Felony is an American new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 and 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 formed in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 in the early 1980s by brothers Jeffrey Spirili and Joe Spirili. The brothers were also known as Jeff Spry and Joe Spry.

History

Before Felony, Jeffrey Spry had been the singer with Detroit Proto-Punk/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...

 legends, Ron Asheton

Ron Asheton

Ronald Frank Asheton was an American guitarist and co-songwriter with Iggy Pop for the rock band The Stooges.Asheton is ranked as number 29 on Rolling Stones list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time....

 (of Iggy & The Stooges) and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson

Dennis Thompson (drummer)

Dennis Thompson is the drummer with the 1960s/1970s Detroit proto-punk/hard rock group MC5, which had a #82 US single with "Kick Out The Jams" and a #30 US album with the same name....

 (of The MC5) in a short lived super-group (based in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

) that was called "The New Order

The New Order (band)

The New Order was an American hard rock and proto-punk band. The band was based in Los Angeles and existed from early 1975 to October 1976.-History:...

" (preceding the English new wave group of the same name

New Order

New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...

). Jeff was in the band in 1975 and recorded an album with them that was released in 1977.

After a period playing shows and making music business connections in the Los Angeles scene, Felony appeared in the horror b-movie Graduation Day

Graduation Day (film)

-Plot:It's just weeks before high school graduation and members of the track team are being mysteriously and gruesomely murdered, one by one. When the team's star runner, Laura Ramstead, falls dead from a heart attack at the championship meet, her U.S...

(1981), playing their song "Gangsters of Rock." Soon after, they signed with producers/managers Don Rubin, formerly of pop group The Ivy Three

The Ivy Three

The Ivy Three were an American pop group from Garden City, Long Island, New York.The group was formed by three undergraduates at Adelphi University in 1959. They signed to Shell Records; their first single, "Yogi", was written by Shell founders Lou Stallman and Sid Jacobson along with member...

, and Artie Kornfeld

Artie Kornfeld

Artie Kornfeld is an American musician, record producer and music executive. He is perhaps best known as the music promoter for the Woodstock Festival held in 1969.- History :...

.
All Live shows mixed by sound engineer Steve Sands

Felony went into the studio and emerged with single "The Fanatic," which became a hit on Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM

KROQ-FM

KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...

 with help from program director Rick Carroll

Rick Carroll

Rickey Floyd "Rick" Carroll was a program director for influential radio station KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, California, United States, where he introduced the "Rock of the Eighties" format. The format was synonymous with KROQ-FM and eventually developed into the Modern Rock format...

. The song reached the top 50 in the singles charts and topped the alternative and dance charts. It became a key track in the development of the Modern Rock

Modern rock

Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...

 radio format. "The Fanatic" was included in the influential 1983 Valley Girl

Valley Girl (film)

Valley Girl is a 1983 romantic comedy film, starring Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily, Cameron Dye, and Joyce Heiser. The film was the directorial debut of Martha Coolidge, and was the first film in which Nicolas Coppola was billed as Nicolas Cage.The American release of Valley Girl...

soundtrack, which also featured Modern English

Modern English (band)

Modern English are an English rock band best remembered for their songs "I Melt with You", "Hands Across the Sea", and "Ink and Paper". The group disbanded for a period in 1991, but later recorded in 1995 and 2002 with new members...

's "I Melt With You

I Melt With You

"I Melt with You" is a song by the British post-punk and New Wave band Modern English. The song, produced by Hugh Jones, was a single from the 1982 album After the Snow, and is about a couple making love as nuclear bombs fall. It reached #7 on Billboard's Top Tracks chart and #78 on the Billboard...

". Felony also performed the track on American Bandstand

American Bandstand

American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...

.

The band, which now included Jeffrey on lead vocals, Joe on guitar, Danny Sands on piano/keyboards, Louis Ruiz on bass and Arty Blea on drums, recorded their first full-length album, also called The Fanatic, which was released in 1983 on Scotti Brothers Records

Scotti Brothers Records

Scotti Brothers Records was a California-based record label founded by Tony and Ben Scotti in 1974. Their first success was releasing albums from teen pop star Leif Garrett. They later helped launch the careers of Felony, Survivor, and "Weird Al" Yankovic...

 with distribution by CBS Records

CBS Records

CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...

. It included the single and nine other tracks that helped define the trendy-but-never-huge power-pop new wave sound of the early 1980s.

Felony's second single was 1983's "The Pied Piper

The Pied Piper (1960s song)

The Pied Piper was a British pop song written by the duo of Steve Duboff and Artie Kornfeld, who first recorded the song in 1965 as The Changin' Times. However, it was British pop singer Crispian St...

