The lineup first consisted of vocalist Jack Grisham (who has been credited as Jack Greggors, Alex Morgan, Jack Ladoga, Jim Woo and James DeLauge), guitarist Ron Emory, bassist Mike Roche, and drummer Todd Barnes, the band's first release was a harshly political eponymous T.S.O.L. EP featuring tracks such as "Superficial Love," "World War III" and "Abolish Government."
After their debut EP, they released Dance With Me, their first full-length record. A departure from the entirely political nature of the previous release, Dance With Me was far darker and more macabre, featuring such themes as necrophilia, and the song "Silent Scream," which is made up entirely of horror movie clichés. Their most popular release, both then and to this day, the album earned them the title of the "West Coast Misfits" (a reference to Glenn Danzig's band the Misfits on the East Coast), and has made the band a favorite amongst horror punk fans.
They later signed to independent label Alternative Tentacles, for which they released the Weathered Statues 7" EP and the Beneath the Shadows album which featured, for the first time, keyboard player Greg Kuehn who added a new dimension to the band. Around this period their style had changed further, becoming highly experimental and varied, featuring art punk and psychedelic leanings, as well as their customary horror themes.
In 1983 amid personal turmoil, Jack Grisham and Todd Barnes left the band and were replaced by singer Joe Wood (who was Grisham's brother-in-law) and drummer Mitch Dean. This new line-up (with Joe Wood and Mitch Dean) released the album named Change Today? in 1984 on Enigma Records.
The group changed their sound entirely for their next release Revenge, adopting a punk metal sound. Their music was featured in the 1984 movie Suburbia, the 1985 version of popular horror movie Return of the Living Dead and Dangerously Close in 1986.
The band became friends with Guns N' Roses and T.S.O.L. t-shirts can be seen in the "Sweet Child o' Mine" video. They followed up with an album in a similar style, titled Hit and Run. Before it was released, original guitarist Ron Emory quit the band, leaving Mike Roche as the sole original member.
T.S.O.L. were joined briefly by guitarist Scotty Phillips, who quit before the band started recording the follow-up to Hit and Run. They eventually hired guitar player and actor Marshall Rohner. They released a blues-metal album titled Strange Love in 1990. Mike Roche quit shortly before the album release, leaving no original member in the band. A compilation album entitled Hell & Back Together: 1984-1990 was issued in 1992 with an emphasis on their metal era. Murphy Karges, later of Sugar Ray, briefly replaced Roche on bass as did Dave Mello.
Meanwhile, the original members had started playing shows featuring the band's early material under the name T.S.O.L., often playing the same cities, the same nights as the other T.S.O.L. Since Joe Wood and Mitch Dean now owned the rights to the name T.S.O.L., they threatened to sue the original members, who released a live album of their early material under the name "Grisham, Roche, Emory and Barnes" but stopped playing together soon after because of drug problems.
In 1996, most of the original members settled down and realized that they still had a passion for their music and that fans wanted them to reunite. In 1999, they fought with Wood for rights to the name and won before joining the Vans Warped Tour, playing for the first time in years under the name T.S.O.L.
Todd Barnes had died on December 6th, 1999 of a brain aneurysm at the age of 34. The remaining members recruited drummer Jay O'Brien and released the Anticop single and the Disappear and Divided We Stand albums on Nitro Records, the latter of which featured Greg Kuehn back on keyboards. The Original T.S.O.L. recorded two more full length albums. In September of 2007, Cider City Records released the posthumous live album Live From Long Beach, recorded in November 2006 on the weekend of the band's two "farewell" performances.
Their departure was short-lived, however, with a couple of local shows in late 2007. They also headlined the "F**k the Whales, Save a Chckn" benefit in February of 2008, held to help with cancer treatment bills for guitarist Craig "Chckn" Jewett of D.I.
They are an independent band under the Nitro Records banner, which was started by the Offspring vocalist Dexter Holland, for whom T.S.O.L. is cited as an influence.
In December 2008, the band, in cooperation with Hurley, entered the studio to record Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Free Downloads which was, as the title suggests, made available as a free download through Hurley's website on January 8, 2009.
