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Seether

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For other uses, see Seether (disambiguation).
Seether

Seether are a post-grunge band from South Africa. They are currently signed to Wind-up Records. Originally called Saron Gas and signed to Musketeer Records in South Africa, they changed their name in 2002, coinciding with the release of their second album and major label debut, Disclaimer.

History

Early Days, Fragile, Disclaimer

Saron Gas had their origins in Pretoria, and the earliest days of the group saw their public appearances at parties, nightclubs, small-scale concerts and University venues, such as the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch, where they played for the lunch-time crowds in the Neelsie centre on the latter campus as late as the summer of 2001. As Saron Gas, the band released its first album, Fragile on Musketeer Records, in 2000 in South Africa. Upon achieving success on the South African music charts, Wind-up Records took an interest in Saron Gas' melodic-yet-heavy sound and signed them to the label. The band was asked to change their name, however, due to Saron Gas being a homophone of sarin gas, a deadly nerve agent. The band chose the name Seether, inspired by a single by the band Veruca Salt. Their first major release came in 2002 with the album Disclaimer. The album spawned three singles, Fine Again, Driven Under and Gasoline, but only Fine Again charted with any success. The remaining singles got semi-frequent radio play on modern rock stations, but were not major chart hits. The biggest hit off the album, Broken, was not even released as a single. Shaun Morgan has cited Nirvana (and specifically the album Nevermind) as 'the reason he picked up a guitar,' and also quotes Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains and Deftones. [1]

Success and Disclaimer II

After Disclaimer was released, the band went on a non-stop touring route in hopes of boosting sales and name recognition. Upon completing the tour, the band had planned to go into the studio and record their second release. However, they were instead tapped to support Evanescence on a worldwide tour that postponed their recording plans by almost a year. On this tour, the band reworked the acoustic ballad Broken into an electric ballad and had Amy Lee of Evanescence share vocal duties with Morgan during live performances. Inspired by the positive reaction the duet got on the road and perhaps fueled by a budding romance between Lee and Morgan, the band headed into the studio and quickly recorded an alternate version of Broken with Amy Lee on vocals. The song, along with a new song titled Sold Me, was featured on the soundtrack for the 2004 film The Punisher and was massively successful, bringing the band fame in the US, the UK and Australia in particular. Morgan has stated that the hit was an incident where the band was subjected to what the record company wanted for them rather than what they wanted as a result, pushing them away. [2] Disclaimer II, an alternate version of the original album with many of the songs remixed or re-recorded as well as eight extra tracks, was released in late 2004.

Karma and Effect, One Cold Night

In 2005, the band released their follow-up album Karma and Effect, featuring a fuller and richer sound than previous releases.[citation needed] The original title for the album was Catering to Cowards, but the band decided against the name, to avoid potentially offending someone. The album did not contain obscenities, unlike their previous releases.

While on tour for the album with Shinedown, Seether released an acoustic CD/DVD set titled One Cold Night, recorded on 22 February 2006 at Grape Street in Philadelphia. Morgan, who had been suffering from a stomach ailment, decided to do an acoustic performance of their set-list rather than cancel the show.

Guitarist Departure, Rehab

On June 16, it was announced via Seether's official site that lead guitarist Pat Callahan had chosen to leave the band. The exact reason for Callahan's departure is unknown. Shaun Morgan said, "Um… relieved a little… actually a lot, He was the guy in the band that was always our naysayer, and he was the negative energy as far as writing. I personally have no love lost, which is weird for some reason ‘cus he was my friend for four years. But when he walked out – it kinda walked out with him."[3]

Shaun Morgan went into rehab for unspecified addictions in August 2006, forcing the band to cancel their tour with Staind and Three Days Grace. Morgan is now out of rehab. Evanescence's hit "Call Me When You're Sober" was written about this incident.

Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

Morgan claims the new album will be more diverse than previous ones. It has been said on their official MySpace that the album should be out in October and on their official website that the album "is tentatively scheduled for release on October 23, 2007." but that date changes constantly. [4] From their latest update on their Myspace blog, their next album will probably have 15 tracks on it. In an interview, Morgan claims one song has a piano in it,[5] but which one it is as of now, is unknown.

