The Lillingtons

The Lillingtons

The Lillingtons are a punk rock band from Newcastle, Wyoming, active from 1995 to the present. Their sound is often described as pop punk and is frequently compared with the Ramones. The group’s core member is Kody Templeman, and the original line-up includes Zack Rawhauser, Cory Laurence and Tim O’Hara, known as Timmy V.

History

The original four-piece records only the first 7-inch, I Lost My Marbles, which appears on Joe King of The Queers’ More Bounce to the Ounce compilation. After Zack Rawhauser leaves, the band continues as a three-piece. Their first full-length album, Shit Out of Luck, is released on Clearview Records in 1996.

After that release, the band shifts its lyrical focus. In 1999, it records a new album with producer-engineer Mass Giorgini using its own money and without a label. That album, Death By Television, uses sci-fi and retro themes, including songs such as “War Of The Worlds,” “Invasion Of The Saucermen” and “X-Ray Specs.” The recordings attract attention, and although Fat Wreck Chords offers to release the album, the band instead signs with Panic Button Records, an imprint of Lookout! Records overseen by Ben Weasel.

Later releases and activity

The band tours heavily for the next two years in punk circles and then breaks up after recording The Backchannel Broadcast, released in February 2001. The album is spy-themed and includes “Wait It Out,” a song written by Ben Weasel and later re-recorded by The Riverdales for Phase Three. John Jughead of Screeching Weasel and Even in Blackouts fills in as second guitar at many shows on the Death By Television and Backchannel tours, and Ben Weasel and Lurch Nobody also appear on those tours.

Timmy V leaves after Death By Television and is replaced by Scott, a drummer from Austin, Texas. Red Scare Industries reissues remastered versions of Death By Television and The Backchannel Broadcast in 2005. The band later reunites with all original members for The Too Late Show in 2006, and releases Stella Sapiente in 2017.

Related projects

Kody Templeman is also a member of the Laramie, Wyoming pop punk band Teenage Bottlerocket. Timmy V plays drums as a hired hand with The Eyeliners and has his own project, Stabbed in Back, which records a hardcore/punk album called A Portrait of Noise.