Dan Reed Network

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since November 2006.

The Dan Reed Network is a funk rock/funk metal band formed by Dan Reed in Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1984. Achieving only limited success in their career, they were the first band to combine the previously antagonistic genres of rock and soul/funk/dance to make a new sound, and pave the way for all the funk rock/funk metal bands that followed.

[edit] Career

Dan Reed (born 17 February 1963 in Portland, Oregon, USA) met Dan Pred in high school in Aberdeen South Dakota, and after growing up there the pair returned to Portland and formed the Dan Reed Network in 1984. In 1986 they made their first recording, a six-track mini-album called BREATHLESS, the lineup at this point being Dan Reed on vocals and guitar; Brion James on guitar; Melvin Brannon II on bass; Dan Pred on drums and Rick DiGiarllonado on keyboards. The band's diverse ethnic and musical backgrounds were reflected in the music, which whilst discernably hard rock was blended with soul, funk and jazz arrangements. DiGiarllonado was then replaced by Blake Sakamoto on keyboards, which made the band even more ethnically diverse.

The band were then signed to Mercury and released an eponymous debut album in 1987. Produced by Bruce Fairbairn (who had worked with Bon Jovi) and engineered by Mike Fraser at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, the album was quickly picked up on in rock circles in both North America and Europe. Follow up album SLAM, produced by Nile Rogers consolidated their growing status in Europe but oddly did less well in North America. They toured Europe in the Winter of 1989/1990 to consolidate their success, supporting Bon Jovi.

Third album THE HEAT (1991) was their biggest success in Britain, and they supported the Rolling Stones in Europe, but their American audience had evaporated completely. The band subsequently folded in the face of this indifference. After a spell in acting, Reed returned to writing and performing and bought a club that he named "Ohm" in his home town of Portland. A posthumous live album was released in 1997.

Dan Reed Network was listed on Billboards Top 10 Albums of the Year.