That Fucking Tank is a band that operates on DIY principles; booking concerts, recording records and making music in a way that contributes towards the creation of alternative spaces to the boring mechanisms of industry, and challenging the assumption that good music has to be made professionally. It was formed in 2004 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, for a one-off performance by friends-since-school Andy Abbott and James Islip who met over an owl.
Abbott plays a specially tuned baritone guitar through guitar and bass amplifiers, Islip plays a minimal drum kit. Their novel name, energetic performances and manish volume saw them play all over Europe and the United Kingdom with brain-mangling regularity, sharing stages and tours with bands including Hella, Q and Not U, Lungfish, Oxes, Unsane, Kid Commando, GI Joe, Chevreuil, Grabba Grabba Tape, Poltergroom, US Maple, Neptune, Whitehouse, AIDS Wolf, Vialka, Nervous Kid, Don Caballero, The Fucking Champs, Hoover and the like.
This period of the band birthed the Document of the First Set (2004) and Day of Death by Bono Adrenalin Shock (2006) both released by Jealous Records.
Relentless touring, emigration from LS6 area of Leeds and growing responsibilities outside of music saw the duo playing concerts at a more regular pace in 2007. In 2008, That Fucking Tank fulfilled a teenage fantasy by playing on a bill with Metallica at Leeds and Reading Festivals.
2009's Tanknology album (Gringo Records) received smatterings of positive mainstream press attention and formed the spine of the duo's live sets for the next two years.
In 2011, Tank returned to the rehearsal space and studio to write and record new tracks that became their third album TFT. Described by the band as an autobiographical concept album about the music journey the pair have embarked on over the last twenty years, TFT was given an initial short-run on vinyl (that the band took on a European tour) and was released officially by Gringo Records in2012.
http://www.thatfuckingtank.co.uk