Timeline
Poster Children | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Champaign, Illinois, USA |
| Genres | Alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, post-hardcore |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | Frontier, Reprise, Sire/Warner Bros., spinART, Hidden Agenda, Lotuspool Records |
| Members | Rose Marshack Jim Valentin Rick Valentin Matt Friscia |
| Past members | John Herndon Jeff Dimpsey Howie Kantoff |
| Website | http://posterchildren.com/ |
Poster Children is an American indie rock band formed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1987. [1] They have issued nine studio albums and two EPs. Known for their strong DIY ethic, the band members continue to drive their own tour bus, create their own artwork and T-shirt designs, and operate their own record label. Poster Children were also pioneers in several forms of electronic technology relating to performance art, including enhanced CDs, webcasts, and blogs.
Rick Valentin and Rose Marshack met in the mid-eighties at the University of Illinois and formed several bands in rapid succession. When the two met drummer Shannon Drew in 1987, their like-minded enthusiasm sparked the beginning of a new band, dubbed Poster Children. As Valentin explained in November 1991:
When I started listening to bands that weren't on Top 40 radio, I realized there could be music I liked that isn't really polished and shiny... There was this whole other world where people who just like music could just start a band and just play. You didn't have to be great. You could make up for technical talent with energy and directness. It was the realization that 'Hey, I can do this.'
They began selling their first album Toreador Squat on cassette and playing clubs in the Midwest. The following year, the band recorded songs with producer Iain Burgess, followed by five more songs produced with Steve Albini: [3] the resulting album Flower Plower was released in 1989 on the Limited Potential label. It was also at this time that Poster Children picked up a second guitarist in order to complete their four-piece configuration.
A major label record deal was signed with Warner Bros. Records subsidiary Reprise Records. Over the next few albums, Poster Children would be shuffled from imprint to imprint within the Warner organization. Tracks for Daisychain Reaction were recorded by Steve Albini at the Chicago Recording Company in 1990, but due to financial difficulties at the label, the album was not released until the following year. The album included Hum bassist Jeff Dimpsey on guitar.
In 1991 Rick's brother, Jim, replaced Dimpsey, and remains to this day. Tool of the Man was recorded in 1992 at Dreamland Studio in New York with John Herndon (celebrated Tortoise percussionist) on drums. Tool of the Man was also released in the UK on the Creation label. The track "Clock Street" was picked as their only UK single to date. Just Like You and Junior Citizen followed, with modest but consistent sales. Matt Friscia auditioned for the band in 1993 as a high school student willing to drop out to go on tour, but the band didn't want to contribute to his delinquency, and hired Howie Kantoff instead. Friscia was available again in 2001 when the band was searching for its seventh (and current) drummer.
The band was on the second stage for Lollapalooza in 1995.
Rick Valentin and Rose Marshack are married and have hosted the long running podcast Radio Zero since 1999. [4] [5] They both are professors in the Arts Technology program at Illinois State University. [6]
Poster Children usually write their music collectively, leaving Rick to create lyrics after the fact. During the band's formative years, they wrote and recorded with a different drummer for each album. This resulted in a fluctuating style that touched on pop punk, post hardcore, what the band refers to as "post wave", and new wave revival. Their music is made up of angular, overdriven guitar parts, strong basslines, and powerful yet intricate drums. The typical Poster Children song is high-energy and hard, yet melodic, and they often use unusual time signatures. Rick Valentin's lyrics are by turns witty and introspective, often obliquely related to political issues.
Poster Children have not had much commercial success or industry recognition, but critics consistently describe the band as catchy, impressive, and underrated. Despite their longevity, "the Poster Children don't have it in them to make a bad album", according to Christopher Hess in a 2000 record review. [7] The band's "unique brand of smart pop-punk" [8] makes them "definitely one of the more underrated college-rock bands to emerge in the '90s". [9]
Marshack and the Valentin brothers have continued to work with former drummer Howie Kantoff outside of the Poster Children lineup. The four have recorded techno and electronic music under the name Salaryman. The group has released three studio albums: Salaryman (1997); Karoshi (1999); and The Electric Forest (2006).
Since 2012 Rick Valentin also fronts a solo project named Thoughts Detecting Machines (TDM). Under this project he has released two EP's titled An Introduction to (2012); and Forget (2013), along with two albums Work the Circuits (2015) and Sound, Noise, & You (2019). When he performs live under this project, he places three screens vertically in front of himself onstage. The contents of each screen is provided by a camera placed behind each screen, which point at him while he plays guitar and sings along with backing tracks via laptop.
Past members
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The Jesus Lizard is an American rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas and based in Chicago, Illinois. They were "a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground…[who] turned out a series of independent records filled with scathing, disembowelling, guitar-driven pseudo-industrial noise, all of which received positive reviews in underground music publications and heavy college-radio play."
