Scroat Belly is nowadays best known as being a prototype for Split Lip Rayfield. Kirk Rundstrom and Wayne Gottstine once played with drummer John Ezelle and bass player Mitch "Gator" Clay in a band that was so fast and hard, it makes Split Lip's speed-metal bluegrass seem relatively tame.
This album, The Great Alaskan Holiday is the band's first album, and a hell of a lot harder to track down than their Bloodshot Records release, Daddy's Farm. Released a year before that allegedly divisive record, The Great Alaskan Holiday features faster, rougher versions of five Daddy's Farm tracks, including the song we're featuring today, "Whiskey Drinkin' S.O.B."
The band disbanded shortly after the release of Daddy's Farm, and Split Lip formed from the ashes soon thereafter. Scroat Belly reunited a couple times before Rundstrom's death from cancer in 2007, but that ended the band permanently. You can find quite a few videos of their reunion shows on YouTube, as well as read a review of the band's heyday in a vintage No Depression article.
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Ah, Scroat Belly! One of my favorite all time bands and they literally changed my life. Before them I listened mainly to classic rock and whatever K-Rock in Manhattan, KS was feeding me. I saw them at the Waydown Lounge beneath the Wareham Theatre in 1995 and haven't been the same since. I have a significant piece of the Bloodshot Records collections and have become a loyal supporter of indie bands playing dive bars over those playing on radio and in coliseums ever since. I opened my house as a band hotel to touring musicians and helped support the local Manhattan scene until I moved here and became a member of the Midwest Music Foundation. (www.midwestmusicfound.org)
Thank you Scroat Belly for many great years and showing me the light! RIP Kirk and Scroat Belly. I miss you both!
They actually did a couple shows after Kirk's death. One with Micheal Carmody at Kirkadoodle (a benefit show for Kirk) and I think another one after that.
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