Transport League was stoner/southern metal band formed in Partille, Sweden in September 1994 by B-Thong singer Tony Jelencovich. The band was joined by Johan Reivén on bass (later in LOK, as a drummer) and the bassplayer of B-Thong, Lars Häglund, on drums.
More info from TARTAREAN DESIRE:
Transport League was meant as a sideproject in which Tony could put his
energy and creativity which would not fit within B-Thong. After entering
a rockband competion and getting to semifinal the band recorded two
songs for a compilation CD. The CD was sent out to Mascot Records and
Transport League were signed in December 1994.
98% of the songs on the debut-album 'Stallion Showcase' is written and composed by Tony. "It's a matter of a need to constantly create songs and some of those songs have such quality that it would be a waste not to do anything with them. Listen to "Bolivian Dog" or "Hell 'N' Back" and you'll understand what we mean".
Tony left B-Thong shortly after their recent European tour because of musical and personal differences. Transport League had become a lot more than just a side-project. It was now Tonys main outlet in which he could explore his talents. Not only as a vocalist and songwriter but also as a guitarist.
The album 'Stallion Showcase' was recorded and mixed in two weeks in Studio Fredman in Gothenburg by Fredrik Nordström in the first part of 1995. The production turned out pretty powerful with a nasty sounding guitar, a bulldozer bass and punching drums. The album breathes a ninetees rock 'n' roll atmosphere. It's heavy, raunchy and aggressive yet melodic, groovy and energetic. All of the songs has very much a live feel in them which is a contrast to the more static and technical approach which B-Thong used to have. However, like B-Thong, Tonys awesome vocals give the songs an extra dimension.
"We've heard people come up with various comparisons; Kyuss, White Zombie, Danzig, Entombed, Led Zeppelin and even Masters of Reality to name a few. The songs offer plenty of variety and definitely have a Transport League Twist to them . The lyrics deal with all sorts of fun and fantasy like high proof alcohol, fast cars, women, alien bloodsuckers, satanic versus etc, all in a quite positive way".
After the listed eleven songs on the album there are two more songs hidden somewhere. The first hidden track is a different thunder-mix of "Cosmical Satanical". The second hidden song is "Blood Sucking Superbitch" with some trumpet tunes added and turns in the end into a fast fun-punk song called "Rest". Regarding the song "Rest"; it's actually a duett with the vocalist Oscar Carlquist from the band In A Pigs Eye, he has a past in the Deathmetal band Caedes.
The band had just finished shooting a video for the track "Cosmical Satanical" and focused on touring in Europe before summer. The line-up had seen some changes since the recording of the first album. Obviously after leaving B-Thong Tony could no longer continue with Lars in the same band so Lars had to go. Johan also decided to leave shortly after the release of 'Stallion Showcase'. Besides a new drummer and a new bassplayer (Ken Sandin) there's also a second guitarplayer (Peter Hunyadi) added to the band to strenghten their live performance and to get some new blood into the band. The new drummer at that time was Patrik Herrström, a guy who had played with the swedish funk/metalband Road Rat. Patrik left Transport League because of personall financial problems. The band recorded two demo tapes with Patrik. The new drummer became Mattias Starander. He has a past in the band Major N.A.
A video for "Bolivian Dog" would be ready at the end of October 1996. The video was directed, filmed and part edited by Tony J.
On the 2:nd of November they entered the Oral Majority Recordings in Gothenburg with producer Roberto Laghi to record their second album 'Superevil'. The recording went pretty well considering Tony getting an infection on his vocal chords, but he recovered after 8 days.
Transport League recorded 13 songs, 11 of them ended up on the album. The leftovers: "Pain For The Pig" and "Broken Stitch" were released on the Japanese version of 'Superevil'. The album got excellent reviews all over Europe and Japan and lots of interviews were done. In June the 23:rd 1998 the album was released in the U.S. by TMC. The response had been very good and 'Superevil' had been getting lots of airplay; actually the album had been Top 10 in the Metal curcuit and was voted: "The Most Overlooked Band of 1998". Transport League also signed a new record deal with the American label Pavement Music.
