PLE Era Bio

In a drunken stupor at a party back in the day, F.J. DeSanto beat the hell out of Mark Mohtashemi for no reason other than that he thought Mark was a moron. Mind you, had Mark been sober, he probably could've killed him, but F.J. had something to ask him. It was IMPORTANT; Mark had a guitar for chrissakes and he knew how to chunk with it. So F.J. grabbed him by the lapels, looked into his eyes and said, "Hey...you wanna be in a band?" This is where we add in the cliche, "the rest is history."

When Mark agreed, The Aggression was born. Armed with Sisters of Mercy and Ministry records along with two other guys, Dr. Fury and T. Duke, they embarked on a very brief yet "memorable" musical journey that was quickly extinguished after one show and a poorly recorded demo that subsequently led to the departure of the infamous "other two." That should have been the end of it. But of course, Mark and F.J. being gluttons for punishment, decided the Aggression wasn't quite done yet and that they still had something to say in the industrial world. So they wrote some songs, played in other bands, schmoozed with the scene, and drank a whole lot of liquor. But the boys needed a band...

Also listening to Ministry records along with anything else heavy was Tom Whitfleet, a mainstay from F.J.'s little league days. Though he didn't get a beating, Tom was quickly in, guitar in hand, and ready to play. He introduced Mark and F.J. to a keyboardist named Ash (who eventually was "fired" after two years), and the four of them went out and played some shows. And it was cool, so they wrote even more songs, and they played more shows.

The boys went out and met some people: some famous, some not, and somehow ended up at the Warzone in Chicago with people like Jason McNinch and Van Christie. Ash disappeared at this point, but Tom, Mark, and F.J. recorded some songs and gave them to anyone who'd listen. And then some labels were suddenly interested. Then they started doing the business, which sucks, so they recorded a little more. And of course they wanted to play live again, but they needed a man on the keys...

F.J. doesn't remember exactly how it happened, but he and "The Kid" (Michael Hess) were hanging around one day contemplating life and the genius of Gavin Friday, when "The Kid" revealed to F.J. that he was taking piano lessons in order to become the Aggression's keyboardist. F.J. gave him a tape, told him to learn the chords, and "The Kid" jammed with the band and played pretty damn well. He ain't old enough to drink, and he doesn't dig Ministry, but he sure can pound the keys and trigger samples. So, without thinking too much about it, "The Kid" is in and they go drink a lot, play shows, and decide to finish the record (which is now called "Whitelineoverride") in New York. That summer, "Whitelineoverride" hit stores, so the band went out and played more shows, and drank even more heavy booze (especially "The Kid").

However, the boys were frustrated; "Whitelineoverride" was already old news, and the band needed a shot of adrenalin in its musical veins. So in the fall of 1997, the band went down to hang out at Track In The Box Studios in Maryland, and ended up cutting some new songs with producer George Hagegeorge at the helm. These new songs were brutal, and the band really liked 'em, so they decided to call up all their best friends and ask for free remixes of these and other Aggression songs.

So after many months of drinking and faxing and calling, the band finally pulled together all the material that they had, and "Pure Liquid Ego" was born. Slated for a fall 1998 release, "Pure Liquid Ego" marked the end of the first chapter of The Aggression's existence.

So this is the Aggression's web page, where you can learn about them and their music. And if all goes right and they don't end up breaking up and/or killing each other, this should keep you up to date on what's going on with shows, releases, and the like. Hell, if you want you'll be able to send love letters and/or hate mail/death threats. Love 'em, hate 'em, whatever, they ain't going anywhere. No matter where the crew goes, there will always be an interesting story to be told. Stay tuned... all will be revealed.