Fury 66 was a Santa Cruz punk band (1993-1999) that began with founding members Joe Clements (Vocals), Rye Crowen (Guitar), Russ Rankin (Guitar), Tom Kennedy (Bass) and Aaron Sonnenshein (Drums). The band's name comes from a 1966 Plymouth Fury that Joe's brother Luke owned. They recorded the original, self-titled 7-song demo (1994) that included the classics "Grow'n Up," "Why Are We Here?" "Addicted" and "Stagnate."
In 1994, Aaron quit and Rich McDermott of Good Riddance filled in, creating an overlap in which Fury 66 and Good Riddance shared three members. (Russ, Tom and Rich). Shortly after this period, Tom quit Good Riddance so he could focus solely on Fury 66. With this line-up, the band recorded the 4-song 7" "American Clown" (1994) which featured "Reality," "Idol," "American Clown" and "Expectations."
Good Riddance soon signed to Fat Wreck Chords, and were kicked out of the band because they would not have as much time to dedicate between the two bands. Dog from Mock replaced Russ on guitar, and Little Joe from Riff Raff replaced Rich on drums. No recordings were done with this lineup but the band did do a Northwest tour up to Seattle and back. Upon arriving home on the tour, the band kicked out Tom Kennedy, Dog and Little Joe.
With Joe and Rye as the only original members, they recruited Micky Dunegan on Bass (from Heater) and Brian Ziel on drums (also from Heater). Without a second guitarist in place at the time, Russ Rankin briefly agreed to fill in on guitar for a few shows in the interim and they played a show up at Berkley Square with Down By Law.
They then recruited Jon Cattivera (from Illiterate) on guitar and searched for a permanent drummer. They recorded the "No Perfect Machine" full-length (1995) probably about a month and a half after Jon joined. They then recruited Kevin Rafferty on drums and went on their first full scale U.S. tour. Upon arriving home, they kicked Kevin out and kept Brian filling in locally in the meantime. They recorded 4 more songs for compilations ("My Old Man", "Crowded Streets", "Insecurity" and "Egostatistic.") as well as a another 3-song s/t 7" (1996)
They then recruited Scott Batiste (of Illiterate/Reliance) on drums and went on another full U.S. Tour as well as a lot more shows locally and throughout California. Later, they kicked Scott out and recruited Joe Fish from Redfish on drums for an upcoming Western US tour - that never happened. The van broke down on the way and the tour was cancelled. Shortly thereafter, they kicked Jon Cattivera out of the band, and got Jeff Frady (Life) on 2nd guitar.
With the new line-up they recorded their 2nd Full-Length, "For Lack of a Better Word..." (1997) and toured and played shows as much as possible. Jeff Frady ended up quitting the band and they got some other dude name Zach on guitar. Then Rye quit. Then Micky quit. Then the band quit.
