The Pricks

The Pricks was a band Mark Wakefield and Brad Delson played in before Relative Degree. The exact period the group was active is unknown.

Story

Brad Delson has been interested in music as far back as he can remember. He played trumpet in his elementary school orchestra, and started learning to play guitar with his guitar teacher, Keith, when he was 12 or 13, taking lessons for about 5 years before he started teaching guitar and playing with friends in local bands. Mike Shinoda said, "When I was a kid one of my best friends lived right across from Brad, and all you could ever hear coming from his bedroom was Metallica, Metallica and more Metallica. If you were lucky you might hear some Exodus, or maybe some Sepultura, but that was it - the guy was an obsessive metalhead." In June 2020, Mike elaborated when asked about his first impression of Brad, "Brad lived next door to my friend Mark. And their bedroom windows were directly across from each other. And it was almost like a TV sitcom. He'd like play guitar in his room and you'd hear him shredding like Metallica. But it was always that really funny thing, you could look out Mark's window and you could talk to Brad. I didn't know Brad at that point, he'd just like yell out the window and talk to Brad. Mark would. He seemed like a cool dude, though."

Brad's first band was The Pricks. He was neighbors with Mark Wakefield in high school and the two of them were in the band together. Mike noted, "they were both in several bands before Xero. Mark and Brad were in one called The Pricks, they were this awesome rap-metal band. I loved their stuff." Their most famous show happened in June of 1995, during the summer, at Douglas Robb's parent's backyard. They played as an opening act for Hoobastank's very first show with around 150 people in attendance. Members of both bands had been friends since long before The Pricks was formed and to prepare for the show they stole stages from their local high school in the middle of the night, set them up in Doug's backyard and hired security, charging a dollar for admission.

Mike Giangreco, a local promoter, met Hoobastank through Incubus and booked shows for them. Hoobastank then introduced him to The Pricks. Besides giving Brad jobs as a bouncer at The Roxy and Whisky A Go Go and as a waiter in his restaurant, Giangreco heard The Pricks' cassette demo and, although it was pretty raw, decided to work with them in the hope they would develop their sound and get better. The band played at many frat parties and he would let them borrow sound systems to play shows with the condition that they would carry everything by themselves and bring it back to his garage afterwards. The band would also spend a lot of time in local record stores searching for new releases and "showcasing their musical talents".