Electric Sheep (band)
Encyclopedia
Electric Sheep was a garage band
that included Adam Jones
(future Tool
guitarist) and Tom Morello
(future Rage Against the Machine
and Audioslave
guitarist). The band has the distinction, shared by The Byrds
, The Allman Brothers Band
, The Yardbirds
, MC5
, Sonic Youth
, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Stills-Young Band and Radiohead
, of having two members that made the Rolling Stone
list of the 100 greatest guitarists of rock history.
. Jones played bass while Morello played guitar. Other members of the band included Chris George (lead vocals), Randy Cotton (keyboards) and Ward "Yardstick" Wilson (drums).
The band formed in the 1980-81
school year, initially as a joke. (At early performances, the band had no instruments.) As time went on, however, the band evolved into a credible garage band (sometimes literally—one of the band's best-attended concerts was held in Morello's garage). The band was not well known, even within the school, but it did have an enthusiastic following among a limited circle.
Morello then described the band as a "punk
" band, though at the time heavy metal
was his major musical influence, and George always cited Mick Jagger
as his main role model. Their best-known songs, which often had an element of dark humor, included "Rat Race," "She Eats Razors" and "Oh Jackie O." "Salvador
Death Squad
Blues
," written by Morello, foreshadowed his later politically charged music.
The band's name was apparently not inspired by Philip K. Dick
's 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
. (The book would attain greater pop-cultural prominence in 1982 with the release of the film adaptation Blade Runner
.) Morello makes no apologies for the name: "In a world of bands called Limp Bizkit
and Hoobastank
, Electric Sheep rolls off the tongue like a Shakespearean
love sonnet," he told one interviewer.
's "Born to Be Wild
," included on a record based on Libertyville High School's 1982 talent show called All Shook Up. With George away at college, the recording features Geoff Johnson on vocals.
The band also provided the theme song for the video Season of the Snow Bitch, a horror movie parody written by and starring Morello and George. Jones supervised the no-budget video's gore effects, a role that foreshadowed his special effects work in Hollywood and his later direction of Tool videos.
"The Electric Sheep Video" was a documentary featuring interviews with band members, admirers and critics interspersed with concert footage from "The Electric Sheep Farewell Tour of the Americas," a 1983 event that was held in the Mundelein Cinema in Mundelein, Illinois
.
One of the band's last recordings was a jam with extemporized lyrics titled "Platypus"--an experiment that inspired the Yuletide Jam, an annual Libertyville tradition in the 1990s.
There was an Electric Sheep reunion of sorts in 1993, when both Rage and Tool were part of the Lollapalooza
tour. Babes in Toyland
, featuring fellow Libertyvillian Maureen Herman
, also joined that year's travelling rock festival. Another brief union occurred in 2007 when Morello joined Tool on the stage at the band's Bonnaroo
performance http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=74849.
The Toronto-based band Nice Cat recorded a cover version of Electric Sheep's "Rat Race" in 2005.
Puscifer
recorded a cover version of "My Country Boner" (AKA: "Cuntry Boner") in 2007. "Cuntry Boner" (Evil Joe Barresi Mix), Written by Tom Morello and Chris George. Published by Wixen Music Publishing, Inc./Nightwatchman Music (BMI) and Copyright Control/Chris George
Garage band
The term garage band can refer to:* A band that performs garage rock* GarageBand, audio production software published by Apple Inc.* GarageBand.com, a website that helps publicize emerging bands...
that included Adam Jones
Adam Jones (musician)
Adam Thomas Jones is a three time Grammy Award-winning Welsh-American musician and visual artist, best known for his position as the guitarist for Grammy-Award winning band Tool. Jones has been rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stone and placed 9th in Guitar World's Top...
(future Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
guitarist) and Tom Morello
Tom Morello
Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club...
(future Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
and Audioslave
Audioslave
Audioslave was an American rock supergroup that formed in Los Angeles, California in 2001. It consisted of former Soundgarden lead singer/rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell and the former instrumentalists of Rage Against the Machine: Tom Morello , Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk...
guitarist). The band has the distinction, shared by The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...
, The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
, MC5
MC5
The MC5 is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan and originally active from 1964 to 1972. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson...
, Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Stills-Young Band and Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, of having two members that made the Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
list of the 100 greatest guitarists of rock history.
History
Jones and Morello played in the band as students at Libertyville High School in Libertyville, IllinoisLibertyville, Illinois
Libertyville is an affluent northern suburb of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, United States. It is located west of Lake Michigan on the Des Plaines River. The 2000 census population was 20,742; the 2005 estimate was 21,760...
. Jones played bass while Morello played guitar. Other members of the band included Chris George (lead vocals), Randy Cotton (keyboards) and Ward "Yardstick" Wilson (drums).
