Wednesday 13


Joseph Michael Poole is an American singer and musician best known by his stage name Wednesday 13. As well as his solo career, he is known for being the frontman of Murderdolls. He has also played in several other bands, including Maniac Spider Trash, Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, Bourbon Crow, and Gunfire 76.

Musical career

Psycho Opera and Maniac Spider Trash

Poole's musical career began in 1992 when he played guitar in the band Mizery, which later became Psycho Opera and which featured guitarist Abby Normal, drummer Jeff Washam, bassist Michael Patrick, and lead vocalist Todd Cage. Poole left the band to form Maniac Spider Trash as lead vocalist, alongside Abby Normal and Michael Patrick, joined by Sicko Zero on drums. Poole fronted the band from 1992 to 1996. The band released one EP, Dumpster Mummies, on Dead Hell Records in 1994. This was followed by an album, Murder Happy Fairytales, in 1995; the album remained unreleased until October 5, 2010.

Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13

Poole went on to form the Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, which included Maniac Spider Trash's guitarist and drummer, Abby Normal and Sicko Zero. The band featured several different guitarists, bassists, and drummers over the years, leaving Poole to continue as the only original member. Sicko Zero was the last member to quit the band. Shortly after, Poole was forced to form another line-up before joining Murderdolls. Poole wrote and produced every album by Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13. Between 1996 and 2002, Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 released five studio albums and six EPs with various revolving members. They were also featured on tribute albums for Alice Cooper, and Sweet. Poole stopped performing under the name in 2002 when he joined Murderdolls. In May 2006, the band announced their reunion, which was followed by a tour with Alice Cooper and a box set of the band's complete discography, entitled Little Box of Horrors. This line-up featured Sicko Zero on drums and Abby Normal on bass. The band broke up once again shortly after the box set was released.

Murderdolls

Poole was contacted by Joey Jordison of Slipknot and was asked to join Jordison's new horror punk band, Murderdolls. Originally formed as a collaboration between Jordison and Tripp Eisen of Static-X and Dope, Poole was revealed as the driving force of the band after he switched from bass guitar to lead vocalist. Murderdolls released one EP in 2002, Right to Remain Violent, to promote their forthcoming album of the same year, Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls. Most of the songs on the album were re-recorded versions of songs by Poole's previous band, Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13. A total of two singles were released from the album, including a cover of Billy Idol's "White Wedding". The album reached No. 40 on the UK album chart.
Murderdolls played their last show on January 17, 2004. After this, they went on an indefinite hiatus, with Jordison returning to Slipknot. Since this hiatus began, both Poole and Jordison maintained that the band did not split up for good, and that they would return to record a second album in the future. In February 2010, while on a solo tour in Australia, Poole spoke with Drum Media: "We're possibly going to do another Wednesday record, record it in the summer and have it out around Halloween. We're in talks right now to do another Murderdolls album. So right now I don't know which of the two is going to happen, of course if Murderdolls is possible then we have to do that, it's gotta be the number one priority. It's just talks right now. We're having the same conversations that we were having in the very beginning of the band. Right now, we're just trying to get a game plan together."
In March 2010, Jordison revealed to Kerrang magazine that Murderdolls had reunited to work with producer Chris Harris. Jordison said: "It's been an ongoing conversation between Wednesday and I from 2006 until now. We were bored with everything out there, and thought we had something to piss people off and shake things up. Everything is such a product or a fucking formula these days... fuck formula! Fuck the norm!" Murderdolls released their second album, Women and Children Last, on August 31, 2010. In March 2013, Wednesday 13 announced in an interview that the Murderdolls had split for good in 2011.

