Tsunami Bomb
The band was started by bassist and songwriter Dominic Davi, who enlisted Kristin McRory as Tsunami Bomb's original female vocalist. Davi met McRory in late 1997, when she joined the band Headboard on female vocals.
Davi and McRory left Headboard in February 1998, and played their first show as Tsunami Bomb on June 26, 1998 at the Fatty Mocha in Merced, CA. The Tsunami Bomb song "Lemonade" was played at this first show, which Davi wrote in response to his feelings over leaving Headboard. "Lemonade" remained the most well-known Tsunami Bomb song and its most requested song in concert, however the band often refused to play the song in later years after their line-up had changed entirely from their membership at the time "Lemonade" was written.
Tsunami Bomb's original lineup consisted of 5 people, including a female keyboard player named Oobliette Sparks who also contributed vocals (and remained with the band until 2001). Gabriel Lindeman played drums for the band's first few shows, but he did not join the band full-time until 1999. Kristin McRory left Tsunami Bomb in late 1998, and Davi recruited Emily Whitehurst shortly thereafter (Emily's brother, Logan Whitehurst was Davi's roommate at the time). To add mystique and give her a more iconic presence, Dominic Davi and Emily Whitehurst created the moniker "Agent M." Whitehurst was credited as Agent M almost exclusively until the breakup of the band.
Tsunami Bomb maintained a grueling tour schedule for most of its existence. In 1999 they released two limited edition 7" singles: B-Movie Queens was a split with Emily Whitehurst and Brian Plink's former band Plinky; Mayhem On The High Seas was released on Checkmate Records which was owned by Hunter Burgan, bassist for AFI. In 2000 they signed to Tomato Head Records and released their first CD EP The Invasion from Within! In 2002 they signed with Kung Fu Records, and released their first full length album The Ultimate Escape. Tsunami Bomb would appear on the Warped Tour several times between 2001 and 2005. They have also toured Europe and Japan. Originally being booked by Dan Garcia at Royal Flush Booking, Tsunami Bomb had several tours including main support for the Vandals. In 2003, after a split with Royal Flush Booking and Dominic Davi, the band signed with the William Morris Agency, one of the largest and distinguished names in the business. Under the direction of Ron Opeleski, the band launched their most successful tours since their inception including a full US headlining tour which sold out venues such as the Metro in Chicago, two nights at Slim's in San Francisco, and three nights at the Troubadour in L.A. They also played main support for the Bouncing Souls on a world tour.
In 2003, a decision led to Tsunami Bomb's founding bassist and songwriter Dominic Davi leaving the group, leaving the band with no original members. The remaining band members cited "personality and creative conflicts." He would go on to form the musical group Love Equals Death on Fat Wreck Chords. He was replaced by Matt McKenzie. A year later, in 2004, Mike Griffen, their guitarist and songwriter since 2000, left the band and was replaced by Jay Northington. Controversy surrounded the split with Davi mainly due to comments in his personal Myspace page. "I still find the things they are doing completely deplorable... the cruel things they continue to do to me."Myspace 05.02.2004 Dominic went on to allege that Tsunami Bomb had stolen his bass amp in another personal blog. Also in 2003, they covered the popular Rocky Horror Picture Show song You'd Better Wise Up.
The title song from their first CD release, The Invasion from Within!, was used in Atlus USA's translation of the Nippon Ichi Software strategy RPG Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Atlus also used the song Russian Roulette from the band's first full length album "The Ultimate Escape" in their collaboration with Spumco animation studios, a cartoon skateboarding game called Go! Go! Hypergrind.
Their last releases as a band included their final album as Tsunami Bomb entitled The Definitive Act which Sound Scanned over 33,000 copies and a live concert DVD entitled "Live at the Glasshouse" from the The Show Must Go Off! live music DVD series in 2005. Both were released on Kung Fu Records.
In late 2005, after years of touring and numerous line-up changes Tsunami Bomb officially broke up, citing problems with the "business end of the music industry."
Emily Whitehurst and Matt McKenzie have gone on to form the musical group The Action Design, while Jay Northington and Gabriel Lindeman have gone on to form Nothington.
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