We left Mascot Records in March of 1998 after been signed to the label for four years and started to search for a new record label with the help of our manager Fabrice Bernard from Switzerland. In May that same year of 1998 we entered the Oral Majority Recordings to record a demo of some new songs. The tracks recorded were: "Hell Predicted", "Last", "Speedhead" + one unnamed track. The tape was sent out to a few labels. We got interest from several labels: Music For Nations, Earache, Century Media & Pavement Music. Negotiations was to follow.
We did some shows during the summer here in Sweden and abroad aswell. Among these ones the Dynamo Open Air show in May 1998 - must have been the highlight! In front of 10.000 people we rocked and thrashed everything around! A great feeling! ...and we also drank up all the beer available in the area...
In August we entered the studio to record a new demo of six new tracks: "Neckdraft", "Man Sized Drain", "Psycho Connected", "Pig Faced Man, + two more. This tape was also sent out to some labels and the response was great!
We played some shows in various cities in Sweden during the fall. We started with a pre-production of the tracks to be featured on the upcoming third album 'Satanic Panic' in March of 1999. We entered the Oral Majority Recordings in May of 1999. The production was to be done by Roberto Laghi, who produced the last TL album 'Superevil'. We also signed a deal with Pavement Music (US) in June 1999.
The album was supposed to be released in September '99, but was postponed 'till January 2000 due to bad timing (!?). 'Satanic Panic' was in February released all over Europe and a month later in USA and South America as well.
A European tour was booked for May the same year. The tour lasted for one month and we visited the countries of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium. We played venues with the capacity from 150-400 people and the response was great. We sold over 150 t-shirts during this tour.
Atlantic Records showed the band some interest and flew down a guy from London to check us out in France. We ate dinner afterwards and he enjoyed the show a lot. We played several festivals in Sweden in June that year such as 2000 Decibel, Arvika Festival and Westgotha Festival etc. July 2000.
We flew over to the States on July 25:th to do six shows. One of the shows was a festival gig at the famous "Milwaukee Metal Fest" in Milwaukee. We played at the main-stage. Other featured bands was Entombed, Mayhem, Today Is The Day, Opeth, Destruction etc. More shows was done in the cities of Chicago, S.t Louis, Erie, New Yersey and New York.
98% of the songs on the debut-album 'Stallion Showcase' is written and composed by Tony. "It's a matter of a need to constantly create songs and some of those songs have such quality that it would be a waste not to do anything with them. Listen to "Bolivian Dog" or "Hell 'N' Back" and you'll understand what we mean".
Tony left B-Thong shortly after their recent European tour because of musical and personal differences. Transport League had become a lot more than just a side-project. It was now Tonys main outlet in which he could explore his talents. Not only as a vocalist and songwriter but also as a guitarist.
The album 'Stallion Showcase' was recorded and mixed in two weeks in Studio Fredman in Gothenburg by Fredrik Nordström in the first part of 1995. The production turned out pretty powerful with a nasty sounding guitar, a bulldozer bass and punching drums. The album breathes a ninetees rock 'n' roll atmosphere. It's heavy, raunchy and aggressive yet melodic, groovy and energetic. All of the songs has very much a live feel in them which is a contrast to the more static and technical approach which B-Thong used to have. However, like B-Thong, Tonys awesome vocals give the songs an extra dimension.
"We've heard people come up with various comparisons; Kyuss, White Zombie, Danzig, Entombed, Led Zeppelin and even Masters of Reality to name a few. The songs offer plenty of variety and definitely have a Transport League Twist to them . The lyrics deal with all sorts of fun and fantasy like high proof alcohol, fast cars, women, alien bloodsuckers, satanic versus etc, all in a quite positive way".
After the listed eleven songs on the album there are two more songs hidden somewhere. The first hidden track is a different thunder-mix of "Cosmical Satanical". The second hidden song is "Blood Sucking Superbitch" with some trumpet tunes added and turns in the end into a fast fun-punk song called "Rest". Regarding the song "Rest"; it's actually a duett with the vocalist Oscar Carlquist from the band In A Pigs Eye, he has a past in the Deathmetal band Caedes.
