Rollins Band | |
|---|---|
 Founder and frontmanHenry Rollins withChris Haskett (background) | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Rollins Band |
| Origin | Van Nuys, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1987–1997, 1999–2003, 2006 |
| Labels | |
| Past members |
|
| Website | www |
Rollins Band was an American rock band formed inVan Nuys, California. The band was active from 1987 to 2006 and was led by formerBlack Flag vocalistHenry Rollins. They are best known for the songs "Low Self Opinion" and "Liar", both of which garnered heavy airplay onMTV in the early-mid 1990s.
Critic Steve Huey describes their music as "uncompromising, intense, cathartic fusions offunk,post-punk,noise, andjazz experimentalism, with Rollins shouting angry, biting self-examinations and accusations over the grind."[1]
In 2000, Rollins Band was included onVH1's100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, ranking at No. 47.[2]
Rollins was the singer for the Washington, D.C.punk rock bandState of Alert from October 1980 to July 1981. Afterwards, he sang with California punk rock bandBlack Flag from August 1981 to August 1986. Black Flag earned little mainstream attention, but through a demanding touring schedule, came to be regarded as one of the most important punk rock bands of the 1980s.
Less than a year after Black Flag broke up, Rollins returned to music with guitaristChris Haskett (a friend from Rollins' teen years in Washington D.C.), bass guitaristBernie Wandel, and drummer Mick Green.
This lineup released two records:Hot Animal Machine (credited as a Rollins solo record and featuring cover art drawings byDevo leaderMark Mothersbaugh) andDrive by Shooting (credited to "Henrietta Collins and the Wifebeating Childhaters"). The music was similar to Black Flag's, though it flirted more withheavy metal andfunk.
Soon after, Rollins formed Rollins Band with Haskett, bassistAndrew Weiss, and drummer Sim Cain (Weiss and Cain had previously played withGone, aninstrumental rock group led by guitarist and Black Flag founderGreg Ginn). Live sound engineer Theo Van Rock was usually credited as a band member.
Critics Ira Robbins and Regina Joskow described this lineup as a "brilliant, strong ensemble ... the band doesn't play punk (more a jazzy, thrashy, swing take on the many moods ofJimi Hendrix), but what they do together has the strengths of both. The group's loud guitar rock with a strong, inventive rhythmic clock borrows only the better attributes of metal, ensuring that noise is never a substitute for purpose."[3]
Rollins's tour diaries from this era details the personal and creative tensions that led to Weiss being fired following theEnd of Silence tour. These diaries were published by Rollins's 2.13.61 company asSee A Grown Man Cry andNow Watch Him Die.
The band's new bassist was jazz and funk veteranMelvin Gibbs, who'd been highly recommended byLiving Colour guitaristVernon Reid, a friend of the Rollins Band since the firstLollapalooza tour. Cain and Gibbs had also both played in different versions of guitaristMarc Ribot's band. Gibbs performed on Ribot's albumRootless Cosmopolitans (1990) and Cain onRequiem for What's His Name (1992).
The first video from 1994'sWeight, "Liar", was a huge hit on MTV, with Rollins sporting numerous costumes (including a cop and a nun). The band appeared atWoodstock '94, and Rollins was a guest-host for several MTV programs, including120 Minutes.
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This version of Rollins Band had some of the most overt jazz leanings of the band's history: Gibbs had begun his career with Reid in the 1980sjazz fusion group of drummerRonald Shannon Jackson, and worked withSonny Sharrock on albums like 1987'sSeize the Rainbow. These influences, along with Rollins' obsession with the late '60s/early '70s electric/fusion era of iconic trumpeterMiles Davis, shaped this version of the band's music. During the sessions forWeight, Rollins Band recorded withfree jazz saxophonistCharles Gayle, though these sessions remained unreleased for ten years at Gayle's request to avoid conflicts with his contractual obligations. The Gayle sessions were released in 2003 asWeighting.
In 1996, there was a legal battle with the band's former label, Imago Records. Rollins claimed "fraud, deceit, undueinfluence and economic coercion" on the label's part.[4] They signed with the then-new major labelDreamWorks Records, who released 1997'sCome In and Burn. The album had a minor hit with the single "Starve" and the band appeared onSaturday Night Live to promote the album (season 22, episode 18). However,Come In and Burn was not as successful asWeight and, after touring forBurn, Rollins dissolved the group, citing creative stagnation.
Rollins replaced the Haskett-Gibbs-Cain lineup with the Los Angeles rock bandMother Superior, retaining the name Rollins Band, and releasedGet Some Go Again (2000) andNice (2001). They also released a two-disc live album,The Only Way to Know for Sure.
This lineup was a more straightforwardhard rock group. Their first album featured "Are You Ready?" a cover of aThin Lizzy song, featuring Lizzy guitaristScott Gorham; Rollins has often expressed fondness for Thin Lizzy and its founder,Phil Lynott.
