Decontrol

The original Decontrol was formed in 1980 by Richard Birch, Paul Adam "bomb" Kolbach and John Wolfinger. They went on hiatus immediately after John's untimely and tragic death. With the addition of Robert Birch, Richard's brother, they started touring again in the late 90's and are still playing today.
A huge act in the 80's Philly Punk/hardcore scene they shared stages with acts like the Dead Milkmen and Black Flag. Their rise to fame was halted by the untimely loss of John.
Musical Style: Punk, Alternative Rock
Sounds Like: Black Flag, Nirvana, The Sex Pistols
Influences: Anger

Official Site: www.virgilavery.com/decontrol.htm
UBL Address: www.ubl.com/decontrol

Many other bands have used the Decontrol name but, surprisingly, graciously made changes when contacted by the original Decontrol's publicity manager.

From the Decontrol Web Site:

Decontrol was born in 1980, started as a two-man hardcore outfit by Adam Avery. Adam played a combination guitar / bass along with a bass drum over original singer Zero's caterwalling vocals. It was horrible, but soon became 100% better when Adam fired the other half of Decontrol and recruited the amazing skills of Ritchie Birch on guitar and Keith Lenderman on drums. Adam settled on bass and vocals.

Soon, they gained quite a reputation in the Philadelphia scene, playing gigs with bands such as the Dead Kennedys, Husker Du, Minutemen, GBH, Discharge, TSOL, DOA, etc. Along with live performances on Penn State and Drexel U. radio, they played a zillion gigs at places like Rutgers University, CBGB's, The Philly Punk Fests, Dobbs, and the East Side Club.

They released the now classic 15 minute-long epic "Songs from the Gut" LP in 1985, and in 1987, with the late John Wolfinger on bass, they released an album on Hardly Records called simply "Decontrol" which gained them many more American and European fans. There was also the biker-punk EP "Born to be Wild".

After many personnel changes and two drummers named Chuck, Decontrol still plays on. Furiously as ever in the original formula, but with Ritchie's brother Rob filling the drumming boots. Decontrol is now preparing a new CD with 12 new songs, along with most of the above remastered and crammed onto one disc!

Decontrol was a Canadian D-beat Punk band formed in October 1996 after their old band Dödsdömd called it quits and decided to play more raw music. Decontrol was greatly inspired by Swedish Hardcore and played a Discharge meets Anti Cimex sound.

The band's lyrics were critical of the police, the military, the rich, nationalism, ignorance, capitalism, consumerism, television, pollution, and most of all nuclear power.

The band released one demo and four LPs. The members moved on to form other bands such as The Automatics

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu