With so many bands to see on any given night in LA it's easy to take the gift of live bands for granted, not to notice them, or to wonder how many songs until the band packs up and goes home. Lets face it, it's easy to become jaded, it's hard to work up enthusiasm for a live band except for your favorites. Every once in a while a band comes around and breaks the monotony. It happens.

It happened to me a short time ago when I went club hopping with friends and ended up at the Whisky just in time to see LA band PINHEAD take the stage. From the first song I was a fan. I can only describe their music as a melodic riot. Heavy metal throwing a curve ball.

I was curious to know more about this band so I met up with PINHEAD bass player Randy Mathias at Entourage Studios where he was taking a break from laying down bass tracks for PINHEAD'S 3rd album "The Rise Of Minikin."

Our story begins in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. in a not so sunny dive bar called the Teazer. "It had a plywood stage about the size of a postage stamp. It was a great place to see local bands up close, way up close" jokes Randy. "Oh, and the beer was cheap, too." On this particular night Randy's friend Ed Paniagua had shown up. Ed's Florida based band PUYA was just beginning to gain popularity, eventually they would be touring the world the selling hundreds of thousands of albums. " At that time PUYA was just starting to make a name for itself. Ed wasn't a big rock star yet so he could still hang out with us regular guys" said Randy jokingly. "Anyways, he came in with this buddy of his, Tom {Tommy Bruno}. Tom was a guitar player and songwriter, we talked about music all night long."

With a lot in common Tommy and Randy became fast friends, discussing their ideas about music. "After 6 months we decided it was time we stopped talking about music and really make the effort to do it. Of course, that meant we had to get off our asses and go to LA" Randy explained. Like thousands and thousands before them they packed all they could and headed to Hollywood. For a short time they stayed at the infamous Lucky 7 hotel.

That's when the dream of living in Hollywood became the reality of surviving in Hollywood. "We had some pretty shitty jobs when we first got here. I delivered Mexican food on a bike and also did what most musicians do when they get here, I got a job selling toner over the phone" said Randy. "We spent the little money we made going out and seeing live bands play. Tommy and I were getting a feel for what was going on in LA at the time, meeting people, talking about music and trying to get a band together."

During this time Tommy was writing new songs that incorporated their tuned downed instruments with innovative rhythms and melodies. They experimented with many different combinations of singers, drummers and band names. They found a perfect fit with KC Day. KC had recently moved to LA from Portland, Oregon with a notebook filled with song lyrics and the desire to be a singer/songwriter. He provided the soul and raw emotion that PINHEAD needed to create a voice for their music. When JD joined in as their earth-shaking, tribal drummer they were ready for action.

"We played a lot of gigs around LA, anywhere we could get them. We played the Martini Lounge and the Dragonfly, we'd play the Coconut Teazer on Sunday at midnight just to practice in front of the bartender and the security guards and any friends nice enough to show up" explains Randy. Once they started getting bookings at the Troubadour, Roxy and Whisky A GO-GO, they released there first album "Pogo, Ascent From Hell" featuring songs such as Holiday, No Escape and Puppet.

Ed Paniagua of PUYA is currently collaborating with PINHEAD on a new album entitled "The Rise Of Minikin" and will be sitting in as drummer for PINHEAD'S upcoming shows. You can check PINHEAD'S website www.pinheadband.com for future show dates and more Info.

Don't pass up an opportunity to see PINHEAD at a small local venue - because they won't be there for long.

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