Earth Quake (band)


Earth Quake is an American power pop band, formed in the San Francisco area in 1966, who released several albums in the 1970s, mostly on Beserkley Records, a company which they were involved in setting up.

Band members

Originally Purple Earthquake, the band drew its influences from rock and blues bands of the 1950s and 1960s, such as The Kinks, Muddy Waters and the Yardbirds, and played clubs and ballrooms in California in the late 1960s. They were managed by Matthew King Kaufman, who got a recording contract for them with A&M Records, where they released two albums, Earth Quake and Why Don't You Try Me? but with little commercial success.
After experiencing frustration at what he saw as A&M's incompetence in handling the band, and winning some compensation for the unauthorized use of their music in the movie The Getaway, Kaufman set up Beserkley Records in 1973. Earth Quake released four albums on Beserkley between 1975 and 1979, as well as working with other musicians including Jonathan Richman, Greg Kihn, and guitarist Gary Phillipet. The band split up in the early 1980s, although a compilation album, Sittin in the Middle of Madness, was issued in 2000.
The first two albums, Earth Quake and Why Don't You Try Me, were remastered and rereleased December 27, 2004 on Acadia Records.
Gary Phillips died in 2007 at the age of 59. John Doukas died of complications from liver failure on March 18, 2011, in South Africa, at the age of 62.

Albums