The Black Watch (band)
Encyclopedia
The Black Watch is an independent rock band from Santa Barbara, California
whose only constant member has been singer, guitar
ist, and primary songwriter
, John Andrew Fredrick. Through their twenty years in the recording industry, the group has affiliated with at least eight different record labels.
Fredrick formed the band in 1987 after earning his Ph.D. in English from UC Santa Barbara
. After recording St. Valentine and releasing it on eskimo, Fredrick's own label, violin
ist J'Anna Jacoby joined the group and the two of them formed the nucleus of the band until she left the group in 2003.
The Black Watch has recorded and toured consistently throughout its history except for a brief period in 1997 when the band broke up. During this hiatus, Fredrick wrote The King of Good Intentions, a semi-autobiographical novel
about an indie rock
band. The band recorded a CD of the same title intended as a companion piece to the novel.
In 2008, guitarist and singer Steven Schayer (formerly of the New Zealand
band The Chills
) joined, and Fredrick published another book of fiction
, The Knucklehead Chronicles.
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
whose only constant member has been singer, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist, and primary songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, John Andrew Fredrick. Through their twenty years in the recording industry, the group has affiliated with at least eight different record labels.
Fredrick formed the band in 1987 after earning his Ph.D. in English from UC Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
. After recording St. Valentine and releasing it on eskimo, Fredrick's own label, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist J'Anna Jacoby joined the group and the two of them formed the nucleus of the band until she left the group in 2003.
The Black Watch has recorded and toured consistently throughout its history except for a brief period in 1997 when the band broke up. During this hiatus, Fredrick wrote The King of Good Intentions, a semi-autobiographical novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
about an indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band. The band recorded a CD of the same title intended as a companion piece to the novel.
In 2008, guitarist and singer Steven Schayer (formerly of the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
band The Chills
The Chills
The Chills are a guitar and keyboard-based rock band from Dunedin, New Zealand. In the 1980s and 1990s, they were one of the proponents of the Dunedin Sound.- History :...
) joined, and Fredrick published another book of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
, The Knucklehead Chronicles.
Discography
- St. Valentine (1988)
- Short Stories (EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, 1989) - Flowering (1991)
- Amphetamines (1994)
- Seven Rollercoasters (EP, 1997)
- The King of Good Intentions (1999)
- Lime Green Girl (2000)
- The Christopher Smart EP (2001)
- Jiggery-Pokery (2002)
- Very Mary Beth (2003)
- The Innercity Garden EP (2005)
- The Hypnotizing Sea (2005)
- Tatterdemalion (2006)
- Icing the Snow Queen (2008)
- After the Gold Room EP (2008)
- Led Zeppelin Five (2011)
External links
- The Black Watch official website
- The Black Watch at MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- The Black Watch official YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel - The Black Watch in the Trouser PressTrouser PressTrouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...
Record Guide