Holy Crap! It's hit Cincinnati. Holy Crap are a local Rock band made up of drummer Bart Foster, bassist Jamie Thorman, and guitar master John Binkowski. The trio share creative and vocal responsibilities.
The band members have been playing together for about a year-and-a-half, but they aren't new to the local music scene. The members of Holy Crap have been playing off and on in other bands, like Fly and Captain Destiny, for 12 or 13 years.
Even before that, these guys say they knew they wanted to be Rock Stars. Music has been a big part of their lives since childhood. Foster says he's been playing drums since he's been walking. Binkowski (aka C-nyl the Superchile) says he was force-fed Pink Floyd and The Who at a very young age.
Thorman, too, says he realized long ago that he was destined to be a musician.
"I heard (Metallica's) Master of Puppets, and I knew I wanted to play guitar," says Thorman. "It hit me like an amp dropping out of the sky."
So what kind of music comes from a band with a name like Holy Crap? Well, the definitions range from Thorman's "instrumentally bombastic," to Binkowski's "straightforward Rock & Roll," to Foster's "It rocks. Hard." Apparently it does rock pretty hard because, according to the band, one local venue has told them they played too loud.
Holy Crap is a very diverse trio. Ages of the members range from 26 to 38. Along with this difference in age, comes differences in taste and influences. For the most part, Holy Crap agree on their major influences: The Who, The Kinks, The Beatles, Soul Asylum, Poster Children and David Bowie. Thorman, though, is a self-proclaimed Metal head, and John's taste is mostly Classic Rock.
"Between the three of us, our musical vocabulary is pretty extensive," says Thorman. "We feed off that, and use each other's influences."
With all their differences, they have at least one thing in common: "We're big music geeks," says Foster.
"We're a serious band that doesn't take itself seriously," adds Binkowski.
Which brings up the question — what's the story behind the band's name?
"We were just brainstorming band names and it just sort of came out," says Foster. "Holy Crap! It was pretty funny, and it made me laugh for about a week."
According to Binkowski, "It represents the divine (Holy) and the profane (Crap) intermingled. Thus, Rock & Roll."
Just as so many other local bands, Holy Crap emerged onto the Cincinnati music scene at Sudsy Malone's. Now, they play venues like Top Cat's, Southgate House, and more recently, Mad Frog. In fact, Holy Crap will host a CD release party on July 14 at the Mad Frog. The CD, Rock and Roll for President, will be available at several local music stores beginning that date.
The guys in the band say the upcoming Holy Crap CD is a pupu platter (no pun intended), a sampler of their music. The CD includes six songs that should be familiar to Holy Crap fans, including "Try to Change" (the guys' personal favorite) and "Hallelujah."
Actually, it has been nearly a year since the CD was recorded. The band says they put it on the back burner mostly because of money.
Holy Crap plan to get back into the studio next month. They've got lots of new material and another CD should be in the works and available a few months after their first release.
So, where do the members of Holy Crap see themselves in five years? According to Foster, success will almost certainly include MTV and WEBN.
"If I can make a living being a musician, then I'll consider that success," says Foster.
"When Christina Aguilera is calling me, begging me to go out with her," says Thorman, "I will consider that success."