Wednesday 13

After the Murderdolls went on hiatus in 2004, Poole went on a solo tour of the United Kingdom in March 2004, called the Graveyard A Go-Go tour. For his live performances, he was joined by members of horror punk band Death Becomes You, though this was not meant to be permanent. Poole returned to North Carolina in June 2004, and began to put together a more permanent band, with whom he would perform with under the Wednesday 13 name. He brought in former Frankenstein Drag Queens member, Ikky, on guitar. The band is heavily influenced by the likes of KISS and Alice Cooper, while not straying far from Poole's previous horror punk projects. In September 2004, Ikky was replaced with Matt Montgomery. Wednesday 13 toured Europe in November 2004 on the Look What the Bats Dragged in tour. Some of the dates were supported by English rockers Viking Skull.
In 2005, after touring, Poole released his debut album Transylvania 90210, and made a music video for the track "I Walked with a Zombie", depicting the band members in footage from the original Night of the Living Dead horror movie. Following the album's release, the group embarked on a tour of the United Kingdom, entitled Tour from the Crypt. Also in 2005, they played on the main stage of Download Festival at Donington, and opened some shows for Alice Cooper around Halloween.
Poole parted ways with Roadrunner Records before signing a new deal with Rykodisc, with whom he released Fang Bang, the follow-up to "Transylvania 90210", on September 12, 2006. The European version of the album contains a cover of Motörhead's "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." and the Japanese edition features the same track listing as the European CD, along with a bonus song entitled "Good Day to Die". The American edition features "Burn the Flames", a Roky Erickson cover, as its sole bonus track. Skeletons was released on April 29, 2008, available exclusively through Hot Topic locations in the United States. It was released in the UK on May 12, 2008 by DR2 Records.
On November 14, 2008, Poole released his first live album, Fuck It, We'll Do It Live. The CD/DVD package was recorded in 2008 at Crocodile Rock in Allentown, Pennsylvania. For distribution of this album, Wednesday 13 chose to release it exclusively through Hot Topic, just as he had for Skeletons. A two-track digital download entitled Xanaxtasy was released on December 24, 2010 through iTunes. The release was announced via Wednesday 13's Facebook page on December 20, 2010, and contains two songs recorded during Wednesday's 2009 sessions. Out of the two songs, "Xanaxtasy" was previously released in the Bloodwork EP limited edition vinyl, and "It's a Wonderful Lie" was previously released on Wednesday's limited edition vinyl release From Here to the Hearse. During May 2011, Poole released a remix album/EP titled Re-Animated and announced that a portion of all sales for the first month would be donated to the American Red Cross.
On Wednesday, July 13, Wednesday released the track listing for Calling All Corpses via Bravewords.com. The album was released on October 11 in the US and October 10 overseas. He released his fifth album, The Dixie Dead, on February 19, 2013. He released his sixth album, , on January 12, 2015. He released his seventh album, Condolences, on June 2, 2017 after signing with Nuclear Blast.

Bourbon Crow

Since 2005, Poole, under the alias of Buck Bourbon, maintained an outlaw country side project called Bourbon Crow. Wednesday 13 was in contact with former drummer Jeff Washam from Psycho Opera and was going to tour on the East Coast project. Scheduling prevented JW from doing the tour. The band released their first album in 2006, Highway to Hangovers, and their second album, Long Way to the Bottom, was released in 2009. In 2015 the band released their third album Off the Wagon on the Rocks

Gunfire 76

Poole teamed up with Todd Youth to write and record an album with a more glam rock sound and without any horror themes, under the band name Gunfire 76. Rough mixes of the album's title track, "Casualties & Tragedies", were uploaded onto the band's Myspace page on August 12, 2009 for the fans to get an idea of what the band sounded like. The album debuted on October 6, 2009. Gunfire 76 toured from December 2009 to January 2010 with Bullets and Octane on the First Blood tour.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Compilation and Live Albums

Singles

Maniac Spider Trash

The seemingly limitless energy that drives Wednesday 13 led to another project in the shape of Gunfire 76.
Casualties & Tragedies has been the only output of the Wednesday 13/Todd Youth collaboration so far.
The mastermind himself judges the album as, my extension into the rock world that has clearly been influenced by the New York Dolls and the Stooges.
1. Let's Kill The Hero
2. Casualties and Tragedies
3. Nothing's All I Need
4. Los Angel-less
5. Rocket To Nowhere
6. Something For The Suffering
7. One More Reason To Hate You
8. Tell You Like It Is
9. What Did You Expect
10. Back To The Gutter
11. Get Me Through The Night

Filmography

Wednesday 13

Poole is originally from Lexington, North Carolina. He has one daughter, Zoie Starr Poole, with his ex-wife Roxanne and has a granddaughter named Pyper who was born on July 3, 2017.
The 2019 album was the first Wednesday 13 album recorded sober by Poole, he has maintained sobriety and continues to tour.