Ruby (band)

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Ruby
Origin Seattle, Washington
USA
Genre(s) Trip hop
Industrial
Years active 1994 - 2002
Label(s) WORK/Creation
Epic
Wichita
Thirsty Ear
Associated acts Pigface
Silverfish
Skinny Puppy
Former members
Lesley Rankine, Mark Walk

Ruby was a UK/US band consisting of Scottish singer Lesley Rankine and American producer Mark Walk, formed in Seattle, Washington in 1994.[1] Their music styles expanded across the genres of electronic, trip hop, noise, industrial, even jazz, among others.[2] The band released two studio albums and three remix albums from 1995 through 2001, and singles into 2002. The name for this group came about because Rankine and Walk both have maternal grandmothers named "Ruby".[3]

Contents

[edit] Ruby members

[edit] Lesley Rankine

Rankine (born April 11, 1965)[4] began her music career as front woman to London noise band Silverfish, leaving the group after the release of their 1993 LP Organ Fan and then departing for Seattle. There she joined forces with producer Mark Walk to create an electronic album which echoed the downtempo styles, especially trip hop, more than their noise backgrounds. She had previously worked with Walk on material for industrial group Pigface. The result was the album Salt Peter, which was released in 1995, with a remix album, Revenge, The Sweetest Fruit, appearing in 1996. She also appeared on the Toronto-based Monster Voodoo Machine's Suffersystem album recorded in 1994 at Chicago Trax; this album would win a Juno Award. Following the release of Ruby's debut album and the supporting tour that ended in 1996, Rankine with Tom Jones recorded a cover of the song Kung Fu Fighting, and later made a track called "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" for an ad campaign for Mountain Dew.[5]

Rankine then moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The stay would be only six months due to events including a rash of car-jackings and hold-ups in the surrounding areas, and culminating with the murder of a woman in the garden across from her. When Rankine learned the killer had deposited the victim's clothing in her garbage as they left the scene, she left New Orleans within five days for Seattle to start recording Ruby's second album with producer Mark Walk.[5]

Most of Short-Staffed at the Gene Pool would be finished by August 1998 and nearly completed by Rankine in her native Scotland throughout 1999. Rankine would spend the year 2000 dealing with the old contracts with labels WORK and Creation, and setting things up with Wichita in the UK, with the band's final two albums out in 2001. For a short time Ruby continued to collaborate with former Creation label members Mark Bowen and Dick Green, but as of March 2008 no further recordings have been released. Rankine has since taken a break from recording, returning to her home country.[5]

[edit] Mark Walk

Walk had previously worked with Rankine on material for industrial group Pigface. He currently (as of March 2008) resides in Los Angeles, USA, where in addition to collaborating on albums for both of the groups Skinny Puppy and ohGr, he has been writing and producing music for commercials as well as film.[6]

For more information see main article: Mark Walk

[edit] Albums

Ruby's first album, Salt Peter, was released November 1, 1995.[7] The album would produce three singles, all of which would chart in the UK. It was made almost entirely using computers and without a band. The album's songs have been described as being driven by loops of drums and repetitious guitar/bass riffs.[8] Rankine explains the approach and reasoning:

I didn't use a band on this record because I honestly believe that I was not put on this earth to share my life with a bunch of other people...[8]

Salt Peter's first single was "Paraffin", released on November 7, 1995.[9] The compilation New Voices vol. 3 from Rolling Stone Magazine had this song as its second track.[10] It was followed up with Ruby's best known song, "Tiny Meat", which was also released in 1995.[11] It would be the only song by the band to chart in the United States, reaching #22 on the Modern Rock Tracks list. This song was also included in the compilation MTV Fresh 2. Another single, "Hoops" came out in early 1996. Later in that year the promotion-only single for the track "Swallow Baby" was put out for radio play. An up-to-then unreleased song called "This Is" was on the soundtrack to the film The Cable Guy in May 1996. The CD single for the song "Paraffin" included a remix called "Harpie Mix" which was also on the soundtrack to the 1997 movie The Beautician and the Beast. All of Salt Peter's singles had music videos made for them.

On April 8, 1996 a remix album called Revenge, The Sweetest Fruit: Salt Peter Remixed was released in the United States,[12] followed by the UK version Stroking The Full Length on October 29, 1996.[13] The third track from Stroking... is a "Ceasefire Remix" of the song "Flippin' tha Bird" and this version was part of the movie soundtrack to the 1997 film Nowhere. The Japan release of Stroking... was out on September 1, 1996, and came with an extra track the other remix albums of Salt Peter do not have. It was the "Mark Walk Mix" of the song "Tiny Meat."

