Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American singer, musician, record producer, film score composer. He is the founder, lead vocalist, principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, which he founded in 1988 and of which he was the sole official member until adding long-time collaborator Atticus Ross as a permanent member in 2016, his first release under the Nine Inch Nails name, the 1989 album Pretty Hate Machine, was a commercial and critical success. He has since released nine Nine Inch Nails studio albums, he left Interscope Records in 2007 and was an independent recording artist until signing with Columbia Records in 2012. Reznor was associated with the bands Option 30, The Urge, The Innocent, Exotic Birds in the mid-1980s. Outside of Nine Inch Nails, he has contributed to the albums of artists such as Marilyn Manson and Saul Williams, he and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, are members of the post-industrial group How to Destroy Angels, with Atticus Ross and long-time Nine Inch Nails graphic designer Rob Sheridan.
Reznor and Ross scored the David Fincher films The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. They scored the 2018 film Bird Box. In 1997, Reznor appeared in Time's list of the year's most influential people, Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music". Michael Trent Reznor was born on May 17, 1965, in New Castle, the son of Nancy Lou and Michael Reznor, he has German and Irish ancestry and is a descendant of businessman George Reznor, who founded the heating and air conditioning manufacturer The Reznor Company in 1888. Reznor grew up in Pennsylvania. After his parents divorced, he lived with his maternal grandparents from the age of six, while his sister Tera lived with their mother, he showed an early aptitude for music. His grandfather, Bill Clark, told People magazine in February 1995 that Reznor was "a good kid... a Boy Scout who loved to skateboard, build model planes, play the piano".
He stated, "Music was his life, from the time. He was so gifted."Reznor has acknowledged that his sheltered life left him feeling isolated from the outside world. In a September 1994 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he referred to his choices in the music industry: However, in April 1995, Reznor told Details magazine that he did not "want to give the impression it was a miserable childhood". At Mercer Area Junior/Senior High School, he learned to play the tenor saxophone and tuba, was a member of both the jazz and marching band; the school's former band director remembered him as "very upbeat and friendly". Reznor became involved in theater while in high school, was voted "Best in Drama" by classmates for his roles as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar and Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man, he graduated in 1983 and enrolled at Allegheny College in Meadville, where he studied computer engineering. While he was a student at Mercer Area Junior/Senior High School, Reznor joined local band Option 30 and played three shows a week with them.
After a year of college, Reznor dropped out and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to pursue a career in music. His first band in Cleveland was a cover band. In 1985, he joined The Innocent as a keyboardist. In 1986, he joined local band Exotic Birds and appeared with them as a fictional band called The Problems in the 1987 film Light of Day. Reznor contributed on keyboards to the band Slam Bamboo during this time. Reznor got a job at Cleveland's Right Track Studio as janitor. Studio owner Bart Koster commented: "He was so focused in everything he did; when that guy waxed the floor, it looked great." Reznor asked Koster for permission to record demos of his own songs for free during unused studio time. Koster agreed, remarking that it cost him "just a little wear on his tape heads". While assembling the earliest Nine Inch Nails recordings, Reznor was unable to find a band that could articulate his songs as he wanted. Instead, inspired by Prince, he played all the instruments. Reznor has continued in this role on most of the band's studio recordings, though he has involved other musicians, assistants and rhythm experts.
Several labels responded favorably to the demo material and Reznor signed with TVT Records. Nine selections from the Right Track demos were unofficially released in 1988 as Purest Feeling and many of these songs appeared in revised form on Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor's first official release under the Nine Inch Nails name. Most of Reznor's work as a musician has been as founding and primary member of Nine Inch Nails. Pretty Hate Machine was released in 1989 and was a moderate commercial success, certified Gold in 1992. Amid pressure from his record label to produce a follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor secretly began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference, resulting in an EP called Broken. Nine Inch Nails was included in the Lollapalooza tour in the summer of 1991, won a Grammy Award in 1993 under "Best Heavy Metal Performance" for the song "Wish". Nine Inch Nails' second full-length album, The Downward Spiral, entered the Billboard 200 chart in 1994 at number two, remains the highest-selling Nine Inch Nails release in America.
