Murderdolls

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Murderdolls
The Murderdolls
Origin Hollywood
Country United States of America
Years active 2002–2004 (on hiatus)
Genres Rock
Horror punk
Glam metal
Labels Roadrunner Records
Members Wednesday 13
Joey Jordison
Ben Graves
Acey Slade
Eric Griffin
Past members Tripp Eisen
Website(s) Roadrunner

Murderdolls are an American rock band formed in 2002. The band line-up consists of Wednesday 13, Joey Jordison, Acey Slade, Eric Griffin and Ben Graves. They are currently on a hiatus.

Although the group have had limited success in the United States, they have built up a strong following in the United Kingdom and Japan where their core fanbase lies.

Contents

[edit] Characteristics

The sound of the band is made up of their shared influences, which musically are; punk rock and glam metal, as well as from some of the 1970s hard rock and glam rock acts (Such as KISS and Alice Cooper). The band also share a large interest in horror movies, from which they take images, and references.

Lyrically the group most often present themselves in a "tongue-in-cheek" manner[1], covering topics of necrophilia, grave robbing, cross dressing, amongst other things. This is standard practise for many horror punk bands.

The Murderdolls are often described as "Mötley Crüe meets the Misfits"[2] by critics and fans alike. Their bassist Eric Griffin also bears a considerable resemblance to the Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx.

[edit] Biography

Some consider the Murderdolls history to go back as far as 1994 to a Des Moines, Iowa based band Joey Jordison played in, named The Rejects, which was fronted by vocalist Dizzy Draztik. The sound of the band was somewhat comparable to what the Murderdolls would later develop, minus the horror themed lyrics.

The Rejects split up as Jordison's "other band" Slipknot were signed to a major label. During the 1999 Ozzfest tour, Jordison met Tripp Eisen and asked him if he was interested in a project he had in mind; the reforming of the Rejects with Draztik. Eisen agreed to join the project and a friend of his from the band Dope and previously the Genitorturers, Racci Shay played drums with them. Also a bassist named Ian, who had played in New York based band the Vampire Love Dolls (fronted by Acey Slade who was known as J at the time), played with them live.

[edit] Wednesday 13 brought into project

Ironically, Dizzy Draztik introduced Joey Jordison to the music of the Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13. A horror punk band from Charlotte, North Carolina fronted by vocalist Wednesday 13. Eisen persuaded the band to invite the Drag Queens frontman to play with the Rejects, the two had previously considered bringing 13 into the band before Eisen joined. Wednesday joined them on November 2001, where he was brought into the Rejects as a bassist. Tripp Eisen has claimed that he suggested that his friend Acey Slade was brought into the band around this time, but was turned down.

Soon, Wednesday 13 was moved to the frontman position and Draztik was taken out of the project. The band changed their name to the Murderdolls (which Jordison came up with) and would soon adopt a horror themed aproach. Infact, in terms of material used Wednesday 13 became the driving force for it. Most of the tracks on the Murderdolls debut album came from his previous band Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, which would later introduce a whole new audience to the past music of Wednesday 13.

[edit] Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls

13, Jordison and Eisen went into the recording studio to record an album of material. Which because of the association of Eisen and Jordison's other bands, was to be released on Roadrunner Records. Primarily the recording features Wednesday 13 and Joey Jordison playing all of the instruments and vocals, however Eisen recorded some of the guitar solos on it.

Around this time in late March 2002, Ben Graves and Eric Griffin, two musicians native of Boston, Massachusetts but were living in Hollywood, California at the time joined the Murderdolls. They were brought in after Eisen showed Jordison a video of himself jamming with the pair, they decided the duo would be right for the band. And although they would feature on the debut album artwork, they did not actual play on the album itself. The band played their first shown together as the Murderdolls on July 30, 2002 at San Diego's Epicenter club.

An EP was released in early 2002 named "Right to Remain Violent" and featured some tracks from the forthcoming album. The full length album soon followed, titled; "Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls", the initial release featured fifteen tracks; twelve in total had previously been recorded by 13 with Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 and one from an earlier band Maniac Spider Trash 13 did however write all of the aforementioned tracks himself.

