Vitamin String Quartet

Vitamin String Quartet (VSQ) is a musical group from Los Angeles, California that is widely known for its series of tribute albums to rock and pop acts. Their albums are released through Vitamin Records and primarily performed by a string quartet, though other instruments have been used. "Vitamin String Quartet is about applying rock n' roll attitude to classical technique," says Tom Tally,[1] a violist and arranger who has performed on and produced over fifty Vitamin String Quartet albums.

Their albums honor a wide variety of genres, including pop and rock, metal, techno, country, and hip-hop, and a wide variety of groups, such as Queen, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, System of a Down, The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Slayer, Adele, Lady Gaga and many more. Their discography includes 261 albums.

The group began in 1999 "as an experiment in transforming rock songs with classical instruments."[2] It later expanded to include a variety of popular music.[2]

Their music was played 24 hours a day on FM broadcast station WWHK in Concord, New Hampshire.

In 2008, VSQ contributed a recording of "Jack and Sally Montage" to Nightmare Revisited, on which the Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas original score was reinterpreted by bands like Tiger Army, All-American Rejects, Plain White Ts, Rise Against, and DeVotchKa.

Songs by Vitamin String Quartet were featured on the Fox television show So You Think You Can Dance[3] twice in 2008. "Control" from Vitamin String Quartet Tribute To Janet Jackson appeared on an episode that aired 7/30/08 and "Hallelujah" from Vitamin String Quartet Tribute To Paramore appeared on an episode that aired 7/31/08. Songs appeared again on the show in Season 6 2009. Legacy Perez used Flashing Lights as a track for a solo elimination dance which aired 9/12/2009. Yellow originally by Coldplay featured on the show as guest dancers on the Top 10 elimination show, The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. This episode aired 2/12/2009

In June 2009, they branched out by including a few original songs on their album Per_Versions, which also included covers of bands such as Broken Social Scene, No Age and Sigur Rós.[4]

The Vitamin String Quartet's cover of The Rolling Stone's "As Tears Go By" was used in the season 5 finale of the TV show House on May 11, 2009.

Two songs from Vitamin String Quartet Tribute to Coldplay, "Yellow" and "Clocks," were used in an episode of TV show The Vampire Diaries on April 22, 2010.[5]

Vitamin String Quartet covered INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart" and Pat Benatar's "We Belong" in the 100th episode of Gossip Girl.[6][7][8]

Vitamin String Quartet's cover of "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros was featured in the finale of the fifth season of Modern Family on May 21, 2014.

Contents 

Partial discography

0–9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Miscellaneous and compilations

References

  1. ↑ Vitamin String Quartet (2009). "VSQ Biography". Vitamin String Quartet. Vitamin String Quartet. Retrieved 2010-03-22.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Vitamin String Quartet (2013). "VSQ: A Brief History". Vitamin String Quartet. Vitamin String Quartet. Retrieved 2013-09-10.
  3. ↑ So You Think You Can Dance 2008: Top 6 PERFORMANCE SHOW Recap
  4. ↑ "Vitamin String Quartet: Per_Versions". Vitamin Records.
  5. ↑ Vampire Diaries Music – Episode 19 – Miss Mystic Falls | Vampire Diaries Spoilers and News
  6. ↑ "Gossip Girl Music - Season 5, Episode 13". The CW. January 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  7. ↑ Marsi, Steve (January 31, 2012). "Gossip Girl Music From "G.G."". TV Fanatic. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  8. ↑ Eckstein, David (January 25, 2012). "'Gossip Girl' EP: We've been 'planning Blair's wedding since the pilot'". Zap2it. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  9. ↑ Download The String Quartet Tribute to Alice in Chains by Vitamin String Quartet | eMusic
  10. ↑ Top Videos | Popular Videos
  11. ↑ The first run of the album was printed with incorrect album art, as well as listing in the wrong order the tracks— which were hand picked by Mike Portnoy and covered the band's history from When Dream And Day Unite to Train Of Thought. This was corrected in later prints of the album. People with the incorrect art could contact Vitamin Records for a replacement copy. James Curtiss, the Project Coordinator of Vitamin Records, said that the incorrect packaging should be called "a collector's item and leave it at that", as well as stating that "sonically we nailed the sucker, but on the manufacturing side of things, we dropped the ball." (see the official Dream Theater site here and here.)

External links