Operation Ivy (band)

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Operation Ivy
Operation Ivy performing at the legendary Gilman
Operation Ivy performing at the legendary Gilman
Background information
Origin Berkeley, California, USA
Genre(s) Ska punk
Years active 1987–1989
Label(s) Lookout! Records, Hellcat Records
Associated acts Rancid
Transplants
Downfall
Big Rig
Common Rider
Isocracy
Green Day
Dance Hall Crashers
Basic Radio
Shaken 69
Former members
Jesse Michaels
Tim Armstrong
Matt Freeman
Dave Mello
Pat Mello (unofficial 5th member)]

Operation Ivy was an influential ska punk band formed in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The band consisted of frontman Jesse Michaels (vocals), Tim Armstrong (credited as "Lint") (vocals/guitar), Matt Freeman (credited as Matt McCall) (bass/backing vocals), and Dave Mello (Drums/backing vocals). The band's name, previously abandoned by another Gilman group, Isocracy, was derived from the Operation Ivy series of nuclear tests. [1]

Contents

[edit] History

The band existed between May of 1987 and May of 1989, as was chronicled in the lyrics of the Rancid song "Journey to the End of East Bay", which appeared on Rancid's ...And Out Come the Wolves:

Started in '87, Ended in '89, You got a garage, or an amp we'll play anytime. It was just the four of us, Yeah man, the core of us, Too much attention unavoidably destroyed us.[2]

Their first show was performed on May 16, 1987 in Dave Mello's garage. The next day began a tradition of performances at the Berkeley ska/punk collective center 924 Gilman Street. They began playing a lot of gigs which led to their almost immediate cult-following. Later in 1987 they made their debut on a Maximum Rock'n'Roll compilation called Turn it Around. In January 1988, they signed to Lookout! Records, and released Hectic, their first E.P., which became one of Lookout!'s strongest sellers. By this time, Operation Ivy (along with Crimpshrine and The Mr. T Experience) was one of the most popular Gilman/Berkeley Punk bands. They began getting many gigs and set out on a tour across the United States. By mid-1988, they began selling out larger venues and the pressure to sign to major labels began to rise.

They released the album Energy on Lookout! Records in May 1989. The band broke up the same month, and their last official show was on May 28, 1989. It was also Green Day's first show with the name "Green Day" at Gilman, at what was supposed to have been their release party. They played one more show the following day, mainly for friends and family, in Robert Eggplant's backyard in Pinole, California. In two years, the band had performed 185 shows and recorded a total of 32 songs (28 released officially, 4 on the bootlegged Plea For Peace EP), as well as songs which were recorded only as demos, such as "Hedgecore" (about a favorite pastime of the band which involved artfully jumping over manicured bushes), "Hangin' Out", "Sarcastic" and "Left Behind". Recordings from their aborted attempt to record the Energy LP live at Gilman also exist, and include some early versions of songs which appeared later on the final studio version of Energy, such as "6 to 10" which evolved into "Vulnerability", and an early version of "Unity" with horn accompaniment and a different chorus. All of their known demos and unreleased recordings are available on bootlegs.

The lyrics and tone of Operation Ivy's music portray a vociferous desire for social justice and a strong distrust of mainstream conformist culture.

Green Day did a cover of the Operation Ivy song "Knowledge" on the 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours compilation and have continued to play the song live. Several other artists have covered Operation Ivy songs, many of which are included on Glue Factory Records' 1997 Operation Ivy tribute album, titled Take Warning: The Songs of Operation Ivy. The most notable bands on this tribute are: Reel Big Fish covering "Unity" (track 2), Blue Meanies covering "Yellin' In My Ear" (track 5), Cherry Poppin' Daddies covering "Sound System" (track 6), The Hippos covering "Freeze Up" (track 10) and The Aquabats with a campfire-style cover of "Knowledge" (track 13). Other bands to cover Operation Ivy songs include a rendition of "Healthy Body" by Area-7, "Sound System" by Big D and the Kids Table, "Caution" by No Trigger and more covers of "Knowledge" by both Millencolin and Evergreen Terrace (band). Many local bands from around the country are keeping the spirit of 87' alive, covering Operation Ivy songs. Additionally, it is not uncommon for Rancid to play a few Operation Ivy songs at their shows.

In 1991, two years after their breakup, Lookout! put together a compilation consisting of the Energy album, the Hectic EP, and songs from compilations. It was released as a complete discography (sometimes referred to as a re-release of the Energy album). It contains 27 songs, following the band's recorded history.

[edit] Post-Operation Ivy careers

Two of the band's members, Armstrong and Freeman, also perform(ed) with the bands Rancid (their current and biggest project), Dance Hall Crashers, Basic Radio, Downfall, Devil's Brigade, Shaken 69 and Transplants. Additionally, Freeman has performed with Auntie Christ, Generator, MDC and Social Distortion.

Mello went on to perform with Schlong, and currently The Bowel-Tones and Jewdriver.

