The Connie Dungs were an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band from

Ashland, Kentucky Ashland is a List of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. The most populous city in Boyd County, Ashland is located upon the southern bank of the Ohio River at the state border with Ohio and near West ...

, formed in 1994.

Biography

The Connie Dungs described themselves as "a poppy snotty punk band similar in style to

The Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of t ...

and, later, Jawbreaker". They existed as an active band from 1994 to 2000, taking part in over 20 releases during that time. The Dungs gained some degree of prominence in the American underground punk scene based on sporadic concerts around the middle U.S., including Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Beginnings

Brandon Tussey met Wayne Griffith at a record store where Wayne worked. They had a similar taste in music and Brandon eventually asked Wayne if he wanted to start a band. Wayne got his brother, Chris Griffith, to play drums, and coworker, John Spears, to play guitar. A few months into 1994, the Connie Dungs began performing at local shows in Eastern Kentucky. During this early period they recorded and released two cassette-tape demos (''Songs for Swinging Lovers'' and ''Nice Guys Finish Last''), which were sold exclusively at shows. Both ''Songs for Swinging Lovers'' and ''Nice Guys Finish Last'' were later collected on one album, ''Songs for Swinging Nice Guys'', released in 1999 on Mutant Pop Records. Their first official release was a split 7-inch with fellow local punk band Tugboat. These demos and early releases resulted in a 7-inch single with Chicago indie label Harmless Records. ''Missy and Johnny'' was selected in 1995 by Shredder Records as one of the top punk singles of the year and was included in volume three of their annual compilation, ''Shreds''.

Underground Punk Success

After signing with Mutant Pop and releasing a series of singles and albums, more buzz came by way of positive coverage from numerous major underground punk publications, including '' Flipside'', ''

Punk Planet ''Punk Planet'' was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering m ...

'', ''

The Probe "The Probe" was the final episode of the original ''The Outer Limits'' television show. It first broadcast on 16 January 1965, during the second season. Opening narration :''The persistence of Man's curiosity led him into new worlds. Without ...

'', ''

Jersey Beat Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gove ...

'', and ''

maximumrocknroll ''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly online zine of punk subculture and radio show of punk music. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and ...

''. Two writers at ''maximumrocknroll'' were particularly enthusiastic about the group:

George Tabb George Tabb is a founding member and song writer in such punk bands as Roach Motel, Atoms for Peace (a Gainesville Florida '80s band, not the more recent "supergroup"), False Prophets, Letch Patrol, Gynocologists, Iron Prostate and Furious G ...

and

Mykel Board Mykel Board (born January 31, 1950) is an American journalist, musician, and writer of English-language haiku. Bibliography * ''Even A Daughter Is Better Than Nothing'' Garrett Country Press (2005) * ''I A, Me-ist'' Hope and Nonthings Press ...

. Board once wrote: "They're my new favorite band. In case you haven't heard, they've got the best punk vocalist since H.R.! ... I love you!". The band even made an appearance in the December 1996 issue of Guitar School magazine in the article "The Great Unknowns: The Best and the Brightest of Today's Unsung Punk Bands." John Spears left the band in 1996, and was replaced by Rob Lowe. Zac Damon (of Zoinks!,

Squirtgun Squirtgun is an American punk rock band from Lafayette, Indiana formed by record producer Mass Giorgini in 1993. History 1993–1998 Squirtgun originally consisted of Mass Giorgini (Bass, Vocals), Matt Hart (Vocals, Guitar), Flav Giorgini (Gu ...

and

Screeching Weasel Screeching Weasel is an American punk rock band consisting of Ben Weasel (vocals), Mike Kennerty (guitar), Mike Hunchback (guitar), Zach "Poutine" Brandner (bass) and Pierre Marche (drums) founded in 1986 by Ben Weasel and John Pierson (music ...

fame) provided back-up vocals for the second LP, Driving on Neptune. The third LP, ''Earthbound for the Holiday'', featured back-up vocals from

Mass Giorgini Massimiliano Adelmo Giorgini (born 1968) is an American bassist and record producer who rose to fame when several of the bands he produced experienced huge gains in popularity during the pop-punk boom of the mid-'90s. Among these bands was Giorg ...

, the prominent pop punk producer who was a member of later incarnations of

and a founding member of

. Mass also had a hand in recording, mastering, or producing several Connie Dungs releases. Rob Lowe and the band parted ways in 1999 for unspecified reasons. Rob was replaced with Dave Berger of Spodie. The band recorded songs with Dave that would go on to appear on the Mutant Pop SRCD, titled "Turntable." He also played on the group's final album, ''Eternal Bad Luck Charm''.

