Stereo Embers The Podcast 0318: Sam "Sammytown" McBride (Fang)

“No Warning Shots Fired” Fang got their start in the early '80s in the East Bay. The Berkeley hardcore band’s early start was a little less hardcore and more experimental but that lineup, which featured future Glass Eye bassist Brian Beattie, only lasted under two years. The new lineup, with newly minted singer Sam McBride on vocals, became the punk rock powerhouse that blasted their way across the Bay Area with shows that were feral, wild and filled with rabid intensity and hardcore muscle. But feral as they were, Fang’s fans felt a part of a discernible community. As a friend of mine who never missed a Fang show once said to me: "Being at Fang concert was like being at a fistfight where everyone’s winning.” The band’s first two efforts—Landshark and Where The Wild Things Are—remain undisputed punk rock classics and although that lineup dissolved in ’85, McBride soldiered on with new personnel and as a result, Fangs’ legacy became firmly cemented in punk rock lore, with their songs being covered over the years by Nirvana, Green Day and the Butthole Surfers. Fang pretty much tore through the ‘80s on a pretty big winning streak, and although that streak came to an end when McBride ended up in prison, the band’s second act is a feral as their first and their new album No Warning Shot Fired is a raw and nervy blast of classic hardcore. www.fangofficialmerch.bigcartel.com www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.emberarts.com Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com