To record the album, Reznor rented and moved into the 10050 Cielo Drive mansion, where the 1969 Manson Family murders took place. He built a studio space in the house, whic
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, United States. Named for the lake and the Native American Erie people who lived in the area until the mid-17th century, Erie is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania, as well as the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania, with a population of 101,786 at the 2010 census; the estimated population in 2017 had decreased to 97,369. The Erie metropolitan area, equivalent to all of Erie County, consists of 276,207 residents; the Erie-Meadville, PA Combined Statistical Area has a population of 369,331, as of the 2010 Census. Erie is halfway between the cities of Buffalo, New York, Cleveland and due north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Erie's manufacturing sector remains prominent in the local economy, though health care, higher education, service industries and tourism are emerging as significant economic drivers. Over four million people visit Erie during summer months for recreation at Presque Isle State Park, as well as attractions such as Waldameer Park.
Erie is known as the "Flagship City" because of its status as the home port of Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship Niagara. The city has been called the "Gem City" because of the sparkling lake. Erie won the All-America City Award in 1972, in 2012 hosted the Perry 200, a commemoration, celebrating 200 years of peace between England and Canada following the War of 1812 and Battle of Lake Erie. Cultures of indigenous peoples occupied the shoreline and bluffs in this area for thousands of years, taking advantage of the rich resources; the Sommerheim Park Archaeological District in Millcreek Township, Pennsylvania west of the city, includes artifacts from the Archaic period in the Americas, as well as from the Early and Middle Woodland Period a span from 8,000 BCE to 500 CE. The historic Iroquoian-speaking Erie Nation occupied this area before being defeated by the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in the 17th century during the Beaver Wars; the Iroquois tribes had developed and five nations formed a political league in the 1500s, adding their sixth nation in the early 18th century.
The Erie area became controlled by the Seneca, "keeper of the western door" of the Iroquois, who were based in present-day New York. Europeans first arrived as settlers in the region when the French constructed Fort Presque Isle near present-day Erie in 1753, as part of their effort to defend New France against the encroaching British colonists; the name of the fort refers to the peninsula that juts into Lake Erie, now protected as Presque Isle State Park. The French term "presque-isle" means peninsula; when the French abandoned the fort in 1760 during the French and Indian War, it was the last post they held west of Niagara. The British established a garrison at the fort at Presque Isle that same year, three years before the end of the French and Indian War. Erie is in what was the disputed Erie Triangle, a tract of land comprising 202,187 acres in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania fronting Lake Erie, claimed after the American Revolutionary War by the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
The Iroquois claimed ownership first so a conference was arranged for on January 9, 1789 wherein representatives from the Iroquois signed a deed relinquishing their ownership of the land. The price for it was $1,200 from the federal government; the Seneca Nation separately settled land claims against Pennsylvania in February 1791 for the sum of $800. It became a part of Pennsylvania on March 3, 1792, after Connecticut and New York relinquished their rights to the land and sold the land to Pennsylvania for 75 cents per acre or a total of $151,640.25 in continental certificates. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania commissioned the surveying of land near Presque Isle through an act passed on April 18, 1795. Andrew Ellicott, who completed Pierre Charles L'Enfant's survey of Washington, D. C. and helped resolve the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York, arrived to begin the survey and lay out the plan for the city in June 1795. Initial settlement of the area began that year. Lt. Colonel Seth Reed and his family moved to the Erie area from New York.
They became the first European-American settlers of Erie, settling at what became known as "Presque Isle". President James Madison began the construction of a naval fleet during the War of 1812 to gain control of the Great Lakes from the British. Daniel Dobbins of Erie and Noah Brown of Boston were notable shipbuilders who led construction of four schooner−rigged gunboats and two brigs. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry arrived from Rhode Island and led the squadron to success in the historic Battle of Lake Erie. Erie was an important shipbuilding and railroad hub during the mid-19th century; the city was the site. While the delays engendered cargo troubles for commerce and travel, they provided much-needed local jobs in Erie; when a national standardized gauge was proposed, those jobs, the importance of the rail hub itself, were put in jeopardy. In an event known as the Erie Gauge War, the citizens of Erie, led by the mayor, set fire to bridges, ripped up track and rioted to try to stop the standardization.
On August 3, 1915, the Mill Creek flooded downtown Erie. A culvert, or a tunnel, was blocked by debris, collapsed. A four-block reservoir, caused by torrential downpours, had formed behind it; the resulting deluge killed 36 people. After the flood, Mayor Miles Brown Kitts had the Mill Creek directed into another larger culvert, constructed under more than 2 mi
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a style of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became popular in the 1990s. In this instance, the word "alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music; the term's original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style or the independent, DIY ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music. At times, "alternative" has been used as a catch-all description for music from underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition, or for any music, whether rock or not, seen to be descended from punk rock. Alternative rock broadly consists of music that differs in terms of its sound, social context and regional roots. By the end of the 1980s, magazines and zines, college radio airplay, word of mouth had increased the prominence and highlighted the diversity of alternative rock, helping to define a number of distinct styles such as noise pop, indie rock and shoegaze.
