Kick Out The Rouge... The Origin

BAND BIO

Kick Out The Rouge! emerged from the ashes of The Pom Pom Girls. When that band ended, Charlotte Pipe (C.J.) took a long break, watching obscure foreign sports, eating pizza rolls and getting into beefs with a stupid bird mascot for a hockey team.

Meanwhile, a man named John Santana was living his worst life. He had a soon-to-be-ex-wife he couldn’t stand, in a house he didn’t like, in a speed trap of a town he liked even less. He had guitars, but despite his surname he was no threat to that Carlos guy. One night he went to a Pom Pom Girls gig. After the gig, which he enjoyed, he and Charlotte chatted. They both liked hockey. They missed the Hartford Whalers. They were both into Devo. Fu Manchu. It got to the point where an onlooker screamed “OH MY GOD THERE’S TWO OF THEM!” before fleeing the scene on foot.

On one cold November evening in 2021 Harvey and Johnny both got mysterious packages in the mail containing demo tapes of songs that would eventually become the foundation for their debut effort Go Off I Guess where it was later revealed that these songs and those packages were sent to the band from Ingrid, who wanted the band to come together and bring a new brand of rock and roll to the fertile musical soil of the Hudson Valley, Albany, and beyond.

Months later, ROUGE! initially consisting of C.J. (Now Harvey) on drums and vocals and John (now known as Johnny) on guitar, and Ingrid (band mom) the trio were finally able to take advantage of a ramshackle room above the garage at the house Johnny resided in with his then-wife and a beater drum kit where they began making doofy punk rock as inspired by Ingrid’s demos. The name came from a scoring option in Canadian football in which a team can get a single point, often to widespread indifference of the fans.

Songs were written. Gigs were played.

Meanwhile, a man who, in an evil parallel universe, is clean-shaven and displays lots of tact on social media, was playing some fiery doom metal lead guitar. Harvey and Johnny struck up a friendship with the man, Degenerate James.

During this time, ROUGE began recording what would become their debut cassette, GO OFF I GUESS. Some of it was recorded in the Degenerate James’s garage. He was kind enough to degrade his Marshall half-stack amplifier by letting Johnny record his parts using it. In return, Harvey and Johnny agreed to let him put some lead guitar on the song “Shake That Ass.” The results were amazing.

In time, Degenerate James began performing with ROUGE!, partly in the hope of keeping him from getting banned from social media platforms, but mostly because he is an amazing lead guitarist who gets along fabulously with everyone else.

ROUGE! was almost complete. A revolving door of bass players ensued. But none of them could commit to the group on a regular basis. This was solved during the recording of the second album as Harvey played the bass parts. But unbeknownst to him, Johnny, and James, The Man who would become their bassist was already in their midst. Triple D was producing and engineering the new ROUGE! album. His production work was amazing. His knowledge and experience in sound engineering, recording technology, and a willingness to try anything played a major role in taking the new material to amazing highs. He was invited to join, and Triple D now lays down the low end.

But more changes were in store. After playing a gig as a two-piece, Harvey and Johnny decided to change the band name to Kick Out The Rouge! It was how they were billed on the flier promoting the show. They figure the name is catchier.

If GO OFF I GUESS was venting, the new Kick Out The Rouge album, …All The Tall Poppies, is the sound of growth, of reaching heights you never thought possible. Of being able to leave a terrible situation and find happiness and a new life, as Johnny did. Of the smells from the waters of Lake Erie filling your nose as you enjoy everything a small underdog city has to offer as Harvey did. Of growing arms, a head, long, red hair, and transforming into a real person as Ingrid is.

Ultimately though this is the sound of things falling apart.

Kick Out The ROUGE!, motherfuckers.