Biography
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Founded In
New York, New York, United States
There are at least two bands called Distraught:
1. A Brazilian thrash metal band from Porto Alegre, RS
2. An American hardcore punk band from San Diego, CA
1. Distraught is a Thrash Metal band from Porto Alegre founded in February 1990, releasing their demo tape "To Live Better". The first CD recording was released in 1994 with the split-CD "Ultimate Encore" featuring two bands from São Paulo. In 1995, they released the demo tape "Advance Tape" and in 1998, they released their first independent album: "Nervous System". Currently, the band has already released their sixth album, "Unnatural Display of Art", under the Encore Records label. In April 2010, Distraught opened for Megadeth in Porto Alegre and has progressively increased their impact in the national and Latin music scenes.
2. Distraught is a hardcore punk band from San Diego, CA. In 1998, four high school kids joined forces to create sonic excellence. The band was destined to become a reality after Justin, their fearless hardc0re leader, foresaw it in a dream. Justin was to provide the raging vocals and foundational guitar work. He soon recruited Travis, the resident Chinchilla herder, to melt faces with mind blowing pull offs and danelectro inspired harmonies. Eric was persuaded to play bass, so he bleached his hair and saddled up. He also might have got a hernia from transporting his bass cabinet around. To round out the band, Madhu threw his name in the ring. He played guitar. While 3 guitars and no drums was initially "sick" and "off the heezy", the band ultimately had a change of heart. With the aid of a cattle prod and a secret audio video interleave file, Madhu was forced to embrace his calling as drummer and twitch master of the double bass.
The first line of business when a band is started is to create the official fan club. Thus, ARC was born. Only the most respected members were issued official identification documents. Being a member is still considered one of the most underground and sought after status levels in the San Diego music scene.
After Distraught played together for most of 1998, they were ready to hit the studio. In a stroke a brilliance, they eschewed the idea and instead brought the studio to them. 2 track analog recorder for the win. The Have You Seen It? EP was born. This album is extremely rare and definitely out of print. Seriously, if you have it, contact the band to post it up here.
In just 2 short years, Distraught had matured into local rock legends. Nevermind that they never played a show yet or once attempted to call the police on a party they were scheduled to play at. No no. They were not easily disuaded. You see, when a band has as much talent as this, they must press on.
The year was 2000, the month January. It was time to get serious and lay down some hardcore tracks. Presumably with Christmas money, Distraught entered the studio to produce their second EP. Yes, it was a real studio this time. Well, as long as some dude's house counts. While recording, Justin's amp was setup in the bathroom. The main highlight of the session was definitely Madhu not being able to complete the sound check successfully. After all the hijinks, the Where Did You Go? EP was done. The music was at least. The recording engineer was extremely pleased the band decided to forgo recording vocals at his studio and instead use a $10 creative labs microphone and cool edit pro. The results were definitely good, even if Justin had to do all the backup vocals himself.
Still in 2000, Distraught headed back to the studio (some other dude's house this time). This marked the entry into digital recording. Deciding to forgo the previous theme of name all albums with a question for the title, the 3rd (and sadly final) EP was birthed, It was simply titled Chinchilla Warfare. No chinchillas were harmed while producing the album.
While achieving much critical success, the latest EP put Distraught on the map. With such success comes many intriguing opportunities with the best certainly not being playing at the local high school battle of the bands. And it was most certainly was not playing the next year when 3/4 of the members were in college. It was rumored that all the high school broads did indeed "want" the 3 members though. The guitar player mostly, since he played with his back to the crowd with a "pissed off" look on his face.
As a side of effect of their new found success and pending record deal with Fat, the band could handle no more. They disbanded. The story ends here, but the legacy lives on.
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