Sicko is an American
rock group
A musical ensemble, also known as a music group, musical group, or a band is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumen ...
from
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...
, formed in 1991. Exceptionally, the three-piece pop punk group has maintained a constant membership for every recording as a band. This line-up is Denny Bartlett (guitar, bass, vocals), Ean Hernandez (guitar, bass, vocals), and Josh Rubin (drums, brother of Aaron Rubin from
The Mr. T Experience
The Mr. T Experience (sometimes abbreviated MTX) is an American punk rock band formed in 1985 in Berkeley, California, United States. They have released eleven full-length albums along with numerous EPs and singles and have toured internationall ...
). Although the band wrote and recorded an extensive catalog of original material throughout the mid-1990s, the group is perhaps best known for its punk-flavored cover of the song "Closer To Fine", originally written and recorded by the folk duo
Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duet (music), duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in Primary school, elementary school and began performing together as Secondary school, hig ...
.
Sicko released four full-length albums and five 7" eps as well as a retrospective CD with unreleased and rare material, a released demo and a tour video. They also appeared on approximately fourteen compilations on labels such as
Lookout! Records
Lookout Records (stylized as Lookout! Records) was an independent record label, initially based in Laytonville, California, and later in Berkeley, focusing on punk rock. Established in 1987, the label is best known for having released Operatio ...
and
Liberation Records
Liberation Records is an American record company based in the Los Angeles area known for do it yourself ethos and pioneering guerrilla marketing strategies. It was formed by then 16-year-old underground rock music fanzine publisher David Taba in ...
. They once exchanged covers with
Cub. The vast majority of their recorded output was recorded by
Kurt Bloch
Kurt Bloch (born August 28, 1960) is an American songwriter, guitarist, engineer and record producer.
Music career
Bloch is best known as songwriter and lead guitarist of Fastbacks, and is a member of The Young Fresh Fellows.
Record Production ...
of
The Fastbacks and released on Seattle-based punk label
eMpTy Records. One EP and the retrospective CD were released on Mutant Pop Records. Three Sicko songs were featured on the Xbox game
Project Gotham Racing 2
''Project Gotham Racing 2'' is a 2003 arcade-style racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft Game Studios. It was released exclusively for the Xbox (console), Xbox in November 2003 as the succe ...
alongside artists like
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, vocals), Derek Brown ...
and
Princess Superstar
Concetta Suzanne Kirschner (born February 25, 1971), better known as Princess Superstar, is an American rapper, singer and DJ. She has had two chart hits in the UK, the humorous song "Bad Babysitter", which reached number 11 on the UK Singles ...
.
During its heyday - roughly 1993 to 1998 - Sicko actively played in numerous clubs throughout the Seattle area, and toured the United States, Spain, and Japan. A typical Sicko set would last about twenty songs lasting about 45–50 minutes, in a blistering, no-interruptions manner reminiscent of 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 th ...
or
The Fastbacks (whose lo-fi style resembled Sicko, possibly in part due to
Kurt Bloch
Kurt Bloch (born August 28, 1960) is an American songwriter, guitarist, engineer and record producer.
Music career
Bloch is best known as songwriter and lead guitarist of Fastbacks, and is a member of The Young Fresh Fellows.
Record Production ...
's production input in the studio). Denny and Ean would typically switch places on the bass and guitar duties halfway through the set (and often handing each other their instruments while on stage). Sicko often split the bill with other bands that would eventually go on to achieve more national acclaim, including a show with
Harvey Danger
Harvey Danger was an American indie/alternative rock band. It was formed in 1992 in Seattle, Washington, by Aaron Huffman and Jeff J. Lin, who were both journalism students at the University of Washington. Drummer Evan Sult and singer Sean N ...
in 1994 at the (now defunct) Lake Union Pub, and several shows with
The Presidents of the United States of America. The Sicko web site is still up a
Sicko.comand was refreshed in October 2017.
On August 26, 2009,
Red Scare Industries
Red Scare Industries (sometimes referred to as Red Scare Records) is a punk rock record label. The label was started in San Francisco (but moved to Chicago) by former Fat Wreck Chords employee Toby Jeg.
Jeg started the label in 2004 when his fr ...
announced that they would be re-issuing the band's catalog digitally.
Sicko reformed to play one show on January 19, 2018, in support of the Seattle Pop Punk Festival.
On September 13, 2019, Sicko released a new compilation "In the Alternate Timeline" on Red Scare Records. In support, Sicko played shows in October and November 2019 in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and New York.
On September 1, 2024, Sicko self re-released their four full-length albums on LP and CD through their own record label Top Drawer Records,
www.sicko.com
/ref> and reformed once again in support of the Seattle Pop Punk Festival.