The band had just finished shooting a video for the track "Cosmical Satanical" and focused on touring in Europe before summer. The line-up had seen some changes since the recording of the first album. Obviously after leaving B-Thong Tony could no longer continue with Lars in the same band so Lars had to go. Johan also decided to leave shortly after the release of 'Stallion Showcase'. Besides a new drummer and a new bassplayer (Ken Sandin) there's also a second guitarplayer (Peter Hunyadi) added to the band to strenghten their live performance and to get some new blood into the band. The new drummer at that time was Patrik Herrström, a guy who had played with the swedish funk/metalband Road Rat. Patrik left Transport League because of personall financial problems. The band recorded two demo tapes with Patrik. The new drummer became Mattias Starander. He has a past in the band Major N.A.
A video for "Bolivian Dog" would be ready at the end of October 1996. The video was directed, filmed and part edited by Tony J.
On the 2:nd of November they entered the Oral Majority Recordings in Gothenburg with producer Roberto Laghi to record their second album 'Superevil'. The recording went pretty well considering Tony getting an infection on his vocal chords, but he recovered after 8 days.
Transport League recorded 13 songs, 11 of them ended up on the album. The leftovers: "Pain For The Pig" and "Broken Stitch" were released on the Japanese version of 'Superevil'. The album got excellent reviews all over Europe and Japan and lots of interviews were done. In June the 23:rd 1998 the album was released in the U.S. by TMC. The response had been very good and 'Superevil' had been getting lots of airplay; actually the album had been Top 10 in the Metal curcuit and was voted: "The Most Overlooked Band of 1998". Transport League also signed a new record deal with the American label Pavement Music.
We left Mascot Records in March of 1998 after been signed to the label for four years and started to search for a new record label with the help of our manager Fabrice Bernard from Switzerland. In May that same year of 1998 we entered the Oral Majority Recordings to record a demo of some new songs. The tracks recorded were: "Hell Predicted", "Last", "Speedhead" + one unnamed track. The tape was sent out to a few labels. We got interest from several labels: Music For Nations, Earache, Century Media & Pavement Music. Negotiations was to follow.
We did some shows during the summer here in Sweden and abroad aswell. Among these ones the Dynamo Open Air show in May 1998 - must have been the highlight! In front of 10.000 people we rocked and thrashed everything around! A great feeling! ...and we also drank up all the beer available in the area...
In August we entered the studio to record a new demo of six new tracks: "Neckdraft", "Man Sized Drain", "Psycho Connected", "Pig Faced Man, + two more. This tape was also sent out to some labels and the response was great!
We played some shows in various cities in Sweden during the fall. We started with a pre-production of the tracks to be featured on the upcoming third album 'Satanic Panic' in March of 1999. We entered the Oral Majority Recordings in May of 1999. The production was to be done by Roberto Laghi, who produced the last TL album 'Superevil'. We also signed a deal with Pavement Music (US) in June 1999.
The album was supposed to be released in September '99, but was postponed 'till January 2000 due to bad timing (!?). 'Satanic Panic' was in February released all over Europe and a month later in USA and South America as well.
A European tour was booked for May the same year. The tour lasted for one month and we visited the countries of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium. We played venues with the capacity from 150-400 people and the response was great. We sold over 150 t-shirts during this tour.
Atlantic Records showed the band some interest and flew down a guy from London to check us out in France. We ate dinner afterwards and he enjoyed the show a lot. We played several festivals in Sweden in June that year such as 2000 Decibel, Arvika Festival and Westgotha Festival etc. July 2000.
We flew over to the States on July 25:th to do six shows. One of the shows was a festival gig at the famous "Milwaukee Metal Fest" in Milwaukee. We played at the main-stage. Other featured bands was Entombed, Mayhem, Today Is The Day, Opeth, Destruction etc. More shows was done in the cities of Chicago, S.t Louis, Erie, New Yersey and New York.
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1995 - Stallion Showcase
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1997 - Superevil
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2000 - Satanic Panic
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2003 - Grand Amputation
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2004 - Multiple Organ Harvest
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