There was a great deal of speculation regarding the fate of Michaels. He revealed in an interview that he became a Buddhist monk for about 6 months in 1992 [1]. Legend had it that he had moved to Nicaragua. Michaels eventually resurfaced into the music world with a project band, Big Rig who only released a 4 song EP titled Expansive Heart, and later with a more active band, Common Rider, which included bassist Mass Giorgini (producer and bassist for Squirtgun and occasionally Screeching Weasel) and drummer Dan Lumley (of Squirtgun and Screeching Weasel). Common Rider released a 7" EP and two full-length albums and did some nationwide touring in the United States before eventually disbanding. There were slight plans for a third album, but it never came to fruition. B-sides from their second album This Is Unity Music were used in a split EP with the Florida Skacore band Against All Authority.

During Rancid's 2006 US tour, Operation Ivy alumni Armstrong and Freeman were playing a select few tracks from their previous bands catalog. At a stop in San Francisco on December 17th, Jesse Michaels reunited with his two former bandmates to perform the track "Unity." It was his first time on stage with the two in over 15 years.[3]

[edit] Leaving Lookout!

On 4 May 2006, it was announced that Energy had officially been removed from Lookout! Records' catalog. The album had been, after Green Day's first two albums, the label's biggest-selling album. Following such bands as Green Day, Screeching Weasel, The Queers and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Operation Ivy is the latest in a series of bands who have left Lookout! in recent years and taken back the rights to their back catalog due to unpaid royalties [2].

Energy was later reissued on November 6, 2007 by Epitaph Records subsidiary Hellcat Records as a self-titled compilation album. Hellcat Records is former band member Tim Armstrong's label. While the Epitaph reissue's tracklist is identical to the 1991 Lookout! release, the 2007 re-release features remastered audio and new Digipak packaging.

A reunion of the band is not planned for anytime in the future. Michaels addressed reunion issues in a Myspace blog[4] citing the legal and logistic difficulties in getting the 4 members together for a reunion, as well as the fact that the band "never belonged in a big rock club in a one to two thousand seat joint." He concluded the post with the following:

“ [Will] it happen? The most honest answer is probably not." ”

[edit] Discography

[edit] LPs and EPs

Year Title Label Other information
1988 Hectic Lookout! Records Debut EP
1989 Energy Lookout! Records Original 19-song LP
1991 Energy Lookout! Records 27-song reissue including "Hectic" and "Turn it Around" tracks
1992 Plea for Peace M & E Records Posthumous EP, featuring Uncertain, Troublebound, Someday, and Plea for Peace
2007 Operation Ivy Hellcat Records A remastered reissue of 1991 "Energy" album

[edit] Compilations

Note: these are compilation albums featuring multiple artists. Most of them contain only one or two Operation Ivy songs.

Year Song Title Album Title Label Other information
1987 "Officer", "I Got No" Turn It Around Maximum Rocknroll 2 7" Vinyl compilation
1988 "Hangin' Out" The Thing That Ate Floyd Lookout! Records Compilation
 ? "Officer" Gilman St. Block Party For the Fans by the Fans Compilation
2004 "Unity" Rock Against Bush, Vol. 2 Fat Wreck Chords Compilation

[edit] Live/Rare Recordings

Year Title Label Other information
 ? Unreleased Energy Red Robin Records Live demo tracks from original Energy LP recordings, collecting some bootleg 7-inches such as Plea For Peace and 69 Newport.
1987 '69 Newport Very Small Records 7" Vinyl of unreleased songs.
1987 Ramones EP Metropolis Records One-sided 12" Vinyl Bootleg of 6 Ramones covers, only 500 copies pressed by an obscure German label. Notorious for being the rarest bootleg, yet having repulsive recording quality.
1989 Lint Rides Again Slashout! Operation Ivy's last show at Gilman St.
1992 Plea for Peace EP Fanclub First Operation Ivy "Bootleg," put out by friends of the band. Contains four outtakes from the "Hectic" sessions.
1993 Lint: The King of Ska Squamosal This features a live track and two demos. First pressing has Foghorn Leghorn on side A, black label on side B. Later pressings have blank white labels on both sides.
1994 Live at Gilman Berkeley Archive A live 7" bootleg EP, containing an Isocracy cover.
1995 East Bay EP 57 Ink A bootleg 7" of live recordings.
1996 Seedy Karma Kredit A posthumous collection of unreleased material released by David Hayes of Very Small Records.
1996 Unity: The Complete Collection Berkeley Archive Compilation of several 7" Bootlegs and the rare Ramones EP 12".
1999 Radio Daze Spiked Belts and Beer Live KSPC Radio recording from March 17, 1988 and April 21, 1988
2000 Sound System Gilman St. Records Live Radio Show recording, Feb. 1988
 ? Smell Rancid Confusion Records Live at the River Theatre, 1988 recordings
2004 There's a Place Baltan-69 2xCD-R collection of live recordings and studio outtakes taken from original analog sources and master tapes with no mixing, noise reduction, or equalization.

[edit] Members

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy
  2. ^ Rancid. "Journey to the End of East Bay." ...And Out Come the Wolves. Epitaph, 1995.
  3. ^ http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/16268081.htm
  4. ^ "Jesse Michaels addresses Common Rider and Operation Ivy reunion questions." Punknews.org. February 17, 2007.

[edit] External links