A now defunct band out of
Rome, Georgia usually classified by reviewers as "
pop/punk." Formed in July of
1999 with only two members. Vocals/guitarist Josh Chambers and drummer Kevin Highfield and famously consisted of many
bassists (from 1999 to 2002: Brent Elridge, Travis Gerke, John Elwell, Chris Frisbie, Will Tallman and on their first album...Josh Chambers himself).
Among the bands highlights were playing
Vans Warped Tour in 2001 and 2002, playing at the
Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland, OH, playing to an audience of over a million on USA's old show "Farmclub.com" not to mention sharing the stage with
Face To Face,
MXPX,
Mighty Mighty Bosstones,
Ataris,
New Found Glory,
Alien Ant Farm,
NOFX,
Dashboard Confessional,
Good Charlotte,
Midtown and many others.
The band changed to a
four piece act in
2002, moving John Elwell to backup guitar and having Chris Frisbe on bass. They played their final show (although at the time, nobody knew it was their final show) on August 1st, 2002 in front of thousands in Warped Tour's
Atlanta show.
On
December 2nd, 2002 the Sloppy MeatEaters announced that Kevin had left the band and seeing that Josh was the only original member left, the three remaining members; Josh, John and Will, we're all forming a new band called
Under The Weather. A fourth member, Lee Howell drummed with the band (John did the lead guitars and drums in the studio) for their live act.
Under The Weather did a short tour of the U.S in
2003 and released a self titled EP the same year. Yet haven't been heard from lately.
The Sloppy MeatEaters released their first three albums "Eat Meat Cuz It's Fun", "Shameless Self Promotion" and a split CD with Napkin themselves. They were then signed to the
Bay Area label
Orange Peal Records who released their second full length album "Forbidden Meat" and the first
Under The Weather album.
Update: 5/27/2004
Long story short,
Under The Weather had a very successful tour in
2003, but disbanded shortly afterward due to Josh's
discontent with the band and himself. He practically dove into a cave of
drugs, study,
slacking and writing odd tirades that he posted on his personal website. He continued to write music though.
The only real
offshoot of UTW was
Punchdrunk. Whom consisted of SME/UTW bassist Will Tallman and UTW drummer Lee Howell recorded and released an 11 song album independently and toured the
West Coast and the
midwest.
Orange Peal Records were upset with Josh because they owed him another record. In
December 2003 they released the Under The Weather
EP in
Japan. Although it seemed like an odd move, the record sold over 2,000 copies in a mere two weeks. Oddly enough, this would be the event that brought Josh Chambers back into the real music world.
In the first months of 2004 Josh released a song that he and John did together called "
Rapture Practice" that he said was the first of many (exact number used was
16) songs that he was working on that he said would have a connecting theme. He also played an
acoustic show in his native Rome, Georgia under the odd name
Strawberry Jesus and The Illlumanti.
In
May 2004, Josh announced that he has decided to
bring back the Sloppy MeatEaters moniker. The new lineup is as follows:
Josh Chambers -
vocals and
guitar
John Elwell - lead guitars
Seth Smith - bass and
backing vocals (ex-member of
Punchdrunk)
Lee Howell - drums
Yes, although having no members of the
original three piece, SME has resurfaced as a
quartet and will look to regain the steam of a band who obtained over a
million unique hits on their website since its opening, had over 400,000 downloads on the late
mp3.com, played
Vans Warped Tour three times and toured with many huge names in
rock music.
"This year, we will record, tour,
kidnap air time from the
mainstream, cross our fingers, and enjoy." -Josh Chambers (
May 2004)