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hed planet earth Information
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'(hed) pe' is a nu-metal quintet from Huntington Beach, California. They fuse punk energy with hip hop lyrics and instrumentation to form a sound they call "G-punk."
History
(hed) pe was formed in 1994 by MC Jahred Shane (aka M.C.U.D.) and lead guitarist Wesstyles, both of whom saw each other in attendance at many of the same shows in the Los Angeles and Southern Californian underground scene. They began writing songs and teamed up with Mawk (Bass guitar), Chizad (Guitar), B.C (Drums), and DJ Product (Turntables) to form (hed) pe.
Their first album was the Church of Realities EP, released independently in 1995. Upon signing to Jive Records they came out with their self-titled major label debut, which featured rerecorded versions of many of the Church of Realities songs. These earliest recordings had a gritty, striking energy to them which members of the band have attributed to their use of the drug Speed. Their biggest hit was the 2000 album Broke, which saw them experimenting with a smoother hip hop influence and an arguably more focused energy to their music. Broke featured guest appearances by Serj Tankian from System of a Down and Morgan Landers from Kittie on the track "Feel Good."
It's been claimed that pressure from the record label lead the band to pursue a more mainstream, accesible sound with the 2003 album Blackout. Whatever the reason, it was not as succesful as Broke had been, and in it's wake many of the original members of the band went their separate ways. The band also parted ways with their label of six years, Jive Records, at this time.
After signing to indie label Koch Records and adding guitarist Jaxon and drummer Moke to the line-up, (hed) pe frontman Jahred reworked some material he had originally written for a side-project with Fenix Jones and released the album Only in Amerika in 2005.
At the end of 2005 HED p.e. signed with Suburban Noize Records, and plan on releaseing a new CD along with a live CD, and DVD in 2006.
Name
(hed) pe's name has evolved over time. Originally they went by the name hed (with or without the parentheses), but they had to add the "pe" to their name to differentiate themselves from another band called Head. Starting with the 2001 album Broke they expressed some interest in having the meaning of "pe" change with each album, and so they went by (hed) PLANET EARTH for some time; they reused this name for the 2003 album Blackout as well. With Only in America it again changed, this time losing the parentheses and switching to uppercase with HED p.e.. It seems there is no other standard way of spelling or capitalizing the name, but this article uses "(hed) pe" because that is what they used on the self-titled album. With the release of Only in Amerika, HED pe has officially decided to go without the parenthesis or upside-down e. The official (according to the HED pe website) spelling is HED pe.
Discography
* Church of Realities EP (Released 1995)
* (hed) pe (Released August 12, 1997)
* Broke (Released August 22, 2000)
* Blackout (Released March 18, 2003)
* Only in Amerika (Released October 19, 2004)
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