During and after the tour in support of Salt Peter, the duo began early work on their next album; however several events would push it's release well into 2001. Among these issues the largest were internal problems in the studio and the struggle then eventual folding of Ruby's label Creation Records in 1999, when the band (as with most of Creation's artists) was meshed into the parent label, Sony. Rankine described the situation and time frame in an interview from August 8, 2001 by Holly Day:

"Q: Why was there such a big gap between your last record and this new one?
A: Because of the people I was working with, really. I mean, the guy I had originally been working with didn’t want to give me my record back, and held onto it for nearly a year and a half. And then when I eventually did get my record back, the American record label, Creation, folded, and I was sort of absorbed into Sony, since Creation was owned by Sony. So then I had to wait around for a year to get out of the Sony deal.
Q: How long ago was the record finished?
A: My bit was finished all the way back in 1997. I didn’t actually get my record back until June of 1999, and shortly thereafter the label went down the pot. So I’ve got quite a bit of new material to try out during this tour, all written while waiting for this new album to come out."[14]

The album Short-Staffed At The Gene Pool would be the result, released on April 23, 2001 in the UK, and a day later in the US.[15] It was on new labels for the group, Wichita Recordings and Thirsty Ear Recordings. The album produced three singles; "Grace" (released March 20, 2001), "Beefheart (July 31, 2001), and "Lamplight" (released in 2002), all of which had music videos made for them. Ruby's last album to date (as of March 2008) was Altered and Proud, the Short Staffed Remixes, which came out on July 17, 2001.[16] Neither the studio album Short staffed..., the remix album Altered and Proud..., or any of their singles would chart in the United States.

[edit] 1996 tour

Of the duo only Rankine went on the road; Walk did not participate in performing the live shows.[17] Ruby performed at the Pukkelpop music festival, the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and Lollapalooza during 1996, in support of the album Salt Peter.

[edit] 2001 tour

Ruby's North American tour supporting Short-Staffed At The Gene Pool started off with a huge hitch: lost effects equipment for a group that uses only effects to perform their music live. Rankine relates the story in the same 2001 interview:

"Q: So I heard something happened to your luggage?
A: Yes, it’s awful! The skycart didn’t put a tag on one piece. There were 15 pieces of luggage that were sent with us to L.A., but only 14 actually got here. The one that didn’t get the tag is apparently still flying around out there somewhere, or tied up at a different airport or something. The airline says we have no real recourse, that we’re somehow just as responsible for the missing piece as they are. It’s ironic, because that one missing piece contained all our effects units, all of our keyboards and connecting MIDI cables and power cables, and basically everything we needed to run every instrument for the tour. If they had lost any other piece of luggage we could have still pulled the tour off. If we’d lost one guitar, we’d still have another, and same with the double-bass—we have an electric that’d work just as well. But because that one piece of luggage got lost, this tour almost didn’t happen.
"Q: Will you be able to replace all that stuff?
A: Yeah, we eventually had to go buy everything we needed. We had to run around to Guitar Center and Radio Shack and some other place and buy all new stuff, so now I’m up to my eyeballs in debt. The equipment is all insured, so eventually we’ll get the money back—but still, not the greatest way to start our tour. If the equipment hadn’t been insured, I would have just turned around and gone home."[14]

[edit] Discography

Image:Splitsection.svg
 It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss)


[edit] Studio albums

Salt Peter

"Salt Peter" cover1995
"Salt Peter" cover
1995
  • released November 1, 1995; produced by Walk, Rankine
  • released on WORK/Creation labels
  • recorded at Mommy's C**t, Butler, Soundhouse Studios, Seattle, WA, USA - June '94 to Jan '95
track listing:
  1. "Flippin' Tha Bird" (4:09) -Rankine, Walk
  2. "Salt Water Fish" (3:29) -Rankine, Walk
  3. "Heidi" (4:04) -Rankine, Walk
  4. "Tiny Meat" (4:04) -Rankine, Walk
  5. "Paraffin" (3:36) -Rankine, Walk
  6. "Hoops" (4:18) -Rankine, Walk
  7. "Pine" (4:08) -Rankine, Walk
  8. "Swallow Baby" (5:32) -Rankine
  9. "The Whole is Equal to the Sum of its Parts" (4:07) -Rankine
  10. "Bud" (4:19) -Rankine
  11. "Carondelet" (7:06) -Rankine, Walk, Gira, Ferguson, Atkins
total length (48:24)

