Punching Bag was a 4 Piece band from Paducah Kentucky, Me , Randall, Shane and Bill, We started as a three piece when myself, Bill and Randall wanted to start a new band, either being sick of our current bands or wanted to "Do It On Our Own" because we figured, everyone already knew us from previous bands (Oddly Enough, The Incredible Vegetables, Anti Social League, Teenage Rehab) and we were all the "second fiddle" as Bill said it.
Time passed and we couldn't decide what we wanted to be....a Ska Band or a Pop Punk Band. With some songs already written we drifted toward a punk band, mainly due to the style of writing myself and Randall had adopted, then we recruited an old friend of Randall and an aquaintance of mine, Shane Poole. I honestly was leary of Shane because I didn't want it to turn into "Shane Poole's Band" ....that never happened, but anyway, we quickly started writing alot of new songs and at some point turned into what I think was a Chicago influenced punk band, in the vein of Lawrence Arms, Alkaline Trio ETC. Well, after a full set of songs and a handful of shows we went to a studio and recorded with a guy named Gary "The Body", And he also was named "Ron Jeremy" by someone in the "SCENE", Now at this time the scene consisted of: Rookie of The Year, the Dive Bombers,the Incredible Vegetables, Teenage Rehab, and Punching Bag, These bands would also appear on a comp together entitled Punk Rock From P-Town. Anyway we recorded our first album entitled "The Morning After" The name was inspired by the feeling we collectively had "the morning after" a show......
After our first recording we get shirts made and we think we are hitting the big time, we play a few out of town shows and all that stuff, well, at some point in the bands life time there is a club opened called "311 Indie Rock Cafe" and is the epicenter of all things going on in punk rock in Paducah. We play here ALOT!!!
So now there's a club to play at and we are playing frequently and drinking regularly, very regularly.
Skip alot of shit and now we are recording our second CD on ROD DOG RECORDS, this includes a cover of John Cougar Melancamp's hit "The Authority Song" a cover of Jawbreaker's "Kiss The Bottle" and some originals. At some point in recording I have a brilliant idea to get alcohol and drink it. After getting a bit drunk I get in an argument with Randall and I end up hitting the garage we recorded at and breaking the ciding.
This was the beginning of the end for us I think, after all Shane had started another band at this point and called Punching Bag his "side project", Randall and I had also started a side project of our own called Chewing Shoes, and basically we (Punching Bag), weren't getting along as a band and ironically wrote most of our best "unrecorded" songs at this time.
Well to make a LONG story short we broke up in the summer of 2001 and to sum it up we started as a band who barely knew each other, became a band who loved each other, and ended up as a band who didn't know each other, and sometimes hated each other.....I went on to form the Hi Fi Ninja, Bill is now living in Chicago and I talk to him occasionally, Shane moved to Louisville and is an independently employed screenprinter and is currently the guitarist for Satellite Twin. Randall, who went on to form the County I see occasionally and talk to on the phone every now and then, we sometimes talk about Punching Bag and I think of reuniting with them for just one show but I really don't think it will ever happen..........Thanks for the memories!
-Ronnie Retail
