22nd Century (band)

22nd Century is a Canadian rock band from Vancouver, formed in 2007. 22nd Century's members include guitarist/vocalist Tim Plommer (Anthill, Little Green Planet), guitarist Jesus Krysler, bassist Duane Chaos (Stress Factor 9, Ace Koden, Driven Force, Centerfold) and drummer Zippy Pinhead (of hardcore punk bands D.O.A.,^[1] The Dils).^[2]

History

In the late 1980s, drummer Zippy Pinhead formed the Stiffs with Gerry Useless (who later formed the Subhumans) and Mike Normal; later forming “Sgt. Nick Penis and the Brassball Battalion” with D.O.A. founders Randy Rampage and Chuck Biscuits. Duane met Zippy and Randy while playing bass for soon to be star Chrissy Steele and became friends. Zippy went on to move to San Francisco to play with the influential band K.G.B. before returning to Vancouver to join D.O.A. Over the next six years, Zippy Pinhead shifted between Vancouver and California playing in some well known bands (The Dils, Art Bergman, The Mutants, Los Popularos, Black Molly’s, Beat Farmers and The Fiends.) and even appeared on music videos with Sheena Easton and Rick Springfield. Duane left the music scene for a while to pursue a career in professional cycling after leaving recording band Centerfold when the band’s funding vanished. He returned to music nearly a decade later after joining up with Wade Morissette,^[3] brother of Alanis Morissette, to play acoustic performances. During this time, Tim Plommer enjoyed success by co-founding a band called Anthill which had a radio single "Child of Ambition".

22nd Century was formed in 2007 with guitarist Tim Plommer, Duane Chaos and original drummer who left the band in 2009. Rob Lulic (of Rymes With Orange fame) briefly played with the band while it was forming but left before the recording of the first CD, The Twenty Second Century. Duane continued playing part-time for Punk-Metal band Stress Factor 9 which included former Annihilator drummer Ray Harttman and D.O.A. bass player/founder Randy Rampage. 22nd Century made its first trip to California in late 2008 playing in San Francisco.

The band released a six song EP entitled The Twenty Second Century in early 2009, produced by the record producer, John Webster. By December 2009, the single "509" had hit No. 1 on the Somojo UK Indy charts and held in the top 5 for several weeks.^[4] 22nd Century also received an honorable mention ^[5] in Billboard's 2009 global songwriting contest. The band enjoyed early success by licensing their music to Adobe TV (owned by Adobe Systems, Inc.) and has radio airplay in many countries. In late 2009, 22nd Century again headed south and played in Los Angeles to a crowd of thousands as the headliner. .38 Special road bass player Scott Fegette joined the group on stage for a version of "Blitzkrieg" by The Ramones.^[6]

In June 2010, 22nd Century returned to the studio after a brief stint in New York to begin recording their second album which was released Jan 6, 2011 on Bugnut Records.^[7] Producer John Webster once again brought the band to Mushroom Studios in Vancouver, BC. The seventh track on the CD is a cover of Echo Beach written by Mark Gane and originally recorded in 1979 by Martha and the Muffins. The new CD Where's Howie?!! also contained a cover of The Angels (a.k.a. Angel City) single "No Secrets", written by Doc Neeson and Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup. During the time of recording, 22nd Century placed first place via popular vote in a nationwide indie contest sponsored by Supernova entitled "Band on the Run" ^[8] as well as playing several venues in Western Canada and as far away as New York, NY. During the contest performances, D.O.A. co-founder Randy Rampage joined the group on stage ^[9] for a few older songs. The band has sold or streamed well over 5,000,000 songs globally from sites such as Jango.com, tv.adobe.com, Reverbnation, MySpace, Mix2r, iTunes and many more.

In 2011, local guitarist Jesus Krysler joined the band as second guitarist and played his first live gig as the band headlined one of Vancouver's biggest summer street festivals. The band rapidly climbed the Reverbnation charts reaching No. 1 (locally) and No. 21 (nationally) ^[10] since the addition of the fourth member and being interviewed and appearing on the front cover of L.A. based Punk Globe magazine.^[11] Their second video released from Where's Howie!?, based on the title track was launched in August 2011.^[12]

Discography

• 2009: The Twenty Second Century
• 2010: Radio Hits 3 (Eastern European Compilation)
• 2011: Where's Howie?!!
• 2011: Riot on the Sunset (Compilation)

References

External links

• 22nd Century Official site
• 22nd Century on Myspace