Blues Traveler

Signing with Sanctuary Records, they released "Truth Be Told" on August 5th, 2003. This culminated in 'The Weird Revolution' (a reworking of an aborted album recorded for Capital called 'After the Astronaut') their most electronic album to date. Sheehan's untimely death in 1999 and Popper's struggle with obesity have helped keep the group on the fringes of the mainstream, and A&M dropped the band after disappointing sales of their 2001 album "Bridge". As the 'nineties went on, the band became increasingly influenced by electronica, with Gibby namechecking Massive Attack, Tricky, and The Chemical Brothers as influences. Their albums with A&M in the later 1990s include Straight on Till Morning and Bridge. In the early 'nineties Gibby Haynes and Jeff Pinkus released a side project (The Jackofficers) which produced a highly psychedelic take on House music. Blues Traveler's future releases were not able to live up to the quintuple platinum sales of Four, though they have maintained a loyal fanbase from the beginning of their career. At the same time a huge legal battle with Capital records began which ended up with the band being kicked off the label and signing to Hollywood Records (a subsidiary of Disney).

Their fourth album, Four, was a late-blooming success thanks to the singles "Run-around" and "Hook". Those records are now in print on their own Latino Buggerveil record label. Former member Bobby Sheehan (bass) died in 1999 of a drug overdose in New Orleans. In 1996 the band brought a legal action to recover rights from Touch and Go to their back catalogue, a case they eventually won in 1999. Blues Traveler is an American jam band, led by John Popper (vocals, harmonica) along with Chan Kinchla (guitar), Brendan Hill (drums), Tad Kinchla (bass) and Ben Wilson (keyboards). The story of the creation of this album is told in Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad (Little, Brown) amidst other tales from the American underground in the 1980s. Live on the Rocks, 2004. However, probably their best album is the critically lauded Locust Abortion Technician (Touch & Go - US/ Blast First - UK).

Truth Be Told, 2003. The band's most famous song is "Pepper" from the album Electriclarryland in 1996, which recounted the somewhat sordid stories of several high school students in Texas. Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics, 2002 (compilation). They also contributed songs to the soundtracks of Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet and Mission Impossible around about this time. Live: What You and I Have Been Through, 2002. Soon afterwards they signed to Capitol Records and this one time underground band eventually became a mainstream commodity with songs on modern rock radio and Beavis and Butt-head. Bridge, 2001. In 1991 they were part of the first Lollapalooza tour.

Straight on Till Morning, 1997. They recorded two more albums and numerous EPs for Touch and Go before leaving to record an album (Pioughd) for Rough Trade Records. Live From the Fall, 1996. bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten) as well as American eccentrics like Frank Zappa and The Residents. [[Four (album)|Four, 1994. Their second album Rembrandt Pussyhorse showed the increased influence of the European avant-garde (e.g. 1,000,000 People Can't Be Wrong, 1994 (compilation). It also showed the influence of heavy metal (especially Black Sabbath), again, many years before this sound became fashionable: in marrying punk and heavy metal it might be seen as one of the first precursors of grunge.

Save His Soul, 1993. Along with The Teardrop Explodes in the UK this album might be said to have begun the psychedelic revival (psychedelia having been extremely unfashionable in the five years since punk). Travelers and Thieves, 1991. They recorded their debut EP on Alternative Tentacles, before moving to Touch & Go to release their debut album Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac. Blues Traveler, 1990. Mark Kramer (of Bongwater and Shimmy Disc) also briefly played bass. While their line-up changed frequently through the years, they had a core membership of Jeff Pinkus on bass, with King Coffey and Teresa Taylor on drums in addition to Haynes (vocals) and Leary (guitar).

Incorporating elements of hardcore, psychedelia, and performance art, their live shows also made heavy use of strobe lights, background films and naked dancers. The band was founded by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1982; the pair met while students at Trinity University. The Butthole Surfers is an American indie and punk band. Humpty Dumpty LSD (2002).

Weird Revolution (2001). After the Astronaut (unreleased) (1998). Electric Larryland (1996). Independent Worm Saloon (1993).

Pioughd (1990). Double Live (1989). Widowermaker EP (1989). Hairway to Steven (1988).

Locust Abortion Technician (1987). Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986). Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis EP (1985). Another Man's Sac (1984).

Powerless.. Psychic.. Live PCPPEP (1984). Butthole Surfers EP (1983) (alternate title: "A Brown Reason To Live").

Download sample of "Pepper" from Electriclarryland.