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Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Back in the Day, 1999

Blazing Haley

Sleeper

(Self-issued)



Memory falters, but I believe it was around 2000 that I saw Blazing Haley pretty much destroy all competition on an MTV beach-shindig battle-of-bands. For the brief span of an abbreviated "Train to Nowhere," real Rock'n'Roll blared on MTV.

As tempting as some might find the proposition, Santa Barbara's brutal knuckle-poppers didn't ultimately fade because they were too too for early 2000s palates; numerous walloping peers did prosper. Perhaps the combo fell to fortune's inexplicable vagaries. But their big-shouldered perpetrations (in which Rockabilly, Punk, Country, and Psycho instincts conflagrated kick-ass firestorms somewhere betwixt fun and mayhem) are salubrious options now, when it seems Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars will never shut up.

The iron-visaged quartet did release a second platter - the equally robust Mas Chignon - before going into that good night. Various members pursued gambits including Graveside Rockers, Phantom Pomps, and Whiskey Glass Eye. Later years' reunion performances attested to enduring combustible capacity.

Though Blazing Haley placed second in that MTV battle, competition judge Busta Rhymes proclaimed "If it was my choice exclusively, it would've been Blazing Haley!"

Recommended: "Train to Nowhere," "Run Down Dive," "V-12 Ford," "Blazing Haley," "Clambake," "Back for No Good Reason," "End of the Line"

Videos: "Train to Nowhere" (live, 2018)   "Back for No Good Reason" (live, 2016)   "Clambake"   "End of the Line"


Facebook (Drummer Chris Story)

[Contemporary information for group members Brian Lakey, Dave Kruger, and Matt Armor could not be located.]


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FORMER staff writer for Rockabilly and Pin Up America magazines. FREELANCE credits include Daily Caller, American Thinker, Free Republic, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Independent Political Report, USA Today, Des Moines Register, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Waterloo Courier, Cedar Falls Times, Marshalltown Times Republican, Cincinnati.com, IndyStar, Arizona Republic, No Depression, Goldmine, Blue Suede News, Rock and Rap Confidential, Crackerjack, Blues News, Wrecking Pit, Punk Globe, Prairie Sun, Music and Sound Output, BAM, New Music, and 1980s NYC fanzines Shake, Rattle, and Roll, Rebel Rouser, and Off the Wall. AUTHOR: Shake, Rattle and Rocket!, Ghost Saucers in the Sky!, Stratosphere Boogieman!, Flesh Made Music, That a Man Can Again Stand Up: American spirit vs, sedition during the incipient Trump Revolution, and Ideas Afoot: Political observations, social commentary, and media analyses. WORKED as 2004 Iowa coordinator for Ralph Nader independent presidential campaign; co-founded Iowa Green Party, also served as statewide media coordinator; press coordinator, 2002 Jay Robinson (Green) IA gubernatorial effort. Wrote extensively re Trump campaign..