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| Moby, image copyright blahblahblahscience.com |
Throughout the career of a musician he or she might play in any number of groups, and even venture out in to the world of solo projects. It's the nature of music; bands eventually reach a point where they feel they've done all they can together, or that they want to pursue other projects, or that they simply realise that after 15 years they hate each others guts. Similarly, lineups change and members leave during the lifespan of a band for any number of reasons. Taking Back Sunday, a favourite of mine, for example, has had 11 different members since they formed in 1999; that's nearly one member for every year they've existed. I'm not even going to get started on the Sugababes...
Many of these moves are well known. For instance, most people know that Dave Mustaine was rather unceremoniously booted out of Metallica and formed Megadeth as something of a 'fuck you.' Glenn Danzig left the Misfits and went on to form, amongst other groups, Danzig (no-one said originality was his strong suit.) Dave Grohl seems to be involved in 95% of all music that is put out at any given time. The list goes on.
There are, on the other hand, several less widely known occasions where famous bands or musicians have previously been involved in other, much smaller or projects, or ones that are so completely different that you would never think to link the two together. Herein lies a list of 5 such examples, that ye may revel in new knowledge, or you know, if you like one, go and check out the other or something.
The Facebook 'like' statistics at the end of each entry are offered for comparison purposes.
- Frank Turner used to be in hardcore punk band Million Dead.
Since 2005 when Million Dead split, the cult of Frank Turner has grown immensely. Whether you personally like his Billy Bragg-esque punk-folk style or not, it's hard to bring to mind another musician that has worked as hard to get to where he is today. Few deserve success more than Turner.
Right at the beginning, when he would play a gig literally anywhere for £50, a place to sleep and the train fare or a lift, he even played in the kitchen of fellow Bobbins author Ian's halls of residence.
As a fan of Million Dead I followed him with interest in the early days, and attended a number of his early shows, where he played to venues of maybe 200 people. In August last year at Reading Festival I watched him play on the main stage to a crowd that numbered in the tens of thousands. In between he's played over a thousand solo shows and released four studio albums and three Eps. Rags to riches doesn't even begin to cover it.
What few people know about this rising star of rock music is that he got his start singing for a band named Million Dead. The Dead released two albums in their lamentably short lifespan, 2003's debut 'A Song to Ruin' and the follow up 'Harmony No Harmony' were both excellent contributions to what was a growing hardcore and post hardcore scene in Britain and the time.
They toured with the likes of Funeral for a Friend and Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and got limited exposure on music channels and mainstream radio and in the year that they split played the Radio 1 Lockup tent at Reading Festival, but their untimely split due to 'irreconcilable differences' led to Frank Turner branching out on his own.
These days he says little about his time in Million Dead, and when he had accrued enough original material he stopped playing acoustic versions of their songs at concerts. It seems to be a past he would rather ignore, which is a shame because if half his fans knew of his origins, there'd be a hell of a lot of people in for a treat.
Likes
Million Dead: 3,318
Frank Turner: 128,657 (and one Facebook Group called 'Frank Turner is God')
- Mike Patton of Faith No More was in an experimental metal band called Mr Bungle
This one is hardly a surprise, really. Mike Patton has hi fingers in almost as many pies (take that how you will, he is the Latin Love God after all) as Dave Grohl does when it comes to music. The man has done pretty much everything that can be done in the industry. He has been in rock bands, performed with rap and beat box acts, worked with Bjork and even voiced some of the special infected from the Valve zombie shoot-em-up Left 4 Dead.
Even within that career, however, Mr Bungle has to be amongst the strangest things he has done. We're talking strange enough to make the likes of Rammstein, Turbonegro and the Flaming Lips look positively normal. I really can't offer any words that would adequately describe the sheer epic lunacy that pervades their music.
One second they're playing a perfectly passable ska tune and it turns in to a heavy metal opus for no reason that is unfathomable to anyone but themselves. Somehow they managed to make it work and the band ran for five years from 1995-2000. I really would recommend checking it out, it's quite an enjoyable, if odd, experience. I guarantee you will have heard nothing like it before.
Likes
Mr Bungle: 50,425
Mike Patton: 550,100
Faith No More: 815,290
- Two members of the original lineup of the Foo Fighters were pioneers of the emo genre.
In 1994, after the death of Kurt Cobain and the resultant disbanding of Nirvana, the remaining members probably should have done the decent thing and faded in to obscurity, leaving the legacy of what is one of the most influential rock bands of all time to sit as an example to future generations of just how to get it right. One of them, bassist Krist Novoselic was kind enough to do that, but the drummer had other ideas. They always do, don't they?
