The Vehicle Birth
Encyclopedia
The Vehicle Birth was a rock band that performed and recorded between January 1993 and May 1999.
and achieved some success gaining radio play, reaching 24 on the CMJ
charts and charting in The Gavin Report in the summer of 1998. They toured extensively throughout the United States. Travis Morrison
from the The Dismemberment Plan
recorded or produced most of their early output, and the two bands frequently played shows together.
The VB played rock music with a wide dynamic range. The band experimented with the different fads of the time and kept the bits they found relevant from free-form improvisation; math rock
(frequent time signature changes and odd meters); lo-fi
; slowcore; and emo
/spazcore/screamo
as it developed on the East Coast through bands such as Rites of Spring
and Fugazi
, and in the Northwest with more mainstream acts such as Sunny Day Real Estate
; and heavy use of tape delay. Some songs were fairly straight forward, but a common theme was creating tension through music and then providing a release.
The VB began performing at the Dharma Coffeehouse and The Music Store in Fairfax City, Virginia
. At that time the band was performing with bands like The Dismemberment Plan
(the band would record several times with Travis
from The Dismemberment Plan). In 1994, they moved to Boston, Massachusetts
, continued to tour, and released several 7” records. A 1996 session in Rhode Island was self-released as an LP
called Tragedy in early 1997. In 1998, Crank! Records
re-released it, providing greater distribution. Touring proved to be stressful for the band, and they chose to end their existence in 1999, playing their last show in Portland
, Oregon
(IL), The Elevator Drops, The Regrets (KS), Green Magnet School
, Dambuilders
, Kramer
(Shimmydisc, NY), Smearcase (NC), Victory at Sea, Quintaine Americana
, Jejune (CA), The Transmegetti (NJ), Tristeza
(CA), Karate (band)
, Six Going on Seven, Jetpack (RI), Robots, Dagobah, The Wicked Farleys, The Jose Fist, Thee Hydrogen Terrors (RI), Slant Six (DC), Pitchblende (DC), Eggs (DC), Tsunami (DC), Jawbox
(DC), Burning Airlines (DC), At the Drive-In
(TX), Piebald
, Faraquet
(DC), A Minor Forest
, Smart Went Crazy (DC), Les Savy Fav
(RI/NY), Archers of Loaf
(NC), The Control Group/The Doosies, The Four Carnation (KY), Gang of Four
(Leeds, UK), Sunday's Best (CA), and many others.
Biography
They released one full-length record on Crank! RecordsCrank! Records
crank! A Record Company is an independent record label which was started by Jeff Matlow in September 1994. The label's first release was a 7" by Vitreous Humor.-Artists:* Acrobat Down* Boy's Life* Cursive* Errortype:11* Fireside* The Get Set...
and achieved some success gaining radio play, reaching 24 on the CMJ
College Music Journal
College Music Journal, commonly known as CMJ, is a music events/publishing company which hosts an annual festival in New York City, the CMJ Music Marathon, as well as a weekly magazine of and for the music industry and college radio stations in the United States and Canada. It publishes top 30...
charts and charting in The Gavin Report in the summer of 1998. They toured extensively throughout the United States. Travis Morrison
Travis Morrison
Travis Morrison is an American musician and web developer from the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., United States...
from the The Dismemberment Plan
The Dismemberment Plan
The Dismemberment Plan is a Washington D.C. based indie rock band formed on January 1, 1993. Also known as D-Plan or The Plan, the name comes from a stray phrase uttered by insurance salesman Ned Ryerson in the popular comedy Groundhog Day. The band members included Eric Axelson , Jason Caddell ,...
recorded or produced most of their early output, and the two bands frequently played shows together.
The VB played rock music with a wide dynamic range. The band experimented with the different fads of the time and kept the bits they found relevant from free-form improvisation; math rock
Math rock
Math rock is a rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock that emerged in the 1980s and that was very influenced by progressive rock like King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Henry Cow - and 20th century composers such as Steve Reich and John Cage...
