Kill Buddha

Kill Buddha were an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, active in 1992 – 1995. Kill Buddha toured around Southern California mainly playing in West Hollywood, Hollywood and Santa Monica clubs like The Roxy Theatre (West Hollywood), Raji's, and Alligator Lounge. During their formation, grunge was considered the new punk rock, but Kill Buddha did not sound like other acts of the day. Their sound had more pop elements and less metal, while providing a deep groove with edgy guitars.

The main members were Nick Delancy (Ken David Paul), Oscar Nomination (Andrew Burkhart), and Gary Dade. Mike Steele was in the band early on as the drummer, but he only lasted one week, and then Gary settled in. In 1993, David Botkin occupied the drum seat for a year while Gary suffered a nervous breakdown and escaped to North Dakota to recover, apparently, from a bad marriage.

Controversy surrounded the name of the band as most people thought they were anti-Buddhist or anti-religion, but this was not accurate. The idea of the name came from a saying in Buddhism, “Kill the Buddha”. The saying comes from the teachings ascribed to the Chinese Ch'an master Lin-chi I-hsüan (d. 866), ‘If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha…in this way, you attain liberation.’ The intention was to shock students into realizing that they themselves were Buddhas, and that they had no need to depend upon, mistakenly objectify, or inordinately revere figures external to themselves.

Earlier band names used were: Luscious God Boys (a play on Keanu Reeves and his band, Dogstar), The Ruling Class, and f stop.

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