Deth Specula

Deth Specula is a Santa Cruz "neo-bronto" five-piece rock band. Deth Specula was one of the first ten bands on The Internet Underground Music Archive and used the Internet to broadcast a live music concert from the Cowell Courtyard at the SCO Forum held on the University of California in Santa Cruz on August 23, 1994. This was the first time a live music concert was broadcast over the Internet and the second netcast ever. The first song ever broadcast in a live concert over the Internet was "Internet Band", a Deth Specula parody of the Grand Funk Railroad song "We're An American Band".

Genre

Deth Specula was a 1990s band with roots in early 1970s hard rock and style drawing on 1980s punk pop. They began as a punk parody band and later developed into "neo-bronto" rock.^[1]

Band members

• Tim Ruckle / Timmy Rotarian - Lead vocals
• Kameran Kashani / Malcom McCameron - Lead guitar
• Marty Stevens / Kozmo - Rhythm guitar and vocals
• Jon Luini / yam - Bass and vocals
• Robert Boucher / rAsTRo! - Drums and percussion
• Eric Davis / Sharky - Engineer

The bassist, Jon Luini is one of the three founders of the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA), a pioneering online music website formed in 1993.^[2][3]

History

Deth Specula formed in 1989 to create a rock video parody of the Sex Pistols song Anarchy in the U.K. called "Anarchy at SCO" for use in the SCO Follies, a company sponsored musical comedy revue produced each year by the employees.^[4] Deth Specula continued to make video parodies for the SCO Follies in subsequent years and branched out into playing at local night clubs.^[5][6] On March 9, 1994 CNN used the Deth Specula original "Careening Continental" as the lead in and out for their "Showbiz News" segment on IUMA.^[7] On August 23, 1994, the band broadcast a live concert over the Mbone.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]} In 1995 they played in the UniForum Battle of the Bands in Dallas, Texas.^[14]

Over time Deth Specula became more of an original rock and ballad band than a parody group although they retained their sense of humor as evidenced by originals like "Baboon Liver", "Crop Killer", "Reagan Mask", "Gutterslut", and "Get Even More".^[15][16]

Current status

Deth Specula performed at the Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz, California on February 2, 2008, for the Bruce Steinberg memorial. It's A Beautiful Day opened for them.^[17]

Deth Specula is currently not performing.

Discography

• Weasels and Cream - an 8-song cassette
• A 3-song demo tape
• The Deth Specula Compilation Video^[18] - music videos including "Anarchy at SCO", a parody of the Sex Pistols song "Anarchy in the U.K."

See also

• Santa Cruz Operation
• Multicast backbone (Mbone)
• Internet Underground Music Archive
• Severe Tire Damage (band)