Green Jellÿ
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| Green Jellÿ | |
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| Country | USA |
| Years active | 1981-present |
| Genres | Heavy Metal Punk Rock |
| Labels | Zoo Entertainment |
Green Jellÿ is an American comedy heavy metal/punk rock group. Originally named Green Jellö, the band changed its name due to legal pressure from the owners of the Jell-O trademark, Kraft Foods, who claimed that it was an infringement on their trademark. Despite the spelling difference, the new name and the old are pronounced identically.
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[edit] History
Green Jellö was formed in 1981 by Bill Manspeaker (aka Moronic Dictator, lead vocals), Scott Smith (aka Ozzy Ozmond, drums), Jim Laspesa (aka Marshall Stack, guitar) and Joe Cannizzaro (aka Joey Bloey, Dunderhed, bass) in Kenmore, New York, a small suburb of Buffalo. They began the band with the idea of starting "The World's Worst Band". The name (made up by beloved band friend Mark Potter) was chosen because lime-flavored Jell-O was widely regarded as the worst Jell-O flavor, and Bill thought the name reflected their band's talents. Barely able to play instruments, the band began playing punk shows around Buffalo, New York, with the intention of acting crazy onstage. The band was so technically inept that Joe (then playing bass) had to color-code his bass so that songs could be learned by color, such as "red, green, blue, blue, green", etc.
The band's first show was held in a Masonic Temple in Kenmore. Local teenage jock thugs in the rowdy, drunk and hostile audience broke into the venue's kitchen mid-concert and found a full case of ice cream sandwiches, which they proceeded to throw at the band and all over the stage. By the end of the night the stage was ruined and Green Jellö had to reimburse the venue for damages.
Another early gig at the local YMCA also ended in the band having to pay for cleanup - this time for spilling tons of fake blood on the carpets. The band then got the reputation as a "food-throwing rock band" - and the audience members started bringing their own actual green Jell-O specifically to throw at the band. Later in their career, it wouldn't be unusual to see fans showing up with garbage bags filled with green Jell-O, pudding, whipped cream, or anything messy to throw at the stage and at the band.
In 1984 Green Jellö opened for The Ramones at a Buffalo State College summertime outdoor free concert, and the band (who as the opening act had their equipment set up in front of the Ramones' gear) were pelted by the audience with the usual Jell-O, whipped cream and pudding. In the end, Green Jellö had again made a mess and The Ramones' equipment was also covered in mush. They were not pleased, to say the least (Dee Dee was especially mad). Years later in an interview with New York Rocker magazine, Joey Ramone singled out Green Jellö as the worst (and messiest) band to ever open for the Ramones. Of course, Green Jellö took this as the highest praise.
[edit] Early career
In 1984 Green Jellö released Let It Be, an 8 song 7-inch 45 EP, on their own label, American Jello Parti Productions, Inc. The cover artwork (designed by Manspeaker) was a parody of The Beatles' Let It Be album cover. Recorded in Bill's bedroom and at a local band rehearsal hall, the album featured the theme song "Green Jellö Theme Song" (the band's initial manifesto/call to arms), as well as early songs "I've Got Poo-Poo On My Shoe" (later "Shitman"), "Whip Me Teenage Babe" (later "House Me Teenage Rave"), "Hill, Hill", "Do the Howie" (a song about the bumbling rent-a-cop at the band's High School Alma Mater, Kenmore West High School, sung to the tune of Van McCoy's "The Hustle"), the 1-second long "Icrog", "The Ice Cream Song", and "I'll Buy You Any Major Appliance You Want Baby, Ooo Ooo".
Let It Be was limited to a release of 500 and only released locally. The first 100 copies were housed in a deluxe hand-glued hard-cardboard picture sleeve, with front color photo (printed on real photographic paper by Manspeaker). Later picture sleeves were simply a green tinted photocopy of the original cardboard sleeve. The original hard-cardboard sleeves are now highly sought after by collectors.
The record also included a multi-panel lyric sheet (designed by Manspeaker). The back cover of the picture sleeve features an actual endorsement from Kiss member Paul Stanley, who Green Jellö had met during that time. The Let It Be EP was also given away at a record release party in which fans had to climb a "Green Jellö Tree" in front of the club to claim a free record. The band actually taped a large amount of 45s up in the tree in the front of the club. The band's high propensity for absurd, illogical stunts such as this soon became the norm. For Green Jellö, every action could and should be a potential publicity stunt: 100% hype, with absolutely no social or musical redeeming qualities.
Around this time, Green Jellö started turning up for gigs in multiple stretch limos. The band just thought it was an absurd, funny thing for an admittedly horrible band to do. Other weird things Green Jellö used to do on stage during early Buffalo shows included making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on their chests, and ironing clothes on stage while singing.
The band began to get more and more (faux) outrageous onstage, eventually involving fake torture, whipping and women. Often the band would play new songs, so that the audience wouldn't know how bad they were messing up. Crazy stage names were adopted, multiple members joined, and in 1987 Green Jellö appeared on the TV show The Gong Show. Trying hard to sound bad, the band was "gonged" quickly, but had achieved its goal of national TV exposure.
