The Icarus Line

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The Icarus Line is a rock band from Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The band is known for playing a very abrasive form of rock music both compliant and contrary to music trends from the late 1990s and early 2000s. The band has also received considerable notoriety for their loud, energetic stageshows and for their seemingly reckless or "tough" attitude off-stage.

Contents

[edit] Line-Up

The band's current line-up is:

Former members include:

[edit] History

The Icarus Line was formed in 1998 with Joe Cardamone on vocals, Aaron North on guitar, Lance Arnao on bass and Aaron Austin on drums. After their first tour they added Alvin DeGuzman as a second guitarist. At this time, they released their first 7 inch EP Highlypuncturingnoisetestingyourabilitytohate on Hellcat Records. They released the Red and Black Attack EP later that year. Between 1998 and 2000 the band went through 4 different drummers. With their fourth drummer, Mike Felix, the band recorded songs for a split 7 inch with Ink & Dagger, and a single entitled Kill Cupid With a Nailfile for Los Angeles record label Buddyhead Records which was (and still is) co-owned by North. Shortly after, Felix left the band and was replaced by Jeff Watson on drums. In 2000 they recorded their first full-length album, Mono, which was also released on Buddyhead Records. Mono was regarded by critics as a fresh take on punk and was influenced by such bands as Born Against and The Jesus Lizard. The band spent the next two years touring to support the album. By 2003, Watson had exited the band and was replaced by their sixth drummer, Troy Petrey. With this lineup the band recorded a number of songs, including a split release with Burning Brides. Later that year, Watson returned to the band, and Arnao had been kicked out and replaced by Don Devore on bass. Devore was formerly a member of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania rock/punk band Ink & Dagger which also released some albums on Buddyhead Records. In 2004 the band released their second full-length album, Penance Soiree. Radically different from their debut, the album was clearly influenced by bands such as The Birthday Party and The Stooges. The album also featured a noisy, washed-out guitar sound reminiscent of the Jesus and Mary Chain. In the year 2005, Aaron North left the band and was recruited by Trent Reznor to join Nine Inch Nails. In 2006, the band released a new track from their upcoming release Black Lives At The Golden Coast on their MySpace profile, though by the end of that year, the record was put out as Black Presents.

[edit] Attitude

The Icarus Line is particularly well-known for their on- and off-stage actions which show their sense of bravado and anti-mainstream sentiment. Notorius incidents the band has been involved in include:

  • During a live show at the Hard Rock Cafe, former lead guitarist Aaron North broke into a memorabilia case at the club to take out the framed guitar inside, in order to play it. Unbeknownst to the band, the guitar had once belonged to Stevie Ray Vaughan. The incident was widely reported in rock journalism circles.
  • Spray painting trade tarps tag '$ucking Dick$' on a van that belonged to popular mainstream rock band The Strokes. The band initially tried to claim it was nothing to do with them, but admitted to the graffiti in a later interview with Kerrang! magazine (along with help from Buddyhead's Travis Keller).
  • North is one of the co-owners of Buddyhead Records, and the infamous Buddyhead website, which is known for publishing the phone numbers of celebrities on its Gossip page and for its (now absent) no-holds-barred reviews of records, which were often profanity and insult-laced. Buddyhead have coined many slang terms, thanks to their outrageous and over-the-top employment of an ironically homophobic and misogynistic "bro-speak"-type dialect. Choice phrases include "shit's gonna go off," "suckin' dicks," "bomb gash," "totally slays," "asspro" and "dickpigs."
  • The Icarus Line were banned from playing at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California after Aaron North threw his guitar into the club's expensive lighting system, and singer Joe Cardamone explained how he "likes to blow men on Santa Monica and Highland for money, and viciously attack and molest virgins."
  • Backstage at Leeds Festival 2004, drummer Jeff "The Captain" Watson attempted to fight all five members of metalcore band Avenged Sevenfold at once. Despite the cocaine-fuelled nature of Watson's assault, it was Avenged Sevenfold who were thrown out of the VIP facility. When they returned with a group of minders to seek revenge, Watson was only saved by a member of TV on the Radio, who escorted him back to the Icarus Line tour bus equipped with, according to Watson, "a broken bottle, a lantern and a machete" for protection.
  • Aaron North was also known for going into the crowd during performances and getting physical with hecklers. Verbal attacks were just as common, with their tirades often mocking other bands, especially those following the fashioncore trend, or consisting of general abuse directed at the perceived shallowness of the prevailing styles in the rock world.

[edit] Red and Black Attack

One of the earliest marks of the Icarus Line was how they appeared in the majority of their concerts and shows dressed in all black with the exception of a red necktie (thus explaining the title of their EP: Red and Black Attack). The point of this uniformity was to remove any aspect of fashion or style from the band and force onlookers to focus on the music instead of caring about how the band members are dressed. However this anti-fashion statement was turned into a fashion statement itself when the rock band the Hives used this uniform set-up for its own performances and music videos, substituting the red tie for a white one. Ever since then, although the Icarus Line still prominently use the colors black and red, they have stopped using the black and red tie uniform in performances to avoid any association with the Hives.

[edit] Discography

  • Highlypuncturingnoisetestingyourabilitytohate EP (1997)
  • Red and Black Attack EP (1998)
  • split release with Ink & Dagger (1998)
  • Kill Cupid With A Nailfile' 7 inch single (1999)
  • Mono (2002)
  • split release with Burning Brides (2004)
  • Penance Soiree (2004)
  • Black Presents (2005)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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