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Murderdolls

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Murderdolls

Murderdolls is an American horror punk supergroup, founded during 2002 in Hollywood, California.[1] The band line-up consists of core members Wednesday 13 and Joey Jordison. Former members include Ben Graves, Acey Slade, Eric Griffin & Tripp Eisen.

To date the band has released one album in the form of Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls which was released in 2002. The band had limited initial success in the United States, though their album and singles charted well in the United Kingdom and around the same time they picked up a strong following in Japan. Their second album, Women and Children Last, was released August 31, 2010.

Characteristics

The sound of the band is made up of their shared influences, which musically are punk rock and as well as from some of the 1970s hard rock acts (such as Kiss and Alice Cooper). The band also share a large interest in horror movies, from which they take images and references.

Lyrically, the group most often present themselves in a "tongue-in-cheek" manner,[2] covering topics of necrophilia, grave robbing, cross-dressing, shaving their eyebrows, and wearing makeup, amongst other things.

The Murderdolls are often described as "Mötley Crüe meets the Misfits"[3] by critics and fans alike.

Biography

Early years

Some consider the Murderdolls history to go back as far as 1994 to a Des Moines, Iowa based band Joey Jordison played in, named The Rejects, which was fronted by vocalist Dizzy Draztik. The sound of the band was somewhat comparable to what the Murderdolls would later develop, minus the horror themed lyrics.

The Rejects split up as Jordison's "other band" Slipknot were signed to a major label. During the 1999 Ozzfest tour, Jordison met Tripp Eisen and asked him if he was interested in a project he had in mind; the reforming of the Rejects with Draztik. Eisen agreed to join the project and a friend of his from the band Dope and previously the Genitorturers, Racci Shay played drums with them. Also a bassist named Ian, who had played in New York based band the Vampire Love Dolls (fronted by Acey Slade who was known as J at the time), played with them live.

Formation, Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls (2001–2002)

Ironically, Dizzy Draztik introduced Joey Jordison to the music of the Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, a horror punk band from Charlotte, North Carolina, fronted by vocalist Wednesday 13. Eisen persuaded the band to invite the Drag Queens frontman to play with the Rejects. The pair had previously considered bringing 13 into the band before Eisen joined. Wednesday joined them on November 2001, where he was brought into the Rejects as a bassist. Tripp Eisen has claimed that he suggested that his friend Acey Slade was brought into the band around this time, but was turned down.

Soon, Wednesday 13 was moved to the frontman position and Draztik was taken out of the project. The band changed their name to the Murderdolls and would soon adopt a horror themed approach. In fact, in terms of material used Wednesday 13 became the driving force for it. Most of the tracks on the Murderdolls debut album came from his previous band Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, which would later introduce a whole new audience to the past music of Wednesday 13.

13, Jordison, and Eisen went into the recording studio to record an album of material. Which because of the association of Eisen and Jordison's other bands, was to be released on Roadrunner Records. Primarily the recording features Wednesday 13 and Joey Jordison playing all of the instruments and vocals, however Eisen recorded some of the guitar solos on it.

Around this time in late March 2002, Ben Graves and Eric Griffin, two musicians native of Boston, Massachusetts but were living in Hollywood, California at the time joined the Murderdolls. They were brought in after Eisen showed Jordison a video of himself jamming with the pair, they decided the duo would be right for the band. And although they would feature on the debut album artwork, they did not actually play on the album itself. The band played their first show together as the Murderdolls on July 30, 2002 at San Diego's Epicenter club.

An EP was released in early 2002 named "Right to Remain Violent" and featured some tracks from the forthcoming album. The full length album soon followed, titled; "Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls", the initial release featured fifteen tracks; twelve in total had previously been recorded by 13 with Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 and one from an earlier band Maniac Spider Trash, 13 did however write all of the aforementioned tracks himself.

Upon its release the Murderdolls album was promoted to the public as the "other band" of Joey Jordison, the drummer of Slipknot, or a "collaboration" between Jordison and Tripp Eisen. At the time 13's importance as song writer wasn't known by the public. The lead off single from the album was titled "Dead In Hollywood", the promotional video featured a guest appearance by Marilyn Manson, who had previously become friends with Jordison and was returning the favour of him earlier appearing in the video for "Tainted Love".

In July 2002 Eisen announced he was leaving the band and returning to his main band Static-X as they were due to record a new album at the time. Eisen's former Dope bandmate Acey Slade was brought in to replace him on guitar.[4]

Touring (2002–2004)

The first tour dates took the band through parts of the United States including; Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Jordison's native Iowa. Their first major date was at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, Japan during August 18, 2002, two days before their debut album was released. This helped them gain a fan base in Japan.

Following this they played some dates in Europe, including a tour of the United Kingdom with AntiProduct (the lead singer of which, Alex Kane replaced Griffin on Bass, when he had to return home during the tour[5]) and Ireland. At the time the band also co-headlined a international tour with label mates and friends of Jordison's Papa Roach.

Their restless touring continued throughout 2002 into 2003, where they played in several major festivals; first, they played at the Australian festival Big Day Out, going on after Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters headlined the event. They were received favorably and one reviewer commented on the band's performance as a "mangled, choked and psychotic version of the Sex Pistols."[6] The other major festival dates during this time were Download Festival and Rock am Ring, Iron Maiden headlined both of the festivals.

Special Edition 2002 cover of "Beyond the Valley..."

