The Verve Pipe (album)

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The Verve Pipe

Studio album by The Verve Pipe

Released

July 27, 1999

Professional reviews

Rolling Stone link

The Verve Pipe chronology

Villains
(1996)

The Verve Pipe
(1999)

Underneath
(2001)

The Verve Pipe is the self-titled album by Michigan rock band The Verve Pipe, released on July 27, 1999. The band's second release for RCA Records, the album followed the platinum-selling Villains and its mammoth single, "The Freshmen". The band worked with Soundgarden producer Michael Beinhorn and created a generally dark, sonically textured grunge-pop album. The lead single "Hero" received sporadic airplay on Alternative rock radio and its video was in rotation on MTV2 in late summer 1999.

Throughout the album, primary songwriter and singer Brian Vander Ark comments on the fleeting nature of fame with tracks such as "Supergig" and "Headlines". The song "The F-Word" serves as a bittersweet response to the band's success with "The Freshmen", containing the lyric, "Another song, it all went wrong/The radio refused to play it/I'm not afraid to serenade/The F-Word saved and sucked the life from me".

The album's cover features a diagram for frog dissection, with the song titles used as references to various body parts.

[edit] Radio and Touring

The Verve Pipe mounted a major nationwide tour in support of "The Verve Pipe" and lead single "Hero", headlining mid-size venues and playing numerous radio festivals throughout 1999 and into 2000. With the Nu metal stylings of Limp Bizkit and Korn dominating rock radio airwaves, "Hero" failed to connect with a mass audience. The band responded by releasing the album's sonically heaviest track, "Television" as a follow-up single. With no music video and little radio support, "Television" sputtered out quickly, along with record sales.