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Staind

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Staind

Staind is an American alternative metal group [1] [2] from Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Over the past five years, the band has had a large impact on rock and mainstream radio with a large number of successful singles spanning several albums, and has sold over fifteen million albums worldwide.

Band history

Early Days

Staind formed on November 24, 1995 in Springfield, Massachusetts. After meeting through friends and covering KoRn, Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains, among others, in smalltime clubs for a year and a half, Staind self-released their debut album, Tormented, in November 1996, citing influences Pantera and Sepultura. The album is generally regarded as the band's heaviest and "rawest" effort. Until recently, the album was difficult to obtain, as only four thousand copies were originally sold. Since then, the band's official website has released the album to meet the demand from fans.

During this time, Staind played a show with Limp Bizkit. When Durst saw the cover of the group's debut album (which featured blasphemous artwork, including a knife going through a Bible and a crucified Barbie doll), he tried to have the band kicked off the bill, but when he saw the band's show, he changed his tone and befriended them, later singing backup on Aaron Lewis' live, original version of the future Staind song "Outside." Durst was one of the executive producers for Dysfunction and Break the Cycle. He also directed a few videos for the band later on.

Dysfunction

The band's big break came in October 1997 after Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst witnessed the band open up for them at a Boston, Massachusetts show, eventually signed them to his Flip record label, and co-produced their 1999 breakthrough Dysfunction with Terry Date. Although it is supposed that the band owe a lot of success to Durst, Aaron Lewis has expressed in interviews that the band never had much of a relationship with either the singer or the band, claiming the band 'only worked on four songs with Durst and recorded the rest of the album themselves.' [3] Staind has not been associated with Durst since he directed several videos from their 2001 follow-up. Dysfunction has sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone. The album was given mediocre reviews by critics for being "indicative of the times", but a large number of the band's fans nonetheless regard it as the group's best work. The nine-track LP (with one hidden track, "Excess Baggage") produced three singles, all of which enjoyed radio play. The most well known, "Mudshovel", (which also appeared on Tormented, spelled as "Mudshuvel"), has since become a staple of the band's live shows.

Break The Cycle

Staind toured with Limp Bizkit for the Family Values Tour during the fall of 1999, where Aaron Lewis performed their first mainstream hit "Outside" (a song he was working on at the time but had not yet finished—he finished it on the fly while performing) with Fred Durst to hundreds of waving cigarette lighters, and which set them up for their smash hit 2001 album Break the Cycle, which brought them international success (it went number 1 in both the U.S. and the UK), sold more than 7 million copies, and had first week sales of over 767,000 in the U.S. alone. The album sees the band move away from the nu-metal sounds of their previous album and resort to an alternative metal sound [4] which has spawned five hit singles to date, "It's Been Awhile", (which hit the Billboard Top 10) "Fade", (which has been featured on a number of movie soundtracks and television shows), "Outside", "For You", and "Epiphany", and included a track called "Waste", devoted to two teenage fans who committed suicide shortly before the album was released. The album also received mixed critical praise; Rolling Stone magazine called them "the grim genre's most song-oriented, downright sensitive band in years" [3] while New Musical Express referred to the album as "14 tracks of parent-friendly grunge-flavoured soft rock that make Creed sound like GG Allin." [4] (a statement that proved ironic, since Break the Cycle was later included in Hit Parader's The Top 50 Metal Albums of All Time at number 46 and The Top 10 "New Metal" CDs at #3). 'It's Been Awhile' spent a total of 16 and 14 weeks on top of the modern and mainstream rock charts, respectively, making it one of the highest joint number 1s (30 weeks) of all time.

