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Wallflowers Information
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'The Wallflowers' are a rock band from Los Angeles, California, best known for hits like "One Headlight" and "6th Avenue Heartache" from their 1996 album Bringing Down the Horse.
The band's self titled debut album was released in 1992 on the Virgin Records label. Although it was praised by the critics, it only sold 25,000 copies.
Though they played early gigs all around Los Angeles, their favorite venue was the Kibitz room of Canter's Delicatessen, one of the town's more fabled hangouts, which they played at every Tuesday night. They soon grabbed the attention of groups such as 10,000 Maniacs, The Spin Doctors, Cracker, and Toad the Wet Sprocket, all of which the Wallflowers were asked to tour with.
The original members of the Wallflowers include vocalist and guitarist Jakob Dylan, (youngest son of Bob Dylan), bass player and background vocalist Barrie Maguire, Peter Yanowitz on drums, Rami Jaffee on keyboards, and guitarist Tobi Miller. This quintet broke up shortly after the album's release due to conflicts within the band, and with the record company. Yanowitz went on to drum for Natalie Merchant.
The Wallflowers' sound is influenced by a variety of groups including bands such as Counting Crows, The Band, Bruce Springsteen, The Replacements, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, and The Clash. Springsteen even joined the Wallflowers for a live performance of their song "One Headlight," at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. That night they were up for four awards but walked away empty handed. Frontman Jakob Dylan said that the most influential album in his life is The Clash's London Calling: "They had something I could listen to that I wanted to join."
The band seemed to have vanished for a few years but stormed back on the scene with their double-platinum 1996 release, Bringing Down the Horse, which produced such hits as "6th Avenue Heartache," "One Headlight" (the band's first number one), "The Difference," and "Three Marlenas." The band switched record labels, from Virgin to Interscope. For this comeback, frontman Dylan was joined only by keyboardist Rami Jaffee from original lineup. Guitarist Michael Ward, drummer Mario Calire, and bassist Greg Richling were called in to form the new band.
After almost four years, the Wallflowers began work on their next album, Breach, released October 10, 2000; the first single was "Sleepwalker", followed by "Letters From the Wasteland." The record was featured on MTV's First Listen show. Guests included Elvis Costello, who lent vocals on "Murder 101." The album was certified gold on September 21, 2001.
In November 2002, The Wallflowers released their fourth studio album, Red Letter Days. RLD was the first Wallflowers record that featured Jakob Dylan playing a majority of the lead guitar parts. The album had a much more aggressive sound than any of their previous releases. The first single and only music video shot was for "When You're On Top." The single was a smash hit on AAA radio stations, but received little mainstream attention. Subsequent singles from the album include "If You Never Got Sick," "Closer to You," and "How Good It Can Get" which received radio airplay across multiple formats. The band was a part of many exclusive performances during promotion of the record, including a Live at the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame concert for MTV, and a special televised concert for VH1, Live at Alcatraz, being the first band to ever play a concert on the famous island.
The band's most recent release, Rebel, Sweetheart hit stores May 24th, 2005. This is the first Wallflowers record available as a DualDisc. The DVD included interviews and exclusive performances and arrangements of many of the band's songs. Brendan O' Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Train) was called in to produce the record and played guitar as well. Fred Eltringham, the newest Wallflowers member, played drums. A video was filmed for their first single "The Beautiful Side of Somewhere" which hit #5 on AAA radio. The second single released was "God Says Nothing Back." In promoting the record, The Wallflowers performed special televised concerts for the Oxygen Custom Concert Series on the Oxygen channel and were also featured on the PBS series Soundstage.
In conjunction with the release of Rebel, Sweetheart the band released an exclusive iTunes Originals album for the iTunes music store. The album featured exclusive performances and interviews with Jakob Dylan. The band also volunteered to perform for sailors on the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis as the troops were returning to California.
Discography
*The Wallflowers Virgin, 1992
*Bringing Down the Horse Interscope 1996
*(Breach) Interscope, 2000
*Red Letter Days Interscope, 2002
*Rebel, Sweetheart Interscope May, 24 2005
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