Break-up and later projects

The band played their last show August 19, 2000, at the Mutant Pop Festival in Warren, PA. This was the same day their 4th and final LP, ''Eternal Bad Luck Charm'', was released. Following the break-up, the three permanent members (Brandon, Chris, and Wayne) started a new band with a less pop-oriented direction, A Radio With Guts. Brandon also played some solo acoustic shows, including a gig with pop punk luminary Dr. Frank. In 2007, Brandon restarted the band with an entirely different lineup and played a few local shows. In 2009, Tussey put out a solo album under his name. It was called "Outfitted for the Apocalypse." He also did spoken word work under the name Compost Press.

Reunions

The band has had several reunion shows. The first, featuring the original four members (Brandon, Wayne, Chris and John) was in July 2011, at the V Club in Huntington, WV. A month later, they made their way to Baltimore, Maryland to the Insubordination Records Festival, more commonly known as Insub Fest. The band also performed at the V Club in Huntington, WV on October 12, 2013.

Permanent members

* Wayne Griffith – bass * Chris Griffith – drums, percussion * John Spears – guitar

Former members

* Brandon Tussey – songwriter, singer, guitar * Mike Webb – guitar * Rob Lowe – guitar * Dave Berger – guitar

Discography

Full-length albums

# 1997 ''The Connie Dungs'' (Mutant Pop Records) # 1998 ''Driving on Neptune'' (Mutant Pop Records) # 1999 ''Earthbound For The Holiday'' (Mutant Pop Records) # 1999 ''Songs For Swinging Nice Guys'' (Mutant Pop Records) (both self-released cassettes from 1995 on one CD) # 2000 ''Eternal Bad Luck Charm'' (Mutant Pop Records)

EPs and singles

# 1995 Connie Dungs / Tugboat Split 7-inch EP (Smalltown Kids Records) # 1995 ''Missy and Johnny'' 7-inch EP (Harmless Records) # 1996 ''I Hate This Town'' 7-inch EP (Mutant Pop Records) # 1997 Connie Dungs / Operation: ''Cliff Clavin'' split 7-inch/CDEP (

Plan It X Records Plan-It-X Records (PIX) was an independent record label. Originally based in Georgetown, Indiana, PIX was based in Bloomington, Indiana following brief stints in Olympia, Washington, Gainesville, Florida, and Cairo, Illinois. The label released ...

) # 1997 Connie Dungs / Automatics (USA) split 10-inch EP (Cool Guy Records) # 1997 Connie Dungs / Slowpokes split 7-inch EP # 1997 ''No Chance'' 7-inch EP (Mutant Pop Records) # 2000 ''Turntable'' CDEP (Mutant Pop Records)

Demos and other releases

# 1995 ''Songs For Swinging Lovers'' – self-released cassette sold at shows, 200 copies # 1995 ''Nice Guys Finish Last'' – self-released cassette sold at shows, 200 copies

Compilations

# 1995 ''Shreds Volume 3-American Underground '95'' (Shredder Records) – "Missy and Johnny" # 1996 ''The New Breed'', Volume 3 (G.I. Productions) – "I Hate This Town" (vinyl version on CD) # 1996 ''Back Asswards'' (Interbang Records) – "Kill Me In My Sleep" (exclusive version) # 1996 ''The Best of Bumfuck Egypt'' Music Compilation 7-inch (Molasses Grave Records) (5 bands) – "Wonder Boy" (exclusive track) # 1997 ''Grease – The Not So Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture'' (Dummyup Records) "Those Magic Changes" (

Sha Na Na Sha Na Na was an American rock and roll and doo-wop revival group formed in 1969. The group performed a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs that both revived and parodied the music and the New York City street culture of the 1 ...

cover) # 1997 ''It Should Have Been a Record'' (Ape City Records)- "Used to be Cool" (exclusive version) # 1998 ''How To Be Punk – Volume 1'' (Cool Guy Records) – "Teenage Punks On Talk Shows" (exclusive version) # 2000 ''Transylvania Style Punk Rock'' (Wornout Records) – "Barbara" (album version) Source:

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

References

External links

Official blog

Official (out of date)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connie Dungs, The Rock music groups from Kentucky American pop punk groups Musicians from Ashland, Kentucky 1994 establishments in Kentucky