Handy with Shovels

Handy with Shovels was a punk band from Stockton (California, USA) during the late 80's. They opened for bands like: Capital Punishment and The Melvins, just to name a few. Bryan Chuck - Bass Jimmy Bell - Vocals Brian Tomei - Guitar Chris Gonzales - Drums The group started in around 1987, when Brian, Bryan and Chris decided to make every effort to learn all songs by the Angry Samoans. Their vocalist at the time, ?the Gonz,? (RIP, brother), was a great guy, but a not so great singer. It was winter, and were sitting in ?the wagon? drinking 40 oz brews.

They opened for bands like: Capital Punishment and The Melvins, just to name a few.

Bryan Chuck - Bass
Jimmy Bell - Vocals
Brian Tomei - Guitar
Chris Gonzales - Drums

The group started in around 1987, when Brian, Bryan and Chris decided to make every effort to learn all songs by the Angry Samoans. Their vocalist at the time, ?the Gonz,? (RIP, brother), was a great guy, but a not so great singer. It was winter, and were sitting in ?the wagon? drinking 40 oz brews. It was Bryan, Jimmy and future Mrs. Bell, Missy (?Hello Irene?) Crothers, listening to Dag Nasty. They were friends for moons, and Missy encouraged Jimmy to offer up his enthusiasm for the group, and the chance to participate, so he came to the next beer drink?errrr rehearsal, and he won the band and the Longview Crew over with his interpretation of ALL's tune, Wrong Again. From that time forward til the band's break-up, we drank, skated, BBQed, argued, snowboarded, drank, skated, argued and always ended up as friends. It was perfect.
Handy With Shovels put out a demo tape in 1989 with 5 songs on it and even these days the band is getting emails about it, where you can get it, etc... In 1994 they got together in San Francisco and recorded 5 more songs that the band had been playing in late 80's before the broke up. This tape includes the song "black" with Chad Marco on vocals. There is only one tape with that song on it, and it's now at the small recording studio in Sacramento. Handy With Shovels played a lot of shows in the area, including Sacramento, Turlock and Modesto, CA, with good, bad and comedic results.
On a whim, a copy of a tape was sent in response to an H-Street ad in Thrasher mag asking bands for music for an upcoming skate video. The next thing that the band knew was that two of their tunes were in Planet Earth's skateboarding video, Now ?n' Later, complimenting the skating of Brian Lotti. Consequently, letters from ?fans? poured into Go Skate, which was their HQ and mailing address, shown in the video credits. Sadly, the shop closed down shortly thereafter, and Forwarding Orders at the Post Office only last for a year before the mail is Returned to Sender. The band separated shortly thereafter.
Now the band are, nearing 20 years after the group's inception and Brian Lotti's part in the Planet Earth skate video that made their music sound good. The footage even showed up recently in a 411 skate video magazine DVD (the footage was used without the bands permission and the band wasn't even given a credit). Thanks to the internet, it is surprising to learn that people are still seeking those songs, and not just here in the USA, but literally from all over the world. Truth be told, Hw/S had more to offer than those two tunes, musically and lyrically. Unfortunately, many of those songs never made it to the studio. Although those songs were recorded in 1994 ?just for fun,? please know they are songs these guys were playing shortly after the initial 5-song demo. To set the record straight and give all due credit, Nervous Nightmare from the original demo and Black (which Chad sings the lead vocal) from the 94 recordings, were written entirely by Chad Marco, of Team Beg, one of the greatest friends, songwriters/lyricists the band was known. To the people who say ?one of these days, I'll see Handy w/Shovels actually play,? the band have to say sorry, you won't.

Mainly due to the fact of that now and then the band still get regular emails in regards to people wanting some HwS tunes of their own. In 2006 Handy With Shovels release their first and last album called "One of these Days" from the recordings of 1989 - 1994. The band do hope if you happen across this CD that it brings your memories of those days back to life and Not the Same will do for you now, what it did for you then.
No, Handy With Shovels are not together anymore, but they all are still friends, and the music still rocks!