Rollins Band
Encyclopedia
Rollins Band was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band led by singer
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

 and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....

.

They are best known for the songs "Low Self Opinion" and "Liar
Liar (Rollins Band song)
"Liar" is a song by Rollins Band and the lead single from their fourth full-length album, Weight, released in 1994. It was the album's only charting single and one of the group's best known songs...

", which both earned heavy airplay on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 in the early 1990s. Critic Steve Huey describes their music as "uncompromising, intense, cathartic fusions of hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

 noise
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...

, and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 experimentalism, with Rollins shouting angry, biting self-examinations and accusations over the grind."

In 2000, Rollins Band was included on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, ranking at No. 47.

Pre-history

Rollins was the singer for the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 band State of Alert
State of Alert
State of Alert was an American hardcore punk group formed in Washington, D.C. in 1980, and disbanded in 1981.-History:State of Alert were fronted by Henry Garfield, who would later rise to fame as Henry Rollins. They formed in October 1980 and disbanded in July 1981...

 from October 1980 to July 1981. Afterwards, he sang with California punk rock band Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...

 from August 1981 to August 1986. Black Flag earned little mainstream attention, but through a demanding touring schedule, came to be regarded as one of the most important punk rock bands of the 1980s.

Less than a year after Black Flag broke up, Rollins returned to music with guitarist Chris Haskett
Chris Haskett
Chris Haskett is an American guitarist. He is probably best known for his membership in the Rollins Band from 1986 to 1997 and again for the band's reunion in 2006...

 (a friend from Rollins' teen years in Washington D.C.), bass guitarist Bernie Wandel
Bernie Wandel
Bernie Wandel is an American musician best known as the bass guitarist for two Henry Rollins albums, Hot Animal Machine and Drive By Shooting....

, and drummer Mick Green.

This line-up released two records: Hot Animal Machine
Hot Animal Machine
Hot Animal Machine is a hardcore punk solo album by Henry Rollins which served as a pre-cursor to the Rollins Band. It is only available now in the same 2-in-one package as Drive by Shooting. Notable for a number of cover songs; Suicide's "Ghost Rider", Richard Berry's "Crazy Lover" and The Velvet...

 (credited as a Rollins solo record and featuring cover art drawings by Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...

 leader Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games....

) and Drive by Shooting
Drive by Shooting
Drive by Shooting is a hardcore punk solo E.P. by Henry Rollins, credited to "Henrietta Collins & The Wife-Beating Child-Haters", which served as a pre-cursor to the Rollins Band. This recording features a Wire cover, a re-vision of a Queen song and a parody of a Beach Boys style song...

 (credited to "Henrieta Collins and the Wifebeating Childhaters"). The music was similar to Black Flag's, though it flirted more with heavy metal and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

.

First edition (1987–1994)

Soon after, Rollins formed Rollins Band with Haskett, bassist Andrew Weiss, and drummer Sim Cain
Sim Cain
Sim Cain is an American drummer probably best known as a member of the hard rock group Rollins Band from 1987 to 2000...

 (Weiss and Cain had previously played with Gone
Gone (band)
Gone is a three-piece punk-based instrumental rock band, formed by Greg Ginn in late 1985. Originally, Gone was a side project to his main group, Black Flag.-Biography:...

, an instrumental rock
Instrumental rock
Instrumental rock is a type of rock music which emphasizes musical instruments, and which features very little or no singing.Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style, most notably Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Link...

 group led by guitarist and Black Flag founder Greg Ginn
Greg Ginn
Gregory Regis Ginn is a guitarist, songwriter, and singer. He is best known for being the leader of and primary songwriter for the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led from 1976 to 1986....

). Live sound engineer Theo Van Rock was usually credited as a band member.

Critics Ira Robbins and Regina Joskow described this line-up as a "brilliant, strong ensemble ... the band doesn't play punk (more a jazzy, thrashy, swing take on the many moods of Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

), but what they do together has the strengths of both. The group's loud guitar rock with a strong, inventive rhythmic clock borrows only the better attributes of metal, ensuring that noise is never a substitute for purpose."

