MANIAC

…were formed in Los Angeles, California in 2012. Zache Davis moved to L.A. via Seattle where he played in bands like The Girls and The Cute Lepers. After injuring himself in a serious bicycle accident in L.A., he became a drug dealer to pay his extensive medical bills. Andrew Zappin, an L.A. transplant from Dayton, Ohio had never played in a band before but honed his lead guitar chops for years playing along to Cheap Trick records. Along with music video director Ardy Fatehi (who played in Portland, Oregon punk band Goons of Destruction), they formed the band Maniac, recruiting Richie Cardenas of Clorox Girls, Rough Kids and Neighborhood Brats on the drums. When Ardy Fatehi was forced to work on location in another city, Davis and company decided to ask Justin Maurer of Clorox Girls and L.A. Drugz to fill in on guitar. This fill-in job became a permanent one, and Maurer began to contribute to song writing and arrangement duties. After recording their first single, Richie Cardenas left the group to go back to school while also working full time for the US Postal Service. To bring the band incest full circle, they brought in James Carman of Images and L.A. Drugz to play drums.

REVIEWS OF THEIR DEBUT LP BELOW:

MANIAC – DEMIMONDE LP
Welcome back on board all you drunks, freaks and faggots ! Wave goodbye to your pubes and dreams ´cause you´ve checked in for a bumpy flight to Party City, homebase of MANIAC and departure point for a Tour De Punk unicycle ride nonchalantly shot from the hip with an almost brassy off pat level of sleaziness and ease.Tune in for a middle finger Snot Pop Operetta with cubistic spandex trousers rebuilding the glorious history of professional beer can stabbing and the frivolous power of the walrus moustache movement created by four visionaries (whose past in rowdy rockers like CUTE LEPERS, SUSPECT PARTS, CLOROX GIRLS, LA DRUGZ, GIRLS or DEADLY WEAPONS could and should already fill shelves in the epicurean section of human history alone) who set forth to kick that damn C-Major Scale in it´s boring ass and create a final musical monument of blood, bogy and banana splits instead. Within´ the scope of this mission they´re first dismantling the concentrate of their prior work into it´s trippy molecular L.A. Punk components ala WEIRDOS or EYES before finally infusing the whole rotten neuron bomb soup into Leonard Graves´ veins Re-Animator style and watch him mutate into a befoddled super soldier with suspender tights wanking towards Third World War waving the Pink Flag of WIRE against the enemy noise annoying BUZZCOCKS troops. Indeed, just like this record, a battle of epic proportions ultimately imploding in all it´s glory at the Rodney Bingenheimer M.A.S.H. for coiffure-accidents.
9/10
(Vibrator Buzz – https://vibratorbuzzblog.wordpress.com/)

MANIAC – DEMIMONDE LP
MANIAC are gentlemen punks from Los Angeles. They are what they call a supergroup, being comprised of ex and current members of bands like CLOROX GIRLS, CUTE LEPERS, THE GIRLS, IMAGES, L.A. DRUGZ and RED DONS. Demimonde is their first long player. With echoes of everything from Cheap Trick to early Wire to modern-day greats like The Briefs, Demimonde hits that perfect blend of catchy ’77 punk and jittery new wave. And with all due credit to engineer MARK RAINS at Stationhouse Studios and DANIEL HUSAYN of Red Dons for the mastering job to make this baby loud and raucous.
(Taken By Surprise – https://takenbysurpriserecords.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/maniac-demimonde-lp-out-now/)

MANIAC – DEMIMONDE LP
Maniac might not be a name familiar to you before you gazed upon this review but La Drugz and Cute Lepers are but two bands you should have heard and maybe by the time you reach the end of my words you’ll be tempted to venture into the red link at the bottom and check out this bad boy.’Live Like Bats’ thunders in on a bass rumble that will test your speaker low end. Andrew Zappin (guitar), James Carman (drums), Justin Maurer (guitar/vocals) and Zache Davis (vocals/bass) sure as shit know how to pen a great tune and they might as well start from the top, mixing up punk rock aggression with new wave attitude this is a winner, folks, and it fires straight into the Rocket From The Crypt-inspired ‘Dim Sum’ and the sonic blast is exciting and well up for it! Sure, it’s not new territory for this L.A. band but cutting a great record isn’t as easy as going into a studio and BINGO! there you have it. ‘Dans Le Sang’ is like a snarling dog and in fairness spread out over the eleven tunes on offer the pace rarely drops and neither does the quality. One rattles into the other as ‘Rerun Ritual’ proves with another great prominent bassline courtesy of Zache Davis as the guitars slash like prime time Keith and Mick with a familiar riff bastardised into a punk rock anthem. It’s great that all these players are in numerous bands yet can pen different tracks and a variety of styles yet I’ve been blown away by the songs they keep coming up with. ‘When I’m Gone’ is dirty punk rock ‘n’ roll yet it has a melody that is right from the Soda Pop Kids or Exploding Hearts and that’s no easy task. To wind up the album ‘Alright Okay’ could be a Cute Lepers track such is the ferocity and attitude of the thing but there isn’t time to hang about and as soon as this album starts cooking it’s 100 miles an hour in your face punk ‘n’ roll but don’t think for a minute that any song suffers because of the attitude and style – in fact, it’s pretty faultless as far as marrying the complete package goes.
(Uber Rock – http://www.uberrock.co.uk)

MANIAC – DEMIMONDE LP
Taut shit! Raging shit! Taut, raging shit! And that’s the best kind! Sounds a little like those tight, angular bands who used to be tangentially popular among the Hozac set in the early Y2K era, with maybe a little of that ‘90s neo-Brainiac art school disconnection, but mostly this is just a big ol’ fast-paced sledgehammer to the xiphoid process. I can usually tell when a band is from Southern California just by listening to them for maybe ten seconds, and was somewhat surprised I couldn’t ID this band as such ‘til I did some research and found out they’re led by that dude from the Girls and Cute Lepers, relocated from Seattle. I remain undefeated in this regard. BEST SONG: “PartyCity” BEST SONG TITLE: “Wendy, Same Thing?” FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: I don’t know anyone else who spells their name “Zache.” – Rev Norb/Razorcake
(Razorcake – http://www.razorcake.org)

MANIAC – DEMIMONDE LP
Maniac is a L.A. band that sounds like a Pacific Northwest band. They come by it naturally though since a few members are from the top end of the I-5 and used to play in bands like The Girls and Clorox Girls. I love those bands and others such as The Spits and The Briefs who managed to bring something cool to a land long thought barren in the wake of the mainstream takeover in the early ‘90s. Anyways, Maniac can’t help but sound like these amazing bands, but the magic happens when they take it to a whole new level. Buzzing, jerky guitars and harmonies you can’t get out of your head with an icepick are the order of the day. Maniac is a party band and it’s a party that I want to be at. I know that this album was delayed with all of the pressing plant issues that are happening in this day and age, but I am here to tell you that it is more than well worth the wait. I can only hope they head up the Northern Corridor to play some shows. –ty stranglehold/Razorcake
(Razorcake – http://www.razorcake.org)