Disclaimer:  I know there are factual errors in the following "History". If  you or anyone you know has the actual facts, email 'em and we'll set it straight. Click on the freakin' Contact Us skull on your left.

 Ruin Records as a label has only been around a short time (founded in 1999). But the real story of Ruin Records began some thirty years ago, when an aimless teen in ninth  grade met some new friends who owned electric guitars, amps and drums and actually knew how to play them at a certain semi-professional level. These new friends all liked the ‘acid’ rock, the blues rock, the ‘weird’ rock (call it what you will), because that was, to them, the most interesting form of entertainment around. Other than sex, drugs, cars and food (movies, too).

So there we were, in 1970, and we knew one thing: bands must be formed, they must practice, and then play a gig, for some amount of money, somewhere. The first ‘live’ show put on by the locals and taken in by one Victor Charles Graves (your author) was an ‘After the Game Dance’ in Sylvania, Ohio, wherein a three-piece band going by the name of Thorshackle (actually a brand of horseradish) proceeded to stun all present with ear-ripping guitar solos sounding eerily like Clapton and even Hendrix. That was Rob Fetters, flanked by Glenn Marks (bass) and Kevin Jeffries (drums). [Editor's Note: Let's not forget fleet-fingered guitarist Scott Covrett and his wild, heavy band Greased Lightning!]

Soon a band called Legs appeared at an after the game dance on the tennis courts behind the high school. Yours truly plucked a Gibson 120-T through some god-awful amp while brother Chris Arduser drummed, Doug Perkins played a Hagstrom, Don Gottshall played bass, and Bob Nyswonger played front man. I think we made 50 bucks, total. Later versions of Legs included Fetters, Marks and Jon Dwyer (bass).

Concurrently, yet non-simultaneously, a young E.J. Wells had formed Dead Skin (a band, not a flesh-eating virus) with Dickie Ruse and Mike Lober. Guitarist Art Cooper, drummer Ralph Capazo and singer John Iverson soon joined Wells in the group. Playing at the Swinger Nightclub in Sylvania, they earned 10 bucks each a night.

After E.J. headed such bands as Norwood Stump and Hex, a crossing of paths occurred. Wells, Jon Close, Chris Arduser and Yours Truly joined together as the Toledo Angels, playing  a job or two in some weird dives.

At some point not long thereafter, the Toledo Angels became the Human Darts, and an interesting sequence of events was set in motion. The Darts recorded two hard-driving  numbers and released them on a 45 rpm single, which was played around the Midwest and caught the ear of one Joey Ramone, the late singer of New York's The Ramones. Little did anyone know at the time that the two groups would share the stage at Club 51 in East Toledo on February 23rd, 1979, before 800-and-some fans while a blizzard raged outside.

Guitarist Roger Holland left, John Wicker and his double-bass drumset stayed, and for two years the Darts toured the tri-state area (Ohio, Michigan and Indiana) as a five-set-a-night bar band playing covers and ‘originals’ (with the invaluable assistance of crew members Larry Epstein (sound) and Carol McCracken (lights).

That all came to an abrupt end by late summer of ‘79, when Your Author found himself in Los Angeles, California, interviewing for an art job at Capitol Records in Hollywood and auditioning for bands from Topanga Canyon to Newport Beach, night after night, all the while living in a Dodge moving van in the driveway at Doug Perkins’ place.

After playing Sunset Strip clubs like Gazarri’s and the Whiskey A Go Go with The Breakers and doing some studio work where Byrds and Steppenwolf producer Terry Melcher twiddled the knobs, V.C. Graves split town and headed for the high desert, to Reno, Nevada, where Jon Close was driving a Cadillac hearse back and forth to work at the local NBC Television station.

E.J. Wells hit Reno in ’82, Wicker in ’83, and tape began to roll as the three rode dirt bikes and crappy cars to ghost towns and old forts…and lived to write and record songs about it. The studio was the living room of a house in the desert near a dirt landing strip.

Hence, this would be known as the Sky Ranch Heyday.

Let’s jump ahead now.

After Graves moved to Florida and Wells got out of prison, new technology arrived that allowed old tapes to be cleaned up and transferred to CD. These collections-Human Darts CD Single (1977), Desert S**t: Sky Ranch Heyday (1984-1987) and Before and After the Sky Ranch Heyday were among the first products offered by Ruin Records.

Suddenly Ruin Records Multi-Track Hard Disk Recording Studios popped up in Florida as well as Ohio, and the new product began to roll down the pipeline. V.C. Graves’ Red Desert Dust was released in November 2000, followed by Inside the Virginia City Graveyard three months later. His latest (and some say best) is called Motel Desert .  E.J. Wells has been crafting an album--or two--for quite some time now. Rhyolite was released in late November, 2002. His next is currently 'in the works'. Ruin Records' latest find, The Ne'er Do Wells, already have released ICK!, and something new is in the can and about to burst forth.