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TOMMY MEEHAN
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Tommy Meehan is a musician whose work has been featured on television shows like Adult Swim's RICK AND MORTY, UNCLE GRANDPA, TIG N' SEEK, and more. His various bands have performed countless live performances all over the United States over the last 20 years. 

In addition to his vast musical output, Meehan has also worked extensively as a picture editor (mostly in cartoon animation) at networks like WARNER BROTHERS, DISNEY, CARTOON NETWORK, and more.

 

Collaborative efforts include projects with members of bands like GWAR, MELT BANANA, THE LOCUST, THE BLOOD BROTHERS, THE MELVINS, TERA MELOS, STARCRAWLER, NEKROGOBLIKON, HORSE THE BAND and more. He's also teamed up with various solo artists and actors including, TYLER THE CREATOR, ANDREW WK, BILL MOSELEY, etc.

As a composer and multi-instrumentalist, his specialties are demonstrated in his unusual and abrasive approach to playing the electric guitar. Tommy's production style, composition, and arrangements vary from project to project but his purest voice lives in a world of the pleasantly chaotic and unorthodoxically absurd.

 

Having written all types of music from avantegarde, jazz, and classical to thrash metal, surf, harsh noise, and beyond, he feels at home in just about any compositional setting.

BIO

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Born in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1985, Tommy spent his preteen years mostly, drawing, skating, and building tree forts. He also regularly made the All Stars team in baseball and was a first string running back and defensive tackle for his Pop Warner Football team (even though he never had any interest in sports whatsoever).

 

At 13 years old he got his first guitar and started recording songs into a Panasonic answering machine that he found in a trash pile near his home. These sessions yielded 2 cassette tape releases ("Pink Chain" and "Dead Lights") for a solo project he called DOGPILE.

 

This period was all about embracing a silly and experimental exploration of writing music, as Meehan previously had zero musical background. Songs about bizarre characters like "The Fearless Pumpkin Warrior", "Legoman", and "Mothra Mo" hinted at the eclectic body of work to come.

 

To speak to Meehan's ingenuity, he would multitrack by bouncing back and forth between a cassette player and a built-in microphone on the answering machine. Drum beats were created by pots, pans, cardboard boxes and a Casio keyboard. While incorporating movie and noise samples straight from his mothers vcr, Meehan developed a knack for incorporating abstract sound into a musical setting early on.

 

When he was 14, Tommy started his first band (BLOOD CLOT REFRIGERATOR). Drawing inspiration from projects like Buckethead, Big Dumb Face, and local legends Nuclear Rabbit, Tommy had begun experimenting with tap style guitar and heavily utilizing effects pedals in his compositions. The band recorded a 6 song demo in the year 2000. *of note: ELI GREEN of HORSE THE BAND was also in this project for a period of time

 

THE BROCKLY TACOS began as another bedroom project but quickly evolved into a full on live act. Filled out with a bunch of high school pals and local musicians, the band would perform with up to 9 musicians on stage at once. Their unique brand of CARTOON-CORE leaned further into Meehan's love of bands like GWAR, MR. BUNGLE, FANTOMAS, etc.

 

Tommy had purchased his first sampler around this time (a BOSS SP303) and recorded THE BROCKLY TACOS first album on the machine ("Bloody Pudding")...

 

Their second release ("Bionic Midget") graduated and expanded Meehan's engineering skills and capabilities greatly when he borrowed a BOSS BR-8 digital multitrack recorder from a childhood friend.

 

The live shows were messy... Brain Jell-O molds, ketchup, mustard, marshmallow Peeps, and tons of vomit flavored Jelly Beans could be seen flying into the crowds at Brockly Tacos shows. 12 years later they released their 3rd album ("Child Mayonnaise") which features the late great ODERUS URUNGUS (aka Dave Brockie) of GWAR fame...

During the same time that THE BROCKLY TACOS were playing shows in Northern California, Tommy joined a band called EXPOSURE. A pop rock act, of sorts, that crooned and sparkled unlike anything Meehan had ever participated in before. The band garnered a predominantly female fanbase with songs like "Table For One" and "The Battle For Water Street Bridge". 

 

2006 marked Meehan's migration to Los Angeles and his year at MUSICIANS INSTITUTE. Here he studied guitar, music composition, theory and FILM SCORING...

 

A year later he started a band called RAZZLE BLASTER. The music and vibe was exceptionally noisy and violent. The 4 piece put emphasis on odd timing, experimental arrangements, and unique guitar tones. Producing 4 releases and a fair amount of online traction (as this was the heyday of MySpace.com) the band's body of work falls uncomfortably into the experimental punk category. Meehan had begun incorporating even more strange sounds with synth pedals and aggressive guitar techniques at this time and when the band disbanded in 2008, the itch to play this particular brand of hardcore was left unscratched for another 13 years or so (until the formation of SQUID PISSER...).

