Racer X is an American heavy metal band formed in 1985 in Los Angeles,
California. The group has gone through numerous lineup changes, including a
hiatus, with founders guitarist Paul Gilbert and bassist Juan Alderete being
the sole constant members. The band is signed to Shrapnel Records.
History = 1980s=
Guitarist Paul Gilbert first gained notoriety when he was featured in Mike
Varney’s Spotlight Column in the February 1983 issue of Guitar Player
magazine. Gilbert was 16 years old and was living in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
He later moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at the Guitar Institute of
Technology, part of the Musicians Institute. After graduating from GIT,
Gilbert was hired as an instructor and recorded the album "Trouble In The
Streets" with Los Angeles metal band Black Sheep, released on Enigma Records
in November 1985. While at GIT, Gilbert met fellow student Juan Alderete.
Searching for a drummer, Alderete and Gilbert first turned to Scott Travis,
who was living in Virginia at the time, but he turned down the offer due to his
commitment to the band Hawk. Travis was receiving a salary from Doug Marks, the
band's lead guitarist, and would not turn down the income. Alderete and
Gilbert instead sought the services of fellow student Harry Gschoesser. After
acquiring Gschoesser, Gilbert, with the help of Varney, recruited Jeff Martin of
the Phoenix metal band Surgical Steel. Martin, who still lived in Phoenix and
could not regularly write songs with Racer X in Los Angeles, began writing
lyrics immediately for demo tapes that Gilbert had sent him. Recording for
their first album began quickly. The band began the recording process in
1985, and Racer X's debut album Street Lethal was released on January 1, 1986
on Mike Varney's Shrapnel Records label. Popularity boost
With the release of Street Lethal, Paul Gilbert suddenly burst into the
mainstream as one of the members of the Neoclassical genre, popularized by Randy
Rhoads and Yngwie J. Malmsteen. While Racer X was not playing neo-classical
pieces as frequently as Rhoads or Malmsteen, Gilbert was often mentioned
alongside Yngwie and Randy in many guitar and music magazines. Gilbert
acknowledged his debt to Malmsteen on the Street Lethal album with the
neoclassical instrumental "Y.R.O.". The title is an acronym for "Yngwie Rip
Off". He would repeat such a reference on a later song, "B.R.O.", which stands
for "Bach Rip Off". Racer X was rapidly becoming a popular
live act on the Sunset Strip. Around this time, Gilbert secured an
endorsement deal with Ibanez guitars, which continues to this day. The song
"Getaway" received limited airplay on Los Angeles' heavy metal radio station,
KNAC. Lineup change
After the release of the first album, Gilbert was still teaching at GIT for a
steady income. One of Gilbert's students, Bruce Bouillet, gained his
attention. Gilbert asked him to join Racer X, and the two guitarists would
soon work out synchronized harmony passages that would redefine Racer X's
sound. In 1986, Harry Gschoesser's visa expired, so he returned to his native
country, Austria. He was initially replaced with Todd "Vito" DeVito, who
had played on Black Sheep's Trouble In The Streets LP alongside Gilbert, but
was soon replaced by Scott Travis. DeVito went on to become a drum
technician for Mikkey Dee of Motörhead. The band headed to Prairie Sun Studios
in Cotati to record their second studio album. Second Heat was released in
February 1987 by Shrapnel Records, and solidified Racer X's style of
double-lead guitar solos using techniques such as fast
alternate-picking, two-handed tapping, string skipping, and sweep picking. The
album also has two tracks written by other artists. "Moonage Daydream" was a
David Bowie cover, and "Heart of a Lion" was a Judas Priest song dropped from the
Turbo album. The song was a birthday gift by Rob Halford, who had befriended
Jeff Martin in the band's early days. Halford later recorded the track with
his band, Halford. Dissolution
While the Los Angeles music scene was at the peak for glam metal, Racer X were
reaching the height of their popularity with their live shows. The band was
selling out and packing their usual rotation of The Roxy Theatre,
Troubadour, and the Country Club in Reseda, California. The years of
unsuccessfully searching for major label representation finally took its toll on
the band, and the group's last gasp came with two nights of back-to-back live
shows at the Country Club, which were recorded and released as Extreme Volume
Live and Extreme Volume II Live. But even as Live Extreme, Vol. 1 was getting
ready for release, the dismantling of the band was near. Billy Sheehan, bass
player of the band Talas, approached Paul Gilbert about forming a new band;
in mid 1989, the two formed the band Mr. Big. Gilbert had mentally detached
himself from Racer X during the final shows. The rest of the group, searching
for an explanation to the lack of major label interest, focused their
frustrations on Jeff Martin. Both Gilbert and Martin left the band on the
same day. Juan Alderete, Bruce Bouillet, and Scott Travis initially brought in
Guitar Spotlight player Chris Arvan in 1989 as a replacement and performed a
few shows, including one with Oni Logan from Lynch Mob. Soon, the members of the
band went separate ways. Racer X's hiatus carried on well into the late
1990s. = 1990s=
Separation After Gilbert left for Mr. Big, other
members also went on to other projects. Jeff Martin formed a short-lived outfit
named Bad Dog with drummer Todd DeVito and former War & Peace and future Fight
and Steel Panther guitarist Russ Parrish; the latter had also been part
of Electric Fence, a side project featuring Martin and Paul Gilbert.
