Total Fucking Godhead (Part 1)

(Author's Note: I was tasked by the members of Chum to pen the band's biography around the time of their reunion in the summer of 2005. While this bio has appeared online in a variety of places, in some cases my credit to its authorship has been removed. What follows is the first in a two-part series of that original biography, updated to include events through December 2012.)

According to legend, after having seen Soundgarden perform live for the very first time, Sub Pop Records co-founder Bruce Pavitt uttered the words "Total Fucking Godhead."

To say that I had a similar reaction the first time I saw Huntington, West Virginia's Chum would be an understatement.

If any one band utilized the platform that Gumby's provided to propel itself to success greater than Huntington could yield (while placing the city on the musical map in the process), without question, it would be Chum.

Chum was the brainchild of bassist Chris Tackett and guitarist Mac Walker, and also included vocalist/guitarist John Lancaster and drummer Chuck Nicholas.

Although Lancaster, Tackett and Walker had played together years earlier in a band formed by the then-junior high school students, the origins of Chum can be directly traced to 1993, after the dissolution of Guru Lovechild, a Huntington-based power trio that featured Lancaster, Nicholas and bassist Barry Smith.

Tackett was a Guru Lovechild fan (and would often catch the band’s shows during visits home from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh), and wasted no time in phoning a then-disillusioned Lancaster extending an invitation to jam with his new band, which also included Walker, whom Tackett had remained in contact with while he also attended school (in Athens, Ohio).

Lancaster immediately accepted Tackett’s offer.

Problems soon arose with the band’s then drummer, Brian Myers, and he was quickly replaced by Lancaster's old band mate, Nicholas, who had been playing with the Lexington, Kentucky-based unit Black Cat Bone, a group that would eventually dissolve into Control Freak and, later, Supafuzz.

In seizing the opportunity to rejoin his old band mate, Nicholas became the final piece of the puzzle.

(John Lancaster, Chuck Nicholas, Chris Tackett and Mac Walker, 1994)

With the now-classic Chum lineup in place, one obstacle remained – logistics.

“Everyone lived in separate cities and the travel was too much of a hassle,” said Tackett (in a 1997 interview). "So, we decided that everyone would just drop what they were doing, get serious about this and move back to Huntington to start over."

The newly-christened Chum then promptly went about the task of composing the material (approximately 10 songs) that would soon comprise their live stage show.

The band began performing regularly at Gumby's, the Huntington venue co-founded by the late John Kerwood, first as support for acts like Buzzov*en, Crowbar and Ed Hall before graduating to headliner status.

"Our first show in Huntington was with Karma To Burn at Gumby's, and the first crowd was about 50 people. Then the next time it was 100, then 200. It kept multiplying," said Tackett.

(Chum flyer from the collection of Denton Anderson)

Chum played as often as they could, generating an enthusiastic, solid local fan base and fine-tuning the sound with which they would forever be synonymous, a sound that Lancaster has described as "a mixture of King's X, Faith No More, Killing Joke and Godflesh."

Although the interplay of the band’s two guitarists became a crucial component of Chum’s sound, it was Lancaster's fluid voice that created the melodic side of their music, while samples between the songs, often provided by the band’s unofficial fifth member, Brett Fuller, served as the glue with which their live shows were held together.

"We like there to be a beginning and an end to our shows," said Tackett. "We're not real chatty on stage."

It was at this time that the band set out for Barrick Recording, the Glasgow, Kentucky-based recording studio owned and operated by David Barrick, to begin work on their first recorded material.

(Chum's self-released 'Godgiven' EP, 1994)

(Barrick had previously helmed Black Cat Bone's 'Truth' as well as 'Kindred to the Snake,' the debut album by Huntington's Electric Lullaby, and Chum's involvement with him would eventually produce two, self-financed, cassette-only 1994 EPs, 'Postblisstheory' and 'Godgiven,' and, ultimately, the album that would bring the band national recognition – 'Dead To The World.')

With freshly recorded product now readily available to those interested listeners, Chum then set out for the open road, determined to bring their distinctive sound to larger East Coast audiences.

That initial trek took the band to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton and, finally, a showcase performance at New York City's legendary punk haven, CBGB, that was attended by Roadrunner Records’ Vice President Monte Conner.

