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Biography
for|the album by this group|Gravity Kills (album)Infobox musical artist | name = Gravity Kills| image = Gravity Kills.jpg| caption = Gravity Kills, 1995| image_size =| background = group_or_band| alias =| origin = St. Louis, Missouri | genre = Industrial rock , Electronic Rock|Synth rock | years_active = 1994 in music|1994 & ndash; 2003 in music|2003 , 2009 in music|2009 & ndash;present| label = TVT Records , Sanctuary Records | associated_acts = Sevendust , Pigface , Sex Pistols , KMFDM , Pitchshifter | website = http://www.gravitykills.com www.gravitykills.com| current_members = Jeff Scheel Matt Dudenhoffer Doug Firley|Douglas Firley Kurt Kerns| past_members = Brad Booker| notable_instruments = Gravity Kills is an American industrial rock band from Jefferson City, Missouri . Their music was described by one critic as "a blending of eerie industrial rock with a pop-infused melodic chorus and a bit of hard-core head banging."Jacquie Kubin, "Jamming across generations; Bo Diddley, Kirchen together; Gravity Kills seeks new momentum." Washington Times , January 31, 2002.
The band was formed in 1994. They had their first hit single with " Guilty (Gravity Kills song)|Guilty ", a track later released on their self-titled album Gravity Kills (album)|Gravity Kills . Gravity Kills' songs were featured on the soundtracks for Mortal Kombat (film)|Mortal Kombat , Seven (movie)|Seven , Escape from L.A. , and Kissing a Fool , as well as video games like Test Drive Off-Road . They have toured with such bands as Sevendust and Pigface .
The band released two additional albums of new material, Perversion (album)|Perversion in 1998 and Superstarved in 2002, as well as a remix album in 1997. Their singles " Falling (Gravity Kills song)|Falling ", from Perversion (album)|Perversion and " Superstarved#One Thing|One Thing ", from Superstarved , achieved minor success.
In August 1999, drummer Kurt Kerns left the band to pursue a career in architecture. Gravity Kills departed TVT Records and signed to Sanctuary Records & drummer Brad Brooker joined the band to perform & release the third album Superstarved . Following a severe injury to keyboardist Doug Firley's hands, and lack of tour support from their record label, they were unable to complete a tour for Superstarved and broke up in 2003.
Since 2006, Gravity Kills has reunited for occasional one-off festivals and shows, and is now working on new material.
Doug Firley's keyboard is a Oberheim Matrix -12
History
Formation, name and mainstream success (1994& ndash;1996)
As the band was forming in 1994, keyboardist Doug Firley was reading an article where he misread what he thought said "like the Gravity Kills." He went back through the article and could not find what he thought he had read. Doug told drummer Kurt Kerns and guitarist Matt Dudenhoeffer about it and thought that Gravity Kills would be a great name for the band. Kurt and Matt really made sense of the name when comparing what they were doing with music (deconstructing samples and noise) to an architect they were both into named Lebbeus Woods and his theories regarding deconstruction and ultimately reconstruction. In response to a contest from St. Louis area radio station KPNT for a compilation CD of local artists, keyboardist/programmer Doug Firley, guitarist Matt Dudenhoeffer and drummer/bassist Kurt Kerns brought in vocalist Jeff Scheel to record and mix a track in one week during the summer of 1994.Cite web |url= http://jeffscheel.blogspot.com/2011/01/story.html |title=The White Light: The Story |accessdate=June 13, 2011 |author=Jeff Scheel The resulting song, "Guilty," was given heavy airplay and quickly became the number one-requested song at the station. The band continued to write and record songs and subsequently signed with TVT Records .Cite web |url= http://jeffscheel.blogspot.com/2011/01/rest-of-story.html |title=The White Light: The Rest of the Story |accessdate=June 13, 2011 |author=Jeff ScheelCarrie Borzillo, "Gravity Kills Gives TVT Pull" Billboard (magazine)|Billboard , June 22, 1996.
Self-tiled debut album, film appearances and tours (1994& ndash;1996)
The band's first self-titled album was released in March 1996. "Guilty", the first single, charted in the top 10 at nearly every Modern Rock Radio station in the country. The first album also produced top 10 singles Enough, Down and Blame. More music videos would soon follow for Enough and Blame. Hollywood also embraced the band's music as they landed songs on 3 high-profile soundtracks: Seven, Mortal Kombat (soundtrack)|Mortal Kombat and Escape from L.A.#Soundtrack|Escape from L.A. In addition, the song Last was featured in the film Kissing A Fool#Soundtrack|Kissing a Fool . Gravity Kills toured in the summer of 1996 with the Sex Pistols and embarked on a solo tour that fall.Amy Hutchinson, "'Gravity' takes music into the 'dark side'; Band is part of emerging industrial sound from underground out into the mainstream." Washington Times , October 10, 1996. With the success of the first album, the band quickly established itself on the rock scene as one of the most promising young bands in the industrial music scene. Gravity Kills's album was also released worldwide with chart success in England , Germany and France .
