Black Lab
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-
- For the dog, see Labrador Retriever
| Black Lab | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Berkeley, California |
| Years active | 1995 – present |
| Genres | Alternative/Post-Grunge |
| Labels | None |
| Members | Paul Durham Andy Ellis |
Black Lab is a post grunge, alternative rock band drawing influences and similarities from U2, The Prodigy, Live and Coldplay. Paul Durham and Andy Ellis are currently the core members. The band has released three albums, EP's, a few side projects, b-sides and soundtracks. The unsigned Black Lab continues to attract fans on an almost daily basis through its website, which serves as a strong link between fan and band, as members of the forum can directly contact and converse with the band and vice-versa. It is one of increasingly many independent bands that receives feedback directly from fans. This is one of the main reasons Black Lab is not under any major label.
Contents |
[edit] History
Twin Falls, Idaho native Paul Durham's singing career began early when the local church discovered his talent and offered him a spot in the choir. "I'll sing in the choir but won’t attend your service," was his shrewd reply to the offer.[citation needed]
After college, Durham supported himself as a substitute teacher while fronting the self-titled, acoustic-driven band, Durham. After the end of Durham, Paul signed to Geffen Records and joined forces with bassist Geoff Stanfield, guitarist Michael Belfer and drummer Bryan Head. The resulting album, Your Body Above Me, featured the power ballad "Time Ago" and alternative rock hit "Wash It Away", which drove album sales into six figures. The band had a good run, finishing a tour with Our Lady Peace, being called "The American U2" by the press[citation needed] and making their mark on the soundtracks of several Hollywood movies like Can't Hardly Wait, Varsity Blues, and Permanent Midnight, among others. Its song "Wash It Away" is also featured on a charitable album, Live in the X Lounge. Just as momentum was building on their debut, however, Geffen went out of business and the band broke up.[citation needed]
Black Lab was quiet until 2002, which saw the release of "Learn to Crawl" on the Spider-Man soundtrack by a re-formed band consisting of Paul Durham, Andy Ellis, Eve Hill and Scotty Coogan. The electronic-flavored result was described as "tightly spun, highly melodic rock" by Rolling Stone Magazine.[citation needed] But the band's album from which the song was drawn, called See the Sun, wouldn't see stores until 2005 with its independent release by the band. A line from the band's website reads, "After years with our heads buried in the sand, making music on our computers, Andy and I realized that there are other cool things that can be done with computers. Like making websites. So after much handwringing and bookreading, here we are."[citation needed] The record features online hits[citation needed] such as "Tell Me Why", "Without You" and "Lonely Boy." Songs caught on quickly, with fans pushing "Without You" to the number one spot on the Alternative Addiction Top 20,[citation needed] a competition which included signed and unsigned sound-alike artists such as Dishwalla, Theory of a Deadman and Greenwheel. Many Black Lab songs are still heard on Alternative Addiction's online radio.[citation needed]
Early in 2006, Durham and a bunch of old friends reacquainted to record as a side project, called Cake or Death. This band featured Kristin Kelly, Joshua Leavitt and Olya Mokina. The record is currently for sale on Alternative Addiction's Download page and Black Lab's official website.
While competing with signed bands and artists, Black Lab has also maintained a good relationship with fans via their website and MP3 of the Month Club, through which users subscribe to monthly tracks of new content ranging from soundtrack efforts to unreleased works and the occasional behind the scenes listening-in on the creative process.
At the end of October 2006, Paul also announced that a special "Director's Cut" edition of Your Body Above Me was being released. The rerelease contains two songs originally recorded for the album, extensive liner notes and full color photos throughout the booklet.
December marked the release of the track "This Night", which featured on the promotional advertisement for the sixth series of The Shield. This was met with a lot of popularity, both from fans of the band and with fans of the show.[citation needed] After just a few days, on Christmas Eve, Durham announced that the band would be releasing a third album in January 2007 entitled Passion Leaves a Trace.
Five years in the making, Passion Leaves a Trace finds the band returning to the experimental foundation laid with their Geffen debut Your Body Above Me. Tracks from this brand new, 12-song, self-produced album can already be heard on FX's promotion for the season debut of The Shield, in CBS's Numb3rs, ABC's 6 Degrees and films The Benchwarmers and Lovewrecked.[citation needed] Using incandescent riffs and soaring vocals, Passion mixes walls of guitar with synthesizer and breakbeat.
The band recently attracted media attention through the campaign "Bum Rush the charts" in which one of their songs was promoted through podcasting and blogging. The aim of this was to show the power of independent media and music, and to raise money for a scholarship fund.[citation needed] IODA, Black Lab’s digital distributor, confirmed over 7,000 U.S. purchases made via an iTunes charity affiliate link.[citation needed] With an estimated 2,000 - 4,000 additional U.S. downloads bought directly through iTunes, and international purchases numbering 3,000 - 6,000, "Mine Again" was one of iTunes' top selling songs on March 22, 2007.[citation needed] This has help the band regain some media attention throughout the world.[citation needed]
The iTunes charts appear to represent a weekly average of purchases, not just “a snapshot of the previous 24 hours’ worth of sales,” as a spokesman for Apple reported in a Washington Post story about the campaign. “Mine Again,” however, still cracked the top 100 songs on the U.S. chart at #99, and peaked at #11 on the U.S. rock chart.[citation needed] The campaign had a significant international impact, selling songs in every country in which iTunes has stores and pushing "Mine Again" to #53 on the Canadian chart (#10 rock), #15 in Holland (#2 rock), and #73 in Germany (#12 rock), among others.[citation needed] The song broached the iTunes rock charts in eleven additional countries as well.[citation needed]
[edit] Music
[edit] Albums
| Album Cover | Album Title | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
 |
Your Body Above Me |
|
 |
See the Sun |
|
|
|
Your Body Above Me: The Director's Cut |
|
| N/A | Passion Leaves a Trace |
|
[edit] EP's
| EP Cover | EP Title | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
 |
I Feel Fine (EP) |
|
[edit] Soundtracks
| Movie/Show Title | Song Title |
|---|---|
| The Benchwarmers | "Good" |
| Blade: Trinity | "This Blood" |
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer | "Keep Myself Awake" |
| Can't Hardly Wait | "Tell Me What to Say" |
| The Covenant | "River of Joy" (in trailer) |
| Lovewrecked | "Broken Heart" and "Weightless" |
| Permanent Midnight | "Horses" |
| The Shield | "This Night" (Season 6 promo) |
| Spider-Man | "Learn to Crawl" |
| Varsity Blues | "Black Eye" |
[edit] Solo and Side Projects
| Album Cover | Album Title | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
 |
Ten Million Years - Songs from the Nineteen Nineties |
|
 |
Cake or Death |
|
[edit] External links
Categories: Articles lacking sources from February 2007 | All articles lacking sources | Wikipedia articles needing style editing | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | Alternative musical groups | California musical groups | Bands with only one constant member
