Sheez Late

The Story

1990
Formed in Worcester. Ron Roy sings and plays guitar. A few lineups come and go until Ron, Hugh Mahaney, Amy Mackey and Joe Sheehan are in a room together. "It just clicked."
1991
The self-titled debut on Rejected Records, recorded at Lux Studios in Worcester, engineered by Bill Robinson, produced by the band. Eight songs, about 28 minutes. It came out on CD, LP and cassette. Cover photos by Pat Hart, artwork by Bill Roy.
1991–1993
The Wormtown circuit: Ralph's Chadwick Square Diner, Bowlers, Sir Morgan's Cove, The Music Box, the Above Club, The Space, the Espresso Bar. WICN, WCUW and WCJY put them on the air. They tour New England, play CBGB in New York and get as far as Washington, DC. Some flyers spell it "She's Late"; the band never minded. "Wasn't Me" lands on Roedell Records' Diamond in the Rough compilation, distributed nationally.
The Wormtown circuit, 1991–93 (drawn from the flyers)
1992
July 26: an hour on stage at Tammany Hall for the Wormtown Radio Festival, a WCUW benefit. Somebody taped it. It is the oldest recording of the band that survives online (see Listen).
1993
Scott McLennan in the Telegram & Gazette calls them "one of the Wormtown scene's hottest bands": rough-and-tumble garage rock, razor-sharp lyrics, a guitar attack "that favors passion over cold precision."
1994
The band runs its course after about four years. Ron leaves first, with a ringing in his ears that never fully went away. Hugh moves to North Carolina, Amy to Delaware and then New Jersey, Joe drums for other Worcester and Boston bands. Ron doesn't play for ten years.
2008
Everyone is home for Christmas 2007. A jam in a living room, a set list by email, one rehearsal, and on Saturday, February 9, 2008 the four of them play the Grey Hound Pub on Kelley Square for the first time in fourteen years. "I took it for granted," Ron says of the old days. Not this time.
2009–2010
Amy, now in Springfield, comes back in September 2009, and the band is a trio: Ron, Amy and Joe. A home studio goes in. On July 10, 2010 they play Ralph's again, for a $7 cover. "We know we are not going to make it to the big time, but we can keep doing what we love to do." Adam Harrington's cello joins that July. Blast!, seven songs, out in December. Shows at The Raven.
2012–2014
The acoustic turn: hand percussion (Adam Desrosiers, from January 2012), Chuck Voorhees on bass, banjos where the distortion used to be. Light (2013) and GO (2014). Luthier's Co-op, the Lizard Lounge, Spot Underground, the cable show An Hour with Bob, and NPR Tiny Desk Contest entries in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
2015–2017
Official videos for "Let's Get It On", "Put That Gun Away", "Guillotine", "Cursed" and "Say What You Say". In 2016 "Hard Attack" wins the WMRC Local Music Award for Favorite Local Original Song. Home-town shows: the Tradesman, Celebrate Milford, Milford Performs.
2020
The last post is a Social Distance Session in March 2020. The band goes quiet with the pandemic, thirty years after it started. The songs are all still here.

The Records

1991 · Rejected Records
SL 1002

Wasn't Me3:21
Nickels3:18
Shut Up3:29
Junky Girl2:23
Uptight3:29
Ozone2:43
Slow Motion4:25
Dead Meat*4:41

* Dead Meat: not available on LP or cassette

Recorded at Lux Studios, Worcester · engineered by Bill Robinson · produced by Sheez Late · cover photos Pat Hart · artwork Bill Roy

No copy of this record has been digitized. If you have one, the band would like to hear it again.

The hand-lettered inside insert of Sheez Late, 1991 — The inside insert · 1991

Sheez Late, the 1991 back cover — The back cover · 1991

The second record — the missing one

There was a second Sheez Late CD. The family had a copy, and ‘Sara’s Vibrator’ was on it. No copy, cover, title or track list has surfaced anywhere online; even the band’s own 2013 bio only mentions the first one.

If you have one, photograph the cover and the insert and it goes right here.

Songs that may be from it (a guess): Sara’s Vibrator, Prettiest Girl, Draggin Tonight, Be There, Don’t Run Away, Dance Dance Dance, Nova Girl, Bleeding Heart.