RiffRaf

What Ever Happened to The Breeders?

  

Fans of The Breeders know the score!

They come out of nowhere, release a great album, then disappear as quickly as they resurfaced. This has been their modus operandi ever since the band formed in 1988.

Tired of her talents being sidelined in the Pixies, Kim Deal, along with her twin sister Kelley, formed The Breeders with Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donelly. They released Pod in 1990, an album that would inspire luminaries such as Kurt Cobain, followed it up with the Safari EP and Last Splash, which contained the hit single “Cannonball,” before disappearing in the mid-nineties.

After many false starts and rehab stints, the band reformed in 2002, releasing Title TK before vanishing from the music scene once again. 

They resurfaced again in 2008, releasing Mountain Battles and the Fate To Fatal EP in 2009 but went on hiatus when Kim Deal joined the reformed Pixies who went on tour in 2010 and 2011.

Kelley Deal is now playing with Mike Montgomery in her new group, R. Ring. She recently said in an interview: “Kim is real busy doing stuff with the Pixies, so rather than waiting around for Breeders stuff to transpire, this has been really good for me to sit down and practice stuff, write new song…”

As for The Breeders, they remain inactive for now, but who knows when they'll resurface.

Discography: 

Pod (1990)

Safari EP (1992)

Last Splash (1993)

Head to Toe EP (1994)

Title TK (2002)

Mountain Battle (2008)

Fate to Fatal EP (2009) 

(Elford Alley has had plays produced and read across the United States and his sketch comedy featured in several shows in Chicago. His articles have appeared in cracked.com. He currently resides in Dallas with his wife and daughter.)

What Ever Happened to Toad the Wet Sprocket (An Update)?

                
In the post What Ever Happened to Toad the Wet Sprocket (7/4/11), we claimed that the band was working on their first studio album since 1997's Coil. 

It's nearly a year later, and since Toad the Wet Sprocket released a greatest hits compilation last April - All You Want - they've been touring as well as still writing new material for a promising new record.

Glen Phillips (vocals/guitar), Todd Nichols (guitar/vocals), Dean Dinning (bass/vocals), and Randy Guss (drums) formed Toad the Wet Sprocket in 1986, having met while attending San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara. Glen Phillips was only sixteen years old.

The band recorded five albums throughout the 1990s; Fear (1991) and Dulcinea (1994) both went platinum. They also secured four highly successful singles: "Walk on the Ocean," "Fall Down," "All I Want," and "Something's Always Wrong."

Toad eventually broke up in 1998 to pursue other projects. Glen began his solo career, while Todd, Dean and Randy formed a new band, Lapdog.

Since their official break up, Glen Phillips has released three EP's and four studio albums, one with his friends, Nickel Creek. He is currently working on a follow-up to Mr. Lemons. Meanwhile, Lapdog recorded two studio albums, but disbanded in 2002 when Todd Nichols and Dean Dinning started writing songs for country acts in Nashville.

In 2010, Toad the Wet Sprocket officially announced their reunion. We're looking forward to new studio album later this year.

(Riffraf recently spoke to Glen Phillips. Check back next week (6/7 & 6/8) for our two-part interview. You don't want to miss it.)

What Ever Happened to Mazzy Star (An Update)?

   

In the post What Ever Happened to Mazzy Star (7/5/11), we told you that the duo might be working on a new album. Well, it has been confirmed. In October 2011, Mazzy Star released their first new material in fifteen years with the double a-sided single "Common Burn/Lay Myself Down." Later this year, they will release their fourth studio album.

Mazzy Star is best known for the atmospheric song "Fade Into You," their biggest hit, which brought them acclaim in the mid 90s.

However after their third album, Among My Swan (1996), vocalist Hope Sandoval and guitarist David Roback parted ways. Sandoval went on to collaborate with Jesus and Mary Chain, Massive Attack, Bert Jansch and The Chemical Brothers before forming her own band, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions, while David Roback has worked with Beth Orton and Sacred Miracle Cave and written songs for the film Clean. 

In a July 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, Sandoval claimed that Mazzy Star had been working on its fourth album: "It's true we're still together." 

Hope wasn't just building up our hopes; she was telling the truth. Mazzy Star has been working on new material. Meanwhile, the band is on tour with original band members Suki Ewers and Keith Mitchell.

Discography: 

She Hangs Brightly (1990)

So Tonight That I Might See (1993)

Among My Swan (1996)

New Album (Late 2012)

           

What Ever Happened to Semisonic?

   
If you were alive in the late 90s you probably remember the Minneapolis alternative band Semisonic. If you don't remember the band, then maybe their monster single "Closing Time" has been ingrained in your brain.

                  Closing time, one last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer

If you were alive and neither remember the band nor the song then you must have been living in a cave somewhere in Tibet. Get to know Semisonic. First, watch the "Closing Time" video below, then read the post.

Although Semisonic hasn't released an album since 2001's All About Chemistry, the band is still together. The trio consisting of Dan Wilson (lead vocals, guitar), John Munson (bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), and Jacob Slichter (drums, percussion, keyboards), has slowly been recording new material, while their side projects have been keeping them busy.

Guitarist/songwriter Dan Wilson is currently collecting Grammys. He contributed three songs to Adele's album 21, which won the 2012 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Wilson co-wrote and produced the single "Someone Like You." The song stayed at #1 for five weeks and in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 for months.

Wilson also co-wrote six songs with the Dixie Chicks for their album Taking the Long Way, which won the 2007 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. "Not Ready to Make Nice," one of the songs Wilson co-wrote, won the Grammy for Song of the Year. 

Dan Wilson has collaborated with Carole King, Rivers Cuomo, Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban and Rachel Yamagata (among others) and released his first solo album Free Life in 2007.

John Munson has been working with former Trip Shakespeare bandmate Matt Wilson and with the New Standards, a jazz cover band.

Munson teaches at MCTC college in Minneapolis. He has also provided music and commentary for the program "Wits" on Minnesota Public Radio.

In 2004, Jacob Slichter wrote So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star which details his experiences as a member of Semisonic and the band's musical odyssey.

(Riffraf recently spoke to Jacob. Check back next week (4/25 & 4/26) for our two-part interview. You don't want to miss it.)

           

What Ever Happened to the New Radicals?

               

You know the song. You love it! Come on, admit it. Okay, maybe you don't, but you've got to admit it's a pretty catchy tune. "You Get What You Give" was the most successful single from a short-lived 90's band, New Radicals.

The song received heavy radio airplay and rotation on MTV and much media hype due in part to the following lyric:

    "Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson/ Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson/ You're all     fakes run to your mansions/ Come around we'll kick your ass in."

Gregg Alexander, the New Radicals' frontman and driving creative force, who wrote and produced all of their songs, explained that the line wasn't meant to be insulting. The entire verse including, "Health insurance rip off lying/ FDA big bankers buying/ Fake computer crashes dining/ Cloning while they're multiplying," was an experiment to see if the media would focus on what Alexander deemed to be "real issues" or on "celebrity ridicule." Take a guess as to what the media focused on? 

Following the release of "You Get What You Give" from the band's only album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (1998), Alexander broke up the band, citing that he was tired of touring and promoting the record.

Since disbanding the group, Alexander has written and produced songs for Enrique Iglesias, Hanson, Geri Halliwell, Melanie C and Danielle Brisbois the former child actress (All in the Family) who was the only other constant member in New Radicals.

In 2003, Alexander won a Grammy for the song "The Game of Love" by Santana and Michelle Branch.

             

Jim Ellison and Material Issue

    

Singer/guitarist/songwriter Jim Ellison took his own life on June 20, 1996. The musician will most likely be remembered for his work with the underrated power pop band, Material Issue. 

Ellison and bassist Ted Ansani formed Material Issue while they were both enrolled at Columbia College in 1986; the duo was later joined by drummer Mike Zelenko who answered an ad in the Illinois Entertainer.

The band released an EP in 1987 and toured extensively for the next three years. In 1990 they were signed by Mercury Records and released their debut album International Pop Overthrow the following year. The album only cost $5,000 to record and sold over 300,000 copies. Behind the three singles, "Renee Remains The Same," "Diane," and "Valerie Loves Me," International Pop Overthrow reached #86 on the Billboard 200 album chart. 

In 1992, Material Issue released Destination Universe which included the single "What Girls Want." Even though Destination Universe wasn't as successful as their first record, Material Issue continued to tour relentlessly in support of both albums. 

By 1994, grunge had become fully immersed in American culture. Unfortunately, the band's next album Freak City Soundtrack suffered from the repercussions. The album sold fewer than 50,000 copies and the group parted ways with Mercury Records.

During the next two years, Material Issue recorded new songs with the intention of shopping them around to labels. Tragically, Jim Ellison committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Those recordings were released posthumously on Telecommando Americano in 1997.

Liz Phair, a Chicago contemporary of Material Issue recalls, “Material Issue was a kick-ass Chicago band. We all looked up to them.  Their songs were infectious and often deeply heartfelt. The chorus: ‘I want love, I want drugs, I want sex and affection; I want everybody in the room to look in my direction,’ from ‘What Girls Want’ is one of the most honest and encapsulating summaries of the twenty-something female mind that I have ever heard, and all the more shocking to have been written by a man.” 

                    

Remember the Soup Dragons?

                                       

The Soup Dragons are another alternative band in a long list of short-lived groups that I grooved to in the late 80's/early 90's. I've recently been blogging about a few bands that made a modest splash into the small ocean known as the mainstream: Jellyfish, Mazzy Star, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Spin Doctors and School of Fish are but a few.

When the Soup Dragons formed in 1985 in Bellshill, Scotland, their music was inspired by the Buzzcocks' brand of punk-pop, but after their first record, This is Our Art, their sound morphed into a blend of acid rock and dance. Their second album Lovegod is influenced by ecstasy and the acid rave house scene in the United Kingdom and it includes their most successful single in the UK, a cover of the Rolling Stones' "I'm Free," which includes an overdub by reggae musician Junior Reid.

The band had its biggest U.S. hit with "Divine Thing" in 1992 before breaking up in 1995. Vocalist Sean Dickson formed The High Fidelity, bassist Sushil Dade formed Future Pilot A.K.A., guitarist Jim McCulloch joined Superstar and has since formed Green Peppers, and drummer Paul Quinn joined fellow Bellshill band, Teenage Fanclub.

                        

What Ever Happened to Jellyfish?

                  

What's the average life span of a band?

The great bands might have 7-8 years; the good ones, maybe 3-4, but the average band usually dies after the release of their first record. Every band runs its course. 

As for the power-pop band Jellyfish, they managed to release a second record but by that time the band had already reached its demise.

Jellyfish's debut album, Bellybutton, was released in 1990, drawing on a wide range of influences: The Beatles, Queen, Badfinger, XTC and The Beach Boys (to name a few). 

Bellybutton contained the commendable singles, "That Is Why," "I Wanna Stay Home," "Now She Knows She's Wrong" and "The King Is Half-Undressed." However, "Baby's Coming Back" was the band's most successful single, peaking at #62 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. 

Before the band recorded its second album, Spilt Milk, guitarist Jason Falkner and bassist Chris Manning left the band. Falkner wanted to record his own songs, while Manning grew tired of touring. 

Drummer/vocalist Andy Sturmer and keyboardist/guitarist Roger Manning released Spilt Milk in 1993, but creative differences resulted in the band's break-up the following year.

Since then, Andy Sturmer has composed, produced, and recorded with The Black Crowes, Ozzy Osbourne and The Merrymakers.

Roger Manning was a member of Imperial Drag and has played with Air and Beck. He released his first solo album in 2005 entitled, Solid State Warrior. 

Jason Falkner has played with The Grays and has since reunited with Roger Manning to form TV Eyes. Falkner and Manning have also played on Cheap Trick's The Latest.

Chris Manning is now a producer and engineer who has worked with Santana, Metallica, Third Eye Blind and Guster.

                   

Josh Clayton-Felt and School of Fish

                            
I miss the alternative bands of the late eighties: The Smiths, Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychedelic Furs, Violent Femmes, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Public Image Limited, The Replacements, and School of Fish.

Yeah, School of Fish! Do you remember them?

Although the band's self-titled debut album yielded a minor hit, "3 Strange Days," they were quickly forgotten once grunge arrived in 1991. 

Josh Clayton-Felt and Michael Ward wrote eleven dynamic guitar-driven pop songs such as "Talk Like Strangers," "King of the Dollar" and "Rose-Colored Glasses." Ward's slick guitar work combined with Clayton-Felt's rich voice make this record a "must listen."  

When their follow-up record, Human Cannonball (1993), wasn't as successful as their first, the band broke up. Ward became a member of The Wallflowers and eventually Ben Harper's band, The Innocent Criminals, while singer Josh Clayton-Felt released his album Inarticulate Nature Boy in 1996. The album didn't sell well, but received airplay on college radio, and Clayton-Felt went on tour with Del Amitri and Tori Amos. Eventually A&M Records dropped him from the label.

In December 1999, while writing songs for the album Center of Six, Clayton-Felt was diagnosed with an aggressive form of testicular cancer and died a month later at age thirty-two.

Like so many other talented musicians, Josh Clayton-Felt might have died in his prime, but he left behind some outstanding songs and one incredible album - School of Fish.

            

What Ever Happened to the Spin Doctors?

 Even though the Spin Doctors didn't make my list of 21 Great New York Bands, they were certainly a musical force in August 1991 with the release of their debut album, Pocket Full of Kryptonite.

Prior to their first record, the band made a name for itself playing lengthy shows at the legendary Wetlands Preserve in lower Manhattan, occasionally performing on a double-bill with their buddies, Blues Traveler. After signing with Epic Records and releasing a live EP, Up for Grabs...Live (recorded at the Wetlands Preserve) in January 1991, the Spin Doctors were poised for big things. Unfortunately, the beginning was really the end. 

In June 1993, Pocket Full of Kryptonite went triple platinum, while their second effort, Turn It Upside Down (1994) only sold a million copies. The band would also experience several setbacks. Shortly after the release of Turn It Upside Down, original guitarist Eric Schenkman left the band by walking offstage during a concert, and in 1999 Chris Barron lost his voice. 

Barron's voice returned in 2000, but by that time the Spin Doctors were on hiatus, and Barron was performing with his other band Give Daddy Five. It wasn't until September 7, 2001 when the Wetlands Preserve was closing that the original members reunited for a benefit show. 

This August, the band will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pocket Full of Kryptonite and tour the States and the UK. 

Discography:

Pocket Full of Kryptonite (1991)

Turn it Upside Down (1994)

You've Got to Believe in Something (1996)

Here Comes the Bride (1999)

Nice Talking to Me (2005)