Joking aside, I am actually a big fan of the Foo Fighters, and it is obvious that when they formed everyone was going to jump on the fact that the lineup contained two ex-members of one of the biggest bands to ever grace the earth (Grohl was joined by Nirvana touring guitarist Pat Smear.) Of course there had to be other members of the group, so Grohl brought in bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith of recently defunct emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate.
After a bust-up about drum tracks on what is the Foo Fighters most famous release, 'The Colour and the Shape' Goldsmith left the band, but Mendel continues on with them to this day.
Regarding Sunny Day Real Estate, they recently reformed. If you want to hear what real, authentic, original emo music sounds like check out their magnum opus 'Diary'. You may well be surprised to find that it's a lot different than the image of emo that is portrayed by the industry today. Oh, and try and ignore the fact that Mendel is an AIDS denier as well, because that just kind of sullies the whole thing.
Likes
Sunny Day Real Estate: 39,675
Foo Fighters: 6,985,931
- Oscar nominated singer-songwriter Elliott Smith started his career in a post-grunge band.
The tragic story of Elliott Smith is probably, alongside that of Jeff Buckley, one of the most well known tales of wasted talent in the history of modern rock music. A huge talent that nearly went to waste when he fell in to a habit of drink and drugs whilst trying to overcome the crippling depression that had plagued him his entire life.
Fortunately for the world of music, he managed to get over this addiction, but it wasn't long before Smith died in tragic circumstances. The exact events of his death have never been explained, but that day music lost one of its most prodigious young talents.
As mentioned above, he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1998, for the song 'Miss Misery', which appeared on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. There's a good chance that had he not been up against the Celine Dion juggernaut that was 'My Heart Will Go On', that he would have walked away with the prize that day.
His final, and probably most famous album, 'From a Basement on a Hill', which was released posthumously, received universal acclaim. It exemplified the indie rock style that he was acclaimed for, but was in quite a contrast to his very early work with the post-grunge band Heatmiser.
Heatmiser, who were formed in Portland, Oregon, released three studio albums, all of which exhibit a heavy influence taken from the world famous grunge scene in nearby Seattle, which by this point had reached its peak.
Heatmiser didn't rest on these influences, however, and developed their own sound throughout their career, moving further away from the grunge sound with each album, whilst still maintaining enough of it to be recognisable.
Smith publicly denounced the band's work as “loud” after his solo career had taken off, and was reportedly very unhappy with his output during the life of the group. Personally I think this is a touch unfair, with some truly excellent songs across their whole discography.
Likes
Heatmiser: 5,010
Elliott Smith/Elliot Smith (combined): 334,784
- Moby was part of the original hardcore punk movement.
This one has been saved for last, because it has to be one of the most extreme changes in genre ever. It makes the tale of Sonny Moore leaving his job as singer of the post-hardcore band From First to Last to become global dubstep sensation Skrillex look like a positively normal occurrence in comparison. Can you imagine there being a revelation that prior to his life as a house DJ, Fat Boy Slim had taken time out of his busy schedule to help establish death metal as a breakaway force? It's on that level.
Moby rose to fame steadily during the 1990s, but the rocket really took off with 1999's 'Play'. For those readers who feel that they may have missed Moby's work, it is unlikely. 'Play' was the first album ever to have every single song licensed for an advertisement. You've almost certainly heard at least one of his songs somewhere.
In many ways, the early 2000s belonged to Moby. 'Play' and its follow up, '18' were multi-million sellers. He was probably the best selling electronic artist of this time, and can't have been far off the top in every genre. His use of guitars and his talents as a multi-instrumentalist gave him a lot of cross-genre appeal. His very public spat with controversial rapper Eminem even propelled him to the headlines of newspapers worldwide.
What not many people know is that he got his humble beginnings as part of one of the most controversial musical movements of all time: hardcore punk.
Hardcore punk is notorious for bands like Black Flag, who flat out encouraged their fans to kick the living shit out of each other (and often the band) during their shows. Can you imagine mild-mannered Moby being a part of such a movement? It's difficult to picture, but certainly true. Moby and his band the Vatican Commandos were a little late to the party, only forming in 1982, several years after hardcore had really taken shape, and disbanding near the end of the first wave in 1985. He even featured in the documentary 'American Hardcore', which focused on the development of the scene around the United States in the late 70s and early 80s, alongside the likes of punk luminary Henry Rollins.
Likes
Vatican Commandos: 251
Moby: 1,393,066
So there you have it, five groups and artists that have each changed the face of music in their own way, that have surprising origins. Just goes to show that you never really can judge a book by it's cover, eh?