14 Shades Of Grey

In early 2003, Staind embarked on a worldwide tour to promote the release of the follow-up to Break The Cycle, 14 Shades Of Grey, which sold two million albums and debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200. The fourteen-track collection was the band's most mainstream yet,[citation needed] and showed Aaron Lewis writing songs about his daughter, as well as moving on with his life and forgetting his past, hence the title representing uncertainty for the future and forgiveness (a tribute to Lewis's supposed idol Layne Staley from Alice in Chains also appeared on the album). The album provided two mainstream hits: the lead single "Price to Play", and "So Far Away" (which spent 14 weeks on top of the rock chart); in addition, two other singles failed to crack the Hot 100—"How About You" and "Zoe Jane"— but "How About You" was a fairly popular song on modern rock radio. Their song "Price to Play" was the official theme song of WWE's Vengeance pay-per-view event in July 2003. As well, their song "So Far Away" was featured on an episode of WWE RAW as part of a video tribute to hardcore wrestling legend Mick Foley. The band's appearance at Reading Festival during the 2003 tour had another impromptu acoustic set, this time due to equipment failure. The singles "So Far Away" and "Price to Play" came with two unreleased tracks, "Novocaine" and "Let It Out", which were released for the special edition of the group's Chapter V, which came out in late 2005. In 2003, Staind unsuccessfully sued their logo designer Jon Stainbrook in New York Federal Court ( blabbermouth.net) for attempting to re-use the logo he had sold to the band. They re-opened the case in mid-2005.

Chapter V

After extensive promotions, including an appearance on Fuse TV's 7th Avenue Drop, Staind's newest album, titled Chapter V was released on August 9, 2005, and became their third consecutive number one in a row. The album opened to sales of 185,000 and has since been certified platinum in the U.S. The first single "Right Here" has been the biggest success from the album thus far, garnering much mainstream radio play and peaking at number 1 on the mainstream rock chart. "Falling" (the video of which does not feature the band members at all) was released as the second single, followed by "Everything Changes" and "King of All Excuses." Staind have been on the road since the album came out doing live shows and promoting it for a full year, including participating in the Fall Brawl tour with P.O.D., Taproot and Flyleaf, a solo tour across Europe and a mini-promotional tour in Australia for the first time. Recent live shows have included a cover of Pantera's This Love, a tribute to Dimebag Darrell. Staind appeared on the Howard Stern Show on August 10, 2005, to promote their new album Chapter V. They performed acoustic renditions of the single Right Here and Beetlejuice's song "This is Beetle." Their rendition of "Beetle" is immensely popular with fans and listeners alike and became a staple of the show. Kevin Lofton, who does all the animation for the Howard Stern website, created a black-and-white animated video for the song. During a January 2006 Episode of WWE RAW, a tribute video to then WWE Champion Edge featured the band's song "Right Here". In early November 2005, Staind released the limited edition 2-CD/DVD set of Chapter V. The set included several rarities and fan favorites— music videos; a complete, 36-page booklet with exclusive artwork; an audio disc with an acoustic rendition of "This is Beetle"; the original, melodic rendition of "Reply"; the previously released B-side singles "Novocaine" and "Let It Out"; and live versions of "It's Been a While" and "Falling", among many others. Staind's best hit called "Right Here" was the longest song to be on TRL in history. It was number 1 for two weeks, then number 3 for an extra 5 weeks, and down to number 3 for 5 weeks, then came back up as number 1 for 1 week, then down to number 5 for 5 weeks, then down to number 7 for 8 weeks, then back to number 3 for 1 week, then it fell down to number 10 for 1 week, then to number 5 again for 1 week, then to number 15 for 1 weeks, then to number 13 for 1 week, then it dropped to number 17 for 1 week, then it dropped to number 19 for 1 week, then it finally dropped to number 20 for the final week of it being on the "TRL Top 20 Countdown" which is played in Times Square in New York every Sunday. It is the most successful voted song of the year and won 3 Grammys, including Best Hard Metal, Best Rock Record, and Best Hard Rock song. Staind is truely a legend and always will be in our society. Also they are one of the few bands that actually admit they are Christian. They are a good band.

The Singles: 1996-2006

Staind announced that they would be performing an acoustic show in the Hiro Ballroom, New York City on September 6th and the songs played would be recorded for their upcoming "Greatest Hits" album, scheduled for a November 14th release. They played sixteen songs including three covers: Tool's Sober, Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb and Alice in Chains's Nutshell.

The title was later renamed to "The Singles" and finally "The Singles: 1996-2006". The album had most of Staind's singles (including "Everything Changes" which was recorded at the New York show), the three covers performed at the New York show and a remastered version of "Come Again", from Staind's first independent release Tormented.

It was released on November 14th.

Future releases

Lead singer Aaron Lewis also announced solo tours starting from the beginning of 2007 with a possible solo album in the works. Lewis stated that he already has some material for a solo album. A new LP is also in the planning stages, although Lewis is uncertain whether it will be released in 2007 [5]. He also stated that there are no materials yet for this LP.