 

CHUM OUT! was formed in 2009 as a sort of RAZZLE BLASTER offshoot or spinoff (as it also involves former RAZZLE BLASTER vocalist Jimmy Turner). The duo leans heavily into tightly condensed drum machine blasts and cacophonous harsh noise sections. Antagonistic and deliberately annoying, the project continues in Meehan's experimental vein, but this time pushing things even further, while consciously testing the thresholds of listeners and audience members alike. The band would often elicited violent responses and has actually been attacked and threatened on stage. They've had bottles and cocktail glasses thrown at them (mostly by homophobes and narrow minded jocks who had no business attending a CHUM OUT! show anyway)... Many of the live shows have been performed nearly (if not completely) naked, surrounded by trash and real blood.

 

In 2009 Tommy started SWEATBAND RECORDS with the infamous (and famously anonymous) DJ EMBRYONIC PETIT SAC. Pressing vinyl, cassettes, lathe-cuts and cds for their own projects and others' became another aspect of their day to day. The label has released over 70 records since forming.

 

In 2010 Tommy's career trajectory expanded rapidly into the world of television animation. While working as a production assistant for the popular MONSTER HIGH SERIES at WILDBRAIN ENTERTAINMENT, Tommy learned how to cleanup and convert drawings to vectorized art and was promptly hired onto THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW.

 

While working as a clean up artist he then learned how to edit for animation with programs like FINAL CUT PRO, AVID, and PREMIERE

 

His editing skills then earned him positions editing for shows at TITMOUSE, RICK AND MORTY STUDIOS, CARTOON NETWORK and WARNER BROTHERS for show's like RANDY CUNNINGHAM 9th GRADE NINJA, LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS, UNCLE GRANDPA and more.

 

In 2013, Tommy was asked by PETE BROWNGARDT to score music (and cut animatics... yeah he didn't sleep much during this period) for his UNCLE GRANDPA series at CARTOON NETWORK. Tommy worked both jobs in parallel for Season 1 until he switched over to strictly music composition for the remaining 4 seasons. Scoring almost 150 episodes, Tommy explored styles ranging from surf to death metal to jazz to techno to classical and just about everything in between.

 

During one of his several runs at CARTOON NETWORK, Tommy was invited to share some show ideas to the development team. He pitched THE BROCKLY TACOS as an animated series and was hired to develop the show for several months. An animatic was produced which Tommy directed, voice acted for, and edited together. Ultimately the show was shelved but you never know how or when THE BROCKLY TACOS might show up again.

 

While he was diving into his animation career, Tommy always juggled at least one other live or recording musical act at any given time...

 

THE MANX began in 2010 and was a channel for consistent output in Tommy's life for a decade. There was nonstop creative fervor from the 5 piece. 10 album releases, music videos, tours, and countless friendships formed.

 

The band began as a folk-punk act with banjo, accordion, stand-up bass, mandolin, and drums but gradually evolved into a sort of electrified, mutant bastardization of surf, pop, metal, avante garde, and all out surrealism.

 

Playing their instruments through custom arcade game amplifiers, donning sparkly shorts, dousing themselves with gallons of food coloring, and battling huge booger monsters on stage, THE MANX became a staple in the Los Angeles punk community and they toured frequently in order to spread their goo across the land. 

 

In 2017 Tommy began scoring his second series at CARTOON NETWORK.

TIG N' SEEK demanded a slightly more "adult contemporary" vibe, musically, than anything he had ever scored previously but it was not without it's moments of pure psycho insanity.

 

When covid took over the world in 2020, Tommy seized the additional "downtime" and formed two more bands (CANCER CHRIST and SQUID PISSER) and then joined another (DEAF CLUB).

 

CANCER CHRIST played their first show underneath the 6th street bridge in DTLA to the burgeoning DIY punk community and have been lighting caskets on fire and baptizing believers in troughs full of pig's blood ever since. The music and message spits venomous hypocrisy back into the face of modern Christianity, politics, and the police state.

 

Musically, the group paints a sonic tapestry of glitched out noise-core mixed with hardcore and thrash sensibilities. "Saint Anthony and His Snake Boys" are scheduled to tour with EYEHATEGOD and **** this year (2023).

 

Currently, they're preparing to announce their first full length LP release, "GOD IS VIOLENCE".

 

SQUID PISSER recorded two full length albums and an EP during the pandemic and released their debut ("MY TADPOLE LEGION") with THREE ONE G RECORDS in early 2023.

 

Musically, SQUID PISSER picks up where RAZZLE BLASTER left off. Synth, noise, wild vocals and oddly timed passages merge to create a unique and flavorful galaxy of totally organized chaos. The band has recently signed to European booking agency ATONAL MUSIC and US booking agency 33 and WEST. They are currently zeroing in on taking the show to the road. 

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