Short-Staffed At The Gene Pool

"Short-Staffed At The Gene Pool" cover2001
"Short-Staffed At The Gene Pool" cover
2001
  • released April 24, 2001; produced by Walk, Rankine
  • released on Thirsty Ear/Wichita labels
track listing:
  1. "Beefheart" (3:57) -Rankine, Walk
  2. "Queen of Denial" (3:13) -Rankine, Walk
  3. "Lilypad" (3:27) -Rankine, Walk
  4. "Waterside" (3:54) -Rankine, Walk
  5. "Lamplight" (4:26) -Rankine, Walk
  6. "Roses" (4:18) -Rankine, Walk
  7. "Grace" (3:31) -Rankine
  8. "Fly" (4:14) -Rankine, Walk
  9. "Cargo" (3:35) -Rankine, Walk
  10. "Sweet Is" (4:17) -Rankine, Walk
  11. "Fuse Again" (5:00) -Rankine, Walk
total length: (43:52)

[edit] Remix albums

Revenge, The Sweetest Fruit: Salt Peter Remixed

"Revenge, The Sweetest Fruit..." cover1996
"Revenge, The Sweetest Fruit..." cover
1996
  • released April 8, 1996 (US only); produced by Walk, Rankine
  • released on Creation/WORK labels
  • recorded at Mommy's C**t, Butler, Soundhouse Studios, Seattle, WA, USA - June '94 to Jan '95
track listing:
  1. "Flippin' tha Bird" (4:09) -Rankine, Walk
  2. "Salt Water Fish" (3:22) -Rankine, Walk
  3. "Heidi" (Scream Team remix) (7:51) -Rankine, Walk
  4. "Paraffin" (Red Snapper mix) (4:26) -Rankine, Walk
  5. "Hoops" (Da Lata remix) (4:49) -Rankine, Walk
  6. "Tiny Meat" (Meat for the Feet Dub) (6:25) -Rankine, Walk
  7. "Heidi" (Num Num mix) (8:27) -Rankine, Walk
  8. "Swallow Baby" (5:31) -Rankine
  9. "The Whole Is Equal to the Sum of Its Parts" (4:07) -Rankine
  10. "Bud" (Rootless mix) (7:05) -Rankine
  11. "Carondelet" (Don't Fear the remix) (5:10) -Rankine, Walk, Gira, Ferguson, Atkins
total length: (61:22)

Stroking The Full Length

"Stroking The Full Length" cover1996
"Stroking The Full Length" cover
1996
  • released October 29, 1996 (UK only); produced by Walk, Rankine
  • released on WORK/Creation labels
  • recorded at Mommy's C**t, Butler, Soundhouse Studios, Seattle, WA, USA - June '94 to Jan '95
track listing:
  1. "Swallow Baby" (Single Mix) (3:44) -Rankine
  2. "Hoops" (Eli Janney Mix) (3:47) -Walk, Rankine
  3. "Flippin' Tha Bird" (Ceasefire mix) (5:03) -Walk, Rankine
  4. "Salt Water Fish" (Peshay Mix) (8:24) -Walk, Rankine
  5. "Tiny Meat" (meat for the feet dub) (6:27) -Walk, Rankine
  6. "The Whole is Equal to the Sum of its Parts" (Grantby mix) (4:18) -Rankine
total length: (31:43)

Altered and Proud, the Short Staffed Remixes

"Atlered And Proud..." cover2001
"Atlered And Proud..." cover
2001
  • released July 17, 2001; produced by Walk, Rankine
  • released on Thirsty Ear/Wichita labels
track listing:
  1. "Lilypad" (Take Me to the Hospital I Am Not a Fucking Frog remix by Kid 606) (4:48) -Walk, Rankine
  2. "Lamplight" (Bench and Doufos Parrrtay Mix! By Bench) (4:56) -Walk, Rankine
  3. "Queen of Denial" (Chow remix) (5:29) -Walk, Rankine
  4. "Waterside" (Deep in the Void mix by Aksum) (8:59) -Walk, Rankine
  5. "Grace" (Space remix by Schnieder Tm) (4:26) -Rankine
  6. "Beefheart" (Wauvenfold Remix) (4:17) -Walk, Rankine
  7. "Sweet Is" (Loop of the Fruit remix by Console) (5:04) -Walk, Rankine
  8. "Waterside" (Scotty remix) (4:19) -Walk, Rankine
  9. "Lilypad" (Max Tundra remix) (4:40) -Walk, Rankine
  10. "Grace" (Her Space Holiday remix) (4:31) -Rankine
total length: (51:29)

[edit] Singles

"Paraffin" cover1995

Salt Peter:

  • Paraffin (Single) (released November 7, 1995) - WORK/Creation labels
track listing:
  1. "Paraffin" (Red Snapper mix) (4:25) -Rankine, Walk
  2. "Paraffin" (single mix) (3:35) -Rankine, Walk
  3. "Paraffin" (Richard Fearless Dub) (8:05) -Rankine, Walk
  4. "Paraffin" (Harpie mix) (3:53) -Rankine, Walk
  5. "Heidi" (album version) (4:04) -Rankine, Walk
total length: (24:08)
"Tiny Meat" cover1995
  • Tiny Meat (Single) (1995) - WORK/Creation labels
track listing:
  1. "Tiny Meat" (4:03) -Rankine, Walk
  2. "Tiny Meat" (Danny Saber Mix) (5:06) -Rankine, Walk
  3. "Heidi" (Scream Team Remix) (7:48) -Rankine, Walk
total length: (16:57)
"Hoops" EP cover1996
  • Hoops (Single) (released January 1, 1996)[18] WORK/Creation labels
track listing, version one:
  1. "Hoops" (3:51) -Rankine, Walk
  2. "Salt Water Fish" (Peshay Freshwater Mix) -Rankine, Walk
  3. "Hoops" (Da Lata Mix) -Rankine, Walk
total length: (00:00)
track listing:, version two
  1. "Hoops" (3:51) -Rankine, Walk
  2. "Hoops" (David Holmes Mix) (8:12) -Rankine, Walk
  3. "The Whole is Equal to the Sum of its Parts" (Gantby Mix) (4:20) -Rankine, Walk
total length: (16:23)

Short-Staffed at the Gene Pool:

  • Grace (Single) (released March 20, 2001)[19] - Wichita/Thirsty Ear labels
"Grace" cover2001
track listing:
  1. "Grace" -Rankine
  2. "Grace" (Space Mix) -Rankine
  3. "Grace" (Mekon Mix) -Rankine
  4. "Grace" ((Warm and Fragrant Dark Mix) -Rankine
total length: (00:00)
  • Beefheart (Single) (released July 31, 2001)[20] - Wichita/Thirsty Ear labels
"Beefheart" cover2001
track listing:
  1. "Beefheart" (3:58) -Rankine, Walk
  2. "Beefheart" (In the Dust Remix) (4:09) -Rankine, Walk
  3. "Beefheart" (Wauvenfold Remix) (4:18) -Rankine, Walk
  4. "Beefheart" (Solex Remix) (3:13) -Rankine, Walk
total length: (15:28)
  • Lamplight (Single) (2002) - Wichita/Thirsty Ear labels
track listing:
  1. -
  2. -
  3. -
  4. -
total length: (00:00)

[edit] Chart Performance

[edit] Singles

Date Name Chart Country Peak Position
September 16, 1995 "Paraffin" UK Singles United Kingdom #81[21]
February 24, 1996 "Tiny Meat" UK Singles United Kingdom #96[21]
May, 1996 "Tiny Meat" Billboard Modern Rock Tracks USA #22[22]
June 8, 1996 "Hoops" UK Singles United Kingdom #102[21]

[edit] Albums

Date Name Chart Country Peak Position
May 11, 1996 Salt Peter Billboard Heatseekers Albums USA #14[23]
April 20, 1996 Salt Peter UK Artist Albums United Kingdom #96[24]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Allmusic Ruby Overview". www.allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  2. ^ "Salt Peter by Ruby (Rock) - Epinions". www.epinions.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-30.
  3. ^ "Ruby". www.vh1.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-18.
  4. ^ "Lesley Rankine Overview". www.allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  5. ^ a b c "Ruby Biography". www.sing365.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
  6. ^ "Mark Walk/IMDb". www.imdb.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
  7. ^ "Salt Peter/Album Track Listing/MTV". www.mtv.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  8. ^ a b "Nude as the News:Ruby:Salt Peter". www.nudeasthenews.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  9. ^ "Paraffin/Album Track Listing/MTV". www.mtv.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  10. ^ "New Voices vol. 3". www.rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
  11. ^ "Tiny Meat (CD1)". www.rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
  12. ^ "Salt Peter Remixed EP/Album Track Listing/MTV". www.mtv.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  13. ^ "Stroking the Full Length/Album Track Listing/MTV". www.mtv.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  14. ^ a b "Music News section called Ruby’s Blues". www.pulsetc.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  15. ^ "Short-Staffed at the Gene Pool by Ruby". rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
  16. ^ "Altered & Proud: The Short-Staffed Remixes by Ruby". "rateyourmusic.com". Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
  17. ^ "Section 3 - Ruby "Stroking the Full Length". "www.section3.com". Retrieved on 2008-03-30.
  18. ^ "Hoops (2)/Album Track Listing/MTV". www.mtv.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  19. ^ "Grace/Album Track Listing/MTV". www.mtv.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  20. ^ "Beefheart by Ruby". rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-27.
  21. ^ a b c "UK singles chart history - Ruby". http://www.zobbel.de/. Retrieved on 2008-04-26.
  22. ^ "Artist Chart History - Ruby - Singles". www.billboard.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  23. ^ "Artist Chart History - Ruby - Albums". www.billboard.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  24. ^ "UK artist album chart history - Ruby". http://www.zobbel.de/. Retrieved on 2008-04-26.

[edit] External links