The groundwork for what has become the relentlessly-touring sonic assault known as The Koffin Kats was laid near Detroit, Michigan when Vic Victor (Lead Vocalist, Upright Bass) joined forces with long-time friend Tommy Koffin (Guitar). After adding Damian Detroit (Drums) the band kicked off in June 2003, stopping for nothing. Now, with over ten years of touring internationally and over two thousand live shows, the touring trio’s current home is out on the open road.

The Koffin Kats began by putting together songs with such subjects as dealing with the horrors of the real world, as well as Science Fiction. The band started in small local bars playing for beer, hoping for gas money, and eventually made their way out of the Midwest. The next couple of years contained positives including numerous North American tours, and negatives concerning changes at the drumming position. During this time they released their first three albums: Koffin Kats (2003), Inhumane (2005), and Straying From The Pack (2006).

The three album releases and their supporting tours gained attention for The Koffin Kats and helped get the band noticed in the wide world of punk and psychobilly. In 2007 Vic and Tommy connected with drummer Eric “E-Ball” Walls to record the band’s fourth studio album, Drunk In The Daylight (2008), and catalyzed what the band is now known for: love for their fans and the road, and playing everywhere for everyone willing to watch and listen.

In the years following the release of Drunk In The Daylight, The Koffin Kats have established their name performing in Europe, and have also been included on tours with some of the tops acts in psychobilly, including, but not limited to, Mad Sin, Nekromantix, and The Meteors. In 2009 the trio released their fifth studio album, Forever For Hire, and Tommy departed at the year’s end to pursue a normal life. Shortly thereafter, “EZ” Ian Jarrell took over the guitarist position and joined the band on tour. While on the road they worked on the material that would become featured on their split album with fellow psychobilly act 12 Step Rebels, From Our Hands To Yours (2011).

The Koffin Kats signed with Sailor’s Grave Records in late 2011, and released Our Way & The Highway in January 2012. The trio supported their sixth studio album’s release with non-stop international touring, finally ending in summer of 2013. In autumn of the same year, they released another full-length album with Sailor’s Grave Records, Born Of The Motor. Sales and reviews have proven Born Of The Motor, the band’s seventh studio album, to be their most successful release to date.

Early 2014 brought another change to The Koffin Kats’ member roster; Ian Jarrell left the band to handle personal business at home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Not wanting to bring someone too far removed from The Koffin Kats family into the fold, Vic and Eric enlisted John Kay (Guitar). John was the engineer on numerous recordings.

The founding lineup returned in 2016.

Six years after his departure, Tommy Koffin returned to playing guitar with The Koffin Kats. With Vic Victor on lead vocals and upright bass, and E Ball Walls on drums. In 2017, the trio released their latest album titled “Party Time In The End Times.”

2019 is a year of new music and international touring. KK will be releasing a new song each month while touring throughout North America and Europe.

The band was active in the late Eighties and early Nineties, and has recently re-formed (2005). It consists of singer Jim Leedy (a.k.a. “Elvis Hitler”), guitarist John Defever, bassist Warren Defever, and drummer Damian Lang. Their irreverent mix of rockabilly and lowbrow humor led to them having a cult following in their day, though they never had commercial success. Their first album, Disgraceland, was initially released on Wang Head records in 1987 (WH004) and early copies came in a handmade sleeve formed from corrugated cardboard with a black-and-white sheet pasted to the front and back. The band managed to put out three CDs on Restless Records. They then disappeared from the public spotlight for the first time. Warren Defever would go on to front the dramatically-different sounding His Name Is Alive, and work as a record producer for underground bands.

In 1998, however, Elvis Hitler reunited as a 3-piece band with former Mutants guitarist Pasadena now on bass and occasional guitar and his (at the time) 18-year-old son Jeff on drums, who would later go on to play with bands like One Hump Chump, Short Of 1st, The Weakend, and Deastro. This lineup continued to play until mid 2000. They once more reunited in 2003 at The Magic Stick club in Detroit with Warren Defever returning to the bass. They played one more concert at that club on September 4, 2004.

Their minor “hit” song “Green Haze” consisted of the lyrics from the successful TV-show Green Acres sung to the tune of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”

The Mights arose in 2016 from the ashes of the great Chicago ones that came before them – who paved the way for What Might Be. But alas, Brothers and Sisters, most failed to listen. Warnings fell upon deaf ears. Now the time has come for the message to be heard. Andrew lays the foundation, Sean and Erik shine the light, and Dave carries the message. The message is an invitation. All are invited, but only those who are Wide Awake will see the door.  As a laser pierces the fog, so too will the message travel – farther and farther – never losing focus, never losing intensity – until it has traveled around this earth, and then again and again and again. And like the laser beam, free from the grasp of earthly gravity, but bent by space and time, the message will travel far, Brothers and Sisters – it will travel as far as the farthest reaches of our universe, and then farther still into what lies beyond. It takes five seconds, five seconds of decision, five seconds to realize your purpose here on the planet. It takes five seconds to realize that it’s time to move, it’s time to get down with it. Time is a slippery thing, Brothers and Sisters: Lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever. You must decide. Only then, Brothers and and Sisters, only then, will you see, will you hear, will you feel: All That Might Be.

Real music for real people.