Jerod Mankin (bass) - Mike Steele (guitar) Shaun McCoy (lead vocals & guitar) Martin McCoy (vocals & guitar) Thomas Johnson (drums)
BOBAFLEX was established in 1998 by Martin and Shaun McCoy. The brothers are no strangers to the press, having ancestral ties to the most infamous family feud in American history, between the Hatfields and the McCoys which almost caused a war between the states of West Virginia and Kentucky in the 1880’s. With their anthem-style songs and maniacal live performances, the group quickly gained popularity throughout the OH, WV, and KY tri-state area establishing their “base of operations” in Point Pleasant WV, home to the infamous Mothman Prophecies. Influenced by their surroundings and the elements of the MOTHMAN legend, the band (Marty McCoy, Shaun McCoy, Mike Steele, Jerod Makin, and Tommy Johnson) began to develop their unique style of songwriting. Describing the band’s sound is difficult, however the press and newspapers have often compared their sound to that of new metal artists like System of Down and Disturbed fused with the lyrical aggression of hip-hop pioneers Wu-tang Clan and song structural elements of classic rock pioneers Queen.
Finding themselves overwhelmed by popularity, BOBAFLEX soon became the only out of state un-signed act to headline Columbus OH’s premier all-ages rock club the Alrosa Villa. Continuously co-headlining Ohio’s largest independent rock festival WOODSHOCK three years in a row, they performed for crowds of over 5,000. ”It was crazy”, the fans were buying everything we had, even the shirts off our backs” stated Shaun McCoy. After playing out of state for months at a time, the band returned to West Virginia to find themselves booked on 106.3FM’s X-Fest, (West Virginia’s largest Rock festival, sponsored by Huntington’s largest commercial rock radio station, WAMX). Performing to an audience of 12,000 and sharing the stage with Nickleback, Disturbed and many others, BOBAFLEX has now played the X-Fest 3 years in a row, thus landing them a spot on the renowned LOCABAZOOKA tour in 2002 performing alongside Filter, Sevendust, and Mushroomhead just to name a few. BOBAFLEX continued to hit the road throughout 2002, independently booking tour dates through more than 13 states. “It’s been unbelievable, the response we get from the fans, they seem to come out of the woodwork night after night in markets that we had no idea they knew about us. It’s been a very rewarding experience to meet and get to know them”, says Jerod Makin.
“The demand for a new release was incredible, our web site was blowing up, there were hundreds of postings in our guest book and message boards from people all over the country”, Tommy Johnson stated, “it was easy to see that this was getting much bigger than any of us anticipated”. In September BOBAFLEX independently released its 2nd EP, “Primitive Epic”. Sales of the sci-fi reality thriller began to take off. The band sold all 1,000 copies of the initial pressing in it's first four weeks strictly through live performances, word of mouth, and mailorder, which quickly caught the attention of New Jersey’s Eclipse Records (Mushroomhead, Disarray). On March 10th, BOBAFLEX signed with Eclipse and went back into the studio to record additional material and remix “Primitive Epic” for a national release sometime this summer. Shortly thereafter, the band signed an exclusive booking agreement with Spotlight Talent (Testament, Mushroomhead, Coal Chamber, Iced Earth) and the band is already planning to tour nonstop in support of their national debut.
Pushing the sonic boundaries of what is “the norm” in modern rock music, this band has the hunger and determination to overcome any obstacle in their way, as 2003 will show… there shall be no stopping these BOBAFLEX warriors.
Source: http://www.bobaflexwarriors.com/
