Oddjob: The funk, the whole punk, and nothing but the rock. So help us!

A hard rockin', funky, punk-edged band from Austin, Texas who pride themselves on energy, aggressiveness, and ass-thumping volume.

Scott Carlin, bassist by trade, and his old roommate Werner Campbell started out a grunge-pop band called Provocative Elbow in late 1991 in which they both played guitar and drums and wrote tons of songs. While Scott handled bass chores and backing vocals, Werner took care of most of the lead vocal duties. After recording and producing a 10-track cassette, they recruited a lead guitarist and Werner's brother Karl on bass for live shows. With Werner on guitar and lead vocals and Scott on drums they played a few gigs to rave reviews but disbanded in mid-1992 because of personal differences and a disillusioned Scott gave up on the band scene for a couple of years. He went solo for awhile, participating in the occasional jam sesssion and partying way too much. In early 1994, he got it together enough to record a demo tape on a borrowed 4-track, playing all the instruments and handling vocal duties. With demo in hand he went scouting for new recruits.

After nearly a year of searching and playing with countless flakes and losers, Scott finally re-formed the band in February of 1995 when he met guitarist Jeremy Alexander through the Austin Chronicle Musician's Referal and he gave a listen (and an enthusiastic thumbs-up!) to Jeremy's home made demo he recorded with Chris, a drummer and former roommate who joined the Navy. After a few months of writing new songs, they put an ad out for a drummer. When the dust settled and all of the lame-asses went home, Bret Bryon joined in July of 1995. They played their first gig (a birthday party) a week later and recorded a $100 four-song EP two weeks after that. They played clubs and parties in Austin and Dallas for about three and a half years and recorded a full length album entitled "Dig" in September, 1996. Soon thereafter, they contributed 3 songs to the "More than you Bargained For" compilation on Urinine Records.

In May of 1998, Provocative Elbow changed their name to the much simpler and cooler ODDJOB and added a second guitarist, Bill Corley. He also played violin and added a great new dimension to their sound. In August of 1998, Bret was forced out with a majority vote from Bill and Jeremy who wanted to bring on board Jimmy Springer (no relation to Jerry). He was a hard rockin' drummer and good backing vocalist who had served time in Bill's old band, Moonstone, which had disbanded some months back. Jimmy soon proved to be extremely unreliable and was dismissed from the group after blowing an important audition for a weekly gig at The Black Cat Lounge.

Soon thereafter, in early 1999, Jeremy and Bill decided to move out of Austin and try their luck in Boston. Wasting no time, Scott looked up Bret again and found out that the new band, Veronika, he had joined was in need of a bassist so Scott answered the call. After playng with Veronika for a few months, it was evident that things weren't working out and Bret and Scott left in June of 1999 to reform Oddjob. After placing some new ads and going through countless auditions, they were joined by local guitar god Reese Perkins and golden-throated Blake Naranjo on lead vocals.
In late January 2000 Blake left the group after accepting a real world job offer in Dallas. Soon thereafter, things began to slide downhill after a new vocalist, Rick Viator (who was chosen after many auditions) also quit the group in early summer after joining in March of 2000. Finally in the summer of 2000, the members of Odd Job decided to move on after they realized that the band was beyond repair at this point.

In addition to being featured on local radio station KLBJ-FM, they also appeared on the Austin Music Network show "Wake Up Austin!" and had several favorable press reviews but it wasn't enough to sustain the energy to keep the band alive.
The boys still remain friends and collectively wish to thank evryone around the country who supported them while they were around!!

Keep rockin', friends!!