Love in the Time of Cthulhu

Bloodsocket at Riff Raff bringing the one man mosh. Notice the awaiting shots of booze.

Back in 2003, my friends Scott and Justin who I knew from their old band, Oddman, started fucking around with some new shit under the name Bloodsocket. It was sloppier and heavier than anything I’d really heard at the time. One night they were supposed to be playing at the Riff Raff in Chico, and Justin called me to see if I wanted to play bass, which of course I did. So I went down to the venue and he taught me the songs over in the pizza part of the venue, and then we played about 20 minutes later. Since the bass was tuned to G# it didn’t really matter what I played anyway, but I’d like to think I learned the songs good enough. The next show I played bass, the bass amp didn’t work so I just plugged straight into the PA, which probably sounded fucking awesome, but we didn’t care, we were mainly just playing to have a good time and drink a bunch of free whiskey, which was really all the Riff Raff was good for anyway. However, Justin soon figured out that his songs were badass, and he and old drummer for Oddman, Cayle Hunter, started fucking around as a two piece and changed the name to the Indomitable Iron Sloth, which soon became the Abominable Iron Sloth. Since Cayle lived in Sac, there were more than a few times where about 10 minutes before a show, Justin would call and see if I wanted to play drums since Cayle couldn’t make it, which I invariable always did. It was always a good time. In 2004 or 2005, we played at Duffy’s for the annual Chico Legends show, which was probably one of the funner shows I’ve played.

Iron Sloth at Duffys the day after Christmas.

Cayle and Justin put together an EP, and it was so badass that the dudes in Cayle’s other band at the time, a Sacramento outfit called Ghostride, which was everyone from the band Will Haven plus Cayle, and with a different singer, ended up playing in the Iron Sloth as well, making it a 5 piece with Cayle switching to guitar. This lineup is still probably one of the heaviest bands I’ve ever seen anywhere. The band put out a full length, with some new shit as well as the old Bloodsocket songs, one of which, called “I’d Rather Die Than Fly” can be heard above

Not long after the record came out, the lineup changed again and Justin did a tour or two with two guys I didn’t really know, and then he moved to England, got married, came back and moved to Seattle, which needless to say put the band on hold for a couple years. But now he’s back on the road, and working on a new album which will doubtlessly be fucking badass.