Upon its release the Murderdolls album was promoted to the public as the "other band" of Joey Jordison, the drummer of Slipknot, or a "collaboration" between Jordison and Tripp Eisen. At the time 13's importance wasn't known by the public, but fans later discovered the history. The lead off single from the album was titled "Dead In Hollywood", the promotional video featured a guest appearence by industrial rocker Marilyn Manson, whom had previously become friends with Jordison and was returning the favour of him earlier appearing in the video for "Tainted Love".

After only playing two live shows with the Murderdolls, Eisen returned to his main band Static-X as they were due to record a new album at the time. A friend of Eisen's Acey Slade was brought in to replace him on guitar.

[edit] Touring

The first slew of tour dates took the band through parts of the United States including; Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Jordison's native Iowa. Their first major date was at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, Japan during August 18, 2002, two days before their debut album was released. This helped them gain a fanbase in Japan.

Following this they played some dates in Europe, including a tour of the United Kingdom. At the time, there were no similar acts combining elements of punk and trashy glam for them to tour with, so the band toured with label mates and friends of Jordison's Papa Roach.

Their restless touring continued throughout 2002 into 2003 where they played several major Festivals, first in Australia they played at the Big Day Out where Murderdolls went on after Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters headlined the event. They were recieved favourably and One reviewer commented on the band's performance as a "mangled, choked and psychotic version of the Sex Pistols."[3] The other major festival dates during this time were Download Festival and Rock am Ring, Iron Maiden headlined both of the festivals.

Special Edition 2002 cover of "Beyond the Valley..."
Enlarge
Special Edition 2002 cover of "Beyond the Valley..."

Together the band recorded a cover version of Billy Idol's "White Wedding", a promotional video was recorded for it, in which they mocked popstar singing contests such as the Idol series. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom and they even peformed it on the premier UK chart show; Top of the Pops.

Murderdolls toured at the end of 2003 in support of the single and the re-release of their debut, with six added bonus tracks, as well as their Billy Idol cover, other bonus tracks included; "Let's Fuck", "I Take Drugs", "Crash Crash", "Welcome to the Strange" and "I Love to Say Fuck". The latter two had previously been recorded by 13 with the Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13. Their tour in support of this went through many European countries including Spain, Italy, Croatia, Scandanavia before ending with a four date tour of the UK supported by English psychobilly band the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster.

[edit] Hiatus

Murderdolls played their most recent show on January 17, 2004 in Corona, California. After this they went on a hiatus with Jordison returning to Slipknot. Since this hiatus begun, both 13 and Jordison have maintained that the band have not split up for good, and that they would return to record a second album together in the future.

Since the Murderdolls have been on a break the members have worked on various projects such as:

[edit] Members

[edit] Former Members

[edit] Discography

A complete discography of material released by the Murderdolls.

[edit] Album

Re-released with a different cover, 6 bonus tracks and DVD extras in 2003.

[edit] EP

[edit] Singles

[edit] Miscellanea

  • The name Murderdolls is a hybrid of the Murder Junkies and the New York Dolls, Jordison originally suggested the name as a joke, but they stuck with it.[4] 13 commented that he liked the name because "it's like the violent New York Dolls".
  • At a Metal Hammer Awards aftershow party, Murderdolls' drummer Ben Graves got into a fight and threw Cradle of Filth vocalist Dani Filth out of the building. Filth was said to have invited himself to the Murderdolls VIP area and began arguing with some of the band members before being "ejected" by Graves.[5]
  • Murderdolls featured on the soundtrack for the horror movie Freddy vs. Jason with their track "Welcome to the Strange".
  • During their tour with British metal act Iron Maiden the band were almost thrown off the tour for misbehaving. This was due to the Murderdolls drunkely partying at 4.00am at the hotel they were sharing with Maiden; Graves accidentally threw a bottle at one of the Iron Maiden crew members, while Jordison almost urinated on another.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Circus Interview
  2. ^ Motley Crue meets Misfits
  3. ^ Big Day Out 2003
  4. ^ Burrn! - Interview
  5. ^ Blabbermouth - Graves beat up Dani Filth
  6. ^ Graves Interview

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/u/r/Murderdolls.html"