(frequent time signature changes and odd meters); lo-fi
Lo-fi music
Lo-fi is lower quality of sound recordings than the usual standard for music. The qualities of lo-fi are usually achieved by either degrading the quality of the recorded audio, or using certain equipment. Recent uses of the phrase have led to it becoming a genre, although it still remains as an...
; slowcore; and emo
Emo (music)
Emo is a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, D.C., where it was known as "emotional hardcore" or "emocore" and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace...
/spazcore/screamo
Screamo
Screamo, though used loosely to generally describe music that features screamed vocals, is actually a musical subgenre of hardcore punk which predominantly evolved from emo, among other genres, in the early 1990s...
as it developed on the East Coast through bands such as Rites of Spring
Rites of Spring
Rites of Spring was an American post-hardcore band from Washington, D.C. in the mid-1980s, known for their energetic live performances. A part of the D.C. hardcore punk scene, Rites of Spring increased the frenetic violence and visceral passion of hardcore while simultaneously experimenting with...
and Fugazi
Fugazi (band)
Fugazi is an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1987. The band's continual members are guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty....
, and in the Northwest with more mainstream acts such as Sunny Day Real Estate
Sunny Day Real Estate
Sunny Day Real Estate is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. In the 1990s, the group expanded upon the grunge style that was popular in the local scene to make a more melodic sound. While not the first band to be classified as emo, they were instrumental in establishing the genre. In...
; and heavy use of tape delay. Some songs were fairly straight forward, but a common theme was creating tension through music and then providing a release.
The VB began performing at the Dharma Coffeehouse and The Music Store in Fairfax City, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. At that time the band was performing with bands like The Dismemberment Plan
The Dismemberment Plan
The Dismemberment Plan is a Washington D.C. based indie rock band formed on January 1, 1993. Also known as D-Plan or The Plan, the name comes from a stray phrase uttered by insurance salesman Ned Ryerson in the popular comedy Groundhog Day. The band members included Eric Axelson , Jason Caddell ,...
(the band would record several times with Travis
Travis Morrison
Travis Morrison is an American musician and web developer from the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., United States...
from The Dismemberment Plan). In 1994, they moved to Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, continued to tour, and released several 7” records. A 1996 session in Rhode Island was self-released as an LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
called Tragedy in early 1997. In 1998, Crank! Records
Crank! Records
crank! A Record Company is an independent record label which was started by Jeff Matlow in September 1994. The label's first release was a 7" by Vitreous Humor.-Artists:* Acrobat Down* Boy's Life* Cursive* Errortype:11* Fireside* The Get Set...
re-released it, providing greater distribution. Touring proved to be stressful for the band, and they chose to end their existence in 1999, playing their last show in Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
Touring Partners
Since describing music often fails, a useful frame of reference might be some of the more recognizable bands with which the band shared a stage. The band played shows with contemporaries such as The Dismemberment Plan (DC), Sweep the Leg JohnnySweep the Leg Johnny
Sweep the Leg Johnny was a Chicago-based math rock band in existence from 1996 till 2002. The name is a reference to a line in the film The Karate Kid....
(IL), The Elevator Drops, The Regrets (KS), Green Magnet School
Green Magnet School
-Overview and Biography:Green Magnet School was an experimental rock band formed in Massachusetts in 1987. The founding members included Tim Shea on guitar and vocals, Rob Hamilton on drums, Can Keskin on guitar and bass, Steve Rzucidlo on bass, and Chris Pearson on guitar and vocals...
, Dambuilders
Dambuilders
-History:The Dambuilders was a band in the early 1990s Boston rock scene. The founding members - Dave Derby, Tryan George and Eric Masunaga - hail from Hawaii and had played in a number of bands before moving to Boston in 1990. The band began as the Dambuilders in Hawaii in a three-piece and...
, Kramer
Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer , known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, record producer and founder of the New York City record label Shimmy-Disc...
