Deadsy

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Deadsy is an American rock band from California. They have played many shows in California, but have also toured nationally multiple times as well as touring as part of the Family Values Tour.

History

The Beginnings (1995-1996)

Deadsy started out in 1995, when Elijah Blue Allman (known within the band lineup by his stage name Philips Exeter Blue I) decided he would get a record deal to support himself. He recorded a handful of demos with Alec Puro and later sent a Juno 106 keyboard to Renn as an invitation to join the band.

The Sire years (1996-1999)

Deadsy was quickly signed to Sire Records, and they got working on writing new songs. Because they had no bass player at the time Jay Gordon (of Orgy) was asked to play bass for their short self-titled album. After the album was recorded and released for promotion, Craig Riker joined on bass as a full time member, and they were once again writing songs for the upcoming full length Commencement. Only a few songs were written for the new album as the band had planned to re-release most tracks from the self-titled album. A music video for "She Likes Big Words" was made at one of their early shows, also for promotion. With the album in the final stages of development, Sire parted ways with Elektra Records, and the release was pushed back to a later date. Soon after, Deadsy was dropped from the label entirely, ending the life of both the first and would-be second album, Commencement. Some promotional copies of the self-titled album are still floating around.

The Dreamworks years (1999-2003)

While in the process of finding a new label, Carlton Bost was added on z-tars and guitar. Ashburn Miller replaced Craig on bass January 2002 after Craig and Deadsy parted ways. Jonathan Davis (of the band Korn) signed Deadsy to the new record label Elementree Records, to release Commencement. Most songs came from the self-titled album, but some were newly written for the album, including "The Key To Gramercy Park", for which a video was made, directed by friend and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, as well as being the band's second song with Jonathan Davis. Davis invited the band to join the 2001 Family Values Tour before their album had even been released. This move helped build the fan base and helped the band onto the tour soundtrack. After the album's release, the band made a second music video for their cover of Sebadoh's "Brand New Love".

Release of Phantasmagore and the present (2003-2008)

Deadsy signed onto Immortal Records to release Phantasmagore in 2006 . During the 4-year process of writing the album, Deadsy released clips and demos on their official website. Deadsy was asked back to the Family Values Tour in the summer of 2006, which was co-headlined by the Deftones and Korn. Deadsy went on another tour with the Deftones in the fall/winter. In January 2007, Deadsy parted ways with bassist Ashburn Miller ("Creature"), and added Jens Funke to the line up.

In February 2007, a short statement from Elijah was posted on the band's message board: "I am making a solo record." Recently, Carlton has joined The Dreaming full time. On April 16, 2007, a MySpace bulletin was posted with a statement by Alec Pure whom had this to say: "As you all know we are going to be taking a short break from Deadsy so Elijah can make a solo record and I can continue scoring projects I wasn't able to do from the road."

In early 2008, "Elijah Blue and the Trapezoids" was revealed as the name of Elijah's solo project.

On September 11, 2008, Dr Nner apparently left the band in order to concentrate on carpentry and family life. "It was too rough-and-tumble a lifestyle," said the man who has become Renn Hawkey again, fulltime.

Musical style and themes

Elijah describes the band's low and dissonant style as Undercore. Elijah's low baritone singing style, down-tuned guitars, Dr. Nner's synths and Carlton's Z-tar all contribute to the band's sound.

"We wanted to make something that was transcendental, really rule-defying, and very against the grain. And when people listened to it at first, it would just feel very like a sense of foreignness, almost like watching a David Lynch film." - Elijah Blue

The lyrics and imagery of the songs sometimes focus on many subjects in either sexual, religious, magical or popular culture contexts. Occasionally one notices obscure references to pedophilia, Secret Societies, The Urantia Book, Star Wars, the novel Dune, by Frank Herbert and even Disney's 101 Dalmatians.

Many of the multi-color ideas were influenced directly from the 1955 film This Island Earth. In fact Elijah even took his alter-ego name from one of the leading characters of the story, Exeter.

Visual appearance

Elijah has often called the band an "art project", or "art movement". Complete with a manifesto (available on their site), and visual iconography. Each band member represents one element or "Entity" that drives human society. Each entity is also represented by their own color and unique appearance.

International Klein Blue - Academia (P. Exeter Blue)

Yellow - Science / Medicine (Dr. Nner)

Green - Leisure (Alec Püre)

Grey - War (Carlton Megalodon)

Red - Horror (Jens Funke) (Ashburn Miller) (Craig "The Beast" Riker **archetypus**)

Discography

Albums

• Deadsy (1997)
• Commencement (1999)
• Commencement (2002)
• Phantasmagore (2006)

Singles

EPs

• Demo (1996)

Non-album Tracks

• Anti-pop (3:35) (This song was originally done by Kommunity FK.)
• Asura (Demo) (3:27)
• Asura (Demo Clip) (1:24)
• Babes In Abyss (Demo) (3:23)
• Better Than You Know (Demo Clip) (1:58)
• Better Than You Know (Unmastered) (6:14)
• Book Of Black Dreams (Demo Clip) (1:03)
• Brand New Love (Radio Mix) (3:42)
• Carrying Over (Live) (4:24) - From Family Values Tour compilation 2006.
• Colossus (4:25) - Made available to participants of a MySpace promotional effort.
• Crimson and Clover (3:37) - Features Cher. From Walk on the Moon soundtrack.
• Dreamcrusher (Demo Clip) (1:12)
• Fox On The Run (3:22)
• Friends (3:58) - Available for purchase through iTunes.
• Just Like Heaven (6:02) - The Cure cover.
• Mansion World (Deepsky Remix) (7:41)
• My Only Friend (3:26) - From Winter Passing soundtrack.
• Replicas (5:12) - Was featured on a Gary Numan tribute album in 1997.
• Time (Demo Clip) (1:17)
• Strength Of Mind (Demo) (3:27) - Was made available for purchase by Immortal records without the band's knowledge, and was subsequently taken down.
• The Key To Gramercy Park (Demo) (3:10)
• Tom Sawyer (Live) (4:11) - From Family Values Tour compilation 2001.
• Texas Never Whispers (3:43) - Pavement cover

Music videos

External links

• Official Website
• Deadsy on Myspace
• Deadsy on Immortal Records
• Demos and B-Sides
• Elijah Blue and the Trapezoids on MySpace