The Vacation

The Vacation plays a gritty, swaggering brand of rock and roll that recalls the visceral punch of punk, the anarchic energy of turn-of-the-70s garage bands, and the monster hooks of such vaunted outfits as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Kinks and The Clash.

Based in Hollywood and fronted by singer Ben Tegel and guitarist Steve Tegel (TEE-gul), The Vacation put itself on the map with residencies at The Kibitz Room (where members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns N Roses, among other now-famous acts, cut their teeth), Spaceland, and The Silverlake Lounge. The band quickly built a loyal following, then launched an assault on the U.K. with performances at The Reading and Leeds festivals, an EP on the respected indie Fierce Panda (Coldplay, Supergrass, The Thrills), and a live appearance on the alternative rock station XFM.

The Vacations EP, They Were The Sons, was produced by the acclaimed Tony Hoffer (Beck, Supergrass, The Thrills). No less than Rolling Stone gave it three and a half stars, remarking: "The brash four-piece uses irresistible snake-charmer bass lines to glue together Detroit scuzz, hook-y retro punk a la the Damned and shout-along glam choruses. Bad attitude never felt so good, dude." The track White Noise earned regular rotation on the aforementioned XFM, was selected as Catch Of The Day at Los Angeles trendsetting KROQ, and was added into rotation on Indie 103.1.

With Rick Rubin at the helm, the previously released album, Band From World War Zero (Echo/Worlds Fair), had a makeover: re-mastered, re-sequenced and re-titled The Vacation. It will be released on American Recordings in Summer 2006!

"Sounding like 70's gutter-punks The Damned aligned with the boozy cockiness of Keith Richards, or Iggy Pop slapping his meaty cock across Marc Bolans pasty face, The Vacation peddle a fine line in sassy, sleaze-sodden, dumb rock n roll fun...savagely tossing forth shards of distorted guitar fury over hook-laden beat-pop, constructing a menagerie of musical wonder that you could dance, fuck or drink to." NME

"...energetically scuffed-up tunes with proper hooks as timeless as a black leather jacket, there'll always be a place for outfits like The Vacation." Kerrang!

"If Marc Bolan had decided to embrace punk in 1977 T-Rex might have started sounding a bit like LA's The Vacation. They've got the same camp, glam take on rock n roll with tunes like Destitute Prostitutes, but everything's done with a sneer which could cut through glass and riffs which could punch through walls. A lot of bands have tried to meld the best bits of glam and punk but few have done it as convincingly as The Vacation, who sing with just the right mix of conviction and mockery." RockSound