Trademark infringment

In November 2003 Staind attempted to sue Ohio musician Jon Stainbrook in New York Federal Court over his 1980 trademark of "The Stain". Staind was unsuccessful in their suit prompting Stainbrook to pursue litigation against the band for including false statements in their application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. If Stainbrook's suit is successful, Staind may have to change their band name and forfeit all trademark claims or come to a licensing agreement with Stainbrook.[5]

Miscellaneous

The band's lead singer Aaron Lewis is married to Vanessa Lewis, and is a father of two, Zoe Jane (b. 2002) and Nyla Rae (b. 2005).

During the break between releases, Aaron Lewis performed backing vocals for good friends Jimmie's Chicken Shack for their single "Fallin' Out", taken from that band's LP Re.Present (released in 2004). He also worked with the popular nu-metal group Linkin Park in making a remix of their song "Crawling" (spelled as "Krwling") for the band's 2002 album Reanimation. Lewis also performed background vocals on Sevendust's song "Follow" off the 2001 album Animosity and on the tracks "Bleed" and "Send in the Clowns" from Cold's 2000 release 13 Ways to Bleed Onstage

The news recently featured Aaron Lewis heavily criticizing the music industry and major record labels. His main concern stems from talk at Atlantic Records that Staind's popularity has hit its peak, and the band will never again be accepted in 'pop' culture, the major money-making demographic for the music industry. He appeared on KISS 108, Boston's Top 40 radio station, on October 12, 2006. During his interview, he spent considerable time claiming that, regardless of the numbers of records they have sold, the band has seen very little revenue from record sales, as is typical of a major label-recording contract. He appeared disgruntled at behind-the-scenes events, even though he attempted to qualify himself otherwise. He capped off the appearance with an endearing acoustic version of 'Everything Changes.'

Recognition

In 2005, Staind were listed in metal magazine 'Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Stars of All Time List, in which lead singer Aaron Lewis was placed at number 81, ahead of System of a Down's Daron Malakian, Disturbed's David Draiman and Queen's Freddie Mercury. He also ranked as the 10th most mysterious metal star of all time.[citation needed]

The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll notes; "Aaron Lewis is a key figure in metal's shift from the constipated sincerity of Eddie Vedder to the chilly modalities of Layne Staley." [6]

Members

Current Members

Discography

Studio albums

Album cover Album information
Tormented
Dysfunction
Break the Cycle
14 Shades of Grey
File:Staind Chapter V.jpg
 Chapter V
The Singles: 1996-2006

Singles

Year Song US Hot 100 U.S. Modern Rock U.S. Main- stream Rock Album
1999 "Just Go" - - 24 Dysfunction
1999 "Mudshovel" - 14 10 Dysfunction
1999 "Home" - 17 11 Dysfunction
2001 "It's Been Awhile" 5 1 (16 weeks) 1 (20 weeks) Break the Cycle
2001 "Outside" 56 11 16 Break the Cycle
2001 "Fade" 62 4 3 Break the Cycle
2002 "For You" 63 3 3 Break the Cycle
2002 "Epiphany" - 28 22 Break the Cycle
2003 "Price to Play" 66 6 2 14 Shades of Grey
2003 "So Far Away" 24 1 (7 weeks) 1 (14 weeks) 14 Shades of Grey
2004 "How About You" - 10 10 14 Shades of Grey
2004 "Zoe Jane" - - - 14 Shades of Grey
2005 "Right Here" 55 3 1 (3 Weeks) Chapter V
2005 "Falling" - 19 9 Chapter V
2006 "Everything Changes" - 32 22 Chapter V
2006 "King of All Excuses" - - 27 Chapter V

DVDs

References

  1. ^ Chuck Berry, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (2004), "Genre Classification".
  2. ^ Allmusic.com. Staind Artist Page (Genre Classification). [1]
  3. ^ FasterLouder.com.au. "Shaved Heads & Revelations: Staind Share Their Secrets", Interview with Staind. [2]
  4. ^ Chuck Berry, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (2004), "Staind: Alternative-metal rock group".
  5. ^ Anthony DeGidio, Esq., (2004). "Stain v Staind". Retrieved 2006-12-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Rolling Stone Magazine, The Rolling Stone Enyclopedia of Rock & Roll (2004), "Entry: Staind".
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