High Risk Group

High Risk Group played in the greater Boston area beginning in May of 1988 and continued until some time in 1995. The beginning gig was at the Middle East restaurant (now known as the upstairs back room) in the spring of 1988 and we only knew about 5 songs. At that time the Middle East was still primarily a belly dancer club and rock musicians were being booked into the room a couple of nights a week by the infamous Billy Ruane . This was mostly acoustic music and High Risk Group was a full fledged loud rock band. We were afraid that we would get in trouble for bringing amplifiers. That quickly changed.
HRG continued to do many shows at the ME over the years and also played the "usual" venues of that time including the Rat , the Paradise , TT the Bear's , the Channel , Doc's, Green Street Station, Bunratty's , Nightstage, WMBR's Pipeline and numerous loft parties.At our first gig we were approached by a guy named Tim Alborn who was just starting an independent record label named Harriet . HRG became the first release on this label putting out a 3 song 7" record containing "Flag". Three other releases on Harriet followed during the course of HRG's life and were given a good amount of airplay throughout the area. Harriet brought HRG's 1st & 2nd singles to the attention of the legendary John Peel and received a decent amount of airplay, as well as kudos from John. As a result the band was noticed by another new label in the UK, Blaster Records, (which was run by Martin Whitehead, guitarist in The Flatmates ) who took interest in HRG and the outcome was the release of a 12" EP titled "Running Among the Sevens" which included remixes of the band's 3 Harriet singles plus one previously unreleased song, "Dull Stare". Fan mail came in from around the world. The band's final release was a track named "Elevation Craving" on a Harriet Records compilation titled The Long Secret.
Through the band's career we opened for some awesome acts - both local and international.
Among these artists were many of our Harriet labelmates and:
Mecca Normal
Cul de Sac
Morphine
Green Magnet School
Thalia Zedek 's band "Come"
Bulkhead
Jerri Cain Rossi
Robert Fisher 's Laughing Academy
Richard Hell
Magnetic Fields
Mick Harvey
the Flaming Lips
the Ex
Discography:
Flag b/w Tapped, Katrine (Harriet, 7")
Daddy Rolex b/w Empty Hands (Harriet, 7")
Pulsed b/w Occupied (Harriet, 7" - produced by Thalia Zedek)
Running Among the Sevens (12", Blaster)
Elevation Craving (Harriet, CD)