Soda (and his million peice band) is an ingenious creation who assimilate the American music lexicon and bend it into new and wonderful shapes. Their nearest competition would be The Pogues, although they sound nothing alike. The Pogues famously took old Irish drinking songs, traditional ballads, and the mystique of the Emerald Isle and shot it through the veins of punk rock. Soda & Co. are doing the same for Americana. Soda's gruff and mysterious voice recalls the haunted Tom Waits, and his tales of lying women and sinners and early death bring to mind the warped world of Nick Cave. SODA is moved by the pure love of folk, blues, and punk like Frankenstein's monster was moved by a jolt of lightning.

Soda used to light up the frets in the kinetic pop punk band Wax, and among the many other members are more than a few seasoned hardcore punks. Theirs is the twilight world of dirt roads and mysterious groves of trees and the open prairie full of strangers on the outskirts of town. It's dusty and greasy, tender and cold-hearted all at once. "Lakeshore" is a sad-eyed waltz, a goodbye letter from a man who just can't be bothered to try anymore. "Christine" features some plucked and reverbed guitar and shuffling rhythms and some crazy blowing on a mic'd harmonica. These 10 tracks are all vignettes of American gothic, stories of the cold landscape of the great empty spaces, played by a fantastically crowded band. On slower numbers, like "Sinnerman" the multitude of musicians create their own thread in the tapestry of the song. Far from playing all over each other, they open up the space in the music."

 

"The Big, Strange Sound." --LA Weekly

1930s Dust Bowl folksongs, '40s big band music, and '50s rockabilly got into a barroom brawl; and SODA and his band is the beautiful mess that resulted from it.

 

THE PIONEERTOWN SESSIONS w/ LISA MARR 2003

SODA & HIS MILLION PEICE BAND 2004

TRAIN OF LOVE: A JOHNNY CASH TRIBUTE 2004 - CMH RECORDS

SODA AND HIS PAWN SHOP 3 2006

ECLECTIC BLUEGRASS COLLECTION - A PICKIN SERIES - CMH RECORDS

HIRAM & HUDDIE - DISC 1 & 2 - VARIOUS ARTISTS: A DOUBLE TRIBUTE TO HANK WILLIAMS SR & LEADBELLY - HILLGRASS BLUEBILLY RECORDS

 

WAX

WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO - 1992

13 UNLUCKY NUMBERS - 1995 -Interscope/Atlantic

 

 THE STINK OF FLESH - 2005

 

Wax

Wax was a San Jose, California rock band best known for the MTV "buzz clip" song and video "California," directed by Spike Jonze. The video depicted a man on fire calmly running in slow motion, and was quickly banned from daytime airplay on MTV.