The Lords Of Altamont celebrate today their 14th anniversary!

The band was formed on December 6 1999 by “The First Five”: Johnny Devilla, Max Eidson, Jake Cavaliere, Doran Shelley and Gabriel Hammond. 

Jake and Johnny had been with The Bomboras the most inspiring instrumental surf band of the late 1990’s. But they had just tossed down their last Mai Tai. They both felt the drive to play something way different from the exotic surf sounds of the Pacific beaches. They were thinking of a harder, dirtier, darker sound more attuned to the streets of inland Los Angeles than to Huntington Beach. 

Jake had been pondering  how the 1969 Altamont Free Concert -which ended in violence and chaos- signed the end of the Free Love era associated with Woodstock. These music festivals had mirrored two different phases of that crazy decade. Johnny remembers: “What I was digging musically had a lot to do with Altamont. With the new band I wanted a clean slate in order to escape the pigeon hole of the surf scene and be free from what The Bomboras audience liked.” 

Johnny, Jake, Max and Gabriel started trading tapes, ideas and influences to move toward a primitive Rock & Roll sound. Inspired by the MC5, The Stooges, The Cramps and the unrest born from that musical event, The Lords of Altamont were formed.  They played their first performance for Tiger Mask productions at Hollywood’s own ‘ The Garage ‘, triggering the Lords worldwide popularity.

14 years later, The Lords Of Altamont have no intention to stop the rampage.  Featuring founding member Jake ‘The Preacher’ Cavaliere, former The Cramps drummer Harry Drumdini and new members Dani ‘Sin’ Sindaco and Zim, the band will be touring Europe next spring supporting the upcoming release ‘Lords Take Altamont’ (April 2014 on Gearhead Records).
 
LiveBand-AndreaGuardavilla