The band formed in the 1980-81
1980 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1980.-January–March:*January 1**Cliff Richard is appointed an MBE by Elizabeth II.**The Zorros audition drummer Greg Pedley....
school year, initially as a joke. (At early performances, the band had no instruments.) As time went on, however, the band evolved into a credible garage band (sometimes literally—one of the band's best-attended concerts was held in Morello's garage). The band was not well known, even within the school, but it did have an enthusiastic following among a limited circle.
Morello then described the band as a "punk
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, though at the time heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
was his major musical influence, and George always cited Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
as his main role model. Their best-known songs, which often had an element of dark humor, included "Rat Race," "She Eats Razors" and "Oh Jackie O." "Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
Death Squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
Blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
," written by Morello, foreshadowed his later politically charged music.
The band's name was apparently not inspired by Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the...
. (The book would attain greater pop-cultural prominence in 1982 with the release of the film adaptation Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
.) Morello makes no apologies for the name: "In a world of bands called Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Formed in 1995, the group's lineup consists of Fred Durst , Wes Borland , Sam Rivers , John Otto and DJ Lethal . The band achieved mainstream success with their second studio album Significant Other, released in 1999...
and Hoobastank
Hoobastank
Hoobastank is an American rock band, best known for their 2004 hit "The Reason" and other hits "Crawling in the Dark" and "Running Away". They formed in 1994 in Agoura Hills, California, with singer Doug Robb, guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse, and original bassist Markku Lappalainen. They...
, Electric Sheep rolls off the tongue like a Shakespearean
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
love sonnet," he told one interviewer.
Recordings
The only recording released in any formal way by the band is a cover of SteppenwolfSteppenwolf (band)
Steppenwolf are a Canadian-American rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of Toronto group The...
's "Born to Be Wild
Born to Be Wild
"Born to Be Wild" is a rock song written by Mars Bonfire and made famous by the Canadian-American rock band Steppenwolf. It is often used in popular culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude...
," included on a record based on Libertyville High School's 1982 talent show called All Shook Up. With George away at college, the recording features Geoff Johnson on vocals.
The band also provided the theme song for the video Season of the Snow Bitch, a horror movie parody written by and starring Morello and George. Jones supervised the no-budget video's gore effects, a role that foreshadowed his special effects work in Hollywood and his later direction of Tool videos.
"The Electric Sheep Video" was a documentary featuring interviews with band members, admirers and critics interspersed with concert footage from "The Electric Sheep Farewell Tour of the Americas," a 1983 event that was held in the Mundelein Cinema in Mundelein, Illinois
Mundelein, Illinois
Mundelein is a village in Lake County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 31,064.-History:The community now known as Mundelein has been inhabited since at least 1650, when the Potowatami Indians were known to have been trading with French fur traders....
.
One of the band's last recordings was a jam with extemporized lyrics titled "Platypus"--an experiment that inspired the Yuletide Jam, an annual Libertyville tradition in the 1990s.
There was an Electric Sheep reunion of sorts in 1993, when both Rage and Tool were part of the Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
tour. Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland (band)
Babes in Toyland was an American alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1987. The band was formed by Oregon native Kat Bjelland , with Lori Barbero and Michelle Leon , who was later replaced by Maureen Herman in 1992...
, featuring fellow Libertyvillian Maureen Herman
Maureen Herman
Maureen Herman was from 1992 until 1996 the bass player for the Minneapolis-based Babes in Toyland.-Early years:Herman was raised in Libertyville, Illinois, and attended Libertyville High School...
, also joined that year's travelling rock festival. Another brief union occurred in 2007 when Morello joined Tool on the stage at the band's Bonnaroo
Bonnaroo Music Festival
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011...
performance http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=74849.
The Toronto-based band Nice Cat recorded a cover version of Electric Sheep's "Rat Race" in 2005.
Puscifer
Puscifer
Puscifer is a side project of Maynard James Keenan from the bands Tool and A Perfect Circle. As Keenan is the only permanent member and he considers the project to be his "creative subconscious", Puscifer could also be considered a pseudonym for his solo work....
recorded a cover version of "My Country Boner" (AKA: "Cuntry Boner") in 2007. "Cuntry Boner" (Evil Joe Barresi Mix), Written by Tom Morello and Chris George. Published by Wixen Music Publishing, Inc./Nightwatchman Music (BMI) and Copyright Control/Chris George
External links
- Guitar World, June 1994 (excerpt); interview with Adam Jones and Tom Morello about Electric Sheep
- Metal Sludge: Rage Against the Machine & Tool Exposed! (includes a photo of Electric Sheep)