Dope (band)
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| Dope | |
|---|---|
| Origin | New York, United States |
| Genre(s) | Industrial rock Industrial metal |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Label(s) | Epic Eat Me/Sue Me Artemis KOCH Records |
| Associated acts | Static-X Murderdolls Genitorturers Makeshift Romeo Twisted Method |
| Website | www.dopearmy.com |
| Members | |
| Edsel Dope Virus Angel Tripp Tribbet |
|
| Former members | |
| Simon Dope Sloane Jentry Preston Nash Racci Shay Tripp Eisen Acey Slade Adrian Ost Brix Milner |
|
Dope is an industrial rock band originally from New York City, United States. The band was founded in 1997 and continues on to this day.
The band received some level of success in the late 1990s and early 2000s. To date, the band has released four studio albums, and are planning on the release of a fifth sometime in 2008.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
The band was founded by song-writer and lead singer Edsel Dope in 1997. As a child, Edsel and his brother, Simon Dope were separated when their parents divorced. When the two were adults, they reunited and Simon joined Edsel's band, playing keyboards. The pair then recruited Tripp Eisen as bassist, Preston Nash as drummer, and Sloane Jentry as guitarist.
Unlike many of the popular bands from the 1990s, Dope derived their sound from influences taken from hard rock bands Guns N' Roses, Kiss and Mötley Crüe and fused that with the sound of Industrial rock acts which had made waves earlier in the decade, such as Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, as well as Industrial music act Skinny Puppy.
In their earliest days, the band sold drugs to survive and purchase instruments.[1] Furthermore, the name "Dope" refers to drugs and drug culture, as shown by their early T-shirt designs which prominently displayed hypodermic needles, it as well refers to Edsel and Simon's last name.
The band also had some early connections with fellow Industrial rockers Marilyn Manson; drummer Ginger Fish shared an apartment with Edsel Dope in Las Vegas during the earlier 1990s, before either of them were in their respective bands.[2] Also guitarist Zim Zum allowed the band to claim that they were "currently being produced by Zim Zum" on the cover of their promotional discs to help them gain a record deal.[3] It was originally planned that Zum would produce their debut, however he was busy recording the album Mechanical Animals at the time. Lead singer, Edsel, has obtained a good friendship with ex-Manson guitarist Daisy Berkowitz.
[edit] Felons and Revolutionaries
- See; Felons and Revolutionaries for more information.
After exploding onto the New York City club circuit, and releasing several promotional cassettes[4] the band was signed by Epic Records. For the album's recording Sloane Jentry had left the band and Edsel moved to guitar, Acey Slade was brought in on bass. The album featured fourteen tracks including two covers, which were; "Fuck tha Police" by N.W.A. and "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by English new wave act Dead or Alive, which featured in the movie American Psycho. Debonaire was also featured on the Scream 3 movie soundtrack and the first The Fast and the Furious movie during the raid on the house.
Dope put everything into touring in support of the album, taking part in several national tours with various acts ranging from Alice Cooper to Kid Rock.[5] This helped "Felons and Revolutionaries" SoundScan more than 250,000 units in total.
A live video for the song "Sick" was recorded to capture the energy of the group's live show. The first single and non-live promotional video released by the band from the album was Everything Sucks, which failed to chart. The second single saw the band gaining more attention, it was the cover of You Spin Me Round; it received radio play and reached #37 on the US Mainstream Rock charts.
[edit] Life
- See; Life for more information.
After the relative success of their debut album, Dope decided to record a follow up entitled Life. Several band changes had taken place once more; Tripp Eisen left the group to join Industrial metal band Static-X. Acey Slade was moved up to the position of guitar, while Sloane Jentry (who had remained friends with the band) rejoined this time on bass. On drums Preston Nash was also replaced by Racci "Sketchy" Shay.
The two singles from Life; Now or Never and Slipping Away reached #28 and #29 on the Mainstream Rock charts respectively. The album itself reached #180 on the Billboard charts and #6 on the Top Heatseekers, which up until that point was the band's highest charting. After the album's release, Simon Dope left the group to pursue a career as a video game producer.
Debonaire from the first album was used in the movie The Fast and the Furious. More soundtrack work was done by Dope in 2002, as the band recorded WWE chairman Vince McMahon's theme song "No Chance (In Hell)" for the WWE Forceable Entry audio release. Previously Dope's music had been used as the background theme in ECW, also Rhino used their song Debonaire, as his entrance theme.
Around this period, Edsel Dope also had a public rivalry with the band Murderdolls (particularly vocalist Wednesday 13). An early version of that group had featured Racci Shay on drums; and under the name Murderdolls, it featured Tripp Eisen. Dope guitarist Acey Slade then left the band to join Murderdolls in mid-2002.[6]
[edit] Group Therapy and American Apathy
- See; Group Therapy for more information.
Disappointed with the label's perceived lack of promotion for the album, the band left Epic and joined Artemis Records, a New York independent record label. Rhythm Guitarist Virus, would now act as Lead Guitar in Slade's departure, he would contribute to the songwriting significantly.
Dope's third studio album was titled Group Therapy, it was innovative in that it also featured a video for each song; meaning in total those who purchased the album received thirteen audio songs and videos. One song from that album, Today is the Day served as the official theme song for WWE's pay-per-view event No Mercy in October 2003. The songs Falling Away, Bitch, Motivation, Burn, and So Low were featured in the video game; MTX Mototrax, in both full and instrumental versions.
