Kepi Ghoulie - Lost And Lovin' It! (2017)

Kepi (aka Kepi Ghoulie, aka Jeff Alexander) began his musical career by forming the pop-punk band the Groovie Ghoulies in Sacramento, California in the late '80s. Comprising Kepi, his wife Roach, and a parade of drummers, the band's horror-movie-meets-bubblegum sound evolved over the course of numerous singles and nine LPs, mostly released by Lookout Records at first; then other labels took over when Lookout began crumbling in the early 2000s. Around that time, Kepi and the rest of the Ghoulies formed the Haints, a country-rock band that released two albums. The Ghoulies disbanded in 2007, soon after Kepi and Roach's marriage dissolved.

Kepi jumped right back into music, starting a solo project known as Kepi the Band and quickly hooking up with Asian Man Records. The first release under the new name was 2008's Hanging Out, which was very Ghoulies-sounding; then he quickly followed up with another album, the acoustic American Gothic. It was released under the name Kepi and Friends and included appearances by the Muffs' Kim Shattuck and power popper Anton Barbeau. Kepi was a constant presence on the road, playing shows and spreading positivity. He was also a frequent visitor to the recording studio, the result being two albums in 2009 (Life Sentence and The New Dark Ages, a collaboration with Vic Ruggiero of the Slackers). After a live album in 2010, he released I Bleed Rock and Roll in 2011, then switched gears to make a kids record, Kepi for Kids, in 2012. He also started an annual tradition of releasing a new single every Valentine's Day.

Along with touring and working on paintings, he next partnered with Eccentric Pop to reissue Groovie Ghoulies albums, starting with Flying Saucer Rock-n-Roll! and Appetite for Adrenochrome in 2014. That same year he released an album of country-influenced songs, appropriately titled Kepi Goes Country, and a re-recording of the Ghoulies album Fun in the Dark backed by Dutch punk band the Accelerators. More Ghoulies reissues followed in 2016 with the re-release of 1994's Born in the Basement; then Kepi released his eighth album, Lost and Lovin' It!, a collection of songs that merged the strains of punk, Americana, and country that have always run through his music. ~ Tim Sendra