Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers

Proudly representing for the roughneck end of garage rock, the Rock N Roll Soldiers make an aggressively nasty noise that owes much more to the Pretty Things and early Rolling Stones than it does the White Stripes. Impressively, the band also managed to bounce back from a bad major-label experience that would have destroyed most bands. Formed in Eugene, OR, in 1997 while its members were still in high school, the nascent group took its name from an old tour slogan by rough-edged 1970s Australian punk pioneers Radio Birdman, their favorite band at the time. Continuing their fascination with garage rockers past, lead guitarist Kevin Sciou joined the original core of singer and guitarist Marty Larson Xu, bassist Evan Sernoffsky, and drummer Oliver Brown because as a somewhat older and more experienced musician (he had previously worked with second-generation rocker Shooter Jennings), he was impressed that these kids knew all about the Flamin' Groovies. While touring the Pacific Northwest as opening act for various punk and garage bands, the Rock N Roll Soldiers recorded two 7" vinyl EPs for the garage-oriented indie Gearhead Records, 2003's The High School Sessions and 2004's The Weak Blame the Strong. (Original lead guitarist Lucas Gunn played on both of these records.) When the newly reconfigured Rock N Roll Soldiers signed with Atlantic Records in late 2004, the label repackaged the pair of vinyl releases as 2005's The Two EPs. That album was critically well received, and songs from it were placed in various TV shows and video games. However, although Atlantic bankrolled the Los Angeles-based sessions for the Rock N Roll Soldiers' proper full-length debut, So Many Musicians to Kill, and listed the album on its release schedule several times, the label ended up quietly scrubbing the album and releasing the band from its contract. Although Sciou left the band in the summer of 2006, the remaining members regained control of the completed album from Atlantic and self-released So Many Musicians to Kill on their own RNRS label, selling the album at gigs, through the band's website and other digital outlets.