Dan Reed Network

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Dan Reed Network
Origin Portland, Oregon, USA
Genre(s) Rock
Pop rock
Hard rock
Funk rock
Years active 1984–1993
Label(s) Mercury Records/Polygram
Members
Dan Reed
Dan Pred
Brion James
Melvin Brannon II
Blake Sakamoto

The Dan Reed Network is a funk rock/funk metal band formed by Dan Reed in Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1984.

Contents

[edit] Breathless beginnings

Dan Reed (born February 17, 1963, Portland, Oregon) met Dan Pred in high school in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and after a time pursuing music studies at Northern State University, the pair returned to Portland and formed the Dan Reed Network in 1984. In 1986, they made their first recording, a six-track EP called Breathless which spawned a #1 single, "Steal Me," on Z-100 in Portland, Oregon.

The lineup at this point was Dan Reed on vocals and guitar, Brion James on guitar, Melvin Brannon II on bass guitar, Dan Pred on drums, and Rick DiGiarllonado on keyboards. The band's diverse ethnic and musical backgrounds (Reed was of Native American extraction, James and Brannon were African American, and Pred and DiGiarllonado were caucasian) were reflected in the music, which, though discernibly hard rock, was blended with soul, funk, and jazz arrangements. DiGiarllonado was soon replaced by Portlander Blake Sakamoto on keyboards; Sakamoto had returned from Los Angeles where he was playing with future Atlantic Recording artists, Dear Mr. President.

The Dan Reed Network made a name for itself with the live performances. The Washington Post described the band in one performance as "easily charming its ... audience with an unlikely brand of heavy metal-ish rock sharpened by junk funk and plenty of rock 'n' roll theatrics," and that "the Network's strength lies in its infectious temperament."

[edit] A "polished" debut

The band signed to Mercury Records with the aid of Derek Schulman, (who was enjoying huge success with Bon Jovi and Cinderella), and were managed by legendary concert promoter Bill Graham. In winter 1987, the group released an eponymous debut album which was produced by Bruce Fairbairn (who had worked with Bon Jovi) and was engineered by Mike Fraser at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver. The first single "Ritual" cracked the Billboard Top 40 and was in heavy rotation on MTV.

The Dan Reed Network album received positive reviews, not the least of which being a four-star write-up from the notoriously hard-to-please Rolling Stone magazine. Most reviews lauded the band's ability to blend elements of heavy funk with a gritty rock edge peppered with pop hooks, pulled together in an '80s radio-friendly production. Rolling Stone wrote that "Producer Fairbairn deserves a nod for adding just the right amount of pop polish where it's needed," and giving even the weaker songs on a strong album an appeal. Still, while People Magazine's review of the album as being "polished to a brassy sheen" saw the glass half-full, some music critics saw Fairbairn's pop-savvy commercial production as minimizing the band's funk grooves and heavy rock guitar. Newsday (New York) said "the songs don't stand up to repeated listenings due to Bruce Fairbairn's absurdly pristine production ... Fairbairn, best known for recordings by Loverboy, Aerosmith, and Bon Jovi, is a master at neutering hard rock and rendering it antiseptic." Those bands, however, managed to notch several major hits with such production, and no better musicianship. The Washington Post approached the issue with a constructively balanced context, comparing the Dan Reed Network's debut album to its live performances, saying, "[n]umbers such as 'Get to You,' irritatingly synth-heavy on the record, were played with enough soul and engagingly invidious guitar to redeem them."

The poor promotion of the Dan Reed Network's debut album impeded the band's traction in the United States market. Def Leppard's Hysteria was having disappointing sales at Mercury/Polygram and the label was pulling support from new artists to focus on saving the British rock band's return to the scene. Ironically, it would be Def Leppard's managers Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch who would offer the Dan Reed Network the final leg of the "Hysteria" tour in the U.S.A. if they would switch to their management company, Q Prime. The band was initially reluctant to jettison Bill Graham, but by the beginning of 1989, they signed with Q Prime and the band enjoyed its greatest success.

[edit] Slam dunks the funk

While at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in January of 1989, Dan Reed met up with Nile Rodgers. The second album, Slam, produced by Rodgers, better represented the Dan Reed Network's live sound and accelerated the band's growing status in Europe. However, the new collection did less well in North America, due to internal problems at Mercury/Polygram.

The band toured Europe and the U.K. in the winter of 1989/1990 to support Bon Jovi. The success of this tour led to the Rolling Stones selecting the band as their main support for their first tour in almost 10 years. The "Urban Jungle/Steel Wheels" tour of Europe and the U.K., in the summer of 1990, had the band playing to tens of thousands nightly in stadiums, where their showmanship and musicianship fired up the crowd in anticipation of the Rolling Stones.

[edit] Feeling The Heat

The Dan Reed Network's third album, The Heat (1991), was their biggest success in the UK, but their American record label still hadn't figured out how to promote the band. The band soldiered on without tour support from Mercury/Polygram, including a stint supporting the Baby Animals in Australia, and what would be their final tour through Europe and the U.K. in the summer of 1993. In October of 1993, the band members were starting to take different paths in their lives, but agreed to go on a hiatus and not officially break up.

A live album called Live at Last was released in 1997. This album was compiled from hundreds of hours of tapes from keyboardist Blake Sakamoto. He and drummer Dan Pred auditioned several versions of each song to comprise a comprehensive 2-CD live set. A companion video, filmed live on New Year's Eve of 1991, also called Live at Last, was released as well.

[edit] Dan Reed

Reed continued to work solo and in collaboration with other musicians, including Nuno Bettencourt, formerly of the band Extreme. Like Bettencourt, Reed capitalized on occasional opportunities to act in theater and film, but continued to explore his musical identity in directions that took some former fans by surprise.

Dan Reed released an EP called Sharp Turn in 2004, available through Apple Computer's iTunes and MSN Music. This four-track EP is in an "electronica" style, a sharp contrast from the music of the Dan Reed Network. Reed is currently living in Israel and working on more experimental music with some eastern influences, including collaborations with Jerusalem based Sony loop artist Bradley Fish.

A new solo album by Dan Reed is planned for release in February 2008.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Dan Reed Network

  • Breathless (1986) Nu Vision Records
  • Dan Reed Network (1988) Mercury/Polygram Records
  • Slam (1989) Mercury/Polygram Records
  • The Heat (1991) Mercury/Polygram Records
  • Mixin' It Up: The Best of the Dan Reed Network (1993) Phonogram Records
  • Mixin' It Up: The Best of the Dan Reed Network (1993) Phonogram Music Video
  • Live At Last! Halfway Around The World (1997) Video Media
  • Dan Reed Network: The Collection (2002) Spectrum/Polygram

[edit] Dan Reed

  • Sharp Turn (2004) Universal Music Enterprises/UMG
  • Coming Up For Air (2008)

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources