Bruce Lee Band Returns with 7-song RENTAL!! EVICTION!! & Chris Graue-directed "Tryin' & Stutterin'' Music Video (Asian Man Records)
The Bruce Lee Band, who have now, seemingly dropped the "The," are a long-standing San Jose, California-based Ska/Punk band. Its longest standing member is Asian Man Records founder and one-time Skankin' Pickle, Mike "Bruce Lee" Park and former members have spent their time playing with Less Than Jake, RX Bandits, Classics of Love, Kitty Kat Fan Club, and Rehasher. Bruce Lee Band's current iteration includes Mike Park, along with Jeff Rosenstock, Dan Potthast & Kevin "The Guch" Higuchi. Since 1990, they have collectively played within a multitude of Punk, Hardcore & Ska-adjacent bands including Skankin' Pickle, The Chinkees, Bomb The Music Industry!, The Arrogant Sons of B*tches, MU330, Sharkanoid, The Brownies, and Whiskey Avengers. Frequent Bruce Lee Band contributors, also, include trombonist Gerry Lundquist of MU330 & Skankin' Pickle fame and bassist John DeDomenici of Bomb The Music Industry!, who both often appear with the band, as part of their live line-up, as well.
What has now been dubbed the "Mike Park/Jeff Rosenstock" era of The Bruce Lee Band started with 2014's double-header of releases: COMMUNITY SUPPORT GROUP EP and EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT, MY FRIEND LP and prior to the recent addition of Potthast, once included guitar/vocalist Mike Huguenor amongst its ranks. Earlier this year, Mike Park (@mikeparkmusic) mysteriously posted, "New @bruceleeband coming soon. Even made an [Instagram] page, which means this is serious stuff, so please Follow. This photo was taken about 20 [minutes] ago in San Jose in front of @districtrecording I ❤️ San Jose" with little to no explanation. It even prompted us to assemble a cumulative feature on Bruce Lee Band(s) I-IV and now, a mere 15 weeks later, it appears as though, it has all be made crystal clear... Late Monday night, @bruceleeband suddenly posted, "9:53 PM PST AND SURPRISE!!! RENTAL!! EVICTION!! The [fifth] release by the BRUCE LEE BAND is now officially out!! The vinyl takes forever to get done and we just wanted the songs out there, so here they are for you to enjoy."
Since RENTAL!! EVICTION!! only clocks in at 12 minutes and 16 seconds, Side B will consist of The Bruce Lee Band's long-out-of-print 2014 EP, COMMUNITY SUPPORT GROUP. 800 copies of RENTAL!! EVICTION!! will be pressed up on randomly colored vinyl with the first 200 people to pre-order receiving RENTAL!! EVICTION!!/COMMUNITY SUPPORT GROUP, a Bruce Lee Band T-shirt, and EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT, MY FRIEND on opaque white vinyl with all orders expected to ship by mid-December. According to Dan Potthast (@danpotthastmusic) RENTAL!! EVICTION!! additionally features Brian Lockrem on trumpet, Matt Porter on trombone, and Shannon Toombs providing background vocals. Below you will find an emailed statement from LA/Torrance, California-based director, musician, and film-maker Chris Graue—who's played with The Maxies, The 131ers, Suburban Legend, Pizza Wolf, Naronic Distress, and The Scene Report—whom Mike Park recruited to direct/edit/produce a phenomenal 56-second music video for "Tryin' & Stutterin'" from RENTAL!! EVICTION!! Bruce Lee Band's RENTAL!! EVICTION!! is now available on your preferred digital streaming service with vinyl pre-orders expected to ship from Asian Man Records by mid-December.
"I've met everyone briefly here and there because of just being around Ska for so long, but I really only know Mike [Park] well at all. A few years ago, I helped him get his YouTube better set up and taught him how to better manage it, so that's kind of when we became friends. I also, did a lyric video for Ogikubo Station some time ago...
Hmmm, well, [the music video] came up when I was in San Jose with The Bombpops & Masked Intruder a couple weeks ago. Mike came to the show and asked if I could come up and make a video. I'm LA-based, so it's not super-convenient, usually. It just so happened, another job was flying me to [San Francisco] the next week and putting me up in a hotel. So, Mike picked me up, took me to my hotel, and we shot it really quick. I think, I landed at 3:00pm and I had the final edit to him by about 10:00pm that night haha."
- Chris Graue (@chrisgraue)
