Sledge was formed early in the summer of 1994, after a series of changes in various other bands left the core members of Sledge "behind," so to speak. The duo had first met in an alternative-grunge outfit called Obsidian (with Joe Mikelonis and Mike Pounds), which was finally disbanded over personal issues within the band. Not wanting (or able) to give up on their desire to make music, David Kauffman (the former drummer of Obsidian),and Jeff Grose (the former vocalist of Obsidian) embarked upon the task of creating their own band, through the benefits of modern technology. So, with some minor practice, moderate experimentation, and a great deal of monetary investments, Sledge was born.

Switching from the previous focus and background in alternative rock, Sledge began to focus on the further development of "electro-rock," influenced by the emergence of bands such as Stabbing Westward, Nine Inch Nails, Pigface, God Lives Underwater, and Rev-Co. Our earlier sound, including Indigo and Solo, leaned toward the pop side of electronic music (like GLU). More recent work, after the full-time addition of Ryan and Mike, has become much more reminiscent of bands like Filter and NIN.
click here to learn more about the devilhog The band still resides in a quaint little misfit town named Punxsutawney, located in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, approximately 70 miles outside of Pittsburgh. Some of you might recognize the town's name as the home of "Phil," the weather forecasting groundhog... We're not exactly fond of being known solely for the ritualistic rodent worshippers that congregate here every February 2nd, but the area is where the band originates from and for the moment, it suits the band's needs. Also, David attends the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus located there, slowly but surely working toward a degree in criminology; while Jeff periodically attempts to hold down various "day jobs".
The rest of the band includes Mike McConnaughey and Dave's brother, Ryan Kauffman as the guitarists, whom we have recently added as full time partners in Sledge. Mike's background is classic rock and heavy metal (like Danzig, Pantera, and White Zombie) whereas Ryan has interests leaning toward pop and feedback-oriented bands, such as Sonic Youth, Pavement, and the Flaming Lips. This diversity in musical interests comes together to form a unique combination of styles and expands the music to an extent Jeff and I alone coulddn't reach. In addition, we have at times had "auxillary" members, including Whitney Waite (keyboards) and Jamie Peace (background vocals). The only reason they are not full time members being that they're too musically talented for Sledge alone!
Our somewhat secluded location is beginning to force us to leave the area in order to make any type of success with what we're doing. So, we are preparing to move somewhere more urban (most likely Pittsburgh) in the not-so-distant future and possibly pick up a full-time keyboard player. In the meantime, we are currently attempting to compile material for our first self-produced album and are now looking for possible distributors. The music that we play is mainly composed through the use of drum machines, an array of keyboards/synths, guitars, vocal effects, samplers, and various other electronic doo-dads.
To give you a vague idea of how our sound is modeled, I've provided this list of songs by other artists that we cover in SLeDGE:
  • Pigface's "Suck"
  • Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like A Hole"
  • Filter's "Jurassitol"
  • Lead Into Gold's "Faster Than Light"
  • White Zombie's (or KC & The Sunshine Band) "Boogieman"
    • To learn even more about Sledge, please take a look at our other pages on the site. Feel free to examine the lyrics that we've written, by following this link to the Lyrics Page which maintains a continually updated list of lyrics to our latest songs! To see what we've been up to`lately, stop in at our Sledge News Page. Also check out our Audio Page, where you can listen to some of our music and the Image Gallery, where you can view and download original artwork composed for the band.

    Also, Ryan and David Kauffman have gone on to form a new band, Happyface until Sledge gets back on track.

    copyright © 1996 David Kauffman: 102350.1757@compuserve.com

    Return to SLeDGE HeadQuarters.
    Go to Geocities Sunset Strip