[edit] Road to success
After the local success in Buffalo, many of the members relocated to Hollywood, CA. In 1987, while working at Tower Records on Sunset Blvd, they reformed the band, and quickly became a fixture in the Hollywood underground scene. In 1988, Bill and the band met GWAR, and an instant friendship was formed over their mutual love of costumes and props. After the initial meeting, Green Jello decided to ditch their uncomfortable and dangerous papier maché/chicken wire costume heads in favor of the more user friendly foam rubber heads that GWAR had been making. They garbage picked cushions from abandoned Hollywood couches and carved their new characters such as "Shitman" (a giant, walking corn-filled poop monster), "Cowgod", "Rock n Roll Pumpkin", and "Satan's Ham." The band's live show became an over-the-top adventure in absurdity, now consisting of usually 20 members onstage.
In 1989, Green Jellö released its second album, Triple Live Mother Goose at Budokan, on February 29th Records, which was recorded in a garage in about the same amount of time it takes to play it. It featured a much more defined sound, as well as far better production and songwriting. The band began to tighten up musically, enlisting drummer Danny Carey (later in Tool), as well as bassist Bill Tutton (King Dot), guitarists Marc Levinthal (Pippi Rockstocking), Steven Shenar (Sven Seven), C.J. Buscaglia (Jesus Quisp) and Bernie Peaks (Bernie Vicious), along with bassist Rootin' Bloomquist. The band also had 6 vocalists, including Bill Manspeaker (Moronic Dictator, Shitman, Marshall "Duh" Staxxx), Joe Cannizzaro (Dunderhead), Keith Matherne (Keni Logginz), Gary Helsinger (Hotsy Menshot, Piñata Head), Greg Raynard (Reason Clean, Toucan Son of Sam) and Maynard James Keenan (Billy Bob). The band also had two female backup singers/floor tom drummers, Kim O'Donnell (Sadistica), and Caroline Jester (Jella Tin). Kim O'Donnell also designed and created all the artwork, covers, comics, and logos for the band.
[edit] Cereal Killer
In 1991, the band approached BMG subsidiary label Zoo Entertainment, and stating they were the "World's First Video Only Band," claimed they could make the entire project (all music, videos, artwork, etc) entirely on their own for the unheard of sum of $50,000. Zoo signed them on the spot...only problem was, it had been a bluff, and the band had never made a "video album" before. After buying a video camera, some wood, and some lights, the band set out to learn on the job, and in the fall of 1992 delivered their 3rd album, the longform video only Cereal Killer. Consisting of music videos for each song, as well as a behind-the-scenes feature, the video album slowly gained a reputation in underground (although it would eventually go on to sell in excess of 100,000 copies). Their break came when a radio station in Seattle, WA, KXRX, played "The Three Little Pigs" as a joke, but instead the phones lit up and it became a local hit. This caused Zoo Ent. to issue the EP Green Jellö SUXX, consisting of four songs from Cereal Killer, which in turn lead to the "The Three Little Pigs" becoming the #1 song in the history of "The Box" (a pay-per-play tv jukebox network). By the beginning of 1993, the song was gaining airplay around the country, and after appearing on MTV Headbanger's Ball everything exploded. MTV added the video and the full-length audio album Cereal Killer Soundtrack was finally released in April 1993.
The video for "Three Little Pigs," was directed by Fred Stuhr (who also directed Tool's "Sober" video), and it featured a claymation rendition of the classic fairy tale with modern twists, such as pot-smoking pigs, an appearance by Rambo, and a Harley Davidson-riding wolf. The video was an instant hit on MTV and was #1 for most of the summer of 1993 in the US, receiving both a MTV music award and Billboard music award nomination. Meanwhile in the UK the song entered the singles chart at number 5 (the highest rock debut in the history of the British charts at the time), though this proved to be its peak position. As a result of the "Three Little Pigs" video, the Cereal Killer Soundtrack album went gold in the US, New Zealand, and Canada, as well as platinum in Australia, eventually selling over 2½ million units worldwide. Green Jellö spent the better part of a year touring the US and Europe in support of the Cereal Killer Soundtrack.
[edit] Lawsuits
At the height of the band's fame, Green Jellö was plagued by multiple lawsuits. In 1992, they were sued by Kraft Foods for trademark infringement. Due to the name "Jellö", and more so the band slogan "GREEN JELLÖ SUCKS!", the band were forced to change their name to Green Jellÿ, with an umlaut over the Y. This umlaut, according to the band, "changed the 'Y' sound to an 'O' sound". The band was forced to re-release their album and long form video, as well as change all merchandise carrying the "Jellö" name.
