The Morlocks is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 garage rock

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...

 band from San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, which formed in 1984. In its first incarnation, the band consisted of guitarist Tommy Clarke, bassist Jeff Lucas (see Jeffrey Luck Lucas

Jeffrey Luck Lucas

Jeffrey Luck Lucas is an American musician. A singer/songwriter, composer, and arranger, he is also a former and founding member of the seminal 1980's garage band The Morlocks, as well as a formally trained composer and cellist.-Albums:* Hell Then Divine * What We Whisper Jeffrey Luck Lucas (born...

), drummer Mark Mullen, as well as vocalist Leighton Koizumi and guitarist Ted Friedman, former members of the Gravedigger Five

Gravedigger Five

The Gravedigger Five – often shown as Gravedigger V – was a garage rock revival band formed in 1984 in San Diego, California. The band was part of the Paisley Underground, a musical movement centered around Los Angeles, California, which referenced 1960s West Coast pop and garage rock...

. After splitting up in 1987, the group reformed under Koizumi with a different lineup. As of 2011 the band is currently touring China and preparing to record a new album.

History

The Morlocks began performing together in late August 1984 when the already assembled core band of Jeff Lucas, Tom Clarke, and Mark Mullen, were able to entice former Gravedigger Five members Leighton Koizumi and Ted Friedman into joining the band. The newly-formed Morlocks' first performance came in September 1984 at the Rave-Up in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

; that same night, following their performance, the band received two separate recording offers, opting, after a time, to sign a deal with Midnight Records of 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...

.

That December the band recorded their first mini-LP, Emerge, for Midnight Records. The Morlocks recorded the album with a set of smashed instruments destroyed at a show in San Francisco two days earlier by the band The Tell-Tale Heart, who agreed to lend the band the instruments for the recording session. The album was produced by Jordan Tarlow, the alias of Nadroj Wolrat, who would go on to join The Fuzztones

The Fuzztones

The Fuzztones are a garage rock revival band formed in 1980. Founded by singer-guitarist Rudi Protrudi The Fuzztones are a garage rock revival band formed in 1980. Founded by singer-guitarist Rudi Protrudi The Fuzztones are a garage rock revival band formed in 1980. Founded by singer-guitarist Rudi...

. The label released the album in the spring of 1985.

Following the release of their first LP the band relocated from San Diego to San Francisco where they released a second LP, this time for Epitaph Records

Epitaph Records

Epitaph Records is a Hollywood, California based independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The label was originally "just a logo and a P.O. box" created in the 1980s for the purpose of selling Bad Religion records, but has evolved into a large independent record...

. The band's second LP was a live album

Live album

A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 called Submerged Alive, which featured a performance the band had recorded in Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, in 1986. While the album was apparently recorded live, the LP contained clear studio-manipulations of audience noise, prompting some to label it a "fake" live album.

In the summer of 1987, the band began to fall apart. Just prior to a show at the Fillmore in support of The Cult

The Cult

The Cult are a British rock band that was formed in 1983. They gained a dedicated following in Britain in the mid 1980s as a post-punk band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love...

, bassist Jeff Lucas quit the band. The rest of the band held out long enough to record a handful of tracks under the production of Ron Rimsite before the entire group disbanded. The tracks recorded with Rimsite were eventually released posthumously on two 7" albums. Four years after the band's breakup, a live LP from Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 called Wake Me When I'm Dead was released. This was followed in 1997 by an officially-released live CD provided by guitarist Ted Friedman called Uglier Than You'll Ever Be!, the band's final release.

Reformation

In 1999, Spin Magazine printed an article that claimed that lead singer Leighton Koizumi had died, however this turned out to be untrue. The reason for Koizumi's vanishing act from music-making, involved the "robbing of a dealer" in a Mexican border town in 1990. Although he was just after drugs, Koizumi got ten years in prison on a kidnapping charge, because, as he tells it, the incident involved "tying people up." When he was finally released, he started a new band which he called the Morlocks, with none of the original members. The newly-formed Morlocks include Koizumi on vocals, Bobby Bones on guitar & backup vocals, Lenny Pops

The Red Hearts

-History:The Red Hearts, initially called The Thieves, were formed by Lenny Pops in 2004 after the breakup of The Snakes. Pops' framed the band as a minimal mod/punk three piece backed by Nina Cole and Hethur Suval. He changed the band's name to The Red Hearts...

 on guitar, Nick "The Canadian" on bass, and Marky on drums. In addition to reuniting, the band was also touring newly-written songs, with Koizumi commenting in 2006 on a possible live album to be released at some time in the future.

Singles

• "She's My Fix" / "You Must Not Be Seen As I Am" 7" (Earache, 1989, EAR010)
• "Under The Wheel" / "Hurricane A' Coming" 7" (Iloki, 1991, ITR001)
• "I Don't Do Funerals Anymore" / "Nightmares" 7" (Dirty Water, 2008, DWC1018)

Albums

• Emerge (Midnight, 1985, MIR LP 111)
• Submerged Alive (Epitaph, 1988, EPI/MLP1)
• Wake Me When I'm Dead (Listen Loudest, 1991, SNLP 7, Croatia)
• Uglier Than You'll Ever Be! (Voxx, 1997, VCD2071)
• Easy Listening For The Underachiever (Go Down Records, 2008, GODLP027)
• The Morlocks Play Chess

External links

• The Morlocks at Myspace
  Myspace
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• The Morlocks at Facebook
  Facebook
  Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...