Bush

Bush was a short-lived "power trio", lasting from spring until late fall of 1990, consisting of Patrick Wilson, Pat Finn, and Tom Gardocki (of Wax). Additionally, Mark Kern was a prospective member but was never fully established as part of the band.

Bush
L to R: Pat Finn, Tom Gardocki, Pat Wilson
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, CA
Years active	1990 - 1991
Past members	Pat Finn Tom Gardocki Pat Wilson

Overview

Formation

Beginnings

Pat Finn and Patrick Wilson moved to Los Angeles in May 1990. Wilson had never left Buffalo, NY before, but Pat Finn had lived in Los Angeles in 1988-9, and knew Tom from that period (as well as other future Wax members and Matt Sharp). Pat had been angling to get a band started for at least a year, and the three of them wasted no time writing songs and practicing.

Things moved slowly due to everyone needing to work to pay rent, so practices were typically restricted to weekends - if they could afford the fee to rent the space that week. However their repertoire grew quickly to a set of at least 15 songs, mostly written by Pat Finn, but in some cases collectively as a result of jamming in practice.

Though they hadn't played any shows yet, the band had one photo shoot with their friend Heather Conley, a photographer and music fan who was a part of the scene.

Mark Kern

Pat Finn was the frontman but did not have confidence in his singing ability at this time, so the band endeavored to recruit one Mark Kern on vocals. Mark was a very talented and interesting musician, a functioning heroin addict who had an amazing voice, great looks and an esoteric taste in music. However, Mark's addiction led to a far too relaxed pace of work with the band, as his sedentary night owl lifestyle made it hard to get him to commit to plans. Still, Pat, Patrick and Tom persisted, often bringing their equipment to Mark's house in Hollywood to work up material.

Mark was in a band called Juan Bizarro, who intermittently would play shows in the Hollywood area at the time. The members of Bush met Mark at a birthday party for Jack Irons, a one time Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, a party they attended because Tom had become friendly with Chad Smith while attending Musician's Institute. At this party, there was a friend of Chad's, the percussion player (whose name is lost to time) from Juan Bizarro, and via this person, the band was introduced to Mark.

I did see Juan Bizzaro at Club Lingerie once. I think Mark was kinda interested in Bush kinda being his band? Mark was like this insanely cool Peter Murphy/David Bowie persona to us, way cooler than we imagined we could ever be. I have no idea what became of him.

—Pat Finn,

Recording

Many demos were recorded by Pat Finn around this time, but only one proper Bush demo was recorded as a band, a 4 song tape from July 25, 1990, recorded at Mark's house.

Rehearsals

Bush rehearsed at various times in the late summer 1990 until late in the year. They booked time at a very low cost rehearsal studio in the Vernon area of the Los Angeles, a meatpacking district. The studio was next door to Farmer John's, a large slaughterhouse. Such were the powerfully bad smells of meat being processed in the area, that they came to call the rehearsal space "The Sausage Factory". Several rehearsals were recorded, including one with Matt Sharp playing keyboards. (Matt would soon thereafter move up to El Cerrito, CA, remaining there until early 1992). Due to Pat and Patrick's time spent with their new friend Rivers, a lifelong vegetarian, they became vegetarian themselves, making the slaughterhouse-adjacent aspect of rehearsing a source of lyrical inspiration, such as in the song "Pigs - Fat As Fuck".

It should be noted Mark Kern did not rehearse with the band, however, which means they rehearsed as a 3 piece, improvising vocals without having a firm commitment from Mark. Mark's addiction was intensifying and did not blend well with his lofty visions of being a frontman, which slowly became evident was more a dream that was easier to simply talk about in the comfort of his home.

Dissolution

As summer turned to fall, the prospects of Bush playing a show seemed to fade, as Mark's level of involvement and commitment was impossible to gauge and the band did not want to perform without him as a singer. This was unfortunate as most of the bands repertoire was developed instrumentally as a three piece, and they had many songs fully developed and ready to go in that format.

It was under these slow-progressing circumstances by late 1990 that Tom left the band under friendly terms to join a new band that his fellow Chicagoans had started with San Jose transplant Joe Sib, Wax.

That was the writing on the wall for Bush, as Pat Finn went to the SF bay area for the winter, and Patrick Wilson joined Rivers' band Fuzz for several months before it too imploded by Spring 1991. By that time, Pat Finn had returned to LA, and while the "Bush" name was briefly considered, he and Patrick eventually restarted as 60 Wrong Sausages with Jason Cropper, and soon thereafter, added Rivers as well.

Patrick Wilson recalled that when Jane's Addiction's "Stop!", the first single off of "Ritual de lo Habitual" debuted on KROQ (not long after Bush dissolved], he was bummed because the guitar riffing intro was so similar to Tom Gardocki's sound in Bush, and the sense that they had missed their chance was palpable. It also reinforced the lesson that a band needed a strong singer/frontman to advance in the savage L.A. music scene.