Hammerhead (band)

Last updated

Hammerhead
Origin Moorhead, Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States
Genres Noise rock
Years active1990–1996, 2010–present
Labels Amphetamine Reptile,
MembersPaul Erickson
Jeff Mooridian Jr.
Paul Sanders
Past membersKat Bjelland

Hammerhead is a Minneapolis-based noise rock band active in the early 1990s. Members went on to form the band Vaz.

Contents

History

Hammerhead was formed in Moorhead, Minnesota in the early 1990s, with members Paul Erickson, Jeff Mooridian Jr. and Paul Sanders, later moving to Minneapolis. [1] The band released extensively through Amphetamine Reptile Records. Their major breakthrough album Duh the Big City [2] [3] garnered them critical acclaim, however after its release Paul Sanders left the group. The remaining members went on to form Vaz after experimenting with other line-ups. [4] [5]

In 2010 the band reunited and released an EP of new material, Memory Hole EP, the following year. [6] In 2014 they released a new EP, Global Depression, and in August 2015 they published New Directionz, their first full-length album since regrouping in 2010.

Discography

Full Discography including 7" and splits [7]

Albums

Singles

Splits

EPs

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amphetamine Reptile Records</span> American record label

Amphetamine Reptile Records is a record label founded in 1986 by Tom Hazelmyer in Washington state. The label specializes in noise rock and also released Strap It On, the debut album by alternative metal band Helmet which sold more than 40,000 records. According to Hazelmyer, the success of the album was vital to keeping AmRep going throughout the 1990s, as it "helped support the other things that sold less." The label was the subject of the 2015 documentary The Color of Noise.

Lubricated Goat are an Australian noise rock band which originally formed in 1986 by multi-instrumentalist Stu Spasm. They achieved brief notoriety in November 1988 for appearing nude on the ABC TV program Blah Blah Blah, wearing only their instruments and shoes. Mainly influenced by the Stooges and the Birthday Party, they are credited for playing a grimy, confrontational style of rock, which preceded grunge. They have issued five studio albums, Plays the Devil's Music (1987), Paddock of Love (1988), Psychedelicatessen (1990), Forces You Don't Understand (1994) and The Great Old Ones (2003).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unsane (band)</span> American noise rock band

Unsane is an American noise rock trio that was formed in New York City in 1988. Its music touches on elements of hardcore punk and metal. The writer Patrick Kennedy wrote, "While developing the blueprint for noise-metal bands to follow, Unsane cut a remarkable swath through underground music, inspiring a devoted, cult-like following around the world."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Preston (musician)</span> American musician

Joe Preston is an American bass guitarist and a former band member of the rock bands Earth, Melvins, Men's Recovery Project, The Need and High on Fire. Preston has also played with Sunn O))), and has his long-running solo project called Thrones. In 2007, he joined Harvey Milk in the studio for the recording of Life... The Best Game in Town and toured with them during their 2008 US and European tours. He is currently serving as a touring member of Sumac. He is the uncle of actor Dominic Janes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cows (band)</span> Post-hardcore/noise band from Minnesota, active 1987–1998

Cows were a noise rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota who formed in 1986 and disbanded in 1998. The band’s music mixed punk rock with surreal humour and copious amounts of noise played through distorted amplifiers and trumpet bleats, codifying them as a noise rock band. Throughout their career Cows released nine studio albums, all but one on the Minneapolis-based label Amphetamine Reptile Records. A star in honor of the Cows is on the outside mural of First Avenue.

<i>Cunning Stunts</i> (Cows album) 1992 studio album by Cows

Cunning Stunts is the fifth studio album by the Minneapolis-based noise rock band Cows, released in 1992 by Amphetamine Reptile Records. It was their first album where they began developing real melodies and patterns instead of their usual blasts of noise. The switch to producer Iain Burgess brought an increase in sound quality from previous albums. It was long since out print; however, MVD Audio reissued and distributed the album on CD and a limited edition "Blue Opaque" vinyl LP in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Business (band)</span> American heavy metal band from Seattle, Washington

Big Business is an American heavy metal band from Seattle, Washington, founded by bassist/vocalist Jared Warren (Karp) and drummer Coady Willis. They have been based out of Los Angeles since 2006. Their music is characterized by a bombastic and frantic style, and for most of their existence Big Business has been a bass-drums duo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halo of Flies</span>

Halo of Flies was an American noise rock band from Minneapolis. Named after an Alice Cooper song, Halo of Flies was formed in 1986 by Tom Hazelmyer, John Anglim and Tim Mac. Over the next five years they released a series of seven inch singles and mini LPs starting with a limited edition, hand numbered single called “Rubber Room”. These singles were released on Hazelmyer’s label Amphetamine Reptile Records and later compiled on a number of LPs, and eventually as the CD in 1991. The band partially reformed in 2007 under the name H•O•F, and continued to release new material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Today Is the Day</span> American noise rock band

Today Is the Day is an American noise rock / experimental metal band originally formed in Nashville, Tennessee. The band's diverse sound combines influences from areas such as noise music, avant-garde metal, grindcore, post-hardcore, and alternative rock among other genres. Most of the band's recordings make extensive use of dissonance and sampling, as well as unusual production techniques and psychedelic overtones. Lyrical themes include depression, warfare, violence, altered states of consciousness, and mental disorders.


