SPOTLIGHT ARTIST - MUSHROOMHEAD

Band Name: Mushroomhead Band Website: www.mushroomhead.com Band Members: Nothing, Waylon, Stitch, Skinny, Shmot, Gravy, And Pigbenis Band Biography: Founded in 1993, in Cleveland, Ohio, Mushroomhead built a large underground following due to their aggressively artistic sound, highly theatrical stage show and peerless business savvy. Just how hard the band hit is illustrated thusly: "We played our first show on a Saturday, says founder and drummer Skinny. Three days later, we got a call to play with GWAR at the Cleveland Agora in front of 2,000 people, our second show ever! Mushroomhead quickly rocketed to regional prestige, opening for more national acts (Marilyn Manson, Down, Type O Negative) and headlining their own gigs. The reason for their ascendance was a singular, original, aesthetic eight guys decked in matching jumpsuits and disturbing over-the-head masks playing unbelievable, unsettling music. You see, Mushroomhead's music unfolds like a waking dream. It is at once surreal and vivid, intense and intelligent, and impossible to ignore. Mushroomhead demands your attention, but is willing to work for it. From 1995 to 1999, the staunchly DIY band released four independent albums (1995s Mushroomhead, 1996s Superbuick, 1997s Remix, and 1999s M3) via their own Filthy Hands Company imprint. They toured regionally in support of each release, watching support swell with each run. Soon, labels were calling. In 2000, the band signed with Eclipse Records to release XX, a compilation of tracks from the four prior albums, which sold a combined 50,000 units in the first four months. Based on these sales and robust word-of-mouth, Universal Records picked up the band and re-released a re-mixed version of XX. In short order, the band had lensed a video (Solitaire/Unraveling, produced by Dean Karr) and were landing on film soundtracks (The Scorpion King, XXX, Freddy vs. Jason, and the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). The album went on to sell 300,000 copies as the always-impassioned, sometimes eerie soundscape that is Mushroomhead reached an apex. Since 1993, when the Cleveland-bred octet formed as a side project, no other band was wearing masks and jumpsuits and purveying ultra-melodic, ultra-dramatic music as influenced by Faith No More and Pink Floyd as it was by hardcore, metal and even techno. The band was an oasis in a sea of sameness and in XX, Mushroomhead's years of hard work and hard music had come to a fearsome fruition. Multiple tours of the US, Europe and Canada followed, highlighted by a side stage run on Ozzfest 2002 (in both Europe and the USA). In 2003, the group released XIII, on which the bands austerely melodic metal was more richly realized. XIII matched XX in sales as Mushroomhead continued touring the world and watching their fan base, well, mushroom. But in the midst of a subsequent tour, the band parted ways with Universal Records and, shortly thereafter, vocalist J-Mann. Such changes would slow a lesser band down but this is Mushroomhead. Were doing what weve always done, says Skinny, Which is going back to square one. He refers to the bands DIY-from-day-one ethos Mushroomhead is responsible for its own success. It was their sweat, their enthusiasm, their talent, that made them what they are today: an unmitigated force. Armed with new front man Waylon, whom Mushroomhead heard when his band 3QuartersDead opened for them, the band is continuing its forward momentum. Kids are coming to shows, says Skinny, With their faces painted just like him [Waylon wears a hummingbird scheme taken from the film The Cell]. And weve gotten a lot of positive feedback from everywhere (especially out of Cleveland, where our most hardcore fans live). They say, He did a great job, he sounds just like [J-Mann] but he also has his own voice." True to its cottage industry roots, Mushroomhead is wasting no time in getting new product to its fans, producing art on its own terms. The self-managed, self-contained band recently produced, directed, shot and edited Volume 1, a DVD compilation of live performances, music videos and behind-the-scenes footage due for release August 9 via Filthy Hands with distribution via Lumberjack. A summer and fall tour with Dope will follow, culminating in the release of Mushroomheads as-yet-untitled 6th album. This, as they march on under the mantra: "New life, new blood, back to square one" - adapting to the constant evolution that is Mushroomhead. Review Of This Band By Mistress Malice: I had a kickass time last night celebrating My birthday at the Mushroomhead concert in Atlanta with My livein sissy slave Sarah Lynn who has never in her life been to a concert before last night! This four band headline show was total fucking music madness from start to finish. I had first come to discover Mushroomhead's cryptic and surreal sounds while living in Cleveland, Ohio. Unfortunately I could not make it to their live concert while living in Mushroomhead's hometown but I did get to watch them practice for the concert in the basement of the kickass tattoo shop I used to get inked at and hang out at with friends while living in Cleveland. So when I found out Mushroomhead was coming to Atlanta on the day before My birthday I knew that I had to be there this time. I've been a hardcore fan of theirs for years and use their songs to enhance My sadistic mood during live sessions with My personal slaves. There is no way to describe their music style in words really but "Death Metal, Psychodelic Mind Altering, and Fucking Wickedly Evil" are just a few of the phrases that come to mind. This band's sound is unlike no other and their originality is fucking refreshing when so many bands strive to make it by reinventing the musical wheel created by bands that have walked the path of fame before them and their stage antics are shockingly demented and morbidly twisted to put it mildly!

©MALICIOUS MAYHEM RADIO/WWW.MALICIOUSMAYHEM.COM