An appealing blast of West Coast new wave, good songs played with blistering intensity. San Francisco based outfit fronted by ex- Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna bassist Jack Casady. Casady brought with him Nick Buck from Hot Tuna and added Brian Marnell and Bill Gibson from Airplay (ex Sound Hole). The band was formed early in 1978 as Jack Casady Band but evolved rapidly into SVT. Their debut single "Heart of Stone", became a hit on local FM station KSAN. Bill Gibson, who had been a founding member of SVT, did not play on any of SVT's albums - only on the singles. Although, he is playing drums and singing backing vocals on two tracks that were added to the re-released and extended "No Regrets" album (see discography). Bill left SVT in 1979 to form what was to become Huey Lewis and the News. He was replaced by local drummer Paul Zahl. So what does SVT stand for? Long time fans thought it to be Supra Ventricular Tachycardia - excessive heart beat and pulse rate. That's a cool idea because SVT's music could cause that. In reality the name SVT was simply taken from Jack's bass amp rig The late 1970's and early 1980's were an explosive and exciting period for music and the local San Francisco music scene was no exception. I had been playing constantly from 1965-'72 as Jefferson Airplane, continuing on as Hot Tuna on through 1977. Hot Tuna took a bit of a break and SVT was born of this period. These recordings represent this period for me so well! Brian, Paul, Bill, Nick and I made some exciting and somewhat furious music of this time period, bringing back such memories of all our live shows! Listen and enjoy, for I know we all did!!!" - Jack Casady When I was in college, I booked the Jefferson Airplane to play a concert at Stony Brook and got to know Jack way back then. Fast forward a dozen years or so and Chris Knab brought this cassette with the song "Heart of Stone" to our late, late night KSAN radio show. I kind of remember that we played it 3 times in one night. "You think we can get these guys to let us put it out?" I asked him. Neither of us thought there was any chance. I mean, Jack Casady? How could that ever happen? But it did. And it was like we really, really were in the music business after that! And "Heart of Stone" was just the beginning. The band kept coming up with amazing songs, one after the other. Of course, they were perfect for my radio show (and for my car cassette player) but I knew we would be releasing more than a single on 415-- and we did. Their music was exciting and compelling. It's a shame it never got picked up on big radio stations. SVT would have been stars. _Howie Klein (415 Records)