Pet Lamb

Pet Lamb formed in 1990 in Dublin. Loose collection of drinking buddies. Inspired by Sonic Youth,Big Black,Replacements,Husker Du,Bitch Magnet,Black Flag,Dinosaur Jr,MC5,Stoogesloud exciting rock basically. First gigs were messy;so were the rest, punctuated by the odd elusive X dynamic which takes a band unawares and is a visceral and a raw pleasure. Its what a band lives for. That and the crystal meth.



Made some demos very in thrall to influences. Decided to release some vinyl independently. Introduced a friend/fan with redundancy cash to a journalist/fan with a telephone and recorded a 5 track 1 sided 12EP called Paranoid From The Neck Down. They formed the label Blunt to release it. That was 1993.



Paranoid did well, got reviewed and noticed a bit. The follow up, another 5 track one sided 12 called Spent was more of the same. Played a lot of gigs and toured with Therapy in England and Germany. At either end of 94 and 95 had the honour of recording sessions for John Peel.



Disasterously, decided to sign with courting metal label Roadrunner. They repackaged the two EPs and released them in Europe as Sweaty Handshake. Gigged some more. Appeared on the late night James Whale show and were described by panelist Malcolm MacLaren as madly wonderful. The highlight of this period was spotting Nicholas Parsons in Liverpool St. station, sitting alone eating a banana got him to sign an autograph for us.



All the while writing songs for first album proper. They wanted us to use Hue And Crys producer, we wanted Albini or Martin Bisi. Chose Bisi cos Albini wasnt available and we wanted a trip to New York. Bisi had done Sonic Youth,Swans and Unsane. We slept on the studio floor and made the record High Anxiety named after the under appreciated masterpiece by Mel Brooks.



Dropped by Roadrunner.They wouldnt release the record and we couldnt afford to buy it. Formed another band called Nurse Diesel and gigged and drank and languished in squalor. James had enough and quit. Took on David Lacey to drum on next album despite his oft-declared distaste for Pet Lamb. Recorded the album Tenderness with Ronan McHugh and released it on Blunt. Conscious change of musical direction. It was completely ignored but, in fairness, we were too fucked to bother promoting it properly. Gigged some more. Tried to write songs for another record but fell apart in acrimony, sickness and torpor. Split that was 2000, a neat 10 years.



Forged bonds with good bands from Ireland and further like:Jam Jar Jail, Crossbreed,Mexican Pets, Wormhole,Female Hercules,Luggage, Therapy,Ogre, The Idiots, Bambi, Def Leppard and Boyz 2 Men