Second edition (1994–1997)

Weiss was fired following the End of Silence tour; he was replaced by jazz and funk bassist Melvin Gibbs
Melvin Gibbs
Melvin Gibbs is an American bass guitarist, composer, and producer who has appeared on close to 200 albums in diverse genres of music. Gibbs has been called "the best bassist in the world" by Time Out New York magazine....

, who'd been highly recommended by guitarist Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid is an English-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...

; Cain and Gibbs had also both played in different versions of guitarist Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.His own work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and composer John Zorn.-Biography:Ribot was...

's band.

This version of Rollins Band had some of the most overt jazz leanings of the band's history: Gibbs had begun his career with the jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 group of drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson
Ronald Shannon Jackson
Ronald Shannon Jackson is an American jazz drummer. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas.Jackson is notable for his unusual approach to his instrument, which draws as much inspiration from military and parade bands as from traditional jazz drumming.He is the only person to have recorded and performed...

, and worked with Sonny Sharrock
Sonny Sharrock
Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock was an American jazz guitarist. He was once married to singer Linda Sharrock, with whom he sometimes recorded and performed....

 on albums like 1987's Seize The Rainbow, which along with Rollins' obsession with the late '60s/early '70s era of iconic trumpeter Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

, shaped this version of the band's music. In this era, Rollins Band recorded with flamethrowing free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

 saxophonist Charles Gayle
Charles Gayle
Charles Gayle is a free jazz saxophonist, pianist, bass clarinetist, and percussionist.-Biography:Charles Gayle was born in Buffalo, New York. Some of Gayle's history is unclear. He was apparently homeless for approximately twenty years, playing saxophone on street corners and subway platforms...

, though these sessions remained unreleased for ten years at Gayle's request to avoid conflicts with his contractual obligations.

The first video from 1994's Weight, "Liar", was a huge hit on MTV, with Rollins sporting numerous costumes (including a cop and a nun). The band appeared at Woodstock '94
Woodstock '94
Woodstock '94, often called the "commercial Woodstock" or "Mudstock", was a music festival organized to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original Woodstock Festival of 1969...

, and Rollins was a guest-host for several MTV programs, including 120 Minutes.

Rollins Band signed with the then new major label DreamWorks Records
DreamWorks Records
DreamWorks Records was an American record label. Founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg as a subsidiary of DreamWorks SKG, the label operated until 2005 when it was shut down...

, who released 1997's Come In And Burn. The album was not as successful as Weight and, after touring for Burn, Rollins dissolved the group, citing creative stagnation.

Third edition (1997–2003)

Rollins replaced the Haskett-Gibbs-Cain lineup with the Los Angeles rock band Mother Superior
Mother Superior (band)
Mother Superior is a Los Angeles based rock band, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Jim Wilson, bassist Marcus Blake and drummer Matt Tecu. In addition to playing live with the Rollins Band and U2 producer Daniel Lanois, the band has done session work with Daniel Lanois, Henry Rollins, Tony...

, retaining the name Rollins Band, and released Get Some Go Again
Get Some Go Again
Get Some Go Again is the sixth full-length studio album by Rollins Band, released in 2000 . It is also the first album by lead singer Henry Rollins after dissolving his longtime lineup featuring guitarist Chris Haskett and others...

 (2000) and Nice (2001). They also released a two-disc live album, The Only Way to Know for Sure. This line-up was a more straightforward hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 group: their first album featured "Are You Ready?" a cover of a Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...

 song, featuring Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham
Scott Gorham
Scott Gorham is an American guitarist and songwriter who rose to international recognition as one of the "twin lead guitarists" of the Irish-formed rock band, Thin Lizzy...

; Rollins has often expressed fondness for Thin Lizzy and its founder, Phil Lynott
Phil Lynott
Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott was an Irish musician who first came to prominence as a founding member, principal songwriter, and frontman of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy....

.

In 2003, the Rollins Band released Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three
West Memphis Three
The West Memphis Three are three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin was...

. The album features a number of guest vocalists (including Lemmy, Chuck D
Chuck D
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour , better known by his stage name, Chuck D, is an American rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the mid-1980s as the leader of the rap group Public Enemy.- Early life :Ridenhour was born in Queens, New York...