According to a posting by Shaun on the band's official message board, Seether has hired Howard Benson to produce the new album. As of now, it is known that the album will not be a clean record like Karma & Effect. 5 clips of rehearsals of the song, "Like Suicide", have been posted on their Myspace blog and on YouTube.[6] A few tracks slated to appear on the new album are -
"No, Jesus Christ"; "Breakdown"; "Fake It"; "6 Gun Quota"; "Walk Away From The Sun"; "Rise Above This"; "FMLYHM"; "Don't Believe"; "Waste". The first single will be out late August. Acorrding to Seether's Official Message Board, FMLYHM is shortened for Fuck Me Like You Hate Me. According to recent interview, the new album won't include any song in response to Evanescence's "Call Me When You're Sober", written by his ex-girlfriend Amy Lee about their breakup. [7]

WWE, Other Contributions, Touring History

In addition to the soundtrack for The Punisher, Seether have also had their songs featured on the Freddy vs. Jason soundtrack and in the film Daredevil. The song Out Of My Way (originally intended for Kurt Angle and based on his theme music at the time) was the entrance music for former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Superstar Zach Gowen. Broken was featured on a career retrospective DVD for Eddie Guerrero as well as their video for Gasoline. Their song Sold Me was the official theme song of WWE's Bad Blood pay-per-view event in June 2004, while Remedy was the official theme song of the 2005 installment of WWE SummerSlam. In mid 2005, Seether released a video of the song Truth which also featured wrestling. In March 2006, the band performed before a crowd of 45'000 people at "The Coca-Cola Colab Massive Mix", with Simple Plan, The Rasmus, Fatboy Slim, and Collective Soul, with Metallica headlining. They were the headliners in the 2006 Winterfresh Snocore tour featuring Shinedown, Flyleaf, and Halestorm as the supporting acts. Seether embarked on a tour of the UK in October 2006 with support by the Essex based punk band Engerica and Art of Dying. Their song Fine Again also featured on the Nintendo GameCube video game, 1080° Avalanche and on Madden NFL 2003. Seether had recently announced their fall tour. All dates are shown on their Myspace site.

Trivia

  • Following a deal with Wind-Up records, Seether became one of the many bands whose music was added to the video sharing website YouTube in order for it to be used by users as backing audio for their own uploaded video clips.[1]
  • Shaun's actual surname is Welgemoed, but since their relocation to the US, he chose his second name, Morgan, as a surname, as nobody in the US could pronounce his real surname.
  • Boomer (Morning X) (radio personality for WXEG in Dayton, Ohio) was the first DJ in the United States to play Seether on an American radio station (back when he was the afternoon drive DJ at WXEG).
  • Their song "Sold Me" was featured as the official theme song for WWE's Bad Blood 2004. Also, "Remedy" was used as the main theme song to SummerSlam 2005.Also,Seether made a song for WWE for wrestler Kurt Angle called"Out Of My Way",but it was later assigned to former WWE wrestler Zack Gowen.The intro of the song starts with the familiar sound of Kurt Angles theme music being played on bass,which follows into it later being played on guitar as the main riff of the song.

Discography

Albums

Date Title Label Charted Positions Certification
2000 Fragile (as Saron Gas) Sony BMG
Musketeer Records
2002 Disclaimer Wind-up Records #92 US Gold
2004 Disclaimer II (Disclaimer re-issue) Wind-up Records #53 US Platinum
2005 Karma and Effect Wind-up Records #8 US Platinum
2006 One Cold Night Wind-up Records #50
2007 Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces Wind-up Records

Singles

Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Mainstream Rock
2003 "Fine Again" #61 #6 #3 Disclaimer
2003 "Driven Under" - #13 #13 Disclaimer
2003 "Gasoline" - #37 #8 Disclaimer
2004 "Broken (ft. Amy Lee)" #20 #4 #9 Disclaimer II
2005 "Remedy" #70 #5 #1 (8 weeks) Karma and Effect
2005 "Truth" - #25 #8 Karma and Effect
2006 "The Gift" - #29 #8 Karma and Effect
2007 "Like Suicide" Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

References

  1. ^ http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/5323/
  2. ^ http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/5323/
  3. ^ http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/5323/
  4. ^ http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/5323/
  5. ^ http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/5323/
  6. ^ http://www.youtube.com/user/inautonomy
  7. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1564949/20070717/seether.jhtml

Official sites

Fan sites

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