User:Kappa/Willard (band)
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, albeit being one of the more obscure bands. They never quite broke out of the underground scene and they liked it that way. Willard refused to sell out and made fun of those who did. Bruce Pavitt of Sub Pop took Spiders out to lunch and told him "We are looking for a touring machine". Willard passed on Sub Pops advances to avoid the "Grunge Bandwagon". Jeff Gilbert and Tad Doyle were instrumental in the next record deal which resulted in their one and only Jack Endino produced album, Steel Mill, sounded similar to several other Seattle bands, namely Tad and the Melvins. They self destructed after recording a second record, "Bone Grinder", which was never released. It was a sex, drugs, and rock & roll overdose. Only one song, "Larie" was released in a "Sounds of Seattle" compilation. Steve Wied was the original Tad drummer before joining Willard. Mark, Johnny, and Otis, played in a side project called "Ditch Witch" (also known as Jeager Monster for the copious amounts of Jeagermeister consumed during rehearsals and performances) 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. (It should be noted there was another unrelated band called Ditch Witch from the mid-west) The second version of Ditch Witch was named Cluster F*ck and featured Tad on drums, Garcia on bass, Spiders on guitar, and Martin Chandler (Panic, Hog Molly, The Ones) on second guitar. Willard was featured in a Seattle Times article after an all ages outdoorshow at Seattle Center. The Seattle Police Department and the City Of Seattle nixed the show and "banned the Band" from further performences for "rowdiness". Willard T-shirts soon proudly said "banned by the SPD" and they continued to play shows defying the ban. This was Willard's equivalent of a gold album.
Band Members[edit]
Johnny Clint - vocals
Otis P. Otis - guitars
Mark Spiders - guitars
Darren Peters - bass
Tyson Garcia - bass (replaced Peters)
Steve Wied - drums (ex-Tad)