Bangs

Bangs started in the spring of 1997 when Sarah Utter called up Maggie Vail to see if she wanted to join the band she was starting with Jesse Fox. They quickly wrote a bunch songs and were playing the Olympia house party circuit. They went on their first west coast tour that summer with Satisfact. Upon their return, Bangs approached KRS head honcho Slim Moon about releasing their first album and he said yes. They then headed into the studio and in the course of something like 3 days recorded their debut record, called Tiger Beat. It was released on Kill Rock Stars in March of 1998 and the Bangs headed out on their first U.S. tour with Jason Traeger. Two years and several tours passed (with Murder City Devils, Dub Narcotic, etc) and Jesse quit to focus on his other band Polecat. Sarah and Maggie decided to add Kyle Ermatinger to the line up after trying out several different drummers. Many were good but Kyle had their same sense of humor. They wrote their follow up album, Sweet Revenge and it was released in May of 2000. More tours followed with Sleater-Kinney, Gossip, The Makers, etc. They were asked to tour New Zealand + Australia and then to Ladyfest Glasgow which also included an amazing UK tour with The Gossip and Sarah Dougher. In the fall of 2001 Kyle quit the band after deciding touring wasn't so much for him. Bangs then found Peter David Connelly boy genius + song writer extraordinaire. They then write their best songs yet and record the EP Call + Response in the spring of 2002 with Justin Trosper of Unwound. They toured again with The Makers and Sleater-Kinney that year. In November '02 they played ATP in LA with the STOOGES! Then there was one last tour, this time they focused on getting out to Florida and back in January 2003. Sarah and Maggie decided to go back to school in the fall of '03 and the band took a back burner to learning french and painting. In the spring Maggie goes to France and Sarah announces that she is moving to L.A. They decide to call it quits and play some last shows. The last show was on September 12 at Yeah Fest in Olympia, WA. These days, Sarah is in LA and is designing rad shirts for KRS and Buyolympia.com. She is also painting a ton and showing her work. You can check it out at Sarahutter.com. Maggie is living in Portland and is in several new bands, Leti Angel + Romancing. Peter is in Seattle and still doing his solo band, The Mona Reels.