Manipulated , live tours and Perversion (1997& ndash;2001)
In 1997, TVT Records released a remix-complication album called Manipulated which contains remixes and covers of their Gravity Kills (album)|Self-tiled debut album songs " Guilty (Gravity Kills song)|Guilty ," "Blame," "Enough," " Down (Gravity Kills song)|Down " and "Here." On April 19, 1998, Jeff Scheel suffered a whiplash when he got overexcited during a warm-up gig in the April 19 show at the University Wellness & Activities in San Antonio, Texas . He had not performed live with the band since previous live concert at the Q101 Festival in Chicago, IL on October 16, 1997, during the club in what was supposed to be a low-key gig that attracted 6,000 fans, according to the band's label, TVT Records. Ironically, the injury, which will put Jeff Scheel out of commission for a few weeks, came less than a week before Junkie XL leader Tom Holkenborg injured his back in an onstage accident. Junkie XL and Gravity Kills were scheduled to join British band Pitchshifter on a U.S. tour on June 3. The band released the second studio album on 9 June 1998, Perversion (album)|Perversion . The album was less successful than their self-titled debut but still sold well, rising to #107 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.Carrie Borzillo, "BILLBOARD 200" Billboard (magazine)|Billboard , July 18, 1998. The single '" Falling (Gravity Kills song)|Falling " was featured in a 1998 car-racing video game, Test Drive 5 along with the Pitchshifter, Fear Factory , Junkie XL and KMFDM songs, while "Drown" charted in Germany. On July 1, 1998 at the Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin , Jeff Scheel got the whole crowd chanting "Fuck you!" while the show was being broadcast live on a mainstream rock local radio station, Lazer 103|Lazer 103 FM . This was a familiar phrase to the July 2, 1997 Summerfest. The station's DJ tried to get the crowd to stop, but he was having mic problems and the crowd ignored him. In August 1999, drummer Kurt Kerns had left the band, reasons for leaving as a chance for him to spend time with his family and to return to practicing architecture.Cite web |url= http://grantb.net/gk/articles/kurtleaves.txt |title=Press Release about Kurt Kurns leaving Gravity Kills (originally posted to gravitykills.com) |accessdate=June 13, 2011 Kurt's friend and guitarist Matt Dudenhoeffer says that "He is still close with the band and visits the recording studio regularly." The band later departed TVT Records and signed to Sanctuary Records.Cite web |url= http://web.archive.org/web/20020203192439/ http://www.sanctuaryrecordsgroup.com/sanctuary/gkillsarticle.html |title=Sanctuary Records announces the signing of Gravity Kills to the label (via archive.org) |accessdate=June 13, 2011
Superstarved , Doug Firley's injury and split-up (2002& ndash;2003)
On 19 May 2002, Sanctuary Records Group|Sanctuary Records released the third and final studio album Superstarved . The UK version of the album was released by Sanctuary Records Group#History|Mayan Records (which was a part of Sanctuary Records) and the Japan version of the album was released by Victor Entertainment . Just after the album's release, on May 3, 2002, Gravity Kills's keyboardist Doug Firley sustained serious injury to his hand in Allentown, Pennsylvania while performing in front of a sold out crowd. The injury occurred when Firley dropped the custom-made, spring-loaded keyboard on his hand and shattering the bones in his right ring finger during the band's performance of their single " Superstarved#One Thing|One Thing ". The band returned home to St. Louis after finishing the weekend shows in NJ and Rochester, NY for Doug to seek treatment and had to sell off the components of the recording studio it owned, thus ending the current cycle of tour dates and at one point, his xrays were post on the internet. On January 4, 2003, the band officially broke up, a statement posted on the site reads as follows:
cquote|...Your assumptions are true. Gravity Kills are no longer together and will not be producing music together under the name Gravity Kills. Each of the band members has moved on to other endeavors. The reasons for this are various and, unfortunately for legal reasons cannot be mentioned here. The band as always, appreciates all the support throughout the years and considers their fans to be the best fans in the world. Those band members still associated with the music industry hope to see you soon with their new projects. The band members scattered to different occupations. Matt Dudenhoeffer returned to an engineering job, while Doug Firley went on tour with Alica Keys|Alicia Keys as a keyboard tech and then worked as a draftsman before forming the production team Shock City Productions with Chris Loesch. Jeff Scheel went to work at the Box Talent Agency as a talent agent for corporate, casino and clubs.
