Flight of the Conchords
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Flight of the Conchords | |
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 Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie performing at Gramercy Theatre in New York on June 14, 2007
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| Background information | |
| Origin | New Zealand |
| Genre(s) | Rock, Comedy rock, Folk rock |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Label(s) | Sub Pop |
| Website | http://www.conchords.co.nz/ |
| Members | |
| Bret McKenzie Jemaine Clement |
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- For other material named "Flight of the Conchords", see the radio series, TV series or album.
Flight of the Conchords is a Grammy Award-winning New Zealand folk and comedy band composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Billing themselves as "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo"[1] , the group uses a combination of witty observation, characterisation and acoustic folk guitars to work the audience. The duo's comedy and music became first the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007, also called Flight of the Conchords.
Named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival, Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and receiving a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2003, the duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following.[2]
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[edit] Career history
Bret and Jemaine were flatmates. Jemaine attempted filmography but gave it up. They formed Flight of the Conchords after they met in 1998 at Victoria University of Wellington where they were studying film and theatre.
[edit] Appearances
The band performed its first televised performances over four nights (May 3-6 2000) on Newtown Salad, a show on Wellington's short-lived local TV station "Channel 7" (later renamed "WTV"). The songs, in order, were Bowie in Space, Ladies of the World, Petrov, Yelyena and Me, and Hotties.
In 2002 and 2003 they performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They were nominated for the Perrier Award in 2003.[3] And performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Won Best Newcomer Award.
In 2004, the band again performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They were later featured in a 2004 campaign for British mobile phone retailer Phones 4U.[4] They were also featured on Australia's ABC TV in the show Stand Up![5]
BBC Radio 2 broadcast their first radio series, titled Flight of the Conchords.[6] Largely improvised, the series was based on the band's search for commercial success in London. It featured Rob Brydon as their narrator,[6] Rhys Darby as their manager and Jimmy Carr as a devoted fan called Kipper. HBO gave the group a special on their Friday night half-hour stand-up comedy series One Night Stand.
The BBC Radio 2 series won the duo the Bronze Sony Radio Academy Award for comedy.[7] They then headlined at the opening weekend at Comix comedy club where they recorded two tracks included on their 2008 Grammy winning comedy album. They also performed at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. During their visit to Texas, they recorded a documentary titled Flight of the Conchords: A Texan Odyssey, which aired on New Zealand's TV3 in late 2006.[8]
In June 2007, the band performed on David Letterman's Late Show[9] and were also interviewed by Terry Gross on the NPR radio show Fresh Air. The band appeared at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.[10] The EP The Distant Future was released. It was produced by Mickey Petralia and recorded in Los Angeles and New York by Petralia and engineer Matt Shane. The live portions were taken from concerts at Comix Comedy Club in New York City. On October 24, 2007, Flight of the Conchords appeared as the musical guests on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
In January 2008, the band spoke and performed as part of Comcast's presentation at CES 2008.[11] On February 10, 2008, the band won the Grammy for best comedy album.[12]
On March 5, 2008, Jemaine & Bret performed at a private show at 'The Depot' in Salt Lake City, Utah. The performance was for the 2008 Omniture (Web Analytics Conference). The very next day, Flight of the Conchords performed in Cahn Auditorium at Northwestern University which was sponsored by student-run A&O Productions.
On April 24, 2008, Jemaine and Bret played a free show at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, CA.
On May 28, 2008, Flight of the Conchords performed at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco.
The band performed on the Main Stage of the Sasquatch! Music Festival on Monday 26 May 2008 at The Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington State. The duo will also feature at the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Festival on 12 and 13 July 2008 in Redmond, WA.
[edit] Television series
The duo stars in a television series for HBO, titled Flight of the Conchords, which premiered in the United States in June 2007 and in Australia in May 2008. The series revolves around the pair as it tries to achieve success in New York City as a band and tries to develop an American fan base. The regular cast includes fellow comedians Rhys Darby as Murray, Arj Barker as Dave, Kristen Schaal as Mel and Eugene Mirman as Eugene. This show also features many other comedians in guest starring roles. Their humorous songs are woven into the plot of each episode.The first season consisted of 12 episodes. A second season has been confirmed and the band announced on their myspace blog the season should air in January 2009–later than first expected. The DVD for Season 1 was released on November 6, 2007.[13]
[edit] Awards and recognition
- On November 15, 2007, The Dominion Post awarded Clement and McKenzie with the 2007 Arts Wellys, and named them the 2007 Wellingtonians of the Year.[14]
- Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 New TV Series of 2007, ranking it at #2.[15]
- On February 10, 2008, The Distant Future won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album.[16]
- Entertainment Weekly named Flight of the Conchords the sixth best show of 2007.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Year | Title | UK | U.S. | NZ | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Folk the World Tour | — | — | — | Flight of the Conchords Music |
| 2006 | The BBC Radio Series: Flight of the Conchords | — | — | — | BBC Audiobooks Ltd |
| 2007 | The Distant Future | — | 116 | 14 | Sub Pop |
| 2008 | Flight of the Conchords | 32 | 3 | 1 |
[edit] References
- ^ Mark Hughes Cobb (2007-08-10). Flight of the Conchords are silly fun.
- ^ Conchords Take Flight on Prime. Prime TV (2007-08-16).
- ^ if.comedy - Past winners. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
- ^ What the Folk! - Vision. What the Folk!. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
- ^ Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2004-06-02). "Stand Up!". Press release.
- ^ a b The Flight of the Conchords. BBC - Radio 2 Comedy (2005-09-29). Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
- ^ Radioawards.org. Retrieved on 11 January 2007.
- ^ Flight of the Conchords. What the Folk!. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
- ^ McIntee, Michael Z.. Monday, June 11, 2007: Show #2768. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
- ^ Bonnaroo.com - Flight of the Conchords. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
- ^ YouTube - Comcast / Flight of the Conchords at CES 2008
- ^ GRAMMY.com
- ^ HBO Orders 2008 Editions Of CONCHORDS & ENTOURAGE!!. Ain't It Cool News (2007-08-17). Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
- ^ Mulrooney, Paul. "Conchords soar over all", The Dominion Post, 2007-11-16. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- ^ Poniewozik, James; Top 10 New TV Series; time.com
- ^ 50th annual Grammy awards winners list. NARAS.
[edit] External links
Flight of the Conchords' Social Network
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