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Biography
Infobox musical artist | name = Wall of Voodoo| image = Wall of voodoo 16.jpg| caption = Wall of Voodoo, 1982 lineup (left to right): Joe Nanini , Chas T. Gray, Stan Ridgway , Marc Moreland .| image_size = 250| landscape = yes| background = group_or_band| alias =| origin = Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles , California , United States | genre = New Wave music|New wave , post-punk , alternative rock , dark wave | years_active = 1977–1989, 2006| label = I.R.S. Records|I.R.S. | associated_acts = The Skulls (U.S. Band)|The Skulls , Nervous Gender , Eye Protection| website = http://www.wallofvoodoo.net| current_members =| past_members = Stan Ridgway Marc Moreland Bruce Moreland Chas T. Gray Joe Nanini Bill Noland Andy Prieboy Ned Leukhardt Wall of Voodoo was an American new wave music|New Wave musical ensemble|group from Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles best known for the 1983 hit " Mexican Radio ". The band had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone .
Formation
Wall of Voodoo had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, a film score business started by Stan Ridgway , later the vocalist and harmonica player for Wall of Voodoo. Acme Soundtracks office was across the street from the Hollywood punk club The Masque and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk/new wave scene. Marc Moreland , guitarist for The Skulls (U.S. Band)|The Skulls began jamming with Ridgway at the Acme Soundtracks office and the soundtrack company morphed into a New Wave band.cite web|url= http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/issues/Issue.07-21-2005/music/Article.clubs_feature |title=Montereycvountyweekly.com |publisher=Montereycountyweekly.com |date= |accessdate=2010-12-22 In 1977, with the addition of Skulls members Bruce Moreland (Marc Moreland's brother) as bassist and Chas T. Gray as keyboardist, along with Joe Nanini , who had been the drummer for Black Randy and the Metrosquad, the first lineup of Wall of Voodoo was born.Allmusic|class=artist|id=p5782|pure_url=yes Allmusic.com
The band was named Wall of Voodoo before their first gig in reference to a comment made by Joe Berardi, a friend of Ridgway's and member of The Fibonaccis .cite web|url= http://www.noncredo.com/biographies/berardi.html |title=Noncredo.com |publisher=Noncredo.com |date= |accessdate=2010-12-22 Berardi was listening to some of the Acme Soundtracks music Ridgway and Moreland had created in their studio. When Ridgway jokingly compared the multiple-drum-machine- and Farfisa -organ-laden recordings to Phil Spector 's Wall of Sound , Berardi commented it sounded more like a "wall of voodoo" and the name stuck.
1977–1983
Listen|filename= WOVRingofFire.ogg |title="Ring of Fire" |description= Sample of Wall of Voodoo "Ring of Fire" from Wall of Voodoo (EP)|Wall of Voodoo EP (1980). |format= Ogg Listen|filename= WOVMexicanRadio.ogg |title="Mexican Radio" |description= Sample of Wall of Voodoo " Mexican Radio " from Call of the West (1982). |format= Ogg Listen|filename= WOVFarSideofCrazy.ogg |title="Far Side of Crazy" |description= Sample of Wall of Voodoo "Far Side of Crazy" from Seven Days in Sammystown (1985). |format= Ogg Wall of Voodoo released a self-titled Extended play|EP in 1980 which featured a unique, synthesizer-driven cover of the Johnny Cash song, " Ring of Fire (song)|Ring of Fire ". The second half of "Ring of Fire" features a dissonant guitar and synthesizer solo covering the theme to the 1966 film Our Man Flint . The band's first full-length album, Dark Continent (album)|Dark Continent , followed in 1981. Bruce Moreland left the band for the first time soon after this, and Chas Gray performed on both bass and keyboard during this time. The band recorded their biggest-selling album, Call of the West in 1982. That same year, Wall of Voodoo opened for The Residents on the cult band's inaugural tour, "the Mole Show", at Perkins Palace in Pasadena in early summer 1982. The track " Mexican Radio " was their only Billboard Hot 100|Top 100 hit in the USA and the video for the song got a great deal of exposure on the newly formed MTV . Bill Noland was added as a keyboardist soon after the release of this album.
