Dallas' Speedealer was formed in 1994 by singer/guitarist Jeff Hirshberg, bassist Rodney Skelton, Harden Harrison on drums, and Eric Schmidt on guitar. Speedealer's first release was a self-titled album, which came out in 1996 on TRG Records, followed by REOSpeedealer and Here Comes Death released on Royalty Records, which went bankrupt shortly after the release of Here Comes Death. The band was signed to Palm in early 2000 by Michael Alago and Here Comes Death was re-released in September 2000 with new artwork.
PalmA&R Michael Alago, who signed Metallica to Elektra Records in 1984, knew that Jason Newsted wanted to start producing albums, so he immediately sent Speedealer's demos. Newsted was ecstatic. "Speedealer is the first heavy band worthy of my 110 percent commitment since Metallica," says Newsted. Alago adds, "With Jason's 15 years of making extraordinary records with Metallica, he was primed to put all that musicality into production. The new Speedealer album is going to blow peoples heads off...that's the intention."
JEFF HIRSHBERG / Vocals, Guitar Jeff Hirshberg, Speedealer's guiding-force founder and frontman, brings to the band a consuming intensity that at times manifests itself in less than favorable ways—like the time he spat at his bandmates for their subpar execution of a song during a Riverside, California show in 1996. More often, though, his unyielding tenacity drives the four-man Speedealer metal machine to greater heights of sonic domination. As demanding of his fans as his co-conspirators, Hirshberg posits, "One should listen to music with one's full attention and that means no external stimuli. Period. I feel that is the only way music in general will progress from its current state of stagnation and nostalgia. Rise and demand quality...or suffer the woefully out-of-tune fate set before us all." Jeff identifies layered SECOND SIGHT epics "Fractured" and the instrumental "Infinitesimal" as "paradigms of future Speedealer music."
ERIC SCHMIDT / Guitar Self-described "hard-working lazy bum" Eric Schmidt is Speedealer's brooding soloist and Jeff's partner in the doubled-riff trade. The native Nebraskan cites hearing Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" blasting from his parents' car stereo at age nine as a defining moment in his musical development and, though slightly altered through the convolutions of a twisted mind, the classic Jimmy Page heaviness and precision is readily evident in Eric's blistering Speedealer stringwork. Though a prodigious presence on the stage, Eric is a selfless collaborator in the studio, naming Jeff's solos his favorite aspect of SECOND SIGHT.
HARDEN HARRISON / Drums Born in Kansas City and raised in the Priest/Venom/Slayer metal tradition as a Dallas grade schooler, Speedealer drummer and sometime vocalist Harden Harrison joined the band in the late 90's and immediately exerted his manic influence, helping Speedealer straddle the rhythmic line between rock and hardcore. Happy with the opportunity to stretch out and explore with the time and equipment afforded by Speedealer's two-month recording stint at Sausalito, CA studio The Plant, Harden describes SECOND SIGHT simply as "heavy and the songs are good...If people know about it and give it a listen I have no doubt they will be rockin' out to it."
RICH MULLINS / Bass Newest Speedealer addition Rich Mullins was a founding member and bassist for highly underrated West Virginia metal experimentalists Karma to Burn.
Source: http://www.speedealeronline.com/
