999, though not before signing up a new label for distributing in Europe. In late 2001, Karloff started working on a new musical project. Led by a passion for the old style rock music, Karloff formed the Bonedrivers, a blues rock power trio
Power trio
A power trio is a rock and roll band format where the traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass and drums, leaving out the rhythm guitar or keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords...
which has since then toured the United States and published a locally acclaimed full-length album named Roadhouse Manifesto.
History
The Gone Jackals were founded during the late 1980s1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
by multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
Keith Karloff, a talented drummer/guitarist and songwriter who used to play as a solo artist in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
since the early eighties, under the stage name "Keith Gale".
After moving to San Francisco in 1984, Karloff begun to search for supporting musicians to form a new band. Bassist Rudy Maynard and guitarist virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
Charlie Hunter
Charlie Hunter
for the New Zealand racehorse trainer and driver see: Charlie HunterCharlie Hunter is an American guitarist, composer and bandleader....
were the first to join him. In addition to them, drummer Mark Berdon came to complete the line-up. Together they formed a band called "Keith Gale's Parallel Universe" and started to play regularly at local clubs. Soon, they signed to Blue/Black Records and released their first EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, a promo cassette named Five Piece Screwdriver Set.
In the subsequent years, Charlie Hunter decided to leave the band and was replaced by rock guitarist Judd Austin. After a while, Mark Berdon left the band too. Drummer Trey Sabatelli came in his place and with the strength of this new line-up, Keith Karloff managed to gave birth to "The Gone Jackals", the final incarnation of the band. It was then that "Keith Gale" decided to change his name to "Keith Karloff".
In 1990, The Gone Jackals released their official debut album, Out and About with the Gone Jackals. The songs were a mix of classical sounds and styles of rock music, and had a moderate success on independent radio stations throughout California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Washington
Washington State
Washington State may refer to:* Washington , often referred to as "Washington state" to differentiate it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States* Washington State University, a land-grant college in that state- See also :...
and San Diego. Following the release of the album, The Gone Jackals began to tour the state from town to town.
Their second full-length album, Bone to Pick, was published in 1995. Its songs were chosen by Peter McConnell
Peter McConnell
Peter N. McConnell , also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game music composer who worked for LucasArts for nearly ten years. He studied music as an undergraduate at Harvard University in 80s under Timothy Vincent Clarke, Curt Cacioppo and Ivan Tcherepnin...
, music director of the LucasArts team, to be featured as the soundtrack of the new video game they were working on, Full Throttle. Keith Karloff also helped McConnell to compose some original tracks for the game.
Thanks to Full Throttle, Bone to Pick became the most famous and acclaimed album of the band, even gaining considerable attention outside of the United States. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, and its great success induced Blue/Black Records to produce a new run of Out and About with the Gone Jackals, the band's previous album.
In 1998 a third album came out. It was called Blue Pyramid
Blue Pyramid
Blue Pyramid from 1998 is the third studio album of the hard rock group The Gone Jackals. It was produced by Keith Karloff, who also provided the lead vocals.- Track listing :# "Covering Hallowed Ground" – 4:01# "Business As Usual" – 2:55...
and was the band's most ambitious project. With this album, Karloff consolidated his American-style hard rock attitude while trying to experiment in a few new directions, such as psychedelia
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
. Some of the songs from the album received radio airplay in various national stations, while the band promoted Blue Pyramid with a new tour that brought them from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
to South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, as well as all over California.
During the year 1999, The Gone Jackals signed to the international record label Raspberry Records, with the intent of publicizing and distributing their music in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Raspberry Records provided to re-release all of their albums, in addition to two previously unreleased singles, the song Faith Healer (which is a cover of the famous Alex Harvey Band's hit) and a re-edited version of No Sign of Rain (an original audio track from Blue Pyramid).
Band members
- Keith Karloff: vocals and guitar
- R.D. Maynard: fender bass
- Trey Sabatelli: drums, cymbals and vocals
- Judd Austin: guitar and vocals
Discography
- 5 pc. Screwdriver Set
- 7 inch EP
- Out and About with the Gone Jackals (1990, rereleased in 1996)
- Bone to Pick (1995)
- Blue PyramidBlue PyramidBlue Pyramid from 1998 is the third studio album of the hard rock group The Gone Jackals. It was produced by Keith Karloff, who also provided the lead vocals.- Track listing :# "Covering Hallowed Ground" – 4:01# "Business As Usual" – 2:55...
(1998) - Faith Healer (1999, rereleased in 2007)