Stan Ridgway claims that the situation around the band was increasingly chaotic at the time, 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 and record label . Wall of Voodoo appeared at the second US Festival on May 28, 1983 (the largest concert the band had performed), immediately after which Ridgway, Nanini, and Noland all left the band.Stan Ridgway soon went on to a successful solo career, appearing as guest vocalist on a track on the Rumble Fish score and releasing his first solo album in 1986. Joe Nanini soon resurfaced in the country rock band Lonesome Strangers.
1983–1988
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. The band continued to record and perform under this lineup until 1988, though their sound was slightly different from the style of music they played in the earlier Stan Ridgway-fronted lineup. In 1985 they released Seven 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 1988, they split up and Andy Prieboy and Marc Moreland went on to solo careers.
After 1988
Stan Ridgway, Andy Prieboy, and Marc Moreland were all active and performing as solo artists during the 1990s and 2000s. Joe Nanini released an EP under the name Sienna Nanini-Bohica in 1996. Two former members died within a few years of each other in the early 2000s; Joe Nanini died of a Stroke|brain hemorrhage on December 4, 2000, and Marc Moreland died of kidney and liver failure on March 13, 2002. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1452928/20020315/tool.jhtml MTV, For The Record March 15, 2002
On July 18, 2006 a Stan Ridgway-fronted Wall of Voodoo performed at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Orange County, California|Orange County as an opening band for Cyndi Lauper . http://www.pacamp.com/pa/schedules/pastshows-2008.asp 'Pacific Amphitheatre Website - Concert Calendar 2006 However, other than Ridgway, none of the surviving Wall of Voodoo members were included in this lineup. A remastered coupling of Dark Continent and Call of the West was released by Raven Records on November 10, 2009. http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/music/pop-rock/dark-continent-call-of-the-west-2-for-1/465183 JB Hi-Fi Online,, Dark Continent/Call Of The West http://ravenrecordscomau.melbourneitwebsites.com/cat/index.cgi/shopfront/view_product_details? category_id=3306& product_id=375665 Raven Records: Wall Of Voodoo
Discography
Studio albums
Wall of Voodoo (EP) (1980) (#204 US)
Dark Continent (album)|Dark Continent (1981) (#177 US)
The Index Masters (includes the 1980 EP + live tracks) (1991)
Lost Weekend: The Best of the I.R.S. Years (2011)
Singles
1982: "Ring of Fire (remix)"
1982: "On Interstate 15"
1983: " Mexican Radio " (#58 US) (#64 UK Singles Chart|UK cite book
| first= David | last= Roberts | year= 2006 | title= British Hit Singles & Albums | edition= 19th | publisher= Guinness World Records Limited | location= London | isbn= 1-904994-10-5 | page= 590) (#21 NZ) (#33 AU)
1983: "Call of the West" UK
1983: "There's Nothing on This Side" UK
1984: "Big City"
1985: " Far Side of Crazy " (#23 AU)
1987: " Do It Again (Beach Boys song)|Do It Again " (#40 AU)
1987: "Elvis Bought Dora a Cadillac"
Bootlegs
Take Me To Your Leader: 78-79 Demos (contains early demos from 1978 and 1979)
Heaven Or Anaheim Demos (all years of the tracks are unknown, but they appear to be demos from the Andy Prieboy era)
References
reflist
External links
Allmusic|class=artist|id=p5782|label=Wall of Voodoo
myspace|wallofvoodoo|Wall of Voodoo
http://www.connollyco.com/discography/wall_of_voodoo/index.html Wall of Voodoo entry at http://www.connollyco.com/discography/index.html Progrography
http://web.archive.org/web/20060428090109/ http://www.wallofvoodoo.com/ JTL's Wall of Voodoo website (archived at Digital time capsule|Wayback Machine )
http://www.stanridgway.com Stan Ridgway Official website
http://www.tangento.net/wallofvoodoo.html Tangento.net: Wall of Voodoo & the WoV Fan Club
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/issues/Issue.07-21-2005/music/Article.clubs_feature "Through the Wall: Twenty years after 'Mexican Radio,' Stan Ridgway still finds his own way" by Stuart Thornton, Monterey County Weekly , July 21, 2005.
Category:American New Wave musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1977 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1989 Category:I.R.S. Records artists
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