, Corey Taylor
Corey Taylor
Corey Todd Taylor sometimes known by the number 8, is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of Slipknot and Stone Sour. Taylor was raised by his single mother. He developed a fond feeling toward classic rock after his grandmother introduced him to it...

, Ice T
Ice T
Tracy Marrow , better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American musician and actor.He was born in Newark, New Jersey and moved to the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles when he was in the 7th grade. After graduating from high school he served in the United States Army for four years...

, Tom Araya
Tom Araya
Tom Araya is a Chilean musician, best known as the bassist and vocalist of the American thrash metal band Slayer...

 and others) singing Black Flag's songs.

Fourth edition (2006)

In between other commitments (His radio show Harmony In My Head, his cable/satellite TV show The Henry Rollins Show, and his spoken word tours), Rollins also reunited the Haskett-Gibbs-Cain lineup.

In a blog entry on henryrollins.com, Rollins admitted, "Actually we have been practicing on and off for months now, slowly getting it together ... It's been really cool being back in the practice room with these guys after all these years."

The band opened some concerts for X, and played on the first season finale of The Henry Rollins Show on August 12, 2006.

Rollins told Alan Sculley of The Daily Herald that this reunion with Haskett, Gibbs and Cain would not become long-term unless the group decided to write new songs: "Let's put it this way. I don't want to go out and hit America again without a new record, or at least a new album's worth of material. Otherwise the thing will lack legitimacy ... Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

 would never do that. And I'm not into a greatest-hits thing. I think a band, if you're going to be around, you should be moving forward and putting in the time and working for it, getting after the art. Otherwise you're just playing retreads. ... Imagine a tree that grows canned peaches. It's nothing I want to do."

Band members

  • Henry Rollins
    Henry Rollins
    Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....

     – lead vocals (1987–2003, 2006)
  • Chris Haskett
    Chris Haskett
    Chris Haskett is an American guitarist. He is probably best known for his membership in the Rollins Band from 1986 to 1997 and again for the band's reunion in 2006...

     – guitar (1987–1997, 2006)
  • Andrew Weiss – bass (1987–1992)
  • Sim Cain
    Sim Cain
    Sim Cain is an American drummer probably best known as a member of the hard rock group Rollins Band from 1987 to 2000...

     – drums, percussion (1987–1997, 2006)
  • Theo Van Rock – sound engineer (1987–1997, 2006)
  • Melvin Gibbs
    Melvin Gibbs
    Melvin Gibbs is an American bass guitarist, composer, and producer who has appeared on close to 200 albums in diverse genres of music. Gibbs has been called "the best bassist in the world" by Time Out New York magazine....

     – bass (1993–1997, 2006)
  • Jim Wilson
    Jim Wilson (guitar player)
    Jim Wilson is an American guitarist in the band Mother Superior, and previously in the Rollins Band. He is a professional musician known for his soulful vocals and powerful blues-rock guitar work. He also plays guitar and bass with Daniel Lanois...

     – guitar, piano (1999–2003)
  • Marcus Blake – bass (1999–2003)
  • Jason Mackenroth – drums, percussion, saxophone (1999–2003)
  • Keith Morris
    Keith Morris
    Keith Morris is an American singer and songwriter known for his role as frontman of the hardcore punk bands Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and Off! Born and raised in Hermosa Beach, California, he formed Black Flag at the age of 21 with guitarist Greg Ginn and performed on the band's 1978 debut EP...

     – lead vocals (Rise Above Tour 2003)

Studio albums

  • Life Time (1987, re-release 1999)
  • Hard Volume
    Hard Volume
    Hard Volume is the second album by the Rollins Band. It was released in 1989 and reissued with new tracks in 1999. The original CD release contained a 32 minute jam on the Velvet Underground outtake "Move Right In" entitled "Joy Riding With Frank." The track was recorded live in Linz, Austria...

     (1989, re-release 1999)
  • The End of Silence
    The End of Silence
    The End of Silence is the fifth release and the third full-length album by Rollins Band, led by former Black Flag singer Henry Rollins. The album's cover features a sort of mascot for the band, a stylized drawing of the sun identical to the one tattooed on Rollins' back...

