Chagall Guevara
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| Chagall Guevara | |
|---|---|
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| Origin | Nashville, Tennessee, USA |
| Years active | 1989 – 1993 |
| Genres | Rock |
| Labels | MCA Records |
| Members | Steve Taylor Dave Perkins Lynn Nichols Wade Jaynes Mike Mead |
| Past members | Rick Cua |
Chagall Guevara was an American rock band, heavily influenced by The Clash, formed in 1989 by solo artist Steve Taylor, guitarists Dave Perkins and Lynn Nichols (from the 1970s Phil Keaggy band), bassist Wade Jaynes, and drummer Mike Mead.
The band was named after Communist revolutionary Che Guevara and painter Marc Chagall to imply the meaning "revolutionary art." Although the band formed in 1989, its existence was not publicly confirmed until 1990. The group broke up in early 1993. Virtually all of the band's following was among followers of the Christian rock genre.
The band first appeared on the soundtrack to the motion picture Pump Up the Volume with a song called '"Tale O' The Twister." The band's only album, the self titled Chagall Guevara, was released on MCA Records in 1991 and was well-received by music critics. The band's only music video, for the song "Violent Blue," received light rotation on MTV.
Several CD and LP singles were released in support of the album, including a UK-release CD and 7" of "Violent Blue" with one otherwise-unavailable B-side track titled "Still Know Your Number By Heart."
Several songs from the band's 1991 performance at the Greenbelt Festival in England appeared on the official video "Four Days in Summer", released by the festival. Steve Taylor had been involved with the festival on a semi-regular basis, and produced several of their earlier videos. Audio tapes of a 45 minute interview with the band during the festival were also released.
Recording for a second album began, but MCA Records went through internal restructuring, and the band was dropped from the label before it was completed. Several tracks for the second album have been confirmed to exist, including "Halcyon Days" and "A Bullet's Worth A Thousand Words", but they remain unreleased.
A concert was recorded on November 15th, 1991 at Nashville's 328 Performance Hall for a planned live video and album. The video has since been lost, but in early 2005 the audio tapes were transferred and mixed by members of the band. However, it also remains unreleased.
Chagall Guevara reunited temporarily in 1994 to record "Treasure of the Broken Land" for the Mark Heard tribute album Strong Hand of Love. The song was also featured on the extended Orphans of God double-CD released a couple of years later.
In a June 2006 interview with Elias Coblentz, Steve Taylor revealed that Chagall Guevara reunited for the first time in 13 years at a party for Dwight Ozard in Nashville, TN during October of 2005. He also said that there are no immediate plans for anything new from Chagall Guevara.
[edit] External links
- Sock Heaven, a Steve Taylor and Chagall Guevara fan site which includes a Chagall Guevara FAQ with more information about their music video, break up, and unreleased tracks, and a reproduction of Kevin: The Chagall Guevara Newsletter.
- Chagall Guevara 1992 album, free download, temporarily unavailable.
[edit] Discography
- Pump Up the Volume Soundtrack, 1990.
- Chagall Guevara, 1991.
- Strong Hand of Love, a tribute to Mark Heard, 1994.
- Orphans of God, a tribute to Mark Heard, 1996.
