After I moved to Boise, I ran into a guy named Matt Hunter that I’d known from my days in Ashland playing in The VAM Commanders. His little brother, Dan, had actually been in VAM briefly. Matt and I had gotten gloriously lost in the woods while drunk once, which was the inspiration for a story in a yet-t0-be-published collection called, The Joys of Peer Pressure.

At the time, Matt was playing in a band called Aces and Eights, a skinhead rock’n’roll outfit. They’d done some tours and had something of a label deal in Germany. But it was all in the process of falling apart at the time due to the pressures that come with money.

When it did, Matt and I started a new group. Initially, it was he and I playing guitar to a drum machine. Then a bass player, also named Matt, joined us. After the drummer that was supposed to replace the machine flaked, I moved to drums and we’ve been rocking it as a power-trio.

It’s been refreshing to get back to the simplicity of rock and roll again, as well as to the uncomplicated reasons to make it: because it’s f@#$ing loud.

For now, we’re calling it The North End Snugglers, a named based off something of an urban legend in Boise, about a guy who breaks into women’s houses to cuddle them against their will in the north end neighborhood. We’ve joked that it’s sort of like calling you band The Notorious Rapists. But for the moment, it’s the best name we’ve come up with.

We just started gigging and are going to look at doing some out of town shows and possibly recording in fall.