The Badlees

The roots rock outfit the Badlees originated in the late 1980s in Selinsgrove, PA, where guitarists Bret Alexander and Jeff Feltenberger first collaborated with drummer Ron Simasek under the name Bad Lee White. Frontman Pete Palladino and bassist Paul Smith joined shortly afterward, at which point the band embraced the nickname supplied by their swelling regional audience and, now operating as the Badlees, put out the debut EP It Ain't for You on their independent Rite-Off label in 1990. Subsequent full-length releases Diamonds in the Coal and The Unfortunate Result of Spare Time preceded a string of performances at the 1994 Qingdao Beer Festival in mainland China, where they appeared as the sole Western act invited to the event. Their 1995 album River Songs arrived alongside a deal with A&M, yet the follow-up Up There Down Here remained mired in corporate delays for more than a year before surfacing in mid-1999 on Ark 21; the live set 50:45live followed the next year.