The Fartz

The Fartz was a Seatlle band formed in 1981. They combined hardcore punk rock with a critic posture to face social problems, politics, racism, religious, sexism and poverty.

It worth to treat this band since its members are related with another grunge band, like 10 Minute Warning and The Accused.

 The original lineup and founding members were:

• Blaine Cook as vocalist. Fomer band Kaos.
• Tom Hansen as guitarist
• Loud Fart as drummer. Fomer band Kaos.
• Steve Hoffman as bassist

Blaine and Steve were mates at the local restaurant called Red Robin, there they worked together and as the first seed of the upcoming band, Tommy taught Steve playing the bass guitar. Soon Loud joined them.

The punk band was created and following the tradition they turned their own surnames to Fart, as Los Ramones have done before.

First The Fartz EP, Because This Fucking World Stinks

It was time to relaese the first EP, and they called it "Because This World Stinks". The EP was released in 1981 by Fartz Records.

The producer were Neil Hubbard and The Fartz, and the engineer was Jack Koff.

Then The Farts signed with the Jello Biafra's label, the San Francisco based Alternative Tentacles Records.

So it made to jump with a relevant label, the next step had a bigger market.

First The Fartz album, World Full of Hate

The first studio album was "World Full of Hate", released in 1982 through Alternative Tentacles Records.

The Fartz became the first Seattle bance since Heart to be known outside the local scene.

Tommy Hansen played in five songs of this records, but was replaced by Paul Dana (also known as Paul Solger). Paul recorded the left tracks.

Once the LP was released, Loud was replaced on drums by Duff McKagan. Duff did not play to long.

The Fartz completed the West Coast punk podium, within Dead Kennedys and D.O.A They used to share performances from California to Vancouver.

A compilation was released to collect these bands and others, was named "Eastern Front Vol II", the song "Buried Alive" was included on it. This compilation was released by Enigma Records in 1983.

The first will of the band was to change the name to a new one, and they called themselves as "10 Minute Warning". But at the end it was more than a name change, since Blaine Cook was replaced by Steve Swad (formerly on The Was Squad). Blaine went to The Accused.

Another change was that Duff McKagan turned to play the guitar and left drums behind. Afterwards he played in Guns N' Roses.

Greg Gilmore joined 10 Minute Warning as drummer. He also the drummer of Mother Love Bone.

The band (The Fartz and 10 Minute Warning) was disbanded in 1983 and each member took a way:

• Blaine Cooke joined The Accused.
• Tommy Hanses joined Crisis Party.
• Duff McKagan joined the L.A band Guns N' Roses.
• Greg Gilmore joined Mothe Love Bone

The years passed and finally a new interest came from Germany, there a LP called "You, We See You Crawling" was released, it took songs from 1981 and 1982.

Alternative Tentacles Records released again "Because This Fucking World Stinks" in 1998 with first time CD format. Blaine Cook, Steve Hoffman, Paul Dana and Loud Fart reunited to record part of this releasing.

The Fartz released the EP "N.W.T.O" over Tranparent Records in 2000.

There were two important replacements, Karl Fowler played the drums instead of Loud Fart. And the guitar place was take by Alex "Maggot Brain" Sibbald, he came from The Accused like Blaine Fart.

Steve Hoffman and Blaine Cook remained as original members.

The Fartz released a new album, "What's In A Name" through Alternative Tentacles Recors on June 19, 2001.

The producer was Jack Endino.

Most of tracks are old songs from the first period.

It was the anteroom of bunch of a new songs, which will be collected in the upcoming album.

These new song were included on "Injustice", album released by Alternative Tentacle Records in 2002.

It was produced by Jack Endino.

Taking advantages with this good year, the band also released a live album called "Viet-Raq". This album took also song related with 10 Minutes Warning and The Accused. All three bands shared some tracks, like "Judgement Day" and "Buried Alive".

This was the last new from The Fartz.