Humans

Humans is a group associated with several acts of the same name, including a two-piece electro-folk outfit from Vancouver, British Columbia featuring Peter Ricq and Robbie Slade, and a melodic hardcore band from Adelaide. Another version of Humans is a long-running band from Santa Cruz, California that begins in the 1970s under the name The Mysterious People before adopting the Humans name in 1979.

Santa Cruz group

The Santa Cruz version of Humans has roots going back to the 1960s in Southern California, where the core musicians Sterling Storm, Eric Gies and John Anderson play together in various forms before moving north. Early recordings by the trio appear under Eddie and The Showmen in 1963. As Humans, the group becomes known as a semi-surf band whose material combines surf music with reggae, R&B and bubblegum pop and rock.

Storm provides lyrics and vocals, with a style compared to Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo. Gies writes much of the band’s other material, often focusing on paranoia, city life, identity crises, and themes of love and sex. The lineup also includes rotating drummers Jerome Deupree and Jim Norris during the I.R.S. period, along with keyboardists David Larstein and Lee Stewart. The band continues to play in the Bay Area into the late 1980s and makes a long-form video to accompany its full-length I.R.S. album before ending activity.

One of the best-known songs is “I Live In The City”, described as a near-hit, and the band is noted for the strong playing of its writers and instrumentalists.

Other acts using the name

Other groups called Humans include a spazz-thrash-punk band from Bloomington, Indiana, an indie band from Charlotte, North Carolina, a short-lived project by two girls in suburban New Hampshire, and a three-piece dance-punk band from Melbourne, Australia. Another Melbourne act and another Adelaide act also use the name, with the Adelaide group identified as melodic hardcore or progressive punk.