- See; American Apathy for more information.
By 2005 Dope had regrouped once more, the band had a new bassist; Brix Milner. For their new album entitled "American Apathy", the band returned to a harder sound similar in some respects to their debut, in an Industrial metal style. Amongst the 14 tracks present was a cover of Depeche Mode's People Are People.
Although released eight years after the band formed, four albums in and on an independent label, American Apathy performed well in the charts. It was a #1 hit on the Top Heatseekers chart, for the first time in the band's history and it also saw the band's highest charting on the Billboard chart to date.
Ironically, Ben Graves of the Murderdolls joined Dope as the live drummer on a tour of Japan. In fact that wasn't the only inter-group mixing between the two bands; in 2006 Brix Milner filled in for the injured Kid Kid on bass, in Murderdolls front man Wednesday 13's solo band.
Edsel Dope and Virus became involved in an Alternative pop rock side-project with Edsel playing drums, called Makeshift Romeo. This also saw Edsel removing his dreadlocks which he had worn all throughout his time with Dope.
[edit] Current and future events
Dope just finished their spring tour of the United States, the tour, which took place over two months, included 22 dates. Tripp Lee played live on bass with the band (although Brix is still listed, it looks doubtful that he will return) and a new drummer named Angel, formerly of pig and The Genitorturers has joined.
The band are currently working on their fifth album, entitled "No Regrets" that is tentatively due out June 10, 2008. The band also recently recorded audio and video during a number of performances on tour, but they will use the one recorded in Chicago, at the Metro also they announced they were recording several new songs when they played at Level 8 in Evansville, WI that they are puting on the DVD portion of the new CD DVD set released on June 10th 2008. This is to be released as a live CD/DVD set later this year. The band has confirmed several tour dates in October and November of 07 with BOBAFLEX, an alternative rock band from West Virginia.
It was announced on the 15th October that the new single for the Upcoming album is called "Violence". The song is currently available to listen on the band's MySpace. There will be a music video, for "Violence", according the image the band set for album art. The only current way to get the song to an IPOD is through vixi.com
One of the tracks for the album was released in late 2007 for the game, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. GH3 lists a song by Dope called "Nothing for Me Here" on the bonus list which is mentioned on the game as being on the upcoming album in 2008.
According to Metal Underground, the upcoming album has been pushed for a later release date. This new date hasn't been announced yet.[7]
[edit] Lineup
[edit] Current members
- Edsel Dope - vocals, guitar, keyboards, samples (1997 - present)
- Virus - lead guitar, samples, backing vocals (2000 - present)
- Angel Bartolotta - drums (2006 - present)
- Tripp Tribbet - bass, backing vocals ( 2007 - present)
[edit] Former members
- Simon Dope - keyboards, samples, percussion (1997 - 2001)
- Sloane "Mosey" Jentry - guitar (1997 - 1998), bass (2000 - 2004)
- Preston Nash - drums (1997 - 2000)
- Tripp Eisen - bass (1997 - 1998), guitar (1999-2000)
- Acey Slade - bass (1999 - 2000), guitar (2001)
- Adrian Ost - drums (2004)
- Racci Shay "Dr. Sketchy" - drums (2001 - 2003, 2006), bass (2004 - 2005)
- Ben Graves - live drums (2005)
- Lil Dan - live drums (2005 - 2006)
- Brix Milner - bass (2005 - 2007)
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Title | Date of Release | Billboard chart | Top Heatseekers |
| Felons & Revolutionaries | 1999 | - | #25 |
| Life | 2001 | #180 | #6 |
| Group Therapy | 2003 | - | #16 |
| American Apathy | 2005 | #128 | #1 |
| No Regrets | 2008 | - | - |
[edit] EP
- "Felons for Life" - (2002)
[edit] Singles
| Title | Date of Release | Mainstream Rock |
| Everything Sucks | 1999 | - |
| You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) | 2000 | #37 |
| Now or Never | 2001 | #28 |
| Slipping Away | 2002 | #29 |
| I Am | 2003 | - |
| Bitch | 2003 | - |
| Always | 2005 | #38 |
| Survive | 2005 | - |
| Violence | 2008 | - |
[edit] Videography
- Dope: The Videos - (2004)
[edit] Pigface
As with many Industrial music stars, Edsel Dope has been involved with the supergroup Pigface. Here are some remixes of the Dope track "Bitch" that have featured on Pigface releases.
- Easy Listening. .. - (January 2003)
- "Bitch (Mattress Mix)"
- Head - (August 2003)
- "Bitch (Defrag's Extraordinary Skipping Glitch Mix)" and "Bitch (Passive/Aggressive Remix)"
- Dubhead - (May 2004)
- "Bitch (Bitch & Scratch)"
- Clubhead Nonstopmegamix #1 - (June 2004)
- "Bitch (Where's My Bitch Edit)"
- Pigface Presents Crackhead: The DJ? Acucrack Remix Album - (August 2004)
- "Bitch (Own Your Own Edsel)"
- ''8 Bit Head: Complete Remix Of Easy Listening + Other Stuff - (October 2004)
- "Bitch (Defrag's Extraordinary Skipping Glitch Mix)" and "Bitch Dance H@xORZ $###"