Most of these subgenres had achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands representing them, such as Hüsker Dü and R. E. M. had signed to major labels. But most alternative bands' commercial success was limited in comparison to other genres of rock and pop music at the time, most acts remained signed to independent labels and received little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became successful. In the past, popular music tastes were dictated by music executives within large entertainment corporations. Record companies signed contracts with those entertainers who were thought to become the most popular, therefore who could generate the most sales; these bands were able to record their songs in expensive studios, their works sold through record store chains that were owned by the entertainment corporations.
The record companies worked with radio and television companies to get the most exposure for their artists. The people making the decisions were business people dealing with music as a product, those bands who were not making the expected sales figures were excluded from this system. Before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sort of music to which it refers was known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups. In 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had a late night new wave show entitled "Rock and Roll Alternative". "College rock" was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the college radio circuit and the tastes of college students. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture. According to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red, NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called "Alternative Charts".
The first national chart based on distribution called the Indie Chart was published in January 1980. At the time, the term indie was used to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie' had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than distribution status; the use of the term alternative to describe rock music originated around the mid-1980s. Individuals who worked as DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American FM radio of the 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to top 40 radio formats by featuring longer songs and giving DJs more freedom in song selection. According to one former DJ and promoter, "Somehow this term'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by college radio people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever music". At first the term referred to intentionally non–mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by "heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave" and "high-energy dance anthems".
Usage of the term would broaden to include new wave, punk rock, post-punk, "college"/"indie" rock, all found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as Los Angeles' KROQ-FM. Journalist Jim Gerr wrote that Alternative encompassed variants such as "rap, trash and industrial". In December 1991, Spin magazine noted: "this year, for the first time, it became resoundingly clear that what has been considered alternative rock – a college-centered marketing group with lucrative, if limited, potential- has in fact moved into the mainstream"; the bill of the first Lollapalooza, an itinerant festival in North America conceived by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, reunited "disparate elements of the alternative rock community" including Henry Rollins, Butthole Surfers, Ice-T, Nine Inch Nails and the Banshees and Jane's Addiction. That same year, Farrell coined the term Alternative Nation. In the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. In 1997, Neil Strauss of The New York Times defined alternative rock as "hard-edged rock distinguished by brittle,'70s-inspired guitar riffing and singers agonizing over their problems until they take on epic proportions".
Defining music as alt
Slipknot (band)
Slipknot is an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. The band was founded in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Shawn Crahan, Joey Jordison, Paul Gray, Corey Taylor, Mick Thomson, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn. Gray died on May 24, 2010, was replaced during 2011–2014 by guitarist Donnie Steele. Jordison left the band due to illness on December 12, 2013. Steele left during the recording sessions for.5: The Gray Chapter. The band found replacements in Alessandro Venturella on Jay Weinberg on drums. After the departure of Jordison, as of December 2013 the only founding member in the current lineup is percussionist Crahan. Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, energetic and chaotic live shows; the band rose to success following the release of their eponymous debut album in 1999.
The 2001 follow-up album, although darker in tone, made the band more popular. After a brief hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3:, before going on another hiatus and returning in 2008 with its fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After another long hiatus, Slipknot released its fifth studio album.5: The Gray Chapter, in 2014. The band has released two live albums titled 9.0: Live and Day of the Gusano: Live in Mexico, a compilation album titled Antennas to Hell, five live DVDs. The band has sold 30 million records worldwide. In the years before Slipknot formed, a state of shifting band membership existed throughout the heavy metal scene in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1991, the biggest heavy metal band in Des Moines was Atomic Opera, with Jim Root on guitar. Drummer Joey Jordison founded a thrash metal band called Modifidious, playing at a club called Runway. Modifidious opened for Atomic Opera on December 1, 1991, at the Runway, after which their guitarist left for the more successful Atomic Opera.
Jordison replaced him with local guitarist Craig Jones. Drummer Shawn Crahan formed another Des Moines band called Heads on the Wall, playing funk metal cover songs at clubs and releasing a demo tape in July 1992. A fourth Des Moines band called Vexx played death metal with Anders Colsefni on drums, Paul Gray on bass, Josh Brainard on guitar and vocals. Colsefni took over vocal duties, but Vexx never recorded. During this time, Crahan went to the Runway on Sundays when the club opened to all ages, where he met other young musicians with whom he could jam. By March 1993, Crahan was jamming with vocalist Colsefni, bassist Gray and guitarist Pat Neuwirth and playing songs in Gray's basement, discussing possible band names such as Pull My Finger, but never making a final decision. One of the songs they recorded was titled "Slipknot". In 1993, a new band called Inveigh Catharsis formed in Des Moines, with Gray on bass, Brainard on guitar and Colsefni on drums. Jordison jammed with this group. Brainard left to join Jordison and Jones in Modifidious, participating in demo recordings at the end of'93 and early in'94.
During 1994, Modifidious sometimes played the same shows as Crahan's Heads on the Wall band. Gray formed. Modifidious stopped playing in the wake of death metal's increasing pull. Gray failed to get Jordison to join Body Pit, but soon after he recruited local guitar teacher Mick Thomson, the band broke up. In September 1995, Crahan and Gray started; the lineup was made up of friends who met through the local music scene, including vocalist Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Not long after their inception, Gray invited Jordison to a rehearsal because the band was interested in experimenting with additional drum elements. Jordison subsequently joined the band as their main drummer. Furthermore, Colsefni took up percussion while remaining the band's vocalist; the band decided to invite Brainard as their second guitarist, bringing their lineup to six members. On December 4, the band made their live debut. Much of the band's early development was retrospectively attributed to late-night planning sessions between Gray and Jordison at a Sinclair gas station where Jordison worked nights.
It was there, in late 1995, that Jordison suggested changing the band name to Slipknot after their song of the same name. In December, Slipknot began recording material at a studio in the band's hometown; as they didn't have a recording contract, the band self-financed the project, the costs of which came to an estimated $40,000. In February 1996, guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, left Slipknot after discussions regarding the band's lyrics with the producer, Sean McMahon. Jordison said of Steele's departure: " was having these God talks, when we were supposed to be working... We were prepared to keep him on, but he didn't want to stay." Steele himself has said: "I left for a few reasons... I had a lot on my mind spiritually." During the mixing stages of their project at SR Audio, Craig Jones was recruited as Steele's replacement on guitar. However, throughout their time in the studio, the band were adding samples to their recordings but could not produce these sounds live. Subsequently, Jones became the band's sampler and Mick Thomson was brought in as the replacement guitarist.
After a complicated time with mixing and mastering, the band self-released Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. on Halloween, October 31, 1996. Distribution for the demo was left to the band
Chicago
Chicago the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois, as well as the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,716,450, it is the most populous city in the Midwest. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area referred to as Chicagoland, the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States; the metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, the fourth largest in North America and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area. Located on the shores of freshwater Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed and grew in the mid-nineteenth century. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, the city made a concerted effort to rebuild; the construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, by 1900 Chicago was the fifth largest city in the world.
Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and zoning standards, including new construction styles, the development of the City Beautiful Movement, the steel-framed skyscraper. Chicago is an international hub for finance, commerce, technology, telecommunications, transportation, it is the site of the creation of the first standardized futures contracts at the Chicago Board of Trade, which today is the largest and most diverse derivatives market gobally, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures. O'Hare International Airport is the one of the busiest airports in the world, the region has the largest number of U. S. highways and greatest amount of railroad freight. In 2012, Chicago was listed as an alpha global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, it ranked seventh in the entire world in the 2017 Global Cities Index; the Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products in the world, generating $680 billion in 2017. In addition, the city has one of the world's most diversified and balanced economies, not being dependent on any one industry, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce.
Chicago's 58 million domestic and international visitors in 2018, made it the second most visited city in the nation, behind New York City's approximate 65 million visitors. The city ranked first place in the 2018 Time Out City Life Index, a global quality of life survey of 15,000 people in 32 cities. Landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Grant Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago's culture includes the visual arts, film, comedy and music jazz, soul, hip-hop and electronic dance music including house music. Of the area's many colleges and universities, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago are classified as "highest research" doctoral universities. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams; the name "Chicago" is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more as ramps.