," which producer Kornfeld had written with Steve Duboff in the 1960s and which had been a hit for Crispian St. Peters

Crispian St. Peters

Crispian St. Peters was an English pop singer-songwriter, best known for his work in the 1960s, particularly his 1966 hits, "The Pied Piper" and "You Were on My Mind."-Early career:...

 and Cher

Cher

Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...

. "Kristine" from The Fanatic was also a single in 1983.

The band recorded songs including "All the King's Horses" and "She's My Little Girl" for a second album on Scotti Brothers that never materialized. The original chemistry was never recaptured, and in 1985 EM-HI released Felony's sophomore effort The Vigilante, which featured a more traditional rock sound. The title track got a lot of radio play and was number two in KROQ's "Top 106.7 songs of 1985." The Vigilante also featured the track "I'm No Animal," which appeared on the soundtrack of 1986's Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is a 1986 slasher film, the sixth film in the Friday the 13th film series. The film was written and directed by Tom McLoughlin...

.

Towards the end of 1991 Felony released their final album, In the Name of Rock-n-Roll on the Q9 label. It included 10 tracks, half of them with Joe wanting to be on vocals. It did not go over well with Jeffrey. Jeffrey recorded "In the name of Rock N Roll" at Goodnite Studios which caught a capitol record deal offer. Joe refused to have Jeffrey sing...the deal was lost.

Jeffrey Scott Spry committed suicide on March 9, 1992. March 10, 1992 was the re-release of the Fanatic. Joe formed his latest band, Kanawormz, with bass player John Avila

John Avila

John Avila is a Mexican-American bassist and music producer, best known for being in the new wave band Oingo Boingo from 1984 to 1995.-Career:Avila co-founded the music group Food for Feet in 1981, and played with them until 1991....

 of Oingo Boingo

Oingo Boingo

Oingo Boingo was an American new wave band. They are best known for their influence on other musicians, their soundtrack contributions and their high energy Halloween concerts. The band was founded in 1972 as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a performance art group...

 fame, from the ashes of Felony. Most of Kanawormz band resides in Hollywood Ca. AKA Shigletown, CA. and are currently recording their third full-length CD.

Discography

"Gangsters of Rock" from Graduation Day

Graduation Day (film)

-Plot:It's just weeks before high school graduation and members of the track team are being mysteriously and gruesomely murdered, one by one. When the team's star runner, Laura Ramstead, falls dead from a heart attack at the championship meet, her U.S...

(1981)

"The Fanatic"

Year: 1983

Tracks: The Fanatic/The Girl Ain't Straight

Label: Rock 'n' Roll

Catalog #: 3497

Formats: 7", 12"

The Fanatic

Year: 1983

Tracks: 1. The Fanatic, 2. No Room in Heaven, 3. One Step, 4. Positively Negative, 5. Aggravated Man, 6. What a Way to Go, 7. Kristine, 8. The Girl Ain't Straight, 9. Teaser, 10. 666 Beware.

Label: Rock 'n' Roll

Catalog #: 38453

Formats: LP, CS, CD

"Pied Piper"

Year: 1983

Tracks: Pied Piper (long), Pied Piper (short)

Label: Rock 'n' Roll

Catalog #: 04220

Formats: 7"

"Kristine"

Year: 1983

Tracks: Kristine, Kristine

Label: Rock 'n' Roll

Catalog #: 03999

Formats: 7"

Catalog #: Q-999

Formats: LP, CD

Compilation appearances

Valley Girl Soundtrack

Year: 1983

Tracks: The Fanatic

Label: Rhino/WEA

Catalog#:

Formats: CD, CS

Richard Blade

Richard Blade

Richard Blade is a popular Los Angeles radio, television, and film personality from Torquay, England. He is best known for his radio programs that feature New Wave and Popular music from the 1980s...

's Flashback Favorites, Vol. 3

Year: 1994

Tracks: The Fanatic

Label: Oglio Records

Catalog#:

Formats: CD, CS

Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the '80s, Vol. 11

Year: 1995

Tracks: The Fanatic

Label: Rhino/WEA

Catalog #:

Formats: CD, CS

Alternative 80's Hits

Year: 1998

Tracks: The Fanatic

Label: Rhino

Catalog #:

Formats: CD

Television appearances

American Bandstand

First Aired: Saturday April 30, 1983

Tracks: The Fanatic, What a Way to Go

Episode Number: 2534

Season Number: 26