In between other commitments (his radio showHarmony in My Head, his cable/satellite TV showThe Henry Rollins Show, and his spoken word tours), Rollins also reunited the Haskett-Gibbs-Cain lineup.[5]In a March 2006 blog entry on henryrollins.com, Rollins admitted, "Actually we have been practicing on and off for months now, slowly getting it together ... It's been really cool being back in the practice room with these guys after all these years."[6]
Rollins told Alan Sculley ofThe Daily Herald that this reunion with Haskett, Gibbs and Cain would not become long-term unless the group decided to write new songs: "Let's put it this way. I don't want to go out and hit America again without a new record, or at least a new album's worth of material. Otherwise the thing will lack legitimacy ...Miles Davis would never do that. And I'm not into a greatest-hits thing. I think a band, if you're going to be around, you should be moving forward and putting in the time and working for it, getting after the art. Otherwise you're just playing retreads. ... Imagine a tree that grows canned peaches. It's nothing I want to do."[7]
The band opened some concerts forX, and played on the first-season finale ofThe Henry Rollins Show on August 12, 2006.[8]
In 2011 Rollins stated that he has retired from music, meaning that Rollins Band has come to an end.[9]
Former member Jason Mackenroth died on January 3, 2016, in Nevada fromprostate cancer.[10]
Rollins Band's sound has been described asalternative metal,post-hardcore,hard rock andfunk metal genres.[11][12][13][14]Chris Haskett has highlighted the impact ofKing Crimson on the original lineup's sound, stating:
"There were three records in particular, at the beginning of the 70s –Starless and Bible Black,Larks' Tongues in Aspic, andRed. And just the aesthetics of those records... they’re so heavy. And they have almost dark quality – they’re almost metal. (...) And those King Crimson records are very, very heavy and dark. They have an incredible musical tension. But they’re also very rich with a lot of depth. The tonalities within the intervals and the progressions – they use a lot of flatted fifths which creates a kind of dark tone. And also just a radical dynamics, if you’re listening to these records – they’re incredibly from powerful - from heavy rich chords to near silence. (...) And they also improvised a lot. A lot of King Crimson stuff is just jamming. It’s not noodling, they’re doing collective improvisation. It’s not all written out. And some of the most amazing parts of their music were just improvised. That was what we also brought into Rollins Band. There was a lot of space for improvisation. Not noodling, not a kind of wasting time. But actually making unwritten music happen. And it’s (sic) also came fromGrateful Dead."[15]
Mid-career albums such asWeight also had a pronouncedjazz influence.[16][17]
Rollins Band were a major fixture of the early 1990sLos Angeles alternative metal scene, alongsideTool,Jane's Addiction,Rage Against the Machine andGreen Jellÿ.[13] Rollins' shout-singing style proved influential to lateralternative andnu metal artists, such asCoal Chamber,Korn,Chevelle,Godsmack andSystem of a Down.[11] The Rollins Band songs "Tearing" and "Shine" have been covered byPearl Jam.[18]
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [19] | AUS [20] | GER [21] | NLD [22] | SWE [23] | UK [24] | |||
| Life Time |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Hard Volume |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| The End of Silence | 160 | 68 | — | — | — | — |
| |
| Weight |
| 33 | 10 | 53 | 35 | 29 | 22 |
|
| Come In and Burn |
| 89 | 38 | 71 | 76 | 52 | 76 |
|
| Get Some Go Again |
| 180 | 40 | 60 | — | — | 112 |
|
| Nice | 178 | 64 | 56 | — | — | — | ||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Main | US Mod | AUS [20] | NLD [22] | UK [28] | ||||||||
| "Tearing" | 1992 | — | — | — | — | 54 | The End of Silence | |||||
| "Low Self Opinion" | — | 25 | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Liar" | 1994 | 40 | 26 | 65 | 28 | 27 | Weight | |||||
| "Disconnect" | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| "The End of Something" | 1997 | — | — | — | — | 77 | Come In and Burn | |||||
| "Starve" | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Illumination" | 2000 | — | — | — | — | — | Get Some Go Again | |||||
| "Get Some Go Again" | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "—" denotes singles that were released but did not chart. | ||||||||||||
| Year | Song | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | "Ghost Rider" | The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack |
| 1995 | "Four Sticks" | Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin |
| 1995 | "Fall Guy" | Demon Knight (soundtrack) |
| 1995 | "I See Through" | Johnny Mnemonic (soundtrack) |
| 2001 | "What's the Matter Man" | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (soundtrack) |
[...]Where most punks from the '80s hardcore scene made the transition into hard rock or post hardcore outfits like Rollins Band and Fugazi, it still seems natural that he would make the jump into the acoustic side of things. [...]
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| National | |
| Artists | |
