Brothers Ethan and Matt Foxx dreamed of playing music as early as 5^th and 6^th grades. They met drummer Mike Armstrong in 1988 and formed their first band. At that moment was also born the curse of the revolving guitarist. After hundreds of flyers and classified ads and countless auditions, Jake Pavlak, the first guitarist in the ever changing lineup, brought the name Gadzooks and an incredible talent on the guitar.

Jake had musical abilities and a philosophical outlook that was far beyond the average teenager. He truly inspired the young musicians to stretch their abilities and perceptions. Jake had an unusual stage presence that earned him the nickname “The Human Skateboard” by a house soundman at the boys’ first club gig at Buddyz Bar in Phoenix, AZ. Gadzooks played clubs and parties for several boisterous months before Jake left the band to move back to Oregon to pursue his college education. Ethan, Matt, and Mike, however, had become hooked on the rush of playing before a live audience. Undaunted, they quickly returned to the classifieds to find their next guitarist, Ty Dorsey.

Ty was also quite a character with a unique sense of humor and great skills on the six-string. Juvenile buffoonery aside, Gadzooks entered into a seriously productive time of song writing. Their collective styles amounted to an up tempo blues-based rock and spawned nearly 30 songs with a mostly whimsical lyrical content, such as How’s Your Wife and My Kids? and If You’re Buyin’, I’m Flyin’. They also wrote a couple of very well received “monster ballads” Young and Free and When I see You Tonight (an absolute necessity for rock bands during late 80s and early 90s). Ethan, Matt, Ty, and Mike grew immensely as musicians during this very fruitful phase in their careers, playing nearly 300 shows in just one year. They maintained a very busy show schedule from 1990 to 1993, playing throughout Arizona and the famous Roxy of Hollywood California as well. With age, experience, and worldly realizations the exuberance seemed to fade. Thus came the more serious Gadzooks songs like Where We Belong, written at the end of the glorious Gadzooks phase.          

Infighting and creative differences forced Mike to leave Gadzooks. Ethan, Matt, and Ty, aside from only two songs, scrapped the Gadzooks catalog and formed Sweatin’ Blood, adding two musicians from the recently dissolved Sweet Revenge –Tommy Smith on lead guitar and Jonny Roberts on drums. The overall musicianship and caliber of the songwriting increased dramatically with the addition of Tommy Smith. And although many of their songs (like most of the era) can be thought of as a little “cheesy” by today’s standards, the bulk of the songs were taking on a much more serious lyrical content during this phase. Original songs like The End, inspired by James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, and Different Eyes, about expanding our perceptions of reality beyond what is readily available to the human mind were a potent departure from the typical “boy meets girl, boy loses girl” songs of their recent canon. Jonny Roberts left the band very early on due to his frustrations related to an unnamed member of the band’s increasingly problematic drug use. The remaining three attempted to stand by their troubled comrade and brought Adam Carter on board to cover the drums. After a roller coaster of ups and downs, Adam soon quit followed by Ty. Ethan and Matt severed all connections with Tommy, abandoned every previously written song, and rebuilt Sweatin’ Blood into what would become its most prolific albeit turbulent incarnation.      

Click filename below to access file

Sweatin__Blood_1991-Where_We_Belong.wma

Sweatin__Blood_1991_-Love_Is_Trouble.wma

Rebuilding Sweatin’ Blood began with the first awkward step of reaching out and making amends with original drummer Mike Armstrong. Being what Ethan and Matt believed to be a musical soul mate and Blood brother, they were compelled to set their friendship right with Mike, whether he would join their new venture or not. Despite the bitterness of being ejected from Gadzooks and the loyalty he felt to his current band Crossbones, Mike’s feelings of kinship with Ethan and Matt won out. Reunited, the original three architects found themselves as they were in the beginning, once again in need of a guitarist. 

Mike suggested that long time mutual friend Norm Kissee round out the line up. The three had met Norm back in the Gadzooks days, and had even tried him out as a second guitarist. Ironic as it sounds to be “too good” for the band, his playing style was too technical for what Gadzooks required. Sweatin’ Blood, however, as the three wanted to redesign it, was the perfect fit. Norm, having been quoted by friends as claiming that his dream band would have Ethan on vocals, jumped in without hesitations.

Sweatin’ Blood was furiously creative during this time. The very air around them seemed to be electrified. Divisions between unseen worlds seemed to vanish as they played while spirits swirled around them. The intense energy created by their live performances was physically and emotionally experienced by those in attendance. A core group of loyal friends and fans formed around the band and attended “Open Friday” rehearsal sessions almost religiously. Many happy memories surround that time in their lives; contradictorily, so do many horrible associations.  This era of Sweatin’ Blood, above all previous representations, was the most gratifying for the mainstays of the band. Ironically, however, their music depicted very little if no jubilance whatsoever.

Sweatin’ Blood was obsessed with writing insanely powerful music as the vehicle for Ethan’s lyrics that thematically explored and reflected the complicated aspects of the human psyche. Together they wrote epic songs containing many intricate passages that featured unrestrained rhythms and complex time signatures. A friend from another local band once commented that Sweatin’ Blood put into one song what his band would make a whole album of. Sweatin’ Blood wrote nearly 30 songs that were all in some way interrelated and were intended to become an elaborate double-disc concept album entitled Circle. No longer hypothetical exploration, the dark matter of Sweatin’ Blood’s music permeated into their lives outside of the band completing the circuit by feeding back into their art. Amplified over time, the negative energy eventually broke through the secure barriers of the band members’ personal lives. Ethan and Matt simultaneously went through bitter divorces from their wives. After several unsuccessful attempts to salvage Mike’s rapidly declining sight, he was declared completely blind. Ever-increasingly disheartened, Sweatin’ Blood trudged on through Fall of 1997 to the last tragic moment, the suicide of their cherished friend and guitarist Norm Kissee.                     

 Click filename below to access file

Blood_on_my_Hands_-Sweatin__Blood_1994.wma