Steel Mill

Biography

Willard was a music group from Seattle, Washington. Formed around 1989, they are acknowledged to be part of the grunge movement of the 80's-90's. They never quite broke out of the underground scene. Bruce Pavitt of Sub Pop took guitarist Mark Shropshire aka "Mark Spiders" out to lunch and told him they were "looking for a touring machine". Willard passed on Sub Pop's advances to avoid the "Grunge Bandwagon"[citation needed]. Jeff Gilbert and Tad Doyle were instrumental in their first record dea...

Willard was a music group from Seattle, Washington. Formed around 1989, they are acknowledged to be part of the grunge movement of the 80's-90's. They never quite broke out of the underground scene. Bruce Pavitt of Sub Pop took guitarist Mark Shropshire aka "Mark Spiders" out to lunch and told him they were "looking for a touring machine". Willard passed on Sub Pop's advances to avoid the "Grunge Bandwagon"[citation needed].

Jeff Gilbert and Tad Doyle were instrumental in their first record deal which resulted in their one and only Jack Endino produced album, Steel Mill in 1992. They had previously released a self titled EP on Green Gel Records[[1]]. [1]. After performing an outdoor show for the "Pain In The Grass" Festival at the Seattle Center, Willard was banned from further performances by the Seattle Police Department and the City of Seattle[2]. Their music sounded similar to several other Seattle bands, namely TAD and the Melvins. Steve Wied was the original TAD drummer before joining Willard.

They disbanded after recording a second record, Bone Grinder, which was never released. It was a Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll overdose. Only one song, "Larie" was released in a Sounds of Seattle compilation[citation needed].

Mark, Johnny, and Otis, played in a side project called Ditch Witch with Tad Doyle of TAD, and Tyson Garcia who later played bass for Willard, Hog Molly, and The Ones. Ditch Witch never released any recordings, however there are bootleg videos[citation needed]. The second version of Ditch Witch was named Cluster Fuck and featured Tad on drums and vocals, Garcia on bass, Spiders on guitar, and Martin Chandler (Panic, Hog Molly) on second guitar[citation needed].


[edit] Band Members
Johnny Clint - vocals
Otis P. Otis - guitars
Mark Shropshire aka "Mark Spiders" - guitars
Darren Peters - bass
Tyson Garcia - bass (replaced Peters)
Steve Wied - drums

[edit] Discography
"Willard - EP" (Green Gel Records, 1991)
Steel Mill (Road Runner Records, 1992)
Bone Grinder (un-released) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.