Whipped BiographyWhipped BiographyIt was all whirlwind, heat, and flash-Raymond Pettibon
Whipped lashes out with the intensity of a drunken Irishman careening to the bar for last call. When they get there the band boisterously lifts up their pints o�Guinness to "one true friend."
A beautiful banshee haunts Whipped�s growling lead vocals which spin the frustrations of; Boy meets Girl, Boy loves Girl, Boy dreams of dismembering Girl who drives him crazy. The guitar�s sonic thrashing complements the eeriness of the backing vocals. Classical bass lines bob and weave around these slash-n-burn guitar licks like an elephant on PCP. Tight drums bind together these elements of air, earth, fire, and water.
Jay Tonne, Tori New, Martin Turon, and Eric Schwarz generate the band�s indierockpowerpunkloveballad �lan. Jay and Martin met at school in Berkeley, finding a common interest in the guitar. By the fall of 1992, Martin had proficiently taken up the bass and together with Eric on the kit, the three formed Flower. Joined by Tori at the end of the year, the band gained a following playing around the East Bay, even though they changed their name more often than their underwear.
After recording a demo tape and finally deciding on the name Whipped, the band signed with Bone Up Records. Produced by Mr. Black and Mr. Pink (actually Bone Up owners Blair Lamb and Walter New incognito), the self-titled debut was recorded and mixed in ten days in June of �93. Strapped for time and liquored-up, the band tore through the last half of the material on the album, recording five songs on the first take and even using the scratch vocals on "insanity". The impressive resulting album has been selling around the bay area and will be released by Bone Up nationally in the spring of �94.
Jay punctuates the band�s passion and roar with both his vocals and guitar. He also brings a love for cheap beer from his blue-collar hometown. "My favorite hobby is drinking. Music just gives me something to do while I drink."
Tori�s choral training brings haunting harmonies to her vocals. Her refined tastes are not limited to only music. Her fondness for 90210 and Melrose Place keeps the band from practicing on Wednesdays. "I really don�t want to sound clich�, but I hate Brenda. Donna�s great though. I love Tori Spelling."
Martin�s bass lines gain a unique flair from his childhood of polkas and polish composers. The engineering student epitomizes Whipped�s duel lives as both slacker, college students and rock-n-roll heroes. "I get real into the music, creating new songs. It becomes the sole focus. Then somebody calls up asking how I did on my test yesterday, and I have almost forgotten that I had taken one."
Eric releases the energy from his glam-metal soul into the drums, yet filters out the cheese. As his love for 80�s-rock fades, a new vision possesses him. "I own this van and want to cruise it around and play. I want to live, eat, sleep, drink, fornicate, and defecate in it. Most of all, I want to take it to Yugoslavia and play a bar mitzvah in the gravel parking lot of a temple in Stadt. Of course the rest of the band is there too."
And so we leave the intrepid Whipped as they watch the Playboy Channel in spiritual preparation for another concert. As Tori explains, "We might be goofy individuals, but our music isn�t goofy. The music is serious and rather intense."