Chokebore is an American indie rock band formed in the early 1990s in Honolulu, Hawaii, and subsequently based in Los Angeles, California, United States. The group was active between 1993-2005 before taking a hiatus for 4 years. The group reformed in 2009 and is currently active. Over the course of the band's history they were most successful with European audiences, though are based and primarily toured in the United States.

Flour is the musical project and nickname of Minneapolis musician Pete Conway, who wrote songs and played bass guitar in the bands Rifle Sport and Breaking Circus until the mid-1980s. He released four solo albums on Touch and Go Records from 1988 to 1994 on which he plays most of the instruments himself. Flour toured as a live band twice with a lineup that featured ex-Big Black guitarist Steve Albini on bass and former Breaking Circus percussionist Todd Trainer on drums before they went on to form the band Shellac. Flour's solo recordings feature the drum machine sound characteristic of Big Black, which was also toyed with by many other independent rock bands in the Midwest during that time period. Flour's third solo album Machinery Hill was described by Allmusic's Richard Foss as "an oddball masterpiece of grinding guitar, fluid bass, hammering drums, and very creative ideas".

The Heroine Sheiks was a New York-based Noise Rock band until early 2006. It began in 1999, as a collaboration of Shannon Selberg, George Porfiris, Norman Westberg and John Fell. Selberg emerged as a major songwriter in the complete history of the band whose sound was darker and more sinister than his previous work in The Cows. With several references to the writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, the band explored a thematic quality of black comedy.

Janitor Joe was an American noise rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, in 1992. The band's founding members were vocalist and guitarist Joachim Breuer, former member of the Minneapolis-based rock band Bastards, bassist and vocalist Kristen Pfaff and drummer Matt Entsminger. Pfaff was replaced by Wayne Davis following her departure in 1993 to join Hole.

Tar was an American post-hardcore band, formed in 1988 in Chicago. Throughout their career they released four studio albums, two extended plays, and a number of singles before breaking up in 1995. They were known for their dry sense of humor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">God Bullies</span> Defunct American noise-rock band

God Bullies are an American noise rock band from Kalamazoo, Michigan. They were active from 1986–1995, briefly reunited in the early 2000s and most recently in the summer of 2010 to coincide with the Amphetamine Reptile Records' 25th Anniversary concert. This 2010 Tour was known as the "War On Peace" tour and featured core members David B. Livingstone, Mike Hard (vocals), Mike Corso (bass) & Adam Berg (drums). This lineup also featured longtime friend of the band & Mike Hard collaborator, Johnnie Johnson on additional guitar. Johnson also played bass on select dates in which Corso was unavailable. Performances during this tour were dubbed "Vintage God Bullies". The setlists sprawled across the band's entire catalog and averaged 25–30 songs a night. Yourfleshmag.com's review of God Bullies performance at the AmRep 25th Anniversary Bash said : "There were two or three bands that day who generated plenty of talk and God Bullies were easily one of the three. Well deserved praise for a band that hasn’t really been functioning full-time for a while."

Calvin Krime was a hardcore band in Minneapolis, Minnesota during the late 1990s. The trio formed in 1995 when Sean Tillmann, Jon Kelson, and Jason Ralph met at Perpich Center for Arts Education while in their teens. Signed to Amphetamine Reptile, their primary audience was in the punk and noise scene dominant in South Minneapolis at the time. Usually, Calvin Krime was booked in smaller venues and often at house parties. During their three-and-a-half years together, they released two albums and an EP. The group disbanded in 1998. Afterwards, all the members went on to other bands, including Sean Tillmann, who went on first to Sean Na Na and then to his persona as Har Mar Superstar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surgery (band)</span> American noise rock band

Surgery was an American noise rock band formed in 1987 by Scott Kleber, John Lachapelle, John Leamy and Sean McDonnell in Syracuse, New York, and released two full-length albums and two EPs before ending with the sudden death of singer Sean McDonnell.

<i>Ethereal Killer</i> 1993 studio album by Hammerhead

Ethereal Killer is the debut album of Hammerhead, released in 1993 through Amphetamine Reptile Records.

<i>Evil Twin</i> (EP) 1993 EP by Hammerhead

Evil Twin is an EP by Hammerhead, released on December 7, 1993 through Amphetamine Reptile Records.

<i>Duh, the Big City</i> 1996 studio album by Hammerhead

Duh, the Big City is the third album by Hammerhead. It was released in 1996 through Amphetamine Reptile Records.

References

  1. "Hammerhead reunited for AmRep Anniversary & a NYC show". Brooklyn Vegan. June 23, 2010. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
  2. Publicado por jistonboy (February 26, 2004). "Saturno es aburrido: Hammerhead – Duh, The Big City (1996)". Saturnoesaburrido.blogspot.com. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  3. "Hammerhead – Duh, the Big City CD Album MP3". Cduniverse.com. January 28, 2001. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  4. "Vaz". I Heart Noise. November 4, 2008. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
  5. "Almost 15 years later Hammerhead returns". High Plains Reader. August 2010. Archived from the original on September 22, 2010. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
  6. [ dead link ]
  7. "AmRep Discography (chronological)". Amphetaminereptile.com. Archived from the original on August 31, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2013.