U.S. Chaos - Career

Career

U.S. Chaos wrote songs and rehearsed in a basement for months before they played their first concert. In 1981, when their singer English Ron quit, Jack Gibson recruited Alan "Skully" Skolski. In the winter of 1982/1983, U.S. Chaos rehearsed and wrote several songs. In March 1983, the band performed for the first time at a party at Aldo's Hideaway in Lyndhurst, NJ and many times at CBGB, as well as at City Gardens, in Trenton, New Jersey. The lineup at this time was: Skolski on vocals, Gibson on bass, Gene on drums, Gary Reitmeyer on guitar and Brian Daley (HC) on rhythm guitar.

Their first release was We've Got the Weapons, a vinyl EP released in 1983. The production of the EP, including recording and printing by Ross Eliss, cost them $5,000, which was unheard of in the American punk scene at that time. Their second release was the single "Kill The Killers" b/w "Suicide" costing considerably more. This was later remastered by manager and producer Marty Munsch, from the first pressing disk plates, and re-released by Punk Rock Records and Punk-Core records as a limited co-release in 1996.

Reitmeyer's departure from U.S. Chaos meant that the only original member of the band was Skolski. The band changed their name to The Chosen Few and wrote new material. This change coincided with the end of the first wave of US hardcore punk, with many bands changing their sounds or leaving the scene altogether.

In 1992, U.S. Chaos reunited to perform at a party. The band continued this tradition every year until 1995, when they fully brought U.S. Chaos out of hiatus. Munsch, owner of Punk Rock Records would then become the organizations manager. This led to several more releases and a few movie appearances. From 1996 to 1997, the lineup was: Skolsky on vocals, Reitmeyer on guitar, Gibson on bass and Glenn 'Spikey' Mayer on drums. Mayer was later replaced by Eddie Enzyme (who had played in Fahrenheit 451 and The Undead). The band continued to play and release new material into 2007, the year Reitmeyer died. Prior to his death, Reitmeyer had recommended Buddy Vern to fill his place. Vern had recently declined a longtime membership, and was replaced by Reitmeyer's younger sister Rene Wasted, who is also an active founding member of Blanks 77.

Munsch engineered and produced a U.S. Chaos album in 1999 called "You Can't Hear A Picture", which also led to several videos and four more singles. U.S. Chaos had resumed their normal performance schedule as of September 15, 2007. The current lineup is Gibson on bass, Skolski on vocals, Mayer on drums and Wasted on guitar.