THE MAD ANTS

ONE OF AMERICA’S GREATEST ROCK BANDS…Tube amps, speaker distortion, hard-hit drums, five string bass and loud throaty vocals are what makes The Mad Ants sound. The original Mad Ants line-up affectionately known as “Mach I” and seen here was re-assembled by frontman and songwriter Joel Justin to record what he figured would be one last Mad Ants release. While living in Brazil and recording his solo album “4/4” Justin started writing songs for a concept album entitled, “international anthem.” The idea was to have songs that a rock fan in every corner of the world could consider their own anthem. After the first two songs, “Radiate” and “My Rock & Roll” were written, he realized that only the original Mad Ants could ever possibly deliver these straight-ahead hard-rocking anthems. Justin then found the need to return to his hometown in Indiana to help care for his aging Roller Derby skating star parents where fortunately the three remaining original Mad Ants still lived. It was not an easy task convincing them that an “older-guys” rock band could find any success (see their funny video’s) in the current marketplace, but they faithfully got together 2-3 times a week and blasted out arrangements for more than sixty original songs. They started doing live shows which included their ass-kicking renditions of classic rock songs they grew up on. The fans came back too. And new fans discovered what they had been missing out on; guitar rock done the old-fashioned way. Justin was inspired. The songs just kept coming in. Thirty-five new songs were written and recorded, and the band found that in this later stage of their lives, they were making better music than they ever had. It seemed easy this time to go out and do shows. Instead of having only four or five great original songs to present to audiences, they now had forty-five. When most bands get older, they get tired, and the songwriting gets weaker. The opposite has happened with The Mad Ants. The songs are all over the map in style and the stage performance and recordings are in a word, amazing. Yes, this is one of America’s greatest rock bands. And it looks like they are going to be around a long time.

Joel Justin-lead vocals/electric & acoustic guitars

Ben Garcia-electric & acoustic guitars/background vocals

Dan Peters-bass/background vocals

Clyde Preston Selsor-drums/background vocals