C.O.C. has been around for quite a long time. Thing is, I don't know exactly how long they've been around. I do know that they did exist a while before their first album, Eye For An Eye. The line-up for that album was:
Eric Eycke - vocals
Woody Weatherman - guitars
Mike Dean - bass
Reed Mullin - drums
Apparently Woody met Reed in the sixth grade and they formed C.O.C. in high school. I don't have a clue how Mike or Eric joined but after Eye For An Eye Eric disappeared and the remaining three members released Six Songs With Mike Singing, which featured Mike singing (hello?). The trio then released another album, Animosity, and then added Simon Bob on vocals for Technocracy. He was taken from the lineup (I dunno if he quit or was kicked out) but I'm told he was in a band called Ugly Americans (?) and was working in a music store in Raleigh around 1992 and then moved out to California. The band didn't do a damn thing until Blind, which was a killer album. Mike Dean was gone, however, and the line-up looked more like this:
Karl Agell - vocals
Pepper Keean - guitars
Woody Weatherman - guitars
Phil Swisher - bass
Reed Mullin - drums
According to Jeff "CANIS" (JPJ5165@UNCWIL.EDU), Mike left because he thought the band was going too commercial. What a bummer! He went to Philadelphia (sp?) for a while and was also in a band called Ninefinger. The reason for his departure, according to his AOL chat found on the C.O.C. page, "I left COC over a small quibbling about a tour that was poorly booked and whether we should honor our commitments to do it or to cut our losses and start over. I came back because they had sort of a schism in the band before recording "Deliverance" and I kept in contact. The suggestion came up, sort of as a joke, but once it was said it sort of made sense so I heard a tape of the material they were working on and I dug it and went back down to N. Carolina to see what it felt like and it felt really good. So we recorded "Deliverance".
Pepper was in a band called Graveyard Rodeo in New Orleans and the band opened up for C.O.C. sometime in 1990; the band liked pepper, flew him down to North Carolina to audition and Pepper was in the band. Well, life moved on and the record company began to make life a living hell for the band by firing all their friend who worked for the label. Sony signed the band knowing that it had to have the gods of hardcore punk on its label. Karl Agell was booted and Pepper decided to sing; Phil Swisher quit when Karl was removed and the two ex-C.O.C. members made a 70s-hard rock band called Loose Cannon, now known as Leadfoot on Roadrunner Records. Luckily, Mike Dean was still in the Raleigh area at the time, so he rejoined. Yay!
One of the members sums up the history in an article printed in Convulse magazine:
What is the lowdown on COC?
"We formed in 1982. We were a hard core punk band in that we played fast aggressive music with political messages. We were all bald and heavily influenced by bands like Minor Threat and Black Flag, Bad Brains, Discharge and Black Sabbath etc. It's funny people are saying with the new records: `Hey you guys sound like Black Sabbath', but actually we have always been into Black Sabbath. One of our oldest songs, Red Neck, were from the South, Red Neck capital of the planet, it was just Symptom of the Universe sped up. We went through a lot of different member changes, put out a couple of records, got a little bit of notoriety because we were one of the first bands to merge Hardcore with metal. In the US, punkers and metal heads used to get into huge fights, but we were some of the people who were really into merging the two. We did a deal with Metal Blade. Member changes . . had a number of problems externally and internally. We had a manager called Dick who had a falling out with the record company and booking agent which ended up in losing a couple of members and breaking up in late 87 and got back together a couple of years later with a second guitar player and a new singer. Karl and Pepper: the new guys."
The band is really politically-orientated, in case you haven't guessed. Here are the addresses of the groups they would like you to support:
"Politics is the control of wealth and power. You are being controlled to condemn politics as petty & boring thus granting all the more control to the powers that be. You are either a part of the problem or a part of the solution. The choice is yours. The following groups are making a difference, & so can you."
Amnesty International
322 8th Avenue
NY, NY, 10001
Greenpeace
1611 Connecticut Avenue
Washington, DC, 20003
N.A.R.A.L. (National Abortion Rights Action League)
1101 14th NW
Washington, DC 20003
Native Nations (Native American Indian Publication)
P.O. Box 1201
Radio City Station
NY, NY, 10101-1201
P.E.T.A. (People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals)
BOX 42516
Washington, DC 20005
Refuse and Resist!
305 Madison Avenue
Suite 1166
NY, NY 10165
Southern Poverty Law Center (Klanwatch Project)
400 Washington Avenue
Mongomery, AL 36104
The band recorded & released Deliverance in 1994 and went on a tour with the likes of Megadeth and played lines from Pulp Fiction during their set. They also did a tour with Monster Magnet. They rule.
Wiseblood has been out in stores since OCTOBER 15TH, 1996; since then the band toured with Metallica in Europe and in the states and then kicked every American's ass from here to doomsday with their tour with Machine Head, Fu Manchu, Karma To Burn, & Drain S.T.H.
Most recently, the band was nominated for a Grammy in 1997/1998 for their song "Drowning In A Daydream," but unfortunately Tool won instead. They are currently working on their next album called “America´s Volume Dealer” and they had toured with Metallica on the Sanatarium Summer Tour 2000. You can get COC´s mp3´s on Napster, where you can get songs from their next album. One of COC´s best songs are “Vote with a Bullet”, “Clean my Wounds”, “Fuel”, “Wishbone (Some Tomorrow)”, “Seven Days”, “Drowing in a Daydream” or “Señor Limpio”. I didn´t hear all the songs from “America´s Volume Dealer” but I recommen “Diablo Blvd.”, “Gettin´ It On”, “Congratulation Song” and “Over Me”.
Reed is 32 years old, by the way. His birthday is Feb. 12, 1966, so be sure to send presents. Pepper is 29 years old, according to his dad, who I think would know about such a thing.