Albums
* You Can Feel the Love in this Room (eMpTy Records) 1994
** Recorded and Mixed by Mr. Kurt Bloch at Egg Studio, Winter 1993. Released March 22, 1994
** We recorded and mixed everything in about four days. I remember Kurt having a family emergency in the middle of recording so Scott McCaughey
Scott Lewis McCaughey is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter and the leader of the Seattle and Portland-based bands The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5. He was also an auxiliary member of the American rock band R.E.M. from 199 ...
and Conrad Uno
Conrad Uno is an American record producer and founder of the independent record label PopLlama Records. Uno began his career making his own music as a teenager in his makeshift basement studio. At the request of his friends, the Young Fresh Fellow ...
helped out pressing the buttons. The way it worked out, the solo on On the Clock was recorded two weeks after the rest of the tracks. Country is the only song not recorded at that session - it was recorded during the Red 7" session. The vinyl version included the bonus track Pain In The Ass, which incidentally is the first song we ever played together
* Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy (eMpTy Records) 1995
** Recorded and Mixed by Mr. Kurt Bloch at House of Leisure January 7–8, 1995. Released May 24, 1995
** We originally planned this to be an EP, but there were just enough tracks on it to call it a LP...at least that's what Blake from eMpTy said at the time. We recorded and mixed in two marathon days (poor Kurt was a good sport). The recording studio was in a big, boomy room, which I think is why the record sounds like it does. It's long since been bulldozed and replaced with condos. It was during this session that a photographer from The Rocket came and took our picture for the cover (an uncommon occurrence to be sure).
** Vinyl released in Spain on Muster Records
* Chef Boyrudum (eMpTy Records) 1995
** Recorded and Mixed by Mr. Kurt Bloch with "Pedal Board" Pete Gerrald at Hanszek Audio July 26–30, 1995. Released October 24, 1995
** This was certainly our most ambitious project spending a whopping five days recording and mixing almost 20 songs
** Vinyl released in Spain on Munster Records and on CD in Japan on Real Cool Records. Japanese CD contained the bonus track 80 Dollars from the Red 7" session
* You Are Not The Boss Of Me (eMpTy Records) 1997
** Recorded and Produced by Pete Gerrald at Hanszek Audio, Summer 1997. Released October 28, 1997
** This album is a collection of songs recorded over two sessions one in late 1996 and another in mid-1997
** CD also released in Japan on Pizza of Death Records and in Europe. The Japanese CD has the bonus track 8.6 by the fabulous Japanese band Husking Bee. You can hear the real lyrics on their album "Grip". The European CD has a rather bad cover of Astro Zombies by The Misfits
* A Brief History of Sicko (Mutant Pop Records) 2000
** Compiled from various studio and live recordings. Released posthumously on January 20, 2000
** This is a collection of random tracks including our first ever demo tape (horrible) and one of our last shows (also pretty bad). But, tucked in there are some good tracks that we released on Mutant Pop and a cover of Panama, which is about how all Sicko practices ended
* In the Alternate Timeline (Red Scare Records) 2019
** A compilation of previously released and remastered tracks
Singles
* For a Longer and Better Life EP (Top Drawer Records) 1992
* Count Me Out 7" (eMpTy Records) 1993
* Split 7" w/ The Mr. T Experience (Top Drawer Records) 1993, (eMpTy Records) 1998
* Three Tea 7" (Mutant Pop) 1997
Compilations
* V/A eMpTy Records Sampler vol. 1 (eMpTy Records) 1994
* V/A Viva La Vinyl (Deadbeat/Campground) 1994
* V/A 13 Soda Punx Compilation (Top Drawer Records/Munster Records) 1995
* V/A Teenage Kicks (Custodial Records) 1995
* V/A Punk Uprisings (Lookout! Records) 1995
* V/A La 1st Internacional (Munster Records) 1996
* V/A Keep The Beat (Hairball 8 Records) 1996
* V/A From Another World vol. 3 (Free with The Thing Magazine, Athens, Greece) 1996
* V/A La 2a Internacional (Munster Records) 1997
* V/A Poop Mixed With Pee (PooPee Records) 1997
* V/A eMpTy Sampler vol. 2 (eMpty Records) 1997
* V/A Joe Queer Presents More Bounce to the Ounce (Lookout! Records) 1997
* V/A Coolidge 50 (Coolidge Records) 1998
* V/A Killed By Crackle (Crackle Records) 2000
References
External links
Sicko MySpace Page
Official band website
* Sicko band profile on AllMusicbr>Sicko Profile on Punknews.org
Interview with Sicko from 10 Things fanzine
Sicko band bio on sing365.com
Belchin' Waffles Interview with Sicko
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sicko
Pop punk groups from Washington (state)
Musical groups from Seattle
Musical groups established in 1991