Reformation, performances and future fourth studio album (2005& ndash;present)
On October 28, 2005, Gravity Kills reunited to perform for a self-created Halloween music festival in St. Louis, Missouri entitled "The Killoween Freakshow." This appears to be becoming an annual event, as another "Killoween" occurred on October 28, 2006, at Pop's nightclub and bar, featuring Gravity Kills and Fragile Porcelain Mice. Due to a scheduling conflict, Killoween was instead "The Nightmare Before Thanksgiving" on November 21, 2007. Gravity Kills confirmed rumors that have persisted over the past year on October 20, 2009 and the band has announced that they are working on new music. More recently, the band performed in Tulsa at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on May 7, 2010, and at Roberts Orpheum Theater in St. Louis, MO on June 25, 2010 at 7:00pm part of a benefit show.Cite web |url= http://twitter.com/#!/GravityKillsSTL |title=Gravity Kills Twitter page |accessdate=June 13, 2011
On 14 January 2011, Jeff Scheel revealed a unreleased music video for "Down" on YouTube|Youtube and told some people on Facebook it was a "previously unreleased Gravity Kills video", he got the video from Kurt Kerns when Kurt recovered the video by capturing it on a videotape when it was aired and then he passed the videotape footage to Jeff. The band are currently working on their long-awaited follow-up and recently posted a http://gravitykillsofficial.tumblr.com/ studio diary regarding their progress, he has revealed a working title of one of the songs "Again". http://gravitykillsofficial.tumblr.com/post/10307099862/one-of-those-nights One of those nights... Jeff Scheel is also the vocalist of Star 13 (stylized as *13).cite web |url= http://www.facebook.com/pages/Star-13/27860678875 |title=Star 13's Official Facebookcite web |url= http://www.myspace.com/star13music |title=Star 13's Official Myspace
In August 2011 a piano cover of http://soundcloud.com/jeff-scheel/beg-and-borrow-by-jeff-scheel Beg and Borrow was released to SoundCloud.
Band members
col-begincol-2;Current members
Jeff Scheel & mdash; Singing|vocals (1994& ndash;present)
Matt Dudenhoeffer & mdash; Electric guitar|guitar , (1994& ndash;present)
1996 Gravity Kills Top Heatseekers|Heatseekers No. 1cite web |url=Allmusic|class=artist|id=p24040|pure_url=yes|title=((( Gravity Kills > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))|accessdate=2010-04-24|publisher= Allmusic
1996 Gravity Kills The Billboard 200 No. 89
1998 Perversion The Billboard 200 No. 107
2002 Superstarved CMJ Retail charts No. 62
Singles
Year
Song
Modern Rock
Mainstream Rock
The Billboard 100
UK charts cite web
Album
Notes
1996
Guilty "
24
39
86
79
Gravity Kills
-
"Enough"
-
-
-
109
-
"Blame"
-
-
-
-
-
1997
Down (Gravity Kills song)>Down "
-
-
-
-
Cancelled
1998
Alive "
-
-
-
-
Perversion
-
Falling "
-
35
-
-
-
2002
One Thing "
-
24
-
-
Superstarved
-
"Love, Sex And Money"
-
-
-
-
-
2003
" Personal Jesus "
-
-
-
-
College radio staple
"—" denotes a release that did not chart.
Other Songs
Year
Song
Germany charts
Album
Notes
1998
"Drown"
3
Perversion
-
Music Videos
Guilty was ranked as high as #17 on MTV#1990s and 2000s updates|MTV 's active rotation and the video charted at #14 whenever they used to have there top 25 countdown.
Year !! Title !! Director(s)
1995
"Guilty"
Rocky Morton
1996
"Blame"
Peter Christopherson
"Enough"
Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel
1997
"Down"
-
2002
"Love, Sex and Money"
MiKKi & Malory
Other Appearances
Year !! Song !! Title
1995
"Guilty"
Se7en
"Goodbye (Demo Version)"
Mortal Kombat (film)
1996
"Blame (L.A. Remix)"
Escape from L.A.
1997
"Enough (Extrinsic Remix)"
Hoax IV Brass Monkeys VHS
"Blame"
Test Drive Off-Road
"Enough"
"Guilty"
"Enough"
Airbag
1998
"Last"
Kissing a Fool
"Guilty ( Juno Reactor Remix)"
NHL '99
"Falling"
Test Drive 5
"Alive"
Test Drive Off-Road 2
"Drown"
1999
"Guilty (Juno Reactor Remix)"
Beowulf
2000
"Guilty"
Vampire: Redemption
"If"
MTV Sports: Pure Ride
2002
"Guilty"
Evil on Queen Street
2012
"Guilty"
True Blood (Season 5 Promo)
See also
List of alternative music artists
List of industrial music bands
References
reflist
External links
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGravityKills? feature=mhee Official Gravity Kills on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/user/gravitykillsmusic? feature=mhee Official Gravity Kills Music on Youtube
http://twitter.com/GravityKillsSTL Official Gravity Kills on Twitter
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gravity-Kills-Band/105568609473840 Official Gravity Kills at Facebook
http://jeffscheel.blogspot.com Official Jeff Scheel's Blog on Blogspot
http://www.myspace.com/gravitykillsband Official Gravity Kills at MySpace
http://www.gravitykills.com/ Official Site (redirects to Gravity Kills on MySpace)
http://www.grantb.net/gk Perverted - A Gravity Kills Compendium (fan-site)
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gravity-kills-p173904 Allmusic entry for Gravity Kills
Category:TVT Records artists Category:American industrial music groups Category:Music of St. Louis, Missouri Category:Musical groups from Missouri Category:Musical groups established in 1994 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2003 Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2009 Category:Alternative rock groups from Missouri
