The Dillinger Escape Plan
| The Dillinger Escape Plan | |
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 Dillinger Escape Plan on 28 March 2005 in the Effenaar (Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Morris Plains, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Mathcore Experimental metal Grindcore[1] |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Label(s) | Relapse, Now or Never Records |
| Associated acts | Arcane Starkweather Mike Patton Coheed And Cambria Stolen Babies +44 Coalesce Spylacopa |
| Website | www.ireworks.net |
| Members | |
| Ben Weinman Liam Wilson Greg Puciato Gil Sharone Jeff Tuttle |
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| Former members | |
| See: Former members | |
The Dillinger Escape Plan (sometimes abbreviated DEP or TDEP) is an American experimental mathcore band from Morris Plains, New Jersey. The band originated in 1997 after the disbanding of Arcane, a hardcore punk trio consisting of Ben Weinman, Dimitri Minakakis, and Chris Pennie.[2] The band's current line-up consists of Ben Weinman (lead guitar, backing vocals), Liam Wilson (bass guitar), Greg Puciato (lead vocals), Gil Sharone (drums, percussion), and Jeff Tuttle (rhythm guitar, backing vocals).
The band is known for their wild and personal live shows which often showcase stage-diving into the audience, fire breathing, and many other special effects.
Contents |
History
Early years (1996–1998)
The band's beginnings can be traced back to a hardcore punk band called Arcane.[2] Previous to Arcane, Adam Doll, Craig McKeown, John Fulton and Chris Pennie played together in the bands Samsara and Malfactor from 1992–1997. Managed by longtime friend Tom Apostolopoulos and guitarist Ben Weinman, Arcane recorded a self-titled demo under the name The Dillinger Escape Plan which Now or Never Records offered to release on CD.[2] The six-track EP was released in 1997 by Now or Never Records, and set them off on a small club tour around Northeast America. Shortly before their first tour under the new name, Brantley left the group and was replaced by Fulton. However, Brantley's whereabouts are still in question today, as the band claims that Brantley called them up and said he was leaving the band. Then, nothing else was heard from him, and the band itself today does not know even if he is dead or alive.[2] However, the band went on without Brantley, with Fulton eventually going on to record on their Under the Running Board EP.
During this time period, The Dillinger Escape Plan gained notoriety in the hardcore punk scene for the intensity of their performances. Their performances were increasingly wild, and often violent. These elaborate performances, as well as the creative, technical approach of their music led a record executive of Relapse Records to offer the band a multi-record contract. The band agreed to the contract, and shortly after recorded their second EP with Relapse entitled Under the Running Board. Shortly after its release, Fulton left the band due to creative differences with the current members.[2]
Calculating Infinity (1999–2001)
The three-song EP release served to bolster anticipation for their 1999 full-length release, Calculating Infinity. Before the recording of Calculating Infinity, bassist Adam Doll was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.[3] The accident was a minor fender bender, but because Doll had leaned over to pick up a CD beneath the stereo, the accident caused a small fracture in his spine, inducing paralysis. Guitarist Weinman played both guitar and bass on the album, though liner notes credited Doll as providing a great deal of help.
Shortly before touring began for the new album, former Jesuit guitarist Brian Benoit auditioned for the band, taking the place of the departed John Fulton; Jeff Wood, former M.O.D. bassist, took the place of the injured Adam Doll. Calculating Infinity was met with great acclaim from both underground and mainstream press, even drawing the attention of former Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton, who asked Dillinger Escape Plan to tour with his band Mr. Bungle. Over time, their notoriously intense shows grew more so, incorporating samples, a light show, fireworks, fire breathing, and other antics.
After several months of touring, including appearances on the Warped Tour and March Metal Meltdown, the band and Wood parted ways, with Wood moving on to his own project, Shat. Liam Wilson, also bassist for Starkweather, took his place. In 2000, Now or Never Records re-released the band's self-titled album with added bonus tracks. Later that same year, the band parted ways with Minakakis. Minakakis credited his departure from the band to the rigorous touring schedule.
Irony Is a Dead Scene (2002–2003)
Without a vocalist, The Dillinger Escape Plan began a nationwide search for a replacement via their website, releasing an instrumental version of "43 % Burnt" from Calculating Infinity and inviting prospective vocalists to record and submit their own vocal tracks.
While the search was underway, vocal duties were handled by a number of the band's friends, including Sean Ingram of Coalesce and Mike Patton, who agreed to help the band produce an EP. The plan to record with Patton was in place before a replacement vocalist had been found. By the time Mike Patton had recorded vocals and the EP was released, the band had been touring with Minakakis's replacement, Greg Puciato, for nearly a year.
Released on August 27, 2002 via Epitaph Records, Irony Is a Dead Scene [4]featured Weinman, Pennie, Benoit, Wilson, and Mike Patton on vocals, with ex-bassist Adam Doll helping with keyboards and samples. It marked Doll's last appearance with the band. The four-song EP contained, among others, a cover of electronic music artist Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy". Buddyhead Records released a limited vinyl version.
