Bullet Lavolta

Biography

Bullet Lavolta was an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that was originally formed in January 1987 by four college disk jockeys: Clay Tarver (guitar, now of Chavez), Bill Whelan (bass), Corey Loog Brennan (guitar) and Chris "Cruster" Guttmacher (drums). The band later added singer Yukkie Gipe after he responded to an advertisement. They played their first show at a dive bar in Boston called Chet's Last Call to a crowd of about fifteen people, but soon became one of Boston's most p...

Bullet Lavolta was an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that was originally formed in January 1987 by four college disk jockeys: Clay Tarver (guitar, now of Chavez), Bill Whelan (bass), Corey Loog Brennan (guitar) and Chris "Cruster" Guttmacher (drums). The band later added singer Yukkie Gipe after he responded to an advertisement. They played their first show at a dive bar in Boston called Chet's Last Call to a crowd of about fifteen people, but soon became one of Boston's most popular live acts. They gained most of their notoriety by playing college shows in Boston (usually at either MIT or Harvard, with bigger acts like The Lemonheads, Dag Nasty, and Rollins Band.

The band released their self-titled EP on Taang! Records in 1988. In 1990, they recorded and released their first full-length album, The Gift, which after being originally released on Taang!, was purchased and re-released by RCA later that year. The record was even surprisingly reviewed in People Magazine and given a good rating. The album sold modestly and the band became well-known enough that their contract was renewed by RCA. A year later, they recorded and released their follow-up, Swandive, which debuted the same day as Nirvana's classic, Nevermind. Bullet Lavolta actually played a show with Nirvana around the time of the album's release, with the opening act being an unknown early incarnation of The Smashing Pumpkins.

The band broke up in 1992, the same year Matador Records issued an album of older recordings (mostly from 1987 and 1989 called The Gun Didn't Know I Was Loaded. Currently, none of the band's releases are in print by any label. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.