Later in 1992, Green Jellÿ was sued by General Foods for trademark infringement of their Toucan Sam character, as well as others. The cover of Cereal Killer (both album and video) depicted "Toucan Son of Sam" the "Cereal Killer" that kills other cereal characters, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop, the Trix Rabbit, and Lucky the Leprechaun in extremely gruesome fashion. The band were forced to change the cover art (originally depicting Toucan Son of Sam), as well as place a white box in the center of the new cover which stated "Not affiliated with or endorsed by Kraft/General Foods". Additionally, the band was forced to remove the music video for the song "Cereal Killer" from the long form home video release.
In 1993, Green Jellÿ was also sued by Metallica for partial use of their song "Enter Sandman" in the song "Electric Harley House (Of Love)". The bass guitar in the solo section of the song contains a riff close to that of "Enter Sandman", and even though the band mentions it in lyric immediately after the riff, the band was forced to remove the part from the later CD versions of Cereal Killer and pull the music video from MTV.
[edit] Late career
In 1994, Green Jellÿ began a joint venture with 4 million dollars from their parent company, BMG music, to open Green Jelly Studios, an audio and visual production house on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The production house made music videos for other artists, as well as production pieces for TV and film. It was here that Green Jellÿ recorded and filmed their 4th album, 333. Focusing more on the musical side, and even featuring non-comedy songs, the album was a more eclectic gathering, ranging from heavy metal to alt rock to dance music. Due to problems with the record company and virtually no promotion, the album failed to make waves. The long form video for the album was never properly released, and is extremely hard to find. The album spawned "The Bear Song" which appears in the Jim Carrey film Dumb and Dumber, but failed to chart. Though the new album was never properly released it did receive a 1995 grammy nomination for best long form video.
Also in 1994, the band provided the soundtrack for the Acclaim Entertainment video game Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage, based on the popular Marvel Comics characters. Due to the state of video game music technology in 1994, the soundtrack was not recorded music, but a computerized rendition of the songs. Portions of the sound track also made an appearance in Maximum Carnage's sequel, Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety.
In 1995, Green Jellÿ released their last official single, a duet with Hulk Hogan performing Garry Glitter's classic song Leader of the Gang, which scored them a third Top 40 hit in England. Green Jellÿ also released a cover of "Born to Be Wild" in 1996, for a movie soundtrack of the same name.
Today, Green Jellÿ still plays occasional gigs in and around Los Angeles; Bill Manspeaker is still the founding and only original remaining member. As of 2006, the band has had over 204 official members.
[edit] Life after Jellÿ
- Joe Cannizzaro (Dunderhead) became a television/video producer and was a videographer for DreamWorks Animation SKG.
- Gary Helsinger (Hotsy Menshot) is now director of Special Markets at Universal Music Publishing.
- Bill Manspeaker (Moronic Dictator, Marshall "Duh" Staxx) was the owner of Qtopia, a night club in Hollywood, but recently sold the club due to the heavy drug use at the venue. He is currently working on his alien abduction film 'Motel 666', starring the world famous Suicide Girls.
- Danny Carey is now the drummer for the multi-platinum progressive rock band Tool.
- Keith McCormack has been teaching English in China and continues to play guitar for fun with his young son.
- Kim O'Donnell (Sadistica) is now a Hollywood visual effects artist, having worked for Disney, and on such films as Con Air, Armageddon, X-Men 2, Spiderman 2, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Flight of the Phoenix, among others.
- Bill Tutton went on to join El Vez, Geraldine Fibbers and other bands.
- Jim Laspesa (Mick Stadium) went on to play with Dave Davies of The Kinks, The Muffs, Baby Lemonade and others.
- CJ Buscaglia (Jesus Quisp) became a producer and engineer, working on various album projects for many artists in the 1990's including Love & Rockets, Goo Goo Dolls and others.
- Marc Levinthal (Pippi Rockstocking) went on to work in film scoring and other literary and musical projects.
- Maynard James Keenan (Billy Bob) is now the lead singer for the bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.
[edit] The Tool connection
- Danny Carey from Tool was a member of Green Jellÿ for five years, and played drums on the album Cereal Killer. He is also featured in the video for "Electric Harley House (Of Love)", among others.
- Maynard James Keenan, vocalist for Tool, was also once a "member" of Green Jellÿ. On the song Three Little Pigs Maynard sang backing vocals (he sings the falsetto "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.") Maynard is also mentioned in the song "Green Jellö Sucks" in the lyric "Maynard, and Poopie - they're both insane!"
- The song "Message To Harry Manback" on Tool's Ænima album is an actual message left on Gary Helsinger's (Hotsy Menshot) answering machine by a former friend from Italy, who Gary had just kicked out of his apartment for stealing his roommate's belongings. "Harry Manback" is a reference to routine from the late comedian Bill Hicks. Maynard James Keenan and Danny Carey were both roommates of Bill Manspeaker during Green Jello, and Gary was later roommates with Maynard as well as Billy Howerdel of A Perfect Circle.
- Tool was signed to the same label as Green Jellÿ, the now-defunct Zoo Entertainment.
- Tool's first EP had songs recorded live at the Green Jellö loft (which is noted on the cd).
[edit] References
- Biography Official biography from the now defunct ihategreenjelly.com
- All Music Guide biography by Steve Huey
