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Sinister Sam

About Me

San Jose metal crossover act Sinister Sam was originated in 1987 by Silver Creek High School Alumni John Sanders and Scot Miller. The name Sinister Sam was born the day John passed a note to Scot in class, with a charicature of Scot boasting that his band "Sinister Sam" would one day headline Chuck E Cheese. At this time John & Scot were actually in seperate bands. Scot thought the name was so funny that he ended up calling his band Sinister Sam. John & Scot eventually ended up merging their two bands together, keeping the musicians they liked between the two groups.

Sam's 1st gig was a Silver Creek Ice Cream social. During High School, Sam went on to play many backyard parties, playing many songs by Van Halen, Metallica, Ratt, Dio, Dokken and Ozzy. Their original material at this time was average at best.
Being inspired by Bay Area Thrash Metal bands as well as Fishbone, Frank Zappa, Mr Bungle, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sam got its shit together. Their music started combining elements of funk and jazz always surrounded by a metal core. Guitar solos were crazy, but not prominent in every song. Their first Demo was called Catfish Gumbo, recorded at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, California (studio of many a Shrapnel recording artist). Songs included were Work, Fresno, Lecter, Dr McCoy, and Nice to Meet You.
With the strength of Catfish Gumbo and their aspirations of a bad ass live show where the whole band moved around like Angus Young, Sam started playing the San Jose Club circuit, most notably San Jose's Cactus Club, then The Stone, The Omni, One Step Beyond, Slims, The Catalyst, Berkeley Square, FX, Marsugi's, The I-Beam, The Caberet, and many others.
Sam's second Demo, Picklehead Willy (also recorded at Prairie Sun), featured a more mature and whacked out version of the band, with the songs Passion, Tan Man, Hebru, and Staring, plus many small splices of audio randomness.
Sam has supported the following National and International acts: Vio-Lence, Forbidden, Fungo Mungo, MIRV, Agent Orange, X, Nuclear Assault, Deftones, Psychefunkapus, among others.
Allegedly the late great John Reynolds aka Jay Shmoove has Sam shows on vid. Feel free to message that lazy bastit to get a move on..

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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 17/07/2008
Band Website: www.realdoll.com
Band Members: VOCALS:

Jason Hart
(High School Era)

Shawn Washabaugh
(Catfish Gumbo)

Gary Metrovich
(Catfish Gumbo)
(Picklehead Willy)

Ian Evans
(Picklehead Willy)

John Sanders

Scot Miller

GUITARS:

John Sanders (All)

Scot Miller (All)

BASS:

Scott Henry
(High School Era)

Bruce Graves
(Catfish Gumbo)

Aaron Liebelt
(Picklehead Willy)

DRUMS:

Dave Shuster
(High School Era)

Andrew Duggan
(High School Era)

John Perrine
(Catfish Gumbo)

Glen Sobel
(for 4 or 5 gigs)

Donnie Green
(Picklehead Willy)

KEYBOARDS/SAMPLES:

Gary Metrovich
(Catfish Gumbo)

Nate Goyer
(Picklehead Willy)

Rocky Cirrone
(Gigs)

SIGN GUY:

Steve Esquivel
Rick Nichols

Influences: Pantera and 80's and 90's Bay Area Thrash meets Frank Zappa, Mr Bungle, Steely Dan, RHCP, you get the drift.
Sounds Like: Immature Zappa meets Pantera with shred guitar and funky rhythm section, or does it?
Record Label: Unsigned

My Blog

Gary’s Sam memories..

For the longest time we as a band had not rehearsed much and were getting restless, this was around early 95. Looking for some kind of solution I called Mooka over at Prairie sun Recording asking what...
Posted by on Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:40:00 GMT

Johns Sam memories.

Where do I even start? How about randomly?I remember the night Scot and I wore matching chearleading outfits, I know someone has got to have some fucking pictures of that, someone has to!! Ha ha, I lo...
Posted by on Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:39:00 GMT