Miss Machine (2004–2005)
In late 2001, Dillinger Escape Plan met Greg Puciato, one of many would-be vocalists who had submitted a recording to the band. Puciato included both a faithful version of "43 % Burnt" (in the style of Calculating Infinity) and the same song with his own personal spin. The band offered him the job after two practice sessions. He accepted, first appearing at the 2001 CMJ Music Festival in New York City. Soon after, Puciato and the band recorded two songs for a Black Flag tribute compilation.
In 2003, the band appeared on the soundtrack for Underworld with the song "Baby's First Coffin", their first original song with Greg Puciato on vocals. They also recorded a cover of "My Michelle" for the Guns N' Roses tribute album Bring You To Your Knees, released on March 23th, 2004.
On July 20 2004, Relapse Records released the band's first full-length album with Puciato, entitled Miss Machine. Miss Machine sold 12,000 copies its first week, becoming their biggest selling release. The album polarized The Dillinger Escape Plan audience; some fans were critical of the band's increasing artistic and musical departures from their earlier efforts, while others preferred them.
Following the controversial release, The Dillinger Escape Plan began a two year touring cycle, headlining tours of their own or occasionally providing support for acts such as Slipknot, System of a Down, and Megadeth. These tours were replete with injuries; in late 2004, guitarist Benoit suffered nerve damage (brachial plexus neuritis) in his left hand, and other than a short return to the stage in 2005, he has not played with the band since. [5]Former Fenix*TX guitarist James Love ended up playing most shows in the late 2004–2006 period. In 2005, the band was forced to drop out of Dave Mustaine's "Gigantour" slightly early due to a rotator cuff injury guitarist Weinman sustained in a car accident, despite the best efforts of the bands touring masseur, Jason Hamacher (of Frodus Conglomerate International).
Pre-Ire Works (2006)
In June 2006 the band released an iTunes exclusive EP of cover songs entitled Plagiarism. The title is a reference to the fact that four of the EP's six tracks are covers faithful to the original songs. And their first DVD, a short accompanying piece to Miss Machine (entitled Miss Machine: The DVD). Summer 2006 saw Dillinger touring as support for AFI and Coheed and Cambria. Guitarist James Love played with the band for a while in the Plagiarism era.
Four shows before the end of the Coheed tour, Weinman flew home for undisclosed personal reasons. In an interwiew, Greg Puciato announced that actual reasons for Weinman flying home was because of the growing tension between him and Chris Pennie. The night of August 4th, the group played their first show as a four-piece in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Murat Theatre Egyptian Room. According to an article in the December 2007 issue of Decibel magazine, during the Coheed tour, Weinman had briefly quit the band in order to recover from compounding medical and financial problems.
During the time Weinman was apart from the band, Chris Pennie received an offer from Coheed and Cambria to be the band's permanent drummer, on account of their former drummer leaving the band. The band was impressed with Pennie after seeing him live, and decided to make this offer. Pennie accepted, and left the band without a drummer, right before the future recording of Ire Works.[6] This departure would make Weinman the only original member of Dillinger Escape Plan left. However, not long after Pennie's departure, Weinman returned to the band and Gil Sharone was hired on drums.
Ire Works (2007–present)
The Dillinger Escape Plan completed their follow-up album to Miss Machine in 2007, entitled Ire Works, produced by Steve Evetts at his studio Omen Room in Los Angeles. Drums were recorded at Sonikwire Studios in Irvine, California.[7] On June 15, the band announced the title of the album as well as confirming the departure of Chris Pennie (now with Coheed and Cambria[8]). Gil Sharone of Stolen Babies handled drum duties for the album.[9] Ire Works was released on November 13, 2007. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at #142 with 7,000 copies scanned, but was later corrected when it was revealed that Relapse somehow forgot to scan the pre-release album sales, which made the first week total actually around 11,000.
Also missing from the new line up was guitarist Brian Benoit who had left the band due to injury. Although assured his place in the band is secure should he ever be able to perform again,[10] Jeff Tuttle (formerly of Heads Will Roll and Capture the Flag) will be taking his place on stage for the foreseeable future. Tuttle, however, does not make an appearance on the record.[11]
Ire Works has been a critical and commercial success, with the album being on many critics' top ten lists, making it the band's most critically successful album. Allmusic said that "DEP should be careful, or they'll end up the Radiohead of metalcore." The album has also had much more commercial success than previous albums, with the track Milk Lizard being featured on CSI: NY (the episode 'Playing With Matches') and being a constant play on MTV2. The single "Black Bubblegum" was played on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
In early October 2007 guitarist Ben Weinman broke his foot during a video shoot, causing DEP to postpone their tour with A Life Once Lost, Genghis Tron and Behold... The Arctopus. Following Weinman's recovery, The Dillinger Escape Plan resumed touring, beginning in London ON. During an interview before the show, Greg announced that Gil was now a permanent member of the band.