Together, the band recorded a cover version of Billy Idol's "White Wedding". A promotional video was recorded for it, in which they mocked popstar singing contests such as the Idol series. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom and they even performed it on the premier UK chart show, Top of the Pops.

Mid 2003 The Murderdolls co-headlined a tour of England with fellow Roadrunner Records band, Stone Sour, which contained two of Jordison's fellow members of Slipknot.

Murderdolls toured at the end of 2003 in support of the single and the re-release of their debut, with six added bonus tracks, as well as their Billy Idol cover, other bonus tracks included; "Let's Fuck", "I Take Drugs", "Crash Crash", "Welcome to the Strange" and "I Love to Say Fuck". The latter two had previously been recorded by 13 with the Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13. Their tour in support of this went through many European countries including Spain, Italy, Croatia, and Scandinavian countries before ending with a four date tour of the UK supported by English psychobilly band the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster.

Murderdolls played their last show on January 17, 2004 in Corona, California. After this they went on an indefinite hiatus with Jordison returning to Slipknot. Since this hiatus begun, both Wednesday 13 and Jordison maintained that the band had not split up for good, and that they would return to record a second album together in the future.[7] Additionally, in a 2009 interview, Slade revealed that he would have been happy to reform the Murderdolls by now, but it always proves impossible due to other commitments of the band members.[8]

Reunion & Women & Children Last (2010–present)

In February 2010, whilst embarking on a solo tour in Australia, Wednesday 13 spoke with Drum Media and told them he was tossing up whether to record another solo album or record another Murderdolls album. He stated that the idea was still in talks, but would be his number one priority if the opportunity arose.

In March 2010, Jordison officially revealed to Kerrang magazine that Murderdolls had officially reunited with him and Wednesday working with producer Chris "Zeuss" Harris. Jordison said about the reunion, "It’s been an ongoing conversation between Wednesday and I from 2006 until now. We were bored with everything out there, and thought we had something to piss people off and shake things up. Everything is such a product or a fucking formula these days... Fuck formula! Fuck the norm!"[9]

It was revealed on the band's official website that the band would feature a new line-up, without Slade, Griffin or Graves.[10]

Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars recorded a guest appearance on the new album, whilst he was recording material for his debut solo album in the same space.[11][12] On April 15, the band confirmed that they had finished recording their upcoming album Women & Children Last. Joey Jordison has said that he considers Women & Children Last as really the first true Murderdolls album.[13]

The band performed two shows in California in mid-June to promote their new album. The first show was captured on video and is expected to be released on DVD for the Special Edition of the album. The band will also perform at the London edition of the Ozzfest at the O2 Arena on the 18th of September. The band are expected to perform more dates after Jordison has finished his touring duties with Rob Zombie.

Joey Jordison recently announced that Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper and the Murderdolls will team up for a tour later in 2010. He will be performing guitar duties for the Murderdolls and will continue to drum for Rob Zombie.[14]

As for the new album Women & Children Last, the two main men, Joey Jordison and Wednesday 13, confessed to VerdamMnis Magazine that they consider this new release to be their very first album since this is the first time they "sat down together to write songs and the production is a far better than from 'Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls'. They also revealed to the French magazine that the CD was recorded in a mansion upon the Hollywood Hills which encourage "to create their own sound with no influence from the outside world" since they were secluded [15].

The album was released on August 31st, 2010 via Roadrunner Records.

Murderdolls will support Guns N' Roses on a handful of European dates in September 2010.

Other projects

Band members

Current
Former
  • Tripp Eisen – guitars, backing vocals (2002–2003)
  • Acey Slade – guitars, backing vocals (2003–2004)
  • Eric Griffin – bass, backing vocals (2002–2004)
  • Ben Graves – drums, percussion (2002–2004)

Discography

Main article: Murderdolls discography
Studio albums

References

  1. ^ Waggoner, Eric. "MetroTimes.com". MetroTimes.com. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  2. ^ "Circus Interview". Murderdolls.us. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  3. ^ "Motley Crue meets Misfits". Murderdolls.us. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  4. ^ "STATIC-X's TRIPP EISEN: Why I Left MURDERDOLLS". Blabbermouth.net. October 5, 2002. Retrieved 2008-10-25. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ Shaeffer, Rowan (10.9.2002). "Murderdolls: Manchester University". {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Ieg / Ecc. "Big Day Out 2003". Rocknworld.com. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  7. ^ Official Wednesday 13 band's myspace blog: Thursday, June 11, 2009. "Still no def plans but there is talk between Joey and I on a new Murderdolls CD. Keep your fingers crossed, only time will tell."
  8. ^ "Interview with Acey Slade in Glasgow, Scotland, May 2009". Warmonkey.net. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  9. ^ "Kerrang! Exclusive! Murderdolls are back!". .kerrang.com. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  10. ^ "Murderdolls at Roadrunner Records". Roadrunnerrecords.com. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  11. ^ "MÖTLEY CRÜE Guitarist To Guest On New MURDERDOLLS Album". Blabbermouth. Apr. 4, 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "Photo: Murderdolls and Motley Crue's Mick Mars in The Studio". Roadrunner. Apr. 6, 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "JOEY JORDISON: 'Women And Children Last' Is Really The First MURDERDOLLS Record". Roadrunnerrecords.com. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  14. ^ "Joey Interviewed On 107.7 The Bone". Opiumofthepeople.net. Roadrunner Records. July 11, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  15. ^ "Wednesday Interviewed On VerdamMnis Magazine = [[VerdamMnis]]". July 11, 2010. Retrieved July 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help)

External links

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