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in the fall of 2001, tampa residents, nafa fa'alogo and richard glenn schmidt, first played music together in a musical experiment called 'audience' conducted by an art graduate student named preston poe. when 'audience' fell apart, nafa and richard decided to get together and jam. nafa was on hiatus from tampa's premiere rockabilly band, midnight bowlers league, and richard had a thousand dollars worth of guitar gear bought with credit cards and student loans. thus, the ladies of death row swimsuit calendar was born.
despite their very different musical tastes, nafa and richard were both obsessed with sound and the possibilities of looped and electronically augmented guitar sounds combined with found sounds from various unusual sources. surprisingly, all of the recordings were created without the aid of synthesizers. most songs were comprised of layers of guitars. they began recording immediately and putting out two cds of music with only the vaguest notion of ever performing live. then they were joined by midnight bowlers league drummer, mike fluno.
in the spring of 2002, the band took their first break from recording. nafa rejoined midnight bowlers league full time and richard began working on his own project, the secret music. a year later, richard stumbled upon some lost ladies of death row songs on an old video camera. this discovery led to a reformation of the band.
nafa and richard plunged themselves into a musical frenzy, writing new material and recording as many songs as possible. mike fluno turned up once again to play the drums. now the lodrsc expanded their musical repertoire by exploring new musical genres, such as hula, rap, bluegrass, heavy metal, folk, disco, rockabilly, and introducing new instruments such as the didgeridoo, stump fiddle, the double bass, and mandolin. the new direction brought minor success with songs like the hawaiian influenced hula baby (aloha) and run! jump! change the future, a dance-flavored ditty about the apocalypse and mel gibson.
near the beginning of summer 2004, the tampa superstars, candy bars, invited the ladies of death row swimsuit calendar to open for them at their regular gig at yeomans road pub on davis island. the first live show! what a prospect! how the damn hell could their tinkery improvisations and wholly bizarreness translate to a public performance? well, somehow the lodrsc pulled it off, repeatedly. the band has played shows with some awesomely cool bands like the aforementioned candy bars, red room cinema, lush progress, and midnight bowlers league.
for most of 2008 and part of 2009, richard and nafa went to work on ladies of death row swimsuit calendar's first masterpiece: so misled. the two spent an insane amount of time crafting the songs for this release. for a band who obsessively records song after song and then immediately moves onto the next project, this was a huge change of pace. for 13 intense (albeit, a rather low degree of intensity) months, nafa and richard toiled over the 15 song album which came out after richard flipped out and said it was done. the band gave so misled to friends and complete strangers and played their first web only concert.
in december of 2010, after a 3 year hiatus from analog gigging, lodrsc opened a show at transitions art gallery for the amazing jason webley. in the drummer's seat this time was chris pack of sarge and the aeromen. everyone who attended the show was said to have really enjoyed jason webley but can't quite remember who that opening band was. everyone also said that the lead singer of the opening band looked dangerously -or perhaps disastrously- fat.
there you have it, band bio complete. the ladies of death row swimsuit calendar continue to write and record new music in the 2011 as well as fulfilling several prophecies by taking part in other musical ventures such as the pride of japan is tied up in giant robots, selesai mulai, caduceus, twisty chris and the puddin' packs, and gramrod. with over 500mb (approx. 240 songs) of music under their soundy belts, the band is always ready for stadium seating and oprah introductions. if you glop the glop, then you gotta glop the glop, duder.
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