Face to Face is a punk rock band from Victorville, California, formed in 1991 by frontman Trever Keith, bassist Matt Riddle and drummer Rob Kurth. The band rose to fame with their 1995 album Big Choice, featuring the radio hit "Disconnected" which received heavy rotation on KROQ radio in Los Angeles and appeared in the movies Tank Girl and National Lampoon's Senior Trip.
Hum is an American alternative rock band from Champaign, Illinois, United States. They are best known for their 1995 radio hit "Stars". After initially disbanding in 2000, Hum was largely inactive until reuniting in 2015 for a series of short tours. On June 23, 2020, the band announced and released Inlet, their first album of new material in over twenty-two years.
White Heart, also listed as Whiteheart, was an American contemporary Christian music and pop-rock band which formed in 1982. White Heart's discography includes thirteen albums, the most recent of which was released in 1997. Original members Billy Smiley and Mark Gersmehl worked with a continually changing cast of bandmates. In 1985, former roadie Rick Florian became the lead singer.
Wolfstone are a Scottish musical group founded in 1989, who play Celtic rock. Their repertoire consists of both original songs and traditional folk pieces. They have released seven studio albums, the latest, Terra Firma, in 2007. The band record on their own label, Once Bitten Records. The group are named after the "Wolfstone", a Pictish stone originally sited at Ardross, Easter Ross, close to where the band initially recorded.
Zeni Geva is a Japanese noise rock band featuring singer and guitarist KK Null and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. Formed in Tokyo in 1987, the group's name translates roughly as "money violence".
Peter Michael Thomas is an English rock drummer best known for his collaboration with singer Elvis Costello, both as a member of his band the Attractions and with Costello as a solo artist. Besides his lengthy career as a studio musician and touring drummer, he has been a member of the band Squeeze during the 1990s and a member of the supergroup Works Progress Administration during the early 2000s.
National Skyline is an American alternative rock band formed in late 1996 by Jeff Dimpsey of Hum. Dimpsey originally formed the band in order to perform a 45-minute-long song that he had written. They were initially an indie rock supergroup of sorts, with a rotating cast of prominent Champaign/Chicago area musicians. They did record the 45-minute song/album with Rick Valentin in spring 1997, but it has never been released. The band's name is apparently a reference to Bob Dylan's album Nashville Skyline, though their music betrays no stylistic debt to Dylan.
Flower Plower is the first studio album by American rock band Poster Children. Recorded in 1988–89, it was first released on vinyl by the Limited Potential label in 1989, and reissued on CD in 1991 by Frontier Records. Later the band acquired the rights to this album, and reissued it on their own label, 12 Inch Records, in 1999.
Daisychain Reaction is the second album by American alternative rock band Poster Children. It was originally released in 1991 on Twin/Tone Records, and reissued by Sire/Reprise in 1992. It was out of print until 2016 when a 25th anniversary edition was released on vinyl by Lotuspool Records. The album also spawned the band's first-ever music video, for "If You See Kay".
Tool of the Man is the third album by American alternative rock band Poster Children, released in 1993. The title of the album comes from graffiti written in dust on the band's van during the South by Southwest Festival: "Poster Children, Band of the Year, Tool of the Man." The album art consists of several optical illusions, including an afterimage of the United States flag on the front cover.
Junior Citizen is the fourth album by the American alternative rock band Poster Children, released in 1995.
RTFM is the fifth album by the American alternative rock band Poster Children, released in 1997. The title comes from the term RTFM, short for "Read The Fucking Manual". It was issued as an enhanced CD.
New World Record is the sixth album by American alternative rock band Poster Children, released in 1999. It was the first album recorded in their own studio, Tedium. It was among the first albums made available for purchase in the MP3 format.
DDD is the seventh album by American alternative rock band Poster Children, released in 2000. It derives its name from the SPARS Code for a digitally recorded, mixed, and mastered album.
No More Songs About Sleep and Fire is the eighth album by American alternative rock band Poster Children, released in 2004. The version released on enhanced CD-ROM features a layered front cover design, and is enhanced with the video for "Western Springs." The CD-ROM also features an album-length commentary track. The vinyl issue includes an exclusive lyric sheet.
On the Offensive is an EP released by Poster Children in 2004. It is composed of politically themed cover songs.
The Zeros, originally known as The Double “O” Zeros, were a glam metal and glam punk band from New Jersey. Characterized by their matching purple hair, the band was a prominent figure on the Hollywood club scene of the late 1980s – early 1990s. In 1991 the band’s record label Restless Records had the nightclubs Whisky a Go Go and Coconut Teaszer painted purple to commemorate the release of their album 4-3-2-1 The Zeros.
Grand Bargain! is a 2018 studio album by American alternative rock band Poster Children, their first in 14 years and was promoted by the single "Grand Bargain" and a tour. The release received positive reviews from critics.
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