0
1313 Mockingbird Lane
1313 Mockingbird Lane
musical artist
1
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
American hard rock band
2
Coachwhips
Coachwhips
band
3
The Grodes
The Grodes
4
King Louie Bankston
King Louie Bankston
American musician
5
Test Icicles
Test Icicles
punk band
6
Black Oak Arkansas
Black Oak Arkansas
American Southern rock band
7
The Rockin' Ramrods
The Rockin' Ramrods
8
Ace Frehley
Ace Frehley
American musician best known as the former lead guitarist and founding member of the rock band Kiss
9
Tahiti 80
Tahiti 80
band
10
Port-royal
Port-royal
Italian band
11
Frightwig
Frightwig
American punk rock band
12
Goatwhore
Goatwhore
American extreme metal band
13
Dance Hall Crashers
Dance Hall Crashers
band
14
Last Chance to Reason
Last Chance to Reason
American band
15
Kenny And The Kasuals
Kenny And The Kasuals
16
The Undead
The Undead
american horror punk band
17
Crime & the City Solution
Crime & the City Solution
Australian rock band
18
Grand Mal
Grand Mal
19
U.S. Chaos
U.S. Chaos
american band
20
Steve Miller Band
Steve Miller Band
American rock band
21
Wild Cherries
Wild Cherries
musical artist
22
Blood Duster
Blood Duster
band that plays deathgrind
23
Davey Suicide
Davey Suicide
musical artist
24
War
War
American funk band
25
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Australian alternative rock band
26
Cadaveria
Cadaveria
Italian extreme metal musician
27
Urge Overkill
Urge Overkill
band
28
The Spits
The Spits
29
PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
English singer-songwriter
30
The Turtles
The Turtles
American rock band led by vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman
31
Cockney Rejects
Cockney Rejects
British punk/Oi! band
32
Rough Cutt
Rough Cutt
band that plays heavy metal music
33
The Black Angels
The Black Angels
band
34
Comet Gain
Comet Gain
35
Blue Orchids
Blue Orchids
36
Hellogoodbye
Hellogoodbye
A synth-pop band from California
Intro
American rock band
Genres
Music

Blotto was an American rock band from Albany, New York, United States, known for mixing music and humor. They formed in 1978 out of the Star Spangled Washboard Band, a comedy jug band whom The New York Times described as "reminiscent of collision between the Earl Scruggs Review and the Three Stooges." Blotto's music combined new wave and soul/R&B, but with comedic themes. It began as a pick-up band in Saratoga Springs at a club then known as 17 Maple Ave. (later The Metro), with three Washboard Band alumni (who took the stage names Bowtie Blotto, Sergeant Blotto, and Broadway Blotto), plus a drummer and a bassist (Lee Harvey Blotto, and Cheese Blotto). They were joined by Blanche Blotto, who contributed vocals and keyboards and inspired the band's drumhead lady logo. They began to amass a following and played in the New York City area at clubs such as The Ritz, SNAFU, Eighty-Eight, and My Father's Place. DJ Vin Scelsa of WNEW-FM picked up on their initial recording of "I Wanna Be A Lifeguard," which soon became the theme song of the Jones Beach Lifeguards. Their songs were played on the Dr. Demento Show, and they appeared on television's Uncle Floyd Show. They toured frequently and were popular primarily in the northeastern United States, especially among college students.

After releasing two EPs on their own Blotto Records label, they produced an early music video for "I Wanna Be A Lifeguard" with video production students at SUNY Albany. The video was played on MTV's very first day on the air in 1981, and continued in frequent rotation. This exposure helped the band produce their album Combo Akimbo, which was released with assistance from Peter Pan Records, as well as a "Video 45" on VHS from Sony with three videos of Blotto songs that also received wide exposure from airplay on MTV, including "Metalhead," with Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser from Blue Öyster Cult on lead guitar. Blotto worked with producer Bob Clearmountain on one song on the album. North Lake Sound Chief Engineer, Chris Cassone, produced and engineered the rest of Combo Akimbo. Cassone was also working with Roeser at the time and suggested he hear the homage Blotto had recorded, "Metalhead." Because of a one-time mistaken erasure of a guitar track, he was dubbed "Eberhard Blotto."

The group disbanded in 1984, with the players pursuing more profitable interests. Drummer Lee Harvey Blotto (Paul Rapp) graduated from Albany Law School, became an attorney specializing in intellectual property law, and continued to play with the band as "F. Lee Harvey Blotto" (a pun on the names of famous lawyer F. Lee Bailey and JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald). Bassist "Cheese Blotto" (Keith Stephenson) died suddenly in October 1999 of cardiomyopathy brought on by a liver condition.

All of Blotto's studio recordings (with one exception, the song "Bud ... Is After Us") were reissued on a 1994 compact disc compilation, Collected Works. In 1999, the band released Then More Than Ever, a CD comprising previously unreleased live concert recordings, excerpts from a 1982 appearance on the "BBC College Concert" radio series, and tracks recorded for the never-completed follow-up album to Combo Akimbo.

The band in its current incarnation (Broadway, Bowtie, Sergeant, F. Lee Harvey, Clyde and Hammerhead Blotto) is still active, and has reunited for occasional concerts in the Albany area, including an appearance at the 2008 4th of July celebration at Empire State Plaza, and several shows in 2011 at local festivals. On August 6, 2015, the band opened for Blue Öyster Cult at an "Alive at Five" concert in Albany.

Founding member and lead vocalist Sergeant Blotto (real name Greg Haymes) died on April 10, 2019.

In March 2020, Blotto was inducted into the Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Hall of Fame.