(Shimmydisc, NY), Smearcase (NC), Victory at Sea, Quintaine Americana
Quintaine Americana
Quintaine Americana is a hard rock band from Boston that started out in 1995.-History:Singer/guitarist Rob Dixon and drummer Jason King both hail from the small town of Drew, Mississippi and moved to Boston in the late 1980s. Bassist Marc Schleicher grew up in Norwell, Massachusetts but family...
, Jejune (CA), The Transmegetti (NJ), Tristeza
Tristeza
Tristeza is a post-rock band from San Diego, California. The band has performed in 19 countries.Tristeza is a California-based band, with most members currently living in Oakland, CA....
(CA), Karate (band)
Karate (band)
Karate was an American band, formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1993 by Geoff Farina, Eamonn Vitt and Gavin McCarthy. In 1995, Jeff Goddard joined the band as bass player, and Vitt moved to second guitar...
, Six Going on Seven, Jetpack (RI), Robots, Dagobah, The Wicked Farleys, The Jose Fist, Thee Hydrogen Terrors (RI), Slant Six (DC), Pitchblende (DC), Eggs (DC), Tsunami (DC), Jawbox
Jawbox
Jawbox was an alternative rock band from Washington, D.C., U.S.. Its original members were J. Robbins , Kim Coletta and Adam Wade...
(DC), Burning Airlines (DC), At the Drive-In
At the Drive-In
At the Drive-In was an American rock band from El Paso, Texas, considered part of the post-hardcore genre and active from 1993 to 2001. They were known for their extremely energetic stage shows which hearkened back to the 1980s hardcore scene...
(TX), Piebald
Piebald (band)
Piebald is an American alternative rock band. Piebald started as a hardcore band in Andover, Massachusetts, out of the same scene that produced legends Converge. They later moved to the Boston suburb of Somerville and became a staple of the Greater Boston indie rock scene. Two members still live in...
, Faraquet
Faraquet
Faraquet is an influential post-hardcore band from Washington D.C. sometimes placed in the math rock genre. They were formed in 1997, and disbanded in 2001. They were on Dischord Records, and were influenced by bands like Fugazi, Jawbox, Nation of Ulysses, as well as King Crimson...
(DC), A Minor Forest
A Minor Forest
A Minor Forest was a San Francisco-based math rock band in the 1990s. They were musically related to the Louisville scene of post rock groups like Slint and had personal connections to the San Diego scene of Three Mile Pilot and related bands...
, Smart Went Crazy (DC), Les Savy Fav
Les Savy Fav
Les Savy Fav is a New York City indie rock band. Their style is influenced by art rock and post-hardcore. The group is known for the stage presence of lead singer Tim Harrington...
(RI/NY), Archers of Loaf
Archers of Loaf
Archers of Loaf is an American indie-rock band originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, formed in 1990. The group toured extensively and released a total of four studio albums, a collection album, numerous singles and EPs, and a live album which was released after the band broke up in...
(NC), The Control Group/The Doosies, The Four Carnation (KY), Gang of Four
Gang of Four (band)
Gang of Four are an English post-punk group from Leeds. Original personnel were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill...
(Leeds, UK), Sunday's Best (CA), and many others.
Discography
- Tragedy (1997, self-release; 1998, Crank! reissue)
- Allmusic ([ link])
- Baby Sue (link)
- Recorded by Keith Souza, Sampson, Rhode IslandRhode IslandThe state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
in June 1996- Crackfarm
- We Need to Find the Girls
- Marathon
- Sideshow
- Lifehighschool
- The Leaders of Pursuit
- Yankeedom
- Daycap
- One Mississippi
- 23
- The Discovery of Oxygen
- "Limousine" b/w "Zero Work", "Amsterdam" 7" (Lit)
- split single w/The Wicked Farleys (1999, Doom Nibbler) (song: "Toronto")
- various artists : They Came from Massachusetts (Big Wheel RecreationBig Wheel RecreationBig Wheel Recreation was an independent record label based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was formed in the fall of 1994 by Rama Mayo and Richard P. Cummings. Started as a hobby, Big Wheel became a fully functioning record label in 1999...
) (song: "Coltrane")