The Exies
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| The Exies | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Los Angeles, California |
| Genre(s) | Alternative rock Post-grunge |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Label(s) | Ultimatum Records Virgin Records Eleven Seven Music |
| Website | The Exies official site The Exies at MySpace |
| Members | |
| Scott Stevens Freddy Herrera Chris Skane Hoss Wright |
|
| Former members | |
| Thom Sullivan David Walsh Dennis Wolfe |
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- For the Hamburg group of The Beatles followers, see Exy
The Exies are a rock band from Los Angeles, California that was formed in 1997. Their name, "The Exies", is short for "The Existentialists". Their two Virgin Records releases, Inertia (2003) and Head for the Door (2004), have sold over 400,000 copies combined.
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[edit] History
The Exies burst onto the Los Angeles club scene in 1997 when singer/guitarist Scott Stevens drafted bassist Freddy Herrera and drummer Thom Sullivan to form a new group whose sound molds late '60s British Invasion pop with futuristic wall-of-sound guitars. Stevens' friend Chris Skane played guitar in an early incarnation of The Exies, but had other priorities. Stevens then recruited guitarist David Walsh, who added some crunchy riffs and stellar leads to his intricately crafted rock numbers.
Although some have compared The Exies sound to Stone Temple Pilots, their only connection is Dean DeLeo, a very early fan of the band who expressed interest in producing their first album. (His commitments to STP prevented him from doing so).
Scott picked the name "The Exies" from a John Lennon biography. As said on Rockline (11/9/2002), it was the only Beatles-related name left that wasn't taken. When the Beatles were touring around Hamburg, Germany in the 60s, they encountered three distinct social groups among the kids: the mods, the rockers, and the art students (who referred to themselves as "the existentialists"). John Lennon coined the term "the exies" to refer to the art students. But don't look for some deep existentialist meaning, The Exies themselves don't particularly espouse the philosophies, they're just Beatles fans.
[edit] The Exies
The band released their self-titled debut album in 2000 on Ultimatum Records, and toured extensively. While touring, they caught the attention of Grammy-winning producer Matt Serletic, who bought their contract from the indie label they were on.
Thom and The Exies parted ways in September 2000, and Dennis Wolfe joined the band.
The majority of 2001 was spent writing and recording. They recorded some more in early 2002, and continued to tour beginning in August.
[edit] Inertia
Afterwards the band signed to Virgin Records and in January 2003 they released their second album, Inertia. The album received wide distribution, and their first single, "My Goddess", received a fair amount of radio play and was featured in the Playstation 2 game, Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild. Also, the song "Without" was featured on the soundtrack for EA Sports MVP Baseball 2003.
The Exies continued touring in 2003 in support of Inertia, with single "My Goddess" being performed on David Letterman and peaking at #12 on Modern Rock charts. The video for "My Goddess", filmed by Diane Martel, became a top 10 hit on MTV2.
[edit] Head for the Door
In June 2004 The Exies headed back into the studio with rock producer Nick Raskulinecz, for a more straightforward, powerful sound.
Their third album Head for the Door was released on December 1, 2004. The album's first single, "Ugly", was used by World Wrestling Entertainment as the theme song for that year's Survivor Series 2004 pay-per-view event in November 2004, and was featured on a commercial for the Warner Bros. television network. The song "Slow Drain" was featured on the video game NFL Street 2 which was released on the Xbox and Playstation 2 consoles. The band promoted the album by opening for Velvet Revolver on their first arena tour.
Along with Sum 41 and Silvertide, The Exies supported Mötley Crüe on their massively successful Carnival of Sin Tour. The tour was one of 2005's biggest success stories and exposed the band to an entirely new audience.
Their second single off Head for the Door, "Hey You", is part of the PlayStation 2 video game, Guitar Hero, released in 2005. It is now also part of the Xbox 360 game Guitar Hero II via download through Xbox Live.
The song "What You Deserve" was also featured on the game Juiced.
[edit] A Modern Way of Living with the Truth
After returning from the tour with Mötley Crüe, the band along with the executives at Virgin Records decided that the band was not worth keeping on the label, and they parted ways. Soon after this, Dennis Wolfe and David Walsh left the band to pursue other goals.
This left Scott and Freddy alone to fend for themselves. While both contemplated quitting the band as well, they decided to reunite along with Chris Skane (a former guitarist from one of the early incarnations of The Exies) and began writing songs as friends, not as a business.
On May 26, 2006, the band announced on its blog that they were going back to the studio to work on their fourth album with producer James Michael. The new album (named A Modern Way of Living with the Truth) was released May 15, 2007 by Eleven Seven Music, their new label.
On December 7, 2006, the song "Slow Drain" featured in Full Auto 2, released in the PS3 version.
To promote their forthcoming album the band is touring with Buckcherry and Three Days Grace. They then went on tour with rock band Smile Empty Soul throughout the summer of 2007. After those shows, they teamed up with Drowning Pool for the This is for the Soldiers Tour.
The band released five songs on MySpace and radio from A Modern Way of Living with the Truth album: "Different Than You", "Once in a Lifetime", "These Are the Days", "This Is the Sound", and "A Fear of Being Alone".
The Exies have also created their new website www.the-exies.com as an alternative to their MySpace page.
On June 28th, The Exies released a music video for the song "God We Look Good (Going Down in Flames)", a song that was left off their recent album, A Modern Way of Living with the Truth.
The Exies have rereleased "A Modern Way of Living with the Truth" on iTunes with five extra tracks. "God We Look Good (Going Down in Flames)" is included in the album along with acoustic tracks of "My Goddess", "Ugly", "Genius", and "Tired of You".
[edit] Band members
[edit] Current
- Scott Stevens - vocals, guitar (1997 - Present)
- Freddy Herrera - bass guitar, vocals (1997 - Present)
- Chris Skane - guitar, vocals (1997, 2006 - Present)
- Hoss Wright- drums, percussion (2007 - Present)
[edit] Former
- Thom Sullivan - Drums (1997 - 2001)
- David Walsh - Guitar (1997 - 2006)
- Dennis Wolfe - Drums (2002 - 2006)
- Eric Briggs - Guitar (1999 - 2000)
[edit] Discography
The studio album releases by The Exies are as follows
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[edit] Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Hot 100 | U.S. Modern Rock | U.S. Mainstream Rock | |||
| 2002 | "My Goddess" | - | #26 | #20 | Inertia |
| 2003 | "Kickout" | - | - | - | Inertia |
| 2004 | "Ugly" | - | #13 | #11 | Head for the Door |
| 2005 | "What You Deserve" | - | - | #40 | Head for the Door |
| 2005 | "Hey You" | - | - | - | Head for the Door |
| 2007 | "Different Than You" | - | - | #27 | A Modern Way of Living with the Truth |
| 2007 | "God We Look Good (Going Down in Flames)" | - | - | - | A Modern Way of Living with the Truth (iTunes re-release) |
| 2008 | "These Are the Days" | - | - | - | A Modern Way of Living with the Truth |
