Thee Sgt. Major III’s first full-length, “The Idea Factory,” contains the wit, optimism and feisty schoolboy angst that Kurt Bloch articulated in his songwriting for The Fastbacks and the sparky guitar chug that beloved The Fastbacks to so many. Expert musicianship and high-cool grace are tempered by scrappy garage punk leanings, jazz longings, and a winking kind of macabre, not at all serious but seriously killer.
Each of “The Idea Factory”‘s twelve songs are a sort of controlled explosion, the recipe for which is this: take a well-built, 1960’s pop music machine and stuff it with The Who and some Ramonesy punk rock. Blow it to bits. Start again.
Seattle native Kurt Bloch formed seminal punk band The Fastbacks in 1979 with high school chums Lulu Gargiulo and Kim Warnick and was in fact the band’s first drummer; when Warnick took on vocal duties to replace departed singer Shannon Wood, Bloch stepped up to the guitar and teen-aged gun Duff McKagan manned the drums. After McKagan’s departure, and a myriad of exploding drummers that including Presidents of the United States of America’s Jason Finn, Mudhoney’s Dan Peters, and Dharma Bums/Decemberists drummer John Moen, among others, Mike Musburger joined the band. Musburger, also a Northwest native, played drums in another celebrated Seattle band, The Posies, as well as psych-rock experts Love Battery (which had featured Peters and Finn before him).
The Fastbacks made bright, tight, witty and explosive music that was not quite punk, not quite pop, and totally distinct. Sub Pop, Popllama, SpinART, and other labels put out records by The Fastbacks during the band’s 20-year tenure; when they disbanded in 2001, Bloch turned to Popllama label mate Jim Sangster, as well as Finn, for his new band, Sgt. Major.
Sangster, also Seattle-raised, was playing bass in the legendary Young Fresh Fellows, a band who had started around the same time as the Fastbacks and was led by Scott McCaughey (who also heads up The Minus 5 and plays with R.E.M and Robyn Hitchcock). Founding drummer Tad Hutchinson had played with The Fastbacks on and off as well as Finn’s Presidents band mate Chris Ballew.   Bloch was recruited to add guitar to the Fellows’ lineup in 1989, a lineup which still exists today. Finn’s departure from Sgt. Major early on brought Musburger back into the fold, and, with lead singer Carmella firmly in place, the band began playing shows and recording, releasing “Rich, Creamery Butter” in 2004.
Carmella’s departure from the band in 2007 put the future of Sgt. Major on hold indefinitely, the three remaining members turning to other projects.
Bloch, Sangster, and Musburger, the “III†of Thee Sgt. Major III, recruited two singers for TSM3: Cantona and Flatpack lead singer/songwriter Leslie Beattie and Once For Kicks leader and one-time Visqueen bassist Bill Coury.
The new lineup made for a quirky, sophisticated, sweaty and celebratory live show experience unlike any other in the city, one which Beattie often refers to as “vaudevillean punk.† While Coury left the band in 2009 to devote time to his new, rapidly growing restaurant business, the energy of TSM3 remains undiminished.
THEE SGT. MAJOR II’S MYSPACE PAGE: http://www.myspace.com/theesgtmajoriii
Spark and Shine Records’ page for Thee Sgt. Major III: http://www.sparkandshine.com/thee-sgt-major-iii