Before Felony, Jeffrey Spry had been the singer with Detroit Proto-Punk/Hard rock legends, Ron Asheton and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson in a short lived super-group that was called "The New Order". Jeff was in the band in 1975 and recorded an album with them that was released in 1977. After a period playing shows and making music business connections in the Los Angeles scene, Felony appeared in the horror b-movie Graduation Day, playing their song "Gangsters of Rock." Soon after, they signed with producers/managers Don Rubin, formerly of pop groupThe Ivy Three, and Artie Kornfeld. Live shows mixed by sound engineer Steve Sands, who is also credited as second engineer on the debut album “The Fanatic” Felony went into the studio and emerged with single "The Fanatic," which became a hit on Los Angeles radio stationKROQ-FM with help from program director Rick Carroll. The song peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1983. It became a key track in the development of the Modern Rock radio format. "The Fanatic" was included in the influential 1983 Valley Girl soundtrack, which also featured Modern English's "I Melt With You". Felony also performed the track on American Bandstand. A video was made from "The Fanatic" "The Fanatic" video was shot in Hollywood, California, in 1983 and aired on MTV. The Fanatic video includes a cameo of Jeffrey Spry with his first wife, SAG actress, Lucrecia Sarita Russo. The band, which now included Jeffrey on lead vocals, Joe on guitar, Danny Sands on piano/keyboards, Louis Ruiz on bass and Arty Blea on drums, recorded their first full-length album, also called The Fanatic, which was released in 1983 on Scotti Brothers Records with distribution by CBS Records. It included the single and nine other tracks that helped define the trendy-but-never-huge power-pop new wave sound of the early 1980s. Felony's second single was 1983's "The Pied Piper," which producer Kornfeld had written with Steve Duboff in the 1960s and which had been a hit for Crispian St. Peters and Cher. "Kristine" from The Fanatic was also a single in 1983. The band recorded songs including "All the King's Horses" and "She's My Little Girl" for a second album on Scotti Brothers that never materialized. The original chemistry was never recaptured, and in 1985 EM-HI released Felony's sophomore effort The Vigilante, which featured a more traditional rock sound. The title track got a lot of radio play and was number two in the KROQ Top 106.7 Countdown of 1985." The Vigilante also featured the track "I'm No Animal," which appeared on the soundtrack of 1986's. Towards the end of 1991 Felony released their final album, In the Name of Rock-n-Roll on the Q9 label. Jeffrey Scott Spry committed suicide on March 9, 1992. March 10, 1992 was the re-release of the Fanatic. Joe formed his latest band, Kanawormz, with bass player John Avila of Oingo Boingo fame, from the ashes of Felony. Most of Kanawormz band resides in Hollywood Ca. AKA Shigletown, CA. and are currently recording their third full-length CD. "The Fanatic" was featured in the 2011 film "Take Me Home Tonight".
Discography
"Gangsters of Rock" from Graduation Day "The Fanatic"
