| Rachel Haden | |
|---|---|
Rachel Haden playing with Jimmy Eat World in 2001 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born | October 11, 1971 (New York City, New York) |
| Instruments | Vocals, bass guitar, drums, keyboards |
| Associated acts | Beck, Dntel, Fightstar, The Haden Triplets, Jimmy Eat World, Lucky Pierre, Ozma, The Rentals, The Sell Outs, That Dog, Weezer |
Rachel Haden (born New York City, October 11, 1971) is the current bass guitarist for Todd Rundgren on his "Arena Rock" tour, and one of the triplet daughters of jazz bassist Charlie Haden.
In the early 1990s, Rachel played bass guitar for That Dog, a band that also included her sister Petra. Her sister Tanya also contributed cello on several That Dog recordings but did not tour as an official member of the band. Around this time Rachel also played drums and performed backup vocals for Beck on the songs "Totally Confused" and "Steve Threw Up”. She also played drums for Beck’s “Pink Noise (Rock Me Amadeus)".
Later, Rachel became one of the four early members of the band The Rentals, along with Rod Cervera, Weezer’s Patrick Wilson and Matt Sharp. In 1996, she performed lead vocals on Weezer’s song “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams”, the only released Weezer song to feature female lead vocals. This song was originally written for the abandoned Songs from the Black Hole album. Rachel was Rivers Cuomo's choice to play the "good girl" character, Laurel. As a special encore surprise for the audience, Rachel performed “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams” with Weezer in the Hard Rock's "The Joint" in Las Vegas, NV on Friday January 21, 2011.
In 1999 Rachel contributed a cover of the song “Poems, Prayers, and Promises” for the album A Tribute to John Denver. Around this same time she played bass and performed vocals as a member of The Martinis along with Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago and his wife Linda Mallari.
More recently, in 2001, Rachel toured as a backup singer and keyboardist for Jimmy Eat World. She contributed vocals to the Dntel album Life Is Full of Possibilities. In 2004 Rachel, along with her sisters Petra and Tanya, recorded a set of traditional country songs as The Haden Triplets with their longtime friend and former Dieselhed member Zac Holtzman, currently of the band Dengue Fever.
In 2004 she contributed backing vocals for four songs on Lucky Pierre's ThinKing album.
Rachel continues to make music in the Los Angeles area, most recently with Petra Haden's acappella choir The Sell Outs and as a member of the most recent lineup of The Rentals.
Rachel performs the female vocals for the duet "Heartache Vs Heartbreak" from Ozma's 2007 album Pasadena.
Rachel performs the female vocals on the Fightstar album One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours. She sings backing vocals on the tracks "Unfamiliar Ceilings", "You & I", and the new B-Side "Gracious".
Rachel can also be heard doing vocals throughout comedian Neil Hamburger's foray into music, the album "Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners". Rachel duets with Neil on the song "Please Ask That Clown To Stop Crying".
Rachel has also contributed her vocals for a duet with Japanese alternative rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation on the song "Hello, Hello".
She toured with Todd Rundgren in late 2008, temporarily replacing longtime Rundgren bassist and collaborator Kasim Sulton, who at the time was touring with Meat Loaf.
Rachel is currently playing bass guitar and singing backing vocals for Brendan Perry on his 2010 Ark tour.
In 2011, she collaborated with Nerdcore group Supercommuter for the song "#1 Kyabajo" on their Album Products of Science.[1]