     (1992, double-CD re-release 2002) #160 US
  • Weight
    Weight (album)
    Weight is the fourth full-length studio album by the Rollins Band, released on April 12, 1994 . It featured the band's biggest hits, "Liar" and "Disconnect," which gained rotation on MTV and gained popularity after being featured on Beavis and Butthead...

     (1994) #33 US, #22 UK, #10 AUS
  • Come in and Burn
    Come In and Burn
    Come In and Burn is the eighth release and the fifth full-length studio album by Rollins Band, released in 1997 . It is also the last album before lead singer Henry Rollins dissolved the band's "classic" lineup and later formed a new version of Rollins Band with musicians from Mother Superior, who...

     (1997) #89 US, #38 AUS
  • Get Some Go Again
    Get Some Go Again
    Get Some Go Again is the sixth full-length studio album by Rollins Band, released in 2000 . It is also the first album by lead singer Henry Rollins after dissolving his longtime lineup featuring guitarist Chris Haskett and others...

     (2000) #180 US, #40 AUS
  • Nice (2001) #178 US
  • Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three
    Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three
    -Band:*Marcus Blake – bass guitar ; backing vocals *Jason Mackenroth – drums ; backing vocals *Jim Wilson – guitar ; backing vocals -Vocalists:...

     (2002)

Outtakes and demos collections

  • Yellow Blues – from the Get Some Go Again Sessions (2001)
  • A Nicer Shade of Red
    A Nicer Shade of Red
    A Nicer Shade of Red is a compilation album by the Rollins Band. It was recorded at the same sessions that produced Nice, making it a companion piece to that album, and was released directly by Rollins' 2.13.61 label...

     – from the Nice Sessions (2001)
  • The End of Silence Demos (2002)
  • Weighting (2004)
  • Come in And Burn Sessions (2004)

Live albums

  • Live Split Album with Dutch band Gore
    Gore (band)
    Gore were a Dutch rock band formed in 1985, characterized as instrumental noise rock, who released six studio albums, one live album, and had two compilation appearances between 1986 and 1997. One of the band's studio albums was released on the Megadisc label...

     – Recorded @ El Mocambo, Toronto, Ontario 5.17.87 (1987)
  • Do It
    Do It (album)
    Do It is the first EP after the first full-length album Life Time from Rollins Band, fronted by ex-Black Flag singer, Henry Rollins....

     – Studio Outtakes and Live (1988)
  • Turned On
    Turned On
    Turned On is a live album from Rollins Band, fronted by ex-Black Flag singer, Henry Rollins, recorded in Vienna, Austria on November 27, 1989...

     (1990)
  • Electro Convulsive Therapy (1993)
  • Insert Band Here: Live In Australia, 1990 (1999)
  • A Clockwork Orange Stage (2001)
  • The Only Way to Know for Sure: Live in Chicago (2002)

EPs and 7" singles

  • "Tearing
    Tearing (song)
    -CD single track listing:# "Tearing " - 5:18# "Ghost Rider" - 10:15# "Earache My Eye" - 3:08# " Next Time " - 7:12-Charts:...

    " (1992) #54 UK
    UK Singles Chart
    The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

  • "Low Self Opinion
    Low Self Opinion
    -Accolades:-Chart performance:...

    " (1992)
  • "Liar
    Liar (Rollins Band song)
    "Liar" is a song by Rollins Band and the lead single from their fourth full-length album, Weight, released in 1994. It was the album's only charting single and one of the group's best known songs...

    " (1994)
  • "Liar
    Liar (Rollins Band song)
    "Liar" is a song by Rollins Band and the lead single from their fourth full-length album, Weight, released in 1994. It was the album's only charting single and one of the group's best known songs...

    " / "Disconnect" (1994) #27 UK
  • "Disconnect" (1994)
  • "Starve" (1997)


Other appearances

Year Song Album
1995 "Four Sticks
Four Sticks
Not to be confused with Four Kicks."Four Sticks" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin from their fourth album, released in 1971. The title came from the fact that drummer John Bonham played with two sets of two drumsticks, totalling four...

"
Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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