Staags! is a punk band from Memphis, Tennessee founded by guitarist/vocalist Cameron Higgs, formerly of The Weatherman (in his words, "a really shitty band") and The Barbaras. "Staags! were a garage-rock band for a while, and I got tired of that and started writing more hardcore songs," Higgs says. "It killed our popularity. We were liked a lot more as a garage band." The transformation also killed the band's original lineup: Two members left when the hardcore direction began taking over. "Every musical genre seems to be fairly formulaic," Higgs says. "Garage rock had gotten me back into music again, but it was getting old, and it seemed like everyone into it was 40 years old or 17. There wasn't any middle ground, so I guess I was frustrated, and the anger of hardcore punk rock appealed to me again." Rounding out the current lineup is the other original member, Robin Pack, on bass, Jackson Gilman on drums, and Kyle Johnson on guitar. Johnson was a member of early-'90s pop-punk band American Lesion, and Pack is a rock-show fixture, documenting bands with his mobile recording unit. As Rocket Science Audio, he provides, for instance, the recordings that fill the GonerFest compilations. Pack has a musical background with decidedly un-hardcore moments (the onetime jamband-that-wouldn't-die Yow), but more importantly, he held down the bass slot in the powerful sludge punk/metal hybrid The Lewds and the equally punchy Sonsabitches. "It's no secret that I have tie-dyes and devil sticks in my background, but before that, I listened to the Circle Jerks and Poison Idea as a kid," Pack says. "In terms of what I listen to and what I play, I want music that kicks people in the face for a while, let's them rest, then kicks people in the face some more, and so on -- music that quickly gets to the point." The Staags!' self-released seven-inch EP, Adult Brigade, is six songs of furious hardcore in little over 10 minutes. The hilarious cover features the members massacred in an office copy room, all dressed in professional middle-management garb with Gilman in the foreground aiming a stapler at the camera. Pack's other life in the corporate world no doubt provided some inspiration for the shot. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Staags%21">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.