Vitamin String Quartet

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Vitamin String Quartet
VSQ logo 01.jpg
Background information
Also known asVSQ
Origin Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres Modern classical
Years active1999 (1999)–present
Labels Vitamin
Website vitaminstringquartet.com

Vitamin String Quartet (VSQ) is an American musical group from Los Angeles known for its series of tribute albums to rock and pop acts.

Contents

VSQ is a series of string quartet projects developed and produced by CMH Label Group, an independent record company based in Los Angeles. The CMH team works with an evolving cast of arrangers, producers, string players, and other creatives on each project. Their albums are released through Vitamin Records and are primarily performed by a string quartet, although other instruments have been used. "Vitamin String Quartet is about applying rock n' roll attitude to classical technique," said Tom Tally, [1] a violist and arranger who has performed on and produced over 50 Vitamin String Quartet albums.

Their albums feature various genres, including pop and rock, metal, emo, punk, techno, country, and hip-hop, and a wide variety of groups, such as The Beach Boys, Gorillaz, Oasis, 311, Depeche Mode, Simple Plan, Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Offspring, Rush, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Senses Fail, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Bruce Springsteen, Crossfade, Jimi Hendrix, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, System of a Down, The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Linkin Park, Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Slayer, Kanye West, Adele, Lady Gaga, and Lana Del Rey, among others. Their discography includes over 400 albums.

The group began in 1999 "as an experiment in transforming rock and pop songs with classical instruments." [2] It later expanded to include a variety of popular music. [2]

From 2012 until 2014, their music was played 24 hours a day on the FM broadcast station WWHK in Concord, New Hampshire. [3]

In 2008, VSQ contributed a recording of "Jack and Sally Montage" to Nightmare Revisited , on which the original score for the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas was reinterpreted by bands like Tiger Army, The All-American Rejects, Plain White T's, Rise Against, and DeVotchKa.

Songs by Vitamin String Quartet were featured on the Fox television show So You Think You Can Dance [4] twice in 2008. "Control" from Vitamin String Quartet Tribute To Janet Jackson appeared on an episode that aired on July 30, 2008, and "Hallelujah" from Vitamin String Quartet Tribute To Paramore appeared on an episode that aired the day after. Songs appeared again on the show in Season 6 in 2009. Legacy Perez used "Flashing Lights" by Kanye West as a track for a solo elimination dance that aired December 9, 2009. "Yellow", originally by Coldplay, featured on the show with guest dancers on the Top 10 elimination show, The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers . This episode aired on December 2, 2009.

In June 2009, they branched out by including a few original songs on their album Per_Versions, which also included covers of bands such as Broken Social Scene, No Age, and Sigur Rós. [5]

Two songs from Vitamin String Quartet Tribute to Coldplay, "Yellow" and "Clocks," were used in an episode of the TV show The Vampire Diaries on April 22, 2010. [6]

In 2011, Vitamin String Quartet backed Thirty Seconds to Mars for their MTV Unplugged performance and appeared on the EP recording of the concert.

Vitamin String Quartet covered INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart" and Pat Benatar's "We Belong" in the 100th episode of Gossip Girl . [7] [8] [9]

Vitamin String Quartet's cover of "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros was featured in the finale of the fifth season of Modern Family on May 21, 2014.

Vitamin String Quartet's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Something I Can Never Have" was featured in the fifth episode of the first season of the HBO series Westworld , "Contrapasso", and their cover of Radiohead's "Motion Picture Soundtrack" was featured in episode six, "The Adversary".

Vitamin String Quartet's cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers "Scar Tissue" was featured on the soundtrack of King of Staten Island in 2020.

Vitamin String Quartet has many covers featured in the Netflix series Bridgerton, such as Nirvana's "Stay Away" and Robyn's "Dancing On My Own". [10]

Partial discography

0–9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Miscellaneous and compilations

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References

  1. ↑ Vitamin String Quartet (2009). "VSQ Biography". Vitamin String Quartet. Archived from the original on February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Vitamin String Quartet (2013). "VSQ: A Brief History". Vitamin String Quartet. Archived from the original on December 21, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  3. ↑ Lavoie, Rebecca (August 8, 2012). "From Classic Rock to Classical Pop". www.nhpr.org. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  4. ↑ "So You Think You Can Dance 2008: Top 6 PERFORMANCE SHOW Recap". Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved April 21, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Vitamin String Quartet: Per_Versions". Vitamin Records. Archived from the original on June 7, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2009.
  6. ↑ Vampire Diaries Music – Episode 19 – Miss Mystic Falls | Vampire Diaries Spoilers and News
  7. ↑ "Gossip Girl Music - Season 5, Episode 13". The CW. January 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  8. ↑ Marsi, Steve (January 31, 2012). "Gossip Girl Music From "G.G."". TV Fanatic. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  9. ↑ Eckstein, David (January 25, 2012). "Gossip Girl EP: We've been 'planning Blair's wedding since the pilot'". Zap2it . Archived from the original on January 31, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  10. ↑ Etienne, Vanessa (January 12, 2021). "Why Netflix's Bridgerton Soundtrack Is Surprisingly Familiar". Men's Health. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  11. ↑ Download The String Quartet Tribute to Alice in Chains by Vitamin String Quartet | eMusic
  12. ↑ Top Videos | Popular Videos [ permanent dead link ]
  13. ↑ The first run of the album was printed with incorrect album art, as well as listing in the wrong order the tracks— which were hand picked by Mike Portnoy and covered the band's history from When Dream And Day Unite to Train Of Thought . This was corrected in later prints of the album. People with the incorrect art could contact Vitamin Records for a replacement copy. James Curtiss, the Project Coordinator of Vitamin Records, said that the incorrect packaging should be called "a collector's item and leave it at that", as well as stating that "sonically we nailed the sucker, but on the manufacturing side of things, we dropped the ball." (see the official Dream Theater site here Archived October 7, 2009, at the Wayback Machine and here Archived October 7, 2009, at the Wayback Machine .)
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