Severe Tire Damage (band)
Severe Tire Damage was an American rock and roll "garage" band from Palo Alto, California, United States.
Significance
[edit]Severe Tire Damage was the first band to perform live on the Internet.[1][2] On June 24, 1993, the band was playing a gig at Xerox PARC while elsewhere in the building, scientists were discussing new technology (the MBone) for broadcasting on the Internet using livestreaming (known as multicasting at the time). The band was thus broadcast and could be seen live in Australia and elsewhere.
On Friday, November 18, 1994, the Rolling Stones decided to broadcast one of their concert tours on the Internet. Before their broadcast, Severe Tire Damage returned to the Internet, this time becoming the "opening act" for the Stones.[3] This performance gained significantly more publicity, and Severe Tire Damage was elevated to Warholian fame.
Newsweek magazine described Severe Tire Damage as being "a lesser known rock band."[4] The Rolling Stones told The New York Times: "the surprise opening act by Severe Tire Damage was a good reminder of the democratic nature of the Internet."[5]
Band members
[edit]
The core band consisted of these people:[6]
- Russ Haines: guitar and vocals. Haines worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
- Mark Manasse: bass and vocals. Manasse worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
- Steven Rubin: vocals. Rubin worked at Apple Computer.
- Mark Weiser: drums. Weiser was Chief Technologist at Xerox PARC.
Additional people came and went during the band's history:[citation needed]
- Ken Beckman: drums. Beckman worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
- Lance Berc: tech. support. Berc worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
- Bruce Donald: guitar. Donald was a professor at Cornell University.
- Hania Gajewska: band manager. Gajewska worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
- Brad Horak: Tech. support. Horak worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
- Joel Jewitt: Drums.
- Anna Karlin: guitar and vocals. Karlin worked at DEC Systems Research Center and is now a professor at the University of Washington.
- Berry Kercheval: Bass, tech. support. Kercheval worked at Xerox PARC.
- Dexter Kozen: guitar, composer. Kozen was a professor at Cornell University.
- Amy Lansky: vocals. Lansky worked at NASA Ames.
- Ethan Robertson: sax and keyboards.
- Daniel Scharstein: keyboards and drums. Scharstein was a student at Cornell University.
Music
[edit]Severe Tire Damage wrote a number of original songs in multiple genres, primarily rock and punk. They were released on the band's albums "Who Cares" (a full CD album) and "Trial Starter Kit" (a mini-CD with only 4 songs). Both albums were re-released on their collection CD "The Best We Can Do."
Downfall
[edit]On April 27, 1999, Weiser died,[7] and the band never fully recovered. Silicon Valley drummer Joel Jewitt briefly practiced with the band and played some local gigs.
References
[edit]- ↑ Savetz, K., Randall, N., and Lepage, Y., "MBONE: Multicasting Tomorrow's Internet", John Wiley, 1996, ISBN 1-56884-723-8
- ↑ Rogers, Adam, "15 Years of Wired", Wired Magazine, June 2008, page 166
- ↑ Boulton, Jim, "100 Ideas that Changed the Web", Laurence King Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1780673707
- ↑ Hafner, Katie, "The MBone: Can't You Hear It Knocking", Newsweek, Dec 5, 1994
- ↑ Strauss, Neil (November 22, 1994), "Rolling Stones Live on Internet: Both a Big Deal and a Little Deal", The New York Times, retrieved February 25, 2007
- ↑ Wasserman, Elizabeth (November 15, 1997). "Performing Live – With a Net". San Jose Mercury News.
- ↑ In Memoriam: Mark Weiser Archived 2008-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
External links
[edit]- Official band website
- Computer Chronicles episode "Internet" (1995) with Severe Tire Damage performing live at four minutes into the program
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