Earth Quake (band)
band
Earth Quake is an American power pop band, formed in the San Francisco area in 1966, who released several albums in the 1970s, mostly on Beserkley Records, a company which they were involved in setting up.
Career
Originally Purple Earthquake, the band drew its influences from rock and blues bands of the 1950s and 1960s, such as The Kinks, Muddy Waters and the Yardbirds, and played clubs and ballrooms in California in the late 1960s. They were managed by Matthew King Kaufman, who got a recording contract for them with A&M Records, where they released two albums, Earth Quake (1971) and Why Don't You Try Me? (1972), but with little commercial success.
After experiencing frustration at what he saw as A&M's incompetence in handling the band, and winning some compensation for the unauthorized use of their music in the movie The Getaway, Kaufman set up Beserkley Records in 1973. Earth Quake released four albums on Beserkley between 1975 and 1979, as well as working with other musicians including Jonathan Richman (who they backed on his 1974 recording of "Roadrunner"), Greg Kihn (who sang backing vocals on some of their records), and guitarist Gary Phillips (a.k.a. Gary Phillips, previously of John Cipollina's Copperhead). The band split up in the early 1980s, although a compilation album, Sittin in the Middle of Madness, was issued in 2000.
The first two albums, Earth Quake (1971) and Why Don't You Try Me? (1972), were remastered and re-released December 27, 2004 on Acadia Records.
The public source identifies “Earth Quake (band)” as band. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Earth, Quake and band.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Earth Quake (band)”, the useful work is to connect “band” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q284574. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1971, 1972 and 1973.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Earth Quake (band)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Earth Quake (band) primary sources, Earth Quake (band) archive and Earth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Earth Quake (band)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Earth Quake (band)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.