Band lineups
| 1997 |
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| 1997–1999 |
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| 1999–2000 |
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| Irony Is A Dead Scene sessions |
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| 2001–2005 |
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| 2005–2006 |
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| 2007–present |
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Current lineup
- Greg Puciato – vocals (2001–present)
- Ben Weinman – guitars (1997–present)
- Liam Wilson – bass guitar (1999–present)
- Gil Sharone – drums, percussion (2007–present)
- Jeff Tuttle – guitars (live, 2007–present)
Former members
- Derek Brantley – guitars (1997)
- John Fulton – guitars (1997–1999)
- Adam Doll – bass guitar (1997–1999), electronics (2001–2002)
- Dimitri Minakakis – vocals (1997–2001)
- Brian Benoit – guitars (1999–2005)
- Chris Pennie – drums, percussion (1997–2007)
Session & live musicians
- Jeff Wood – bass guitar (1999)
- Mike Patton – vocals, percussion (on Irony Is A Dead Scene, 2002)
- James Love – guitars (live, 2005–2006)
- Sean Ingram - lead vocals (at Krazyfest 2001)
- Matt Lupo - trumpet (on "Milk Lizard" from Ire Works)
Discography
All albums released by Relapse unless noted otherwise.
Full-length albums
- 1999: Calculating Infinity
- 2004: Miss Machine
- 2007: Ire Works
EPs
- 1997: The Dillinger Escape Plan (Now or Never Records)
- Reissued in 2000
- 1998: Under the Running Board
- 1998: Split with Nora (Ferret Records)
- Contributes song "4th Grade Dropout"
- 1999: Split with Drowningman (Hydra Head Records)
- Contributes song "Jim Fear"
- 2002: Irony Is a Dead Scene (Epitaph Records)
- Features vocals by Mike Patton
- 2004: Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants (promotional single b/w "Sunshine the Werewolf (Live)")
- 2006: Plagiarism (self-released via iTunes)
Live
- 2003: Cursed, Unshaven and Misbehavin': Live Infinity
Other Songs
- 1999: "Destro's Secret" from 18:18 (10" compilation on Now or Never Records)
- 2002: "Damaged" from Black On Black: A Tribute To Black Flag (Black Flag cover)
- 2003: "Rebel Yell" from BBC Sessions (Billy Idol cover)
- 2004: "My Michelle" from Bring You to Your Knees: a Tribute to Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses cover)
- 2005: "Honey Bucket" from We Reach: The Music of the Melvins (Melvins cover)
- 2007: "Jesus Christ Pose" from Kerrang! High Voltage: A Brief History of Rock (Soundgarden cover)
References
- ↑ Robinson, Iann (2003-01-22). "Relapse Contamination Festival Unleashes The Metal Fury: Iann Robinson ReportsTwo-day event showcases best in metal, heavy rock, grindcore.". MTV. Retrieved on 2008-08-10.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Apostolopoulos, Tom. "Dillinger Escape Plan Bio", Biography.(available [1]). Retrieved on 2008-03-22
- ↑ Donnelly, Justin. Blistering.com Feature -- Interview with The Dillinger Escape Plan. http://www.blistering.com/fastpage/fpengine.php/link/1/templateid/6841/tempidx/5/menuid/3
- ↑ "The Dillinger Escape Plan - Irony is a Dead Scene", Review.(available [2]). Retrieved on 2008-03-22
- ↑ "Brian Benoit Retires from Dillinger Escape Plan." News. (available [3]) Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ↑ "Drummer Leaves DEP - Joins Coheed and Cambria?", News.(avaiable [4]). Retrieved on [2008-03-22]]
- ↑ THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: BEGIN WORK ON NEW ALBUM - News from Relapse Records / Release Entertainment
- ↑ [5]
- ↑ The Dillinger Escape Plan Show Flashes of Ire Works : ALARM Magazine - Music & Art Beyond Comparison
- ↑ Dillinger Escape Plan, The - Official Relapse Records Band Page
- ↑ "THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Adds New Guitarist" (2007-07-31).
External links
- Official website
- The Dillinger Escape Plan at MySpace
- Dillinger Escape Plan's official forum at SMNnews
- Dillinger Escape Plan news and updates at Spreading Like Wings
- Dillinger Escape Plan's official fanclub/mailinglist at FanBridge
- Video Interview with Greg & Pro-Shot DEP Live Footage
- Interview with Liam, Greg and Ben about Ire works, Gil's recruitment, Vegan lifestyle, and tour stories on the Jekyll and Hyde show. By Oren Siegel and Oded Fluss, Israel
- Belly Full of Hell interview with Greg Puciato
- Rock Midgets interview with Liam Wilson
- Lambgoat interview with Greg Puciato
- Comprehensive interview from Hate Something Beautiful
- Biography at MTV
- AbsolutMetal interview
- SuicideGirls interview with frontman Greg Puciato
- Video Interview with Liam & Jeff at BandRescue.com
- The Dillinger Escape Plan Setlists
- Concert Review
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