Jump to content
Bellazon

Recommended Posts

Posted

Does anyone else listen to Wolfmother? I realling have only listened to Woman. Can anyone suggest any other songs?

wolfmother.jpg

Bio

Wolfmother are a Grammy and ARIA award-winning Australian hard rock band from Sydney. The band consists of Andrew Stockdale (vocals/guitar), Chris Ross (bass/keyboard/organ/synthesiser) and Myles Heskett (drums/percussion).

After releasing their self-titled debut EP through Modular Recordings in September 2004, Wolfmother began appearing at several high profile music events, such as Homebake and the Big Day Out. The EP was a success, reaching #35 in the ARIA singles chart and receiving consistent radio play on Triple J.

In 2005, the band made their way to Los Angeles, working alongside producer Dave Sardy (Marilyn Manson, Oasis) to record their eponymous debut album, released in October 2005.

The first single to be released was "Mind's Eye"/"Woman" (a double A-side), making its debut on the Australian music charts at #29. The album itself entered the Australian Charts at #3 and has been a regular feature of the Top 20 ever since, having gone platinum three times. Wolfmother won the 2005 J Award from the Australian youth radio network Triple J for the best Australian album of the year, and finished the year with Falls Festival appearances. Rolling Stone magazine listed Wolfmother as one of their "Top 10 Bands to Watch 2006."

They achieved a record breaking six songs in the influential 2005 Triple J Hottest 100, with "Mind's Eye" their highest entry at #6. This breaks the record of five songs previously held by Powderfinger, Queens of the Stone Age, Silverchair and The White Stripes.

A 2006 poster advertising Wolfmother concerts.In 2006, they played their second Big Day Out tour in January, and released their second Australian single, "White Unicorn." The band performed at the Austin, Texas SXSW festival in March and Coachella in April where they were commonly cited as the 'breakout' band of the year. They also performed at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in May, and at the Oxegen festival and the Roskilde Festival in July.

International success

Andrew Stockdale during a performance in Tennessee, USA.Wolfmother have enjoyed considerable success in reaction to the mid-2000s Retro Metal movement, at which they are often considered the chief pioneer. Many of their songs have been featured in the advertising of many products including the Apple iPod, multiple Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 games, the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer, and TV programs and movies such as "Jackass: Number Two," Dane Cook's "Tourgasm," "House," the 2006 Australian Football League (AFL) finals, and the Winter X Games 11.

The band also made many promotional appearances. They appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" on May 4, 2006. Additional stops in June 2006 included the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and "The Late Show with David Letterman," where Letterman would remark to a sweaty Stockdale in their interview "That was pretty damn cool!" In July, they played the famous T In The Park festival in Scotland. On August 1, 2006, Wolfmother appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" show before playing in San Diego's Street Scene.

Chris Ross playing bass during a performance at SXSW 2006.Starting on July 14, 2006, Wolfmother played a total of 18 shows in Australia including the Splendour in the Grass music festival. On July 29, they played at Fuji Rock Festival in Japan before continuing their tour of US and Europe which included high profile music festivals such as Lollapalooza and the Reading and Leeds Festivals. On September 10, they took part in the inaugural North American V Festival in Toronto, Canada. On September 23, they were in Baltimore playing at the Virgin Music Festival. Wolfmother was also scheduled to appear at the Download Festival in San Francisco on September 30, but on September 25, bassist Chris Ross's wife had a baby. The baby was one month early and Wolfmother cancelled/postponed their dates in the following month. During this break, Wolfmother released their final single from the self-titled album, "Joker and the Thief," in Australia on October 28, where it reached #8 on the Australian Singles Chart, their highest position to date in Australia. Wolfmother resumed touring on November 4 in the United Kingdom.

On November 9, 2006, Wolfmother appeared on the NBC late night talk show "Last Call with Carson Daly."

On November 14, 2006, legendary hard rock/heavy metal band Led Zeppelin were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame; they asked Wolfmother to appear as their guests. The band covered the Led Zeppelin song "Communication Breakdown," a common Wolfmother concert vehicle before and since. Half way through the song, lead vocalist Robert Plant turned to guitarist Jimmy Page and famously remarked "These guys are pretty good!"

Myles Heskett during a performance at SXSW 2006.During an interview in March 2006 Andrew and Myles created a 'Free the Gnomes!' design using the 'consequences' method, where each couldn't see what the other had drawn. The design was contributed to the Yellow Bird Project to raise money for the charity, Teenage Cancer Trust.

On the February 13, 2007, it was announced on that the band would be playing at the Download Festival in June and the band where given the third headline spot on the first day (Friday June 8, 2007) in between Velvet Revolver and Dragonforce playing various songs from their self titled album.

At the 2007 Grammy Awards, Wolfmother won the 'Best Hard-Rock Performance' award for their song "Woman." Prior to winning, Stockdale had jokingly discussed with reporters his prediction of "no chance" at the awards. They beat bands such as System of a Down, Tool and Nine Inch Nails to win the award. "I was a huge Tool fan back in the day, I saw them at Hordern Pavilion and Newcastle Uni," said Heskett about their nomination for the award.

The band released an exclusive new song titled "Pleased to Meet You" on the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack through the label Record Collection.

On May 12, 2007, they announced at Pointfest 20 that that would be their last concert in America for an undetermined amount of time.

In June of 2007 they performed at the Bonnarroo Music and Arts festival in Manchester, TN on the second largest stage the event offers.

On June 28, 2007, they headlined at Summerfest, "The World's Largest Music Festival", in Milwaukee, WI.

On July 7, 2007 they will be performing in Sydney's Live Earth concert. Andrew Stockdale said in an interview "That will be our last show for this album. We will find out what a green note sounds like on the next record". According to an interview with Billboard, the band has begun recording for its second album, which is slated to be released in early 2008.

Critical response

While the band has gained much success, reception is divided. A Total Guitar review calls Wolfmother's music "ruddy marvellous", and Pitchfork praises them for "how capably they strike a balance between meaty vintage metal and crisp, stoner-rock melodies". Others hold that their music is too derivative of 70's rock; a Stylus Magazine review states "everything there is to say about them is best said by immediate reference to another band and Wolfmother always come up short in the comparison", while a largely positive Billboard review ends with "Next time, however, they'll have to give us more than just a tour of their uncle's vinyl collection". An allmusic review is more critical, calling their music "precious, inarticulate, [and] confused" when compared to that of their musical influences, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

(Credit ot Wikipedia)

  • 1 year later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...