"We were playing a show in New York City and we had put together a bunch of promo packs for record labels inviting them to the show," said Lancaster (in a 1997 interview). "We had a couple of people come out, and one of them was Monte Conner."

Although Conner liked what he saw in the band he felt that Chum wouldn't quite gel with his label's then-roster of artists that consisted of such extreme metal acts as Sepultura, Obituary and Death, to name but a few.

Rather than taking a complete pass on the band, Conner handed off Chum’s tape to Borivoj Krgin, A&R for the Santa Monica, California-based Century Media Records.

Based on the merits of that recording, Krgin offered the band a modest recording contract and Chum inked the deal that would make Century Media their only recorded home.

Before the ink could even dry, however, the label sent the band into the recording studio to begin work on their full-length debut album.

Immediately prior to those recording sessions in November 1995, the band was tapped to perform the opening night at Drop Shop, a Huntington venue located at 1318 4th Ave., the same location as the defunct Gumby’s, which had closed only months earlier.

Although Chum would, ultimately, settle on familiarity and appoint Barrick producer, they initially flirted with the likes of Fudge Tunnel's Alex Newport, King's X's Doug Pinnick and noise merchant Ross Robinson (KoЯn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot) for that role.

('Dead To The World', Century Media Records, 1996)

'Dead To The World's cover art would feature "The Dome Of Heaven" by Huntington graphic artist Allen Toney, and much of its lyrical content was culled from Lancaster's personal experiences. (The album's opening track, "Stepping On Cracks," is a particularly revealing portrait of child neglect that he had witnessed firsthand.)

Before 'Dead To The World' would even arrive on record shelves in April 1996, Nicholas would depart to join West Virginia contemporaries Karma To Burn, who had recently signed their own record deal (with Roadrunner).

Chum held auditions for the vacant drum spot, and hastily decided on Kent, Ohio, native Elliot Hoffman.

His tenure was short-lived and the band then drafted Durham, North Carolina's Carlos Torres who had, ironically, auditioned for the drummer's seat following Nicholas' departure.

“At the time (of Torres’ first audition) we felt that he just didn’t play hard enough,” said Tackett. "We were used to Chuck breaking cymbals and shattering sticks, but by his second audition Carlos had really started pounding the skins.”

(Tackett, Carlos Torres, Lancaster and Walker, 1997. Photo by Jim Sands)

With the lineup again stabilized, Chum began writing and recording the material that would compose their second album.

Some of that new material, "Raise Your Broken Glass," "Headhunter" and "King Of The Fallen Heroes," began to slowly find its way into the band's live sets, whetting the appetite of their growing fan base that had been hungering for a new album.

But, those hopes were dashed when the band was unceremoniously dropped by Century Media.

Following the split from their record label, Chum received multiple offers from various North American record companies, none of which seemed too sure how to market this uniquely-sounding band.

"Sony came to see us (in New York City) too, but said we needed to decide whether we wanted to be a melodic band or a noise band (to get a recording contract)," said Lancaster.

Frustrated at the lack of a recording contract and any forward progression, Tackett and Walker both quit the band in September 1997 to pursue other musical projects, leaving Lancaster as the sole, remaining original member of Chum.

(Chum live at Drop Shop, Huntington, WV, 1996. Photo by Jim Sands)

Torres’ fellow Durham native, the late Phil Scoggins, was brought in to replace Walker and Phil Collett of Temper settled into the vacant bass slot.

This lineup had a brief run, but Scoggins and Collett were gone as quickly as they had arrived.

Tony Rorbough (later of Charleston, West Virginia's Byzantine) then joined up and the trio of Lancaster, Torres and Rorbough promptly relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, leaving behind Collett, who had opted to stay in West Virginia.

Rorbough’s tenure may have well been Chum’s shortest, as he also soon departed, leaving Lancaster as the band’s lone guitarist.

In a strange twist of fate, original drummer Myers again joined the fold, this time as bassist, but he too was soon gone, to be replaced by Chris Sprinkle (current bassist for Los Angeles' Five Finger Death Punch).

The three-piece lineup of Lancaster, Torres and Sprinkle finally fizzled out in 1999, and Chum was officially put out to pasture, or so it seemed.