The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as "Checagou" was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir. Henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the eponymous wild "garlic" grew abundantly in the area. According to his diary of late September 1687:...when we arrived at the said place called "Chicagou" which, according to what we were able to learn of it, has taken this name because of the quantity of garlic which grows in the forests in this region. The city has had several nicknames throughout its history such as the Windy City, Chi-Town, Second City, the City of the Big Shoulders, which refers to the city's numerous skyscrapers and high-rises. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, who had taken the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox peoples; the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable arrived in the 1780s, he is known as the "Founder of Chicago".
In 1795, following the Northwest Indian War, an area, to be part of Chicago was turned over to the United States for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn and rebuilt; the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis; the Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833. On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. Receiver of Public Monies; the City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837, for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city. As the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States.
Chicago's first railway and Chicago Union Railroad, the Illi
Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial music group formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1982. The group is considered to be one of the founders of the electro-industrial genre. Envisioned as an experimental side project by cEvin Key while he was in the new wave band Images in Vogue, Skinny Puppy evolved into a full-time project with the addition of vocalist Nivek Ogre. Over the course of a dozen studio albums and many live tours and Ogre have been the only constant members. Other members have included Dwayne Goettel, Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, Mark Walk, a number of guests, including Bill Leeb, Al Jourgensen, many others. After the self-release of their first cassette in 1984, Skinny Puppy soon signed to Vancouver label Nettwerk, anchoring its early roster. From their Nettwerk debut EP Remission in 1984 to their 1992 album Last Rights, Skinny Puppy developed into an influential band with a dedicated cult following, fusing elements of industrial, noise, new wave and rock music and making innovative use of sampling.
Over the course of several tours of North America and Europe in this period, they became known for theatrical, horror-themed live performances and videos, drawing attention to issues such as chemical warfare and animal testing. In 1993, Skinny Puppy left Nettwerk and long-time producer Rave, signing with American Recordings and relocating to Malibu, where drug problems and tension between band members plagued the recording of their next album, The Process. Ogre quit Skinny Puppy in June 1995, Goettel died of a heroin overdose two months later; the album was completed with Rave and released in Goettel's memory in 1996. Key and Ogre active in a number of other projects, went their separate ways, reuniting for a one-off Skinny Puppy concert at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden, Germany, in 2000. Reforming Skinny Puppy in 2003 with Mark Walk, they released the album The Greater Wrong of the Right the following year and toured extensively. Since their reunion, they have released a further three albums, the most recent release being 2013's Weapon.
Skinny Puppy formed in 1982 as a side project for Kevin Crompton in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Crompton was dissatisfied with the pop direction of his then-current band Images in Vogue, began Skinny Puppy with the intention of doing something more compelling and experimental. Images in Vogue had become a popular act in Vancouver, achieving several radio hits and opening for groups such as Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Roxy Music. Crompton had planned Skinny Puppy to be a side project while he continued his work in Images in Vogue. Crompton had created the name for the project and recorded several songs when he asked Kevin Graham Ogilvie to join. Ogilvie had been a roommate of Images in Vogue member Gary Blair Smith and had met Crompton at a party in late 1982. To avoid the confusion of having two people named Kevin in one band, the pair created stage names, with Crompton becoming cEvin Key and Ogilvie becoming Nivek Ogre. Using Key's apartment as a makeshift studio, the duo began recording songs and in 1983 with the help of Images in Vogue recording engineer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, Skinny Puppy released the EP Back & Forth.
This was the beginning of a long partnership between Skinny Puppy and Rave, who would serve as their producer until 1993, again in 1995, was listed as a member of the band in album liner notes. Though only 35 copies were printed, the self-released Back & Forth drew the attention of Vancouver startup label Nettwerk, who signed the band that year; the first live Skinny Puppy show was held at the Unovis art gallery in Vancouver in February 1984. Ogre has said that Skinny Puppy acted as an escape for Key, who wished to distance himself from Images in Vogue: "He was looking for something to break out of, maybe I was it". Key would continue to drum for Images in Vogue until the group relocated to Toronto in 1985. Key's concept behind Skinny Puppy came from the group's first song recorded, "K-9"; the idea, according to Key, was to create music which explored "life as seen through a dog's eyes". Skinny Puppy incorporated the use of "B-grade horror movie visuals", including fake blood and props, into their live performances.
