Dave Fridmann | |
---|---|
Birth name | David Lawrence Fridmann |
Origin | Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Record producer, audio engineer, musician |
Instrument(s) | Bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals |
Years active | 1989–present |
Formerly of | Mercury Rev |
Website | davefridmann |
David Lawrence Fridmann is an American record producer and musician.
From 1990 onwards he co-produced most releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips. Other bands he has worked with include Weezer, Saxon Shore, Neon Indian, Wolf Gang, Ammonia, Ed Harcourt, Sparklehorse, Creeper Lagoon, Café Tacuba, Creaming Jesus, Elf Power, Mogwai, Thursday, Longwave, Mass of the Fermenting Dregs, The Delgados, Low, OK Go, Phantom Planet, Gemma Hayes, Ava Luna, Tame Impala, Goldrush, Tapes 'n Tapes, [1] Baroness, [2] MGMT and Magdalena Bay. [3]
As a musician, Fridmann was the bassist and a founding member of Mercury Rev. He gave up his role as a touring member of the band in 1993 to concentrate on producing other artists. [4] In 2001, Fridmann was included on MOJO's 100 Sonic Visionaries list and was described as "the Phil Spector of the Alt-Rock era". [5] In 2007, he received a Grammy for The Flaming Lips' At War With The Mystics at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical). [6] In 2010, three Fridmann-produced albums were listed on the Rolling Stone 100 Best Albums of The Decade: MGMT's Oracular Spectacular, The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, and Sleater-Kinney's The Woods. [7]
Fridmann often brings a distinctive, expansive, open sound to the albums he produces, which has much in common with that used by Mercury Rev.
Fridmann is an occasional faculty member of SUNY Fredonia, teaching sound recording techniques in the Fredonia School of Music.
In 2017, Fridmann became the director for the Western New York Alumni Drum and Bugle Corps, where he plays the bass drum. The group disbanded in 2022. [8]
The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, Derek Brown, Matt Duckworth Kirksey and Tommy McKenzie (bass). Coyne and Drozd have remained the band's only consistent members since 1991, with Coyne being the only remaining founding member following the departure of bassist and keyboardist Michael Ivins in 2021.
Mercury Rev is an American rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York, with singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue and guitarist/clarinetist/sound generator operator Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak as the only constant members. The band's music has incorporated indie rock, psychedelic rock and American roots, amongst other forms. Mercury Rev have been closely associated with The Flaming Lips, and the two bands have shared historical ties.
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the tenth studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released on July 16, 2002, by Warner Bros. Records. The album saw the band pursue a more electronic direction than previous efforts, incorporating acoustic guitars and rhythms influenced by hip hop and top 40 music. The album was well-received critically and commercially, helping the band break into popularity, and was adapted into a musical in 2012. In 2022, the band announced a 20th anniversary box set version of the album and that they would perform the album in full twice in early 2023.
The Soft Bulletin is the ninth studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released by Warner Bros. Records on May 17, 1999, in the United Kingdom, and on June 22, 1999, in the United States. The album was released to widespread acclaim, and was hailed by critics as a departure from their previous guitar-heavy alternative rock sound into a more layered, intricately arranged work.
Cuatro Caminos is the fifth album by Mexican rock band Café Tacuba, released in 2003.
Embryonic is the twelfth studio album by experimental rock band the Flaming Lips released on October 13, 2009, on Warner Bros. The band's first double album, it was released to generally positive reviews and became their most successful album in the US, peaking at number 8 on the Billboard 200.
At War with the Mystics is the eleventh studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released on April 3, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records. The album is more guitar-driven and features more politically themed lyrics than the band's previous two albums The Soft Bulletin (1999) and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002). It is the groups' first album featuring contributions from drummer Kliph Scurlock.
In a Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine Stares) is the fourth album by the Flaming Lips, released in 1990. It is the first Flaming Lips album to feature Jonathan Donahue (also of Mercury Rev) and drummer Nathan Roberts. This line-up would subsequently be signed by Warner Bros. Records and go on to record the follow-up album Hit to Death in the Future Head. It is a concept album primarily focused on frontman Wayne Coyne's fascination with religion.
Deserter's Songs is the fourth studio album by American rock band Mercury Rev, released in late September 1998. British music magazine NME named Deserter's Songs album of the year for 1998. Limited edition copies of the album came in a brown cardboard envelope-like package, with a stamp on the cover postmarked with the release date, as well as two art postcards.
20 Years of Weird: Flaming Lips 1986–2006 is an updated version of the free compilation CD given away at the SXSW Film premier of The Flaming Lips documentary "The Fearless Freaks", a film by Bradley Beesley. It is a predominantly live compilation, recorded throughout the career of the Flaming Lips, though the first three tracks are recorded in the studio. These are: the introduction by Wayne Coyne, "Free Radicals" from the current album At War with the Mystics and "Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear", a previously unavailable track.
Jonathan Daniel Donahue is an American rock musician. He is best known as the frontman and a founding member of Mercury Rev, with whom he has released nine studio albums since 1991. He is also a former member of The Flaming Lips and recorded two albums with the group in the early 1990s.
Some Loud Thunder is the second studio album by American musical project Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. It was released on January 29, 2007, in the United Kingdom, and the next day in the United States by Wichita Recordings; but people who pre-ordered the album were able to legally download it from Insound starting January 16. The album was produced by Dave Fridmann, known for his work with Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips.
MGMT is an American rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by singers and multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser.
The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger is an American-British band formed in 2008 by Sean Ono Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl. The couple have stated that they started the band as a way to spend more time together, and while they released a number of recordings and went on tours as a duo, they consider Midnight Sun, released in April 2014, their first real record. Their tour to support the release of the album in May and June 2014 included opening for Beck as he started the East Coast leg of his tour that year.
MGMT is the third studio album by American rock band MGMT. It was released on September 17, 2013 by Columbia Records; however, the band started streaming the album on September 9, 2013.
Hello Hum is the fifth album by Canadian indie rock band Wintersleep, released on June 12, 2012.
Oczy Mlody is the fourteenth studio album by experimental rock band the Flaming Lips, released on January 13, 2017, on Warner Bros in the US and Bella Union in the UK. It is the first album to feature band members Jake Ingalls, Nicholas Ley and Matt Duckworth.
Little Dark Age is the fourth studio album by the American rock band MGMT, released on February 9, 2018, through Columbia Records. It is the band's first album of new material in nearly four and a half years, after the release of their eponymous third studio album in September 2013.
American Head is the sixteenth studio album by experimental rock band the Flaming Lips, released on September 11, 2020, on Warner Records in the US and Bella Union in the UK. Produced by Dave Fridmann and Scott Booker, alongside the band itself, the album represents a return to the band's American roots. It is the final studio album to feature founding bass guitarist Michael Ivins and keyboardist Jake Ingalls, who both departed from the band in 2021, as well as drummer Nicholas Ley who departed in 2023. It is subsequently the final album featuring the expanded seven person line-up of the group that began with 2017's Oczy Mlody.
Lucifer on the Sofa is the tenth studio album by American rock band Spoon, released on February 11, 2022, through Matador Records. Spoon began work on the album in late 2018 after the conclusion of their tour supporting Hot Thoughts (2017), their ninth studio album. Recording sessions began in late 2019 and took place in studios between Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. They primarily recorded the album with Mark Rankin, with Justin Raisen and Dave Fridmann, the latter of whom co-produced the band's previous two albums, each producing one song. Recording sessions continued until March 2020 but had to be postponed after the COVID-19 pandemic began severely impacting the United States. After completing the album in 2021, the band released the album's lead single, "The Hardest Cut", in October of that year.