The Huntingtons

The Huntingtons were a punk rock band which formed in 1993-1994 in the Maryland/Delaware area by Cliff Powell (aka Cliffy Huntington), Mike Holt (aka Mikey Huntington) and Mike Pierce (aka Mikee Huntington). In 1996, their debut Sweet Sixteen was released by Flying Tart Records. A few months later, their first attempt at recording Ramones covers, entitled Rocket To Ramonia saw limited release via the Burnt Toast Vinyl label. At this point the band added a second guitarist, Tom Rehbein (currently of Small Towns Burn A Little Slower). After working with producer Mass Giorgini for the band's next album, Fun And Games, Tom was replaced by Brad Ber. After the album's release in the summer of 1997, the band started touring and gained a cult following. Their big break came in 1998, when they signed to Tooth & Nail Records and released High School Rock. After touring for the High School Rock release, the band made a conscious decision to take their Ramones sound to the extreme and released five albums in a one year period. Live: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, File Under Ramones and Get Lost all made it into stores before 1999 was over. The band also played the first of what would become two shows as Joey Ramone's backing band at at CBGB's in NYC. Plastic Surgery and Split were both released to stores in January of 2000. During this period the band went through multiple line-up changes before finally settling in for good with Josh Blackway (aka Jonny Huntington) on second guitar and Rick Wise, formerly of Tantrum Of The Muse, on drums. The band spent the remainder of 2000 on the road touring throughout the US and Europe. The spring of 2001 saw the release of Rock 'N' Roll Habits For The New Wave (a collection of newly recorded versions of selected songs from the band's pre-Tooth And Nail era). After perfecting their Ramones-meets-90's pop-punk sound, the band went in a much more pop oriented direction for the Songs In The Key Of You album, which was released in late summer 2001. Cliffy left the band just before the release of the Songs In The Key Of You record and after a short break, the band regrouped with new guitarist, Andy Dibiaso and toured throughout 2002. 2003 brought two more releases from the band: an EP entitled The Soothing Sounds Of... and their final full-length of all new original material, Self-Titled Album. The band ended their 10-year run in 2005 with a 30 song best-of disc entitled Growing Up Is No Fun: The Standards '95-'05 and played its final show at the Cornerstone Festival, bringing back Cliffy on guitar.