Key justified these "shock gore" antics with the following: What we're presenting isn't much different from what is subjected to in everyday life. For example, a commercial is a plastic view of existence and reality; when you watch a TV show and see a world with picture-perfect endings, all you have to do is switch the station and watch the news. Having scored a record deal with Nettwerk and with interest surrounding the Back & Forth EP growing, Skinny Puppy was invited to Vancouver's Mushroom Studios to work on new material, it was here that the group recruited Bill Leeb to perform bass backing vocals. Like Ogre and Key before him, Leeb created Wilhelm Schroeder. Skinny Puppy released their second EP, Remission in December 1984 a year following Back & Forth. Remission marked the first time Skinny Puppy would collaborate with artist Steven Gilmore, who created the album artwork; the EP was only released in vinyl, but was given a cassette release in 1985. According to Nettwe
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie is an American musician and filmmaker. He is a founding member of the heavy metal band White Zombie, releasing four studio albums with the band, he is the older brother of Spider One, lead vocalist for American rock band Powerman 5000. Zombie's first solo effort was a song titled "Hands of Death" with Alice Cooper, which went on to receive a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards. In 1997, he began working on his debut solo studio album, Hellbilly Deluxe, released in August 1998. A month Zombie disbanded White Zombie. Hellbilly Deluxe spawned three singles, he released a remix album, American Made Music to Strip By, the following year that contained songs from Hellbilly Deluxe. Zombie directed the horror film House of 1000 Corpses in 2000, though the controversial project was not released until 2003, his second studio album, The Sinister Urge, became his second platinum album in the United States. In 2003, Zombie released the Future. Zombie directed a direct sequel to his prior film House of 1000 Corpses.
The project received a more positive reception than its predecessor. His third studio album, Educated Horses, was a departure from his earlier recordings; the album became his third to enter the top ten of the Billboard 200, though saw a decrease in sales when compared to his previous releases. Deciding to focus on his directing career, Zombie directed the horror film Halloween, a remake of the 1978 horror classic of the same name; the film became Zombie's highest-grossing film to date, though was met with a negative critical reception. He directed Halloween II, which failed to match the success of its predecessor, he released the animated film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto that same year. Zombie returned to music with the release of his fourth studio album, Hellbilly Deluxe 2; the album sold over 200,000 copies in the country. In 2012, Zombie released a second remix album and directed the horror film The Lords of Salem, released the following year, he released his fifth studio album Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor the following year.
He directed the horror film 31 and has purchased the rights to a film about the NHL team Philadelphia Flyers, titled The Broad Street Bullies. Since the beginning of his music career, Zombie's music and lyrics have featured notable horror and sci-fi themes, his live shows have been praised for their elaborate shock rock theatricality. Since beginning his solo career, Zombie has sold an estimated fifteen million albums worldwide. Robert Bartleh Cummings was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts on January 12, 1965, he is the oldest son of Louise Cummings. His younger brother, Michael David Cummings, is the lead singer of the band Powerman 5000. Growing up, Cummings had a fascination with horror films and has stated that he always "wanted to be Alice Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Bela Lugosi and Stan Lee." His parents worked in a carnival, but they chose to leave after a riot broke out and tents were set on fire. Cummings recalled the experience in an interview, stating, "Everybody's pulling out guns, you could hear guns going off.
I remember this one guy we knew, he was telling us where to go, some guy just ran up to him and hit him in the face with a hammer – just busted his face wide open. My parents packed up real quick, we took off." Cummings graduated from Haverhill High School in 1983. He moved to New York City and began attending Parsons School of Design, where he met eventual girlfriend Sean Yseult. Before the success of White Zombie, he was a production assistant for the television series Pee-wee's Playhouse. Cummings and Yseult co-founded the band, they continued to work in the band together. The band released three extended plays to little success, with their debut studio album Soul-Crusher following in 1987 through the band's own record label, Silent Explosion, they released their second studio album two years to little commercial reaction. Yseult and Zombie ended their relationship in 1991 and Zombie began dating Sheri Moon shortly afterwards; the band caught the attention of Geffen Records following the release of their fourth extended play.
The album became the band's breakout hit, going on to sell over two million copies in the United States. Their first single, "Thunder Kiss'65", was released through the label in 1993. White Zombie's fourth and final studio album, Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head, became their first to enter the top ten of the Billboard 200. Cummings directed the music video for the album's single "More Human than Human" and would go on to direct all subsequent videos for the band. In 1996, Cummings changed his name to Rob Zombie. White Zombie released a remix album that year, marking their final release before their eventual disbandment. Zombie collaborated with Alice Cooper on the song "Hands of Death" for Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files; the song was nominated in the category of Best Metal Performance at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, though lost to Rage Against the Machine. White Zombie broke up in September 1998, with Zombie stating, "Sometimes a band just breaks up because the band has run its course a
