Flanelhed

Flanelhed began in 1993 when founding guitarist and songwriter John Murphy (Murf) reconnected with high school friend Chris Matthews. Having collaborated on songs a couple years before, Chris was asked to front the band. One of Murf’s oldest and closest friends Brad Kopp (or Stark Raving Brad) was brought in to destroy drum kits in support of the blistering live set that was being assembled. Joe Piehoff signed up for the low end duties and Flanelhed began with their first public show at the Faultline in San Rafael on Saturday, February 26th 1994. Respecting the tradition of the self-titled debut, they released theirs in 1996. Recorded at Northern Lights in Petaluma, its bright attack showcased the diverse, yet always melodic, styles the band was capable of. Stark Raving Brad left to pursue a solo career just before the release of the first CD and the drum chair was filled by Carlton Powell. Flanelhed continued on playing all over the Bay Area, and in 1997 played to a near sold out crowd opening for Y&T at the Edge in Palo Alto. Throughout this period Flanelhed opened for such acts as “Big Brother & The Holding Company”, “The Average White Band” and “Laundry” (featuring Herb Alexander from Primus), as well as continuing to headline their own shows at “New Georges in San Rafael” and “19 Broadway in Fairfax”. Carlton Powell left the band for personal reasons in 1998 but remains close friends with Murf and Chris to this day. Evan Frank joined the band in 1998 and the band continued to forge on, but the rock scene seemed to be changing, and around 1999 Flanelhed decided to explore a more acoustic and unplugged sound. They began recording sessions for their 2nd release “Chameleon” in 1999, and although never officially released, it remains a fan favorite which they hope to officially release in the very near future. Soon after the Chameleon sessions, Evan Frank left to pursue other projects and longtime friend Vince Bales settled in as the new drummer. Joe Piehoff retired from music and Terry Bardoul, just in from the Netherlands, took over the bass chair without breaking a sweat, applying his vast experience to quickly gain mastery over the material. Continuing on with the acoustic unplugged songwriting they decided a great addition would be keyboards. Enter Chris Cali from New Jersey. In 2003 Flanelhed released “Little Black Dog” which featured some of the bands best songwriting to date. In 2005 keyboardist Chris Cali moved back to New Jersey and Flanelhed decided to return to their hard rock roots. Over the next couple years, they worked on sessions for “Amnesia” at Hitwall Studios in South San Francisco with close friend and engineer Mat Strickland. It was completed and released in October of 2008. Just before the final mixing was completed, Vince Bales moved back to Spokane Washington and Flanelhed was left with finding a new drummer. Re-enter Evan Frank! Flanelhed continued playing around the Bay Area while writing songs for a follow up to “Amnesia”. In early March of 2012 Flanelhed completed their 5th CD “Static”, recorded at Hitwall Studios again with engineer Mat Strickland. By March end, Flanelhed was signed to Global Recording Artists out of Petaluma, CA. Flanelhed and their record label are busy promoting “Static”. The first review of the new CD in the June 29th, 2012 Marin Independent Journal was extremely positive. This was followed by an in depth article and review online by local writer/photographer Carolyn McCoy at: http://www.moonmamarocks.blogspot.com July 18th, 2012. On September 29th 2012, Flanelhed played their biggest show to date, The 45th Anniversary of the historic Monterey Pop Festival. While the immediate focus is promoting “Static”, Flanelhed continues to write new material for their next release. Original Rock from San Francisco - signed to GRA Records. http://www.flanelhed.com