Ralph Spight is one seriously energetic and focused guitar player, out on the cutting edge of punk, rock, avant garde, and experimental music.
Ralph's musical career is the result of a childhood accident (when he fell through a plate glass window) and as a part of his physical therapy, he was given piano lessons. By age 12 Ralph was surreptitiously practicing on his older brother's guitar, while learning barre chords by watching said brother's Lynyrd Skynrd cover band rehearse in the living room.
After dabbling a bit on acoustic guitar, the ever-curious Ralph soon bought a cheap electric guitar and unwound the pickups to see how they worked. Fortunately, no accident occurred while doing that, and soon after Ralph started trying to form a band.
Extreme teenage boredom brought on by a move
to rural Sonoma County while in high school forced Ralph into jazz band, where he finally learned some formal theory. In college in the '80s, his study of jazz improvisation along with his interest in the hardcore punk music of the period forged his musical path for the future.
In 1984 Ralph formed underground wunderkinds Victims Family. They garnered an international cult following by relentlessly touring North America and Europe with their genre-defying, tight as a drum, "punk samba noise assault" sound. Ralph's shouted vocals, direct lyrics, and a wicked sense of satire made them a hit with underground audiences and even got them banned from Canada for a year. Victim's Family often shared the stage with Primus over the years, and bands like Green Day and Mr. Bungle were opening acts early on.
As of 2010, Victims Family is re-issuing it's long out of print 1990 magnum opus "White Bread Blues", and touring Europe.
Ralph also performs with Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, who are currently touring the world (and beyond!) in support of their recent debut album "The Audacity of Hype". Not one to rest long on his laurels, Ralph also plays with The Freak Accident and The Time Traveling Assassins, while maintaining a guitar and bass teaching schedule of 20-30 students a week. He even drives a cab in San Francisco on Sundays!
Victim's Family on Wikipedia
Victim's Family Website
Victim's Family on Myspace