Martin eventually went on to replace Eric Singer in Jake E. Lee's band,
Badlands. After the demise of the final Racer X line-up, with former Roxanne
vocalist Jamie Brown briefly taking over for Martin, Juan Alderete, Bruce
Bouillet, and Scott Travis teamed up with former Angora vocalist John Corabi
to form the band Black Cloud – which would later become The Scream. The four
played one show at the Troubadour before Travis received an offer from Judas
Priest, who was looking to replace the recently departed Dave Holland. Jeff
Martin, a friend of Judas Priest, relayed the message to Travis, who was
ecstatic at the opportunity, and accepted the offer. Travis would go on
to record several albums with Judas Priest, and remains a member of the band
to this day. In 1992, Shrapnel Records released
Extreme Volume II Live, which featured songs from the farewell Racer X concerts
at the Country Club. Like the first live record, it included several previously
unreleased songs, like "Poison Eyes" and "Give it to Me". The release gave
die-hard Racer X fans hope that new material was on the way, but nothing
came to fruition. The one most notable track is Racer X's cover of KISS'
"Detroit Rock City". Recording the song, Gilbert and Bouillet, wanting to make
the song unique and fitting to their style, stood side by side and played the
famous solo with their teeth. One other KISS song was played the night before,
"Cold Gin", but it never appeared on either of the first two live releases.
Reemergence After departing Mr. Big in 1997 after
the recording of the Hey Man album, Gilbert started a solo career releasing
King of Clubs. Paul received a nasty email from a guy in Australia, the
famous "Snakebyte" email. In the email he chastised Paul for the more
pop-oriented music on his solo records and accused him of forgetting his shred
metal roots. Paul was apparently inspired to record heavy metal and
decided to reform Racer X. Gilbert was joined by every original member except
Bruce Bouilett, who did not choose to return. In mid-1999, the band recorded
Technical Difficulties. The album went gold in Japan, and Racer X's new record
label requested a follow-up. In late 2000, the band released what is
recognized by many fans as their best album to date, Superheroes. The album's
packaging featured pictures of the band members dressed as superheroes. Gilbert
became the Electric Bat, Martin became Motorman, Alderete became The
X-tinguisher, and Travis became Cowboy Axe. The record was mixed by former
Racer X guitarist, Bruce Bouillet. In order to further capitalize on their
new-found success in Japan, Universal Japan requested that the band record a
live show for another live CD and DVD. On May 25, 2001, the band played their
first live performance in thirteen years at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles.
The show was recorded for both audio and video, and in 2002, both the CD and DVD
were released under the name Snowball of Doom, which is a reference to fact that
the band is still "rolling along" after fifteen years, but was still unable to
secure a major American record label contract.
Getting Heavier In January 2002, in support of
Superheroes and Snowball of Doom, Racer X toured Japan and Taiwan. The band
performed these shows in their Superheroes costumes. For the final
show, in Yokohama, the performance was hastily recorded in two tracks on the
sound board, and this was later released as Snowball of Doom 2.
Gilbert returned to his solo career, recording the album Burning Organ.
However, in 2002, Universal Japan pushed for another Racer X release, notifying
the band that they would release an official bootleg of the Yokohama concert
to promote a new album. In October 2002, all four members of Racer X gathered at
Gilbert's house in Las Vegas to record a new album. For the first time in the
history of the band all four members were together at the same time to record
a Racer X album. The outcome of the recording was Getting Heavier, which was
sold alongside Snowball of Doom 2 in a package deal.
After the release of Getting Heavier, Racer X's progress came to a halt. Scott
Travis, with Judas Priest, toured with Ozzfest in 2004 and recorded Angel of
Retribution. Jeff Martin began recording and touring with George Lynch, Kevin
DuBrow, Michael Schenker, recorded a 3-song demo with the band Leatherwolf,
and began a solo career with the release of The Fool in 2006. John Alderete
joined the band The Mars Volta in 2003, which has toured regularly and recorded
several albums. Paul Gilbert has released several solo albums, as well as
compilation albums and tours with Dream Theater's previous drummer Mike Portnoy.
Gilbert has toured with his supporting band in support of his latest albums.
Reunion Racer X performed at the 2009 NAMM show
at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, with a line-up
consisting of Paul Gilbert, Scott Travis, Jeff Martin, and Juan Alderete.
On October 13, 2009, the video game Brütal Legend was released. The game's
soundtrack featured two Racer X songs - "Y.R.O.", from Street Lethal, and
"Technical Difficulties", from Technical Difficulties.
Members Jeff Martin - vocals
Paul Gilbert - lead & rhythm guitars John Alderete - bass guitar
Scott Travis - drums = Former members=
Harry Gschoesser - drums Bruce Bouillet - lead & rhythm guitars
Todd DeVito - drums Chris Arvan - lead & rhythm guitars
Oni Logan - vocals Discography
= Studio albums= Street Lethal
Second Heat Technical Difficulties
Superheroes Getting Heavier
= Live albums= Extreme Volume Live
Extreme Volume II Live Live at the Whisky: Snowball of Doom
Snowball of Doom 2 Videography
Live at the Whisky: Snowball of Doom References
External Links Racer X official website
Shrapnel Records official website