Wall of Voodoo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1977–1989 |
| Labels | I.R.S. |
| Past members | Stan Ridgway Marc Moreland Bruce Moreland Chas T. Gray Joe Nanini Bill Noland Andy Prieboy Ned Leukhardt |
| Website | wallofvoodoo |
Wall of Voodoo was an Americanrockband fromLos Angeles, California who were active from 1977 until disbanding in 1989.[1] Though largely anunderground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single "Mexican Radio" became a hit onMTV andalternative radio. The band was known forsurrealist lyrics drawing on iconography of theAmerican Southwest.
Wall of Voodoo had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, afilm score business started byStan Ridgway, later the vocalist and harmonica player for Wall of Voodoo. Acme Soundtracks' office was across the street from theHollywood punk clubThe Masque and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk/new wave scene.Marc Moreland, guitarist forthe Skulls, began jamming with Ridgway at the Acme Soundtracks office and the soundtrack company morphed into a new wave band.[2] In 1977, with the addition of Skulls membersBruce Moreland (Marc Moreland's brother) as bassist and Chas T. Gray as keyboardist, along withJoe Nanini, who had been the drummer for theBags, the Eyes, andBlack Randy and the Metrosquad, the first lineup of the band was born,[3] named Wall of Voodoo before their first show in reference to a comment made by Joe Berardi, a friend of Ridgway's and member ofthe Fibonaccis.[4] According to Ridgeway, "I've always been interested inPhil Spector and hiswall-of-sound approach to recording. And Wall of Voodoo seemed to describe best what we were doing."[5]
Wall of Voodoo released a self-titledEP in 1980 which featured a synthesizer-driven cover of "Ring of Fire." The second half of "Ring of Fire" features a dissonant guitar solo covering the theme to the 1966 filmOur Man Flint. The band's first full-length album,Dark Continent, followed in 1981.[1] Much of the material from this record would feature in live shows over the next few years, such as "Red Light", "Animal Day" and fan favorite "Back in Flesh". Bruce Moreland left the band for the first time soon after this, and Chas Gray performed both bass and synthesizers during this time. The band recorded their biggest-selling album,Call of the West, in 1982. A single, "Mexican Radio," aboutborder blaster radio stations, became an international hit, peaking at No. 18 in Canada, No. 21 in New Zealand and No. 33 in Australia.[6] It also reached No. 64 in the UK,[7] and was their onlyTop 100 hit in the United States. As well, the video received considerable exposure on the newly formedMTV.
Bill Noland was added as a keyboardist soon after the release ofCall of the West.[3] That same year, Wall of Voodoo opened forthe Residents on the cult band's inaugural tour, "the Mole Show," at Perkins Palace in Pasadena, Halloween 1982, and forDevo'sill-fated televised 3-DEVO Concert in October.
Wall of Voodoo opened forOingo Boingo on theirNothing to Fear tour at theArlington Theater inSanta Barbara in March 1983. Stan Ridgway has claimed that the situation around the band was increasingly chaotic during this era, with a great deal of drug use and out-of-control behavior on the part of the band members, as well as shady behavior by the band's management andrecord label. Wall of Voodoo appeared at the secondUS Festival on May 28, 1983 (the largest concert the band had performed), immediately after which Ridgway, Nanini, and Noland all left the band.[2] Stan Ridgway soon went on to a successful solo career. He appeared as a guest vocalist on a track on theRumble Fish score and released his critically acclaimed debut solo albumThe Big Heat, which included the single "Camouflage", a top ten hit across Europe, in 1986. Joe Nanini soon resurfaced in thecountry rock band Lonesome Strangers.
The remainder of the band, Marc Moreland, Chas T. Gray and a returning Bruce Moreland, carried on under the name Wall of Voodoo. Soon after,Andy Prieboy, formerly of the San Francisco new wave band Eye Protection, joined as singer and Ned Leukhardt was added as drummer.[1] They issued a UK-only single "Big City" in 1984, and contributed a track to the filmWeird Science in 1985. Later that year, they releasedSeven Days in Sammystown. The first single, "Far Side of Crazy", did well in Australia, reaching number 23 on the ARIA charts. The song is still heard today on the Austereo Triple M network.
In 1987, the band released their fourth studio album,Happy Planet. The album, their second with Andy Prieboy as frontman, sawCall of the West'sRichard Mazda returning as producer.Happy Planet spawned another hit in Australia: a cover ofthe Beach Boys' "Do It Again," which charted at No. 40 there. The video for the song featured the Beach Boys' ownBrian Wilson. Bruce Moreland left the band prior to the subsequent tour. In 1989, Wall of Voodoo split up and Andy Prieboy and Marc Moreland went on to solo careers.
