Stepson

About

US Heavy rock band Los Angeles-based, active in the 1st half of the 70s. Stepson was formed in 1972 by Bruce Hauser (bass), Jeffrey Hawks (vocals), Vern Kjellberg (aka Joey Newman) (guitar) and Len Fagan (drums). Hauser, Hawks and Newman hailed from cult psych-rockers Touch (one album in 1969), whilst Fagan had been member of the country-rock group Wichita Fall (one album in 1968). The music of the band is a powerful and high-energy hard blues rock, a cross between MC5, Bloodrock , Mountain and Blue Cheer. The songs on the Stepson LP were recorded at Gold Star Recording Studios in Hollywood with Stan Ross engineering and Bob D’Orleans producing. The album was issued in summer 1974 on ABC Records and it is thought that 50,000 copies were printed. Then they played most of the concert venues in the greater Los Angeles area; Long Beach Auditorium, Long Beach Arena, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and the Shrine Auditorium as the opening act for Steely Dan, Guess Who, T-Rex, Mountain and others. But the album was not as successful as hoped and the band split-up in early 1975. In 2013 Rockadrome’s Vintage Label has released a compilation of Stepson's unissued recordings 1972-74.