Soft-spoken Idaho frontman Jeff Martin is the last fellow you'd

expect to find in a post-gig barroom scrap. But while the ethereal Idaho was

winding their way back to their home of Los Angeles in support of their latest

album, (Three Sheets To The Wind, he and two other band members were

severely thumped by a gang of "wilding" Skinheads in Kahyber, Philadelphia who

were roaming the streets on the night of May 7th.

"(I saw) this freakish

looking goon that kinda had this skinhead look to him running toward me and

then all of a sudden I got kicked in the back really hard," Martin said. "Then

Dan (guitarist Dan Seta) came out of the club and the guy punched him in the

face. Now Dan's not a big guy, but something in him sort of clicked and he

really started to kick the shit out of this guy. And then all of his friends

appeared outta nowhere and one of them had a beer tap in his hand. That's when

it turned into pretty much of a street brawl and I don't remember too much of

what happened.

When police reached the scene and the skins had beat a

somewhat hasty retreat, they found that Idaho bassist Terry Borden's head had

been stomped sufficiently to warrant a plane ride straight home, and Seta's

pinky was broken. The one remaining date on the tour Idaho had been

co-headlining with Lotion was immediately canned (as were two other home turf

shows). Martin claims police made no real efforts to nab the thugs. The group

is now back in L. A. recuperating.

Idaho, whose sound is at times

reminiscent of the late American Music Club, is known for using only custom

built four string guitars, obscure tunings (their set list reads more like a

music theory chart...), and droning textures Seta's pinky will have to return

to it's pre-combat form before they can consider more live work or rehearsing.

Three Sheets To The Wind is one of the first CDs to be produced with the

High Density Compact Disc (HDCD) format. To cut the album, the band moved

mobile recording equipment into the waiting area of a studio once used by

Michael Jackson's former producer. Martin describes the waiting area as

featuring "classic wood paneling, palm trees and waterfalls.

"It's very

'70s," said Martin. "Very depressing. I ended up liking it, but it's sort of

orange carpet decor...very Brady Bunch. I think Fleetwood Mac used to use it.

We had to shake off all those ghosts." -