In 1989, a post-breakup live album entitledThe Ugly Americans in Australia was issued, which documented their 1987 tour of Melbourne, Australia. (Additional performances from a date in Bullhead City, Arizona, were also included.) Stan Ridgway, Andy Prieboy and Marc Moreland all embarked on solo careers throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Joe Nanini released an EP under the name Sienna Nanini in 1996.
Two former members died in the early 2000s: Joe Nanini suffered abrain hemorrhage on December 4, 2000, and Marc Moreland died of kidney andliver failure on March 13, 2002.[8]
On July 18, 2006, a Stan Ridgway-fronted Wall of Voodoo performed at thePacific Amphitheatre inOrange County as an opening band forCyndi Lauper.[9] However, other than Ridgway, none of the surviving Wall of Voodoo members were included in this lineup: Joe Berardi and Voodoo producerRichard Mazda performed instead. Ridgway's albumSnakebite: Blacktop Ballads and Fugitive Songs (2005), features the narrative song, "Talkin' Wall of Voodoo Blues Pt. 1," a history of the band in song.
A remastered coupling ofDark Continent andCall of the West was released byRaven Records on November 10, 2009.[10][11] On October 2, 2012, Raven issued a companion two-disc set containing all three albums from the Andy Prieboy era (Seven Days in Sammystown,Happy Planet andUgly Americans in Australia), all remastered, including three bonus tracks.[12]
In 2015 Andy Prieboy stated: "We won't do a Voodoo reunion withoutMarc. So until he shows up, sorry, no reunion."[13]
In late 2023 Andy Prieboy and Chas T. Gray launched a website under the name "Wall of Voodoo 2", announcing the upcoming release of recently rediscovered and previously unreleased recordings. These recordings consisted of live recordings, master tracks as well as demos dating back to 1983 when the group consisted of only Gray and Marc Moreland.[14] The first set of recordings,The Lost Tapes Vol. 1, was released on November 25, 2023[15] and featured 11 tracks recorded live during theirHappy Planet tour sometime in 1987.Museums: The Lost Tapes Vol. 2 was released on March 15, 2024, and contained 12 demos recorded by Gray and Moreland (as "International Voodoo") sometime after the 1983 US Festival performance. Roughly half of these tracks never made it on any album, the other half consisting of "Big City" and three versions of "Museums" fromSeven Days in Sammystown and three versions of "Deep in the Jungle" (from the "Weird Science" soundtrack).
According toPopdose, the band's sound was shaped by mergingStan Ridgway's "love ofbebop andcountry music" withMarc Moreland's "affection forelectronic pioneers such asKraftwerk".[16] According toAllMusic biographer Jason Ankeny, the band's lyrics were "cinematic narratives -- heavily influenced byWesterns andfilm noir".[17] Ridgway's vocal style has been described as having a "droll, narcoleptic manner" and the band's music as "atonal, electronically based".[17] According toNPR, the band "weaved [cultural references] like noir [and]Spaghetti Western" with music that was a "tip-of-the-hat toEnnio Morricone".[18] According toTrouser Press, Wall of Voodoo was "Poised uneasily between machine music androck’n’roll" and the band "embodied the conflict between old and new for the serious-minded: classyHalloween music that’s scary, but pleasantly so."[19]Record Collector magazine described Wall of Voodoo as combining "westernAmericana motifs with angularart-rock to delicious effect. Itwas as if stream-of-consciouscowboy movies were being scored by a triumvirate ofSparks,Devo andTalking Heads."[20] Ridgway said, regarding the band's style, "I've always been interested inPhil Spector and hiswall-of-sound approach to recording. [The name] Wall of Voodoo seemed to describe best what we were doing."[5]Rolling Stone described Wall of Voodoo as apost-punk band.[21] Reviewer Mark Deming called Wall of Voodoo anew wave band.[22]
| Year | Title | US | AUS[23] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Dark Continent | 177 | - |
| 1982 | Call of the West | 45 | - |
| 1985 | Seven Days in Sammystown | - | 50 |
| 1987 | Happy Planet | - | 83 |
| Year | Title | US | AUS[23] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | The Ugly Americans in Australia | - | - |
| 2023 | The Lost Tapes Vol. 1 | - | - |
| Year | Title | UK[7] | CA | AUS[23] | NZ | US | US-D | US-R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | "Ring of Fire" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1982 | "On Interstate 15" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1983 | "Mexican Radio" | 64 | 18 | 33 | 21 | 58 | - | 41 |
| 1983 | "Call of the West" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1983 | "There's Nothing on This Side" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1984 | "Big City" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1985 | "Far Side of Crazy" | - | - | 23 | - | - | - | - |
| 1987 | "Do It Again" | - | - | 40 | - | - | 32 | - |
| 1987 | "Elvis Bought Dora a Cadillac" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Year | Title | UK | CA | AU | NZ | US | US-D | US-R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Wall of Voodoo | - | - | - | - | 204 | - | - |
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