Green on Red

Green on Red were an American rock band, formed in the Tucson, Arizona punk scene, but based for most of its career in Los Angeles, California, where it was loosely associated with the Paisley Underground. Earlier records have the wide-screen psychedelic sound of first-wave desert rock, with occasional impulses toward pop mitigated by the limitations of shambolic vocalist Dan Stuart. Later records suggest a kind of broke-down American Rolling Stones.

Related Topics:
Tucson, Arizona - Los Angeles, California - Paisley Underground - Desert rock - Rolling Stones

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The band began in 1979 as The Serfers, a four-piece made up of Stuart, Jack Waterson (bass), Van Christian (drums, later of Naked Prey) and Sean Nagore (organ), quickly replaced by Chris Cacavas. In the summer of 1980, the Serfers relocated to Los Angeles, where they changed their name to Green on Red (after the title of one of their songs) to avoid confusion with the local "surf punk" scene. Christian returned to Tucson and was replaced by Lydia Lunch sideman Alex MacNicol.

Related Topics:
Surf punk - Lydia Lunch

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The band issued a self-released red vinyl EP, sometimes called Two Bibles, though its first widely available record was an EP issued in 1982 by Dream Syndicate leader Steve Wynn on his own Down There label. Green on Red followed the Dream Syndicate onto Slash Records, which released the album Gravity Talks in the fall of 1983. San Francisco-based guitarist Chuck Prophet joined for the 1985 Gas Food Lodging (Enigma), after which MacNicol was replaced on drums by Keith Mitchell (later of Mazzy Star). That same year, Stuart collaborated with Steve Wynn as "Danny and Dusty" on the album The Lost Weekend (A&M).

Related Topics:
Dream Syndicate - Steve Wynn - Slash Records - Chuck Prophet - Mazzy Star - A&M

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A major-label deal with Phonogram/Mercury followed, with the EP No Free Lunch and the album The Killer Inside Me, produced by Jim Dickinson at Ardent Studios in Memphis. The band split up afterward; Cacavas began recording albums under his own name. When Stuart returned to recording, with the 1989 Here Comes the Snakes, it was essentially as a duo with Prophet, using hired backing. Three more albums were released before the pair called it quits, after the 1992 Too Much Fun. Stuart essentially quit music afterward; Prophet maintains a career as a solo artist and semi-celebrity sideman.

Related Topics:
Phonogram - Mercury - Jim Dickinson - Ardent Studios

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