You Am I
Band page written for muisc website in Brussels.
Line-Up :
> Stalwarts of the Australian music scene, with six albums to date since forming in 1990 and a seventh due for release in 2006. You am I came out of the shadows of the grunge era and matured into a fierce rock’n roll combo. Their protaganist Tim Rogers, a gifted songwriter capturing the essence of daily life, loves and struggles with heart worn high and proud on his sleeve and a spirited frontman, channeling the energy and manic moves of Pete Townsend and seemingly more at home on a stage than anywhere else. They could do no wrong in Australia in the mid 90’s, three consecutive albums debuting at #1 on the ARIA charts, eight national ARIA. The band made numerous festival appearances, overseas tours, television appearances and a triumphant 6 night sell out stretch at Sydney’s largest venue. Yet the band has been unable to crack the big-time, seemingly destined to be hometown heroes, remembered as providers of a rollicking show every time they roll into town rather than a big selling, world-touring stadium band that they could so easily be. As one reviewer states: “A dozen or so of their tracks land a millimetre from the bullseye, but none connects cleanly or perfectly."
The rock ‘n ‘roll calling came for Tim Rogers at age 14, whilst having his teeth drilled at the mobile dentist, Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones came on and he instantly knew what he wanted to be and his first guitar bought soon after. His first band came whilst studying arts/law at university, a trio called The Pleasureheads. In second year of university, Rogers decides to return home, prompted by a call from a friend who was playing music with Tim’s brother. Tim, then aged 19 joined them and began to write songs. His initial discovery about songwriting was “that you didn't have to write stadium rockers. You could write very plaintive songs about how you felt." This was to be a theme throughout both the bands and Tim’s solo songs. Relationships laid bare, failings laid open as the reality of life on the road takes its toll on those left behind.
The band’s first live performance came in 1990 supporting Sydney band Box The Jesuit at a venue called the Cave and played anywhere they could. The band released a single and an EP and gained label attention, mostly due to thier live reputation. The band signed with RooArt, a label started by lawyer Chris Murphy, with a view of taking Australian alternative bands to the mainstream national and international markets, the first release was the Can’t Get Started EP. The band then set to work on another EP, recorded in New York with Sonic Youth’s Lee Ronaldo producing, who initially saw the band when they both played the Big Day Out Festival in 1993. The debut album - Sound As Ever -was released in November 1993, with single Berlin Chair proving to be the bands most recognisable songs, appearing in a Best 100 Australian songs of all time poll.
The band went from strength to strength with their next three albums debuting at number 1 in the national charts. Constant touring saw the band play many big Australian festivals including Livid and The Future Sounds of Sydney, and became near premanent fixtures on the large annual summer festivals Homebake, The Big Day Out and The Falls Fastival. The band made thier first overseas tour at the request of Soundgarden, who had them as support on a tour of America in 1994. On a second trip overseas in 1996, You am I played on the Lollapalooza festival, supported the Lemonheads in Amsterdam, America and Canada and returned to play the farewell concert for Crowded House on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House. 1997 saw the band reach Europe, with shows at the Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium, the Reading Festival in England and the Lowlands Festival, Netherlands. The next year saw a tour of Japan and Hong Kong supporting Oasis, whose Liam Gallagher was quoted as saying of the band “so fookin’ good, I want to put ‘em on me mantlepiece” and US tours in May and December. The band was unable to break through in the international market, and it wasnt until 2002 at request of the Strokes, who had played support to the band in Australia, that the band made it back overseas. In fact many acts who have been invited to tour with You Am I have gone onto much bigger and better things, The Vines, Jet and Powderfinger have all supported the band, as have The Strokes, who the band bought out to Australia as unknowns, prior to their first album being released. In an attempt to capture the band’s live energy, a live album, “Saturday Night Round Ten” was recorded from a three-night stand at a warehouse in Melbourne in 1999. A new guitar player, Davel Lane joined the band in 2001, he came to the bands attention by the incredibly accurate transcribing of guitar tablature for the bands website and his performances in the band - The Pictures, which began as a The Who coverband.
The band produced some of their most critically and musically astute work with the Dress Me Slowly and Deliverance albums however their fanbase had seemingly moved on. The band members also were pursuing other interests, Tim releasing a solo album - What Rhymes with Cars and Girls and Ghost Songs/Dirty Ron double album with The Temperance Union, Russel Hopkinson starting a record lable - Reverberation, Davey concentrating on The Pictures and Andy becoming the manaegr for the band and also involved in Love Police, a merchandise and touring company. A best -of album - Cream and the Crock - and accompanying DVD was released in 2003, which proved to be their last for BMG (which had acquired the RooArt label). An album, Convicts was self recorded by the band and is to be released in May 2006 by EMI. Upon signing the band, the MD of EMI said “You Am I are one of the best Australian bands of all-time. Their body of work has left an indelible stamp on this country over the last decade and more – and they have influenced just about every artist of substance to have emerged since they started,”
Discography
posted by andy @ 7:07 PM
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