The late eighties T.S.O.L. version apparently are popular enough to invite bookings in Brazil & Argentina, where the Grisham led band hold no legal rights to prevent Wood from gigging as T.S.O.L. Since 1996, Wood has been joined by guitarists including Mike Martt and Drac Conley, drummers Steve "Sully" O’Sullivan and Mitch Dean and bassist Dave Mello, who joined the band near the end of its Enigma years run. Additionally, Wood has pursued musical work in Joe Wood and the Lonely Ones & Cisco Poison.
Members
* Jack Grisham - vocals
* Ron Emory - guitar
* Mike Roche - bass
* Antonio Val Hernandez - Drums
* Greg Kuehn - piano, synthesizers
Former members
* Todd Barnes - drums
* Murphy Karges (born Matthew Murphy Karges) - bass
* Dave Mello - bass
* Joe Wood - vocals, guitar
* Mitch Dean - drums
* Marshall Rohner - guitars
* Jay O'Brien - drums
* Travis Johnson - drums
* Billy Blaze - drums
* Frank Agnew - guitar
* Scotty Phillips - guitar
* Tiny Bubbz - Drums
No Way Out
T.S.O.L. Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Time is running, running out
I'm running out of choices
Running running out of luck
Society's closing in on me
Too many places I have seen
There's a noose around my neck
The clock is ticking out of control
I'm gonna lose it, can't take much more
Feel the slash of their whips
Run their belts across my hips
Running into danger
Pulling on my strings
Fingers on all my problems
I'm going insane
Society's closing in on me
Too many places I have seen
There's a noose around my neck
They make me follow in their footsteps
The clock is ticking out of control
I'm gonna lose it, can't take much more
Feel the slash of their whips
Run their belts across my hips
Running into problems
Makes me scream and shout
I've got no solutions
I gotta get out
The lyrics to T.S.O.L.'s "No Way Out" depict a feeling of being trapped and suffocated by society's expectations and demands. The singer is running out of places to turn and options to take, with time rapidly slipping away, leaving them with the feeling of having no luck. Society is closing in on the singer, forcing them to follow in the footsteps of others and tie a noose around their neck. The clock is ticking out of control, and the pressure is becoming too much to handle. The singer feels the literal and figurative whip of society on their back, with their problems being pulled at like strings, driving them insane.
There is a sense of desperation and hopelessness in the lyrics, with the singer feeling as though they are running into danger and problems, screaming and shouting without any solutions in sight. They feel the need to escape, to find a way out of the suffocating grasp of society's expectations. The lyrics speak to the human desire for freedom, agency, and autonomy, and the intense pressure that can come from society's demands.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm running out of places
I'm losing options and opportunities
Time is running, running out
I'm running out of time to escape the situation
I'm running out of choices
I'm left with few, if any, alternatives
Running running out of luck
I'm quickly losing any streak of luck I may have had
Society's closing in on me
I feel oppressed and besieged by society's expectations and restrictions
Too many places I have seen
I've experienced too much of life without finding a way out
There's a noose around my neck
I feel trapped and suffocated by my circumstances
They make me follow in their footsteps
I'm pressured to conform to society's standards and expectations
The clock is ticking out of control
I'm feeling overwhelmed and time is slipping away
I'm gonna lose it, can't take much more
I'm on the verge of losing my sanity and can't handle the pressure anymore
Feel the slash of their whips
I feel the pain and oppression caused by society's expectations
Run their belts across my hips
The pressure and conformity of society is binding and painful
Running into danger
My actions and decisions are leading me towards risk and peril
Pulling on my strings
External forces are controlling or manipulating me
Fingers on all my problems
I can't escape or overcome the issues and obstacles in my life
I'm going insane
The pressure and stress is driving me to madness
Running into problems
My circumstances are leading to further issues and difficulties
Makes me scream and shout
I'm frustrated and overwhelmed to the point of outburst
I've got no solutions
I don't have any answers or remedies to my problems
I gotta get out
I need to escape and break free from my oppressive circumstances
Contributed by Cameron A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.