The Vines Wiki Information
The Vines
are an Australian garage rock band notable for producing a musical hybrid of '60s rock and '90s alternative music. Since 2006 their line-up has consisted of vocalist and lead guitarist Craig Nicholls, rhythm guitarist Ryan Griffiths, bassist Brad Heald and drummer Hamish Rosser.
They appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in October 2002 (the first Australian band to do so since Men at Work in 1983) with the words "Rock is Back: meet the Vines" boldly emblazoned underneath. [1] Often referred to as the 'The' bands, The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes and The Vines combined old fashioned punk and adrenaline fuelled riffs to be ushered in at the beginning of 2002 as the saviours of rock. [2]
The Vines have been moderately successful in the Australian recording industry, winning an ARIA in 2002 for Breakthrough Artist and receiving nominations for six other awards in as many years. [3] In 2003, their debut album Highly Evolved
went double platinum in their home country of Australia, [4] and since then the band has released three albums and a "Best-Of" compilation from their time at Capitol Records. They finished working on the new album Melodia
in March 2008 which was released on July 12th 2008 in Australia. [5], in the UK on July 14th, and in the USA on July 22nd.
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THE VINES TICKETS
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History
Formation and early years (1994 - 2000)
The original line-up came together in Sydney in 1994 when
Craig Nicholls and
Patrick Matthews met whilst working at their local
McDonald's in
South Hurstville, NSW. They began playing music together, with Nicholls on guitar and vocals and Matthews on bass. They were soon joined by Matthews' school friend
David Oliffe on drums.
[6] The band was originally named by Nicholls as
Rishikesh
[7], pertaining to a place in India where his favourite band
The Beatles had spent time in the 1960's. The local newspapers regularly misprinted the name as 'Rishi Chasms'
, so Nicholls decided to rename the band
The Vines
, an homage to his father's fronting of a local
Elvis cover-band called The Vynes. They started performing
Nirvana covers at backyard parties while developing a sound of their own on Nicholls' four-track recorder.
Over the next few years, The Vines gigged infrequently and remained relatively unknown, even in their hometown, yet by the beginning of 2001 they had amassed a repertoire of over thirty songs.
When their demo landed at
XL Recordings (U.K. home to artists such as
The White Stripes,
Basement Jaxx and
The Prodigy), XL was quick to put out what was to be their first single, "
Factory", as a limited seven-inch EP and it became NME's Single of the Week in November 2001.
[8]
Highly Evolved,
fame and critical acclaim (2001 - 2003)
In July 2001, the band flew to
Los Angeles to start recording their debut album,
Highly Evolved
, with
Rob Schnapf who had worked with the
Foo Fighters,
Beck and
Elliott Smith. Recording was put on hold soon after, as funds ran low. David Oliffe decided to leave Los Angeles and return to Australia, due to the fast pace of events and pressure of recording. Recording continued a few months later as a result of increasing record company interest, and band had session drummers fill in including
Joey Waronker of
R.E.M. Once back in Australia, they started advertising for a new drummer in late 2001. Soon after, they recruited
Hamish Rosser on drums and Nicholls' best friend
Ryan Griffiths on acoustic guitar.
Their first single "Factory", released in November 2001, attracted little interest in Australia. It got a good response in the
United Kingdom, with the NME hyping the first outing from the Vines as garage rock "of the oldest school."
[9] Record companies were still only considering the release of another EP, however Nicholls was adamant about making a full-length album, and went seeking record companies overseas. The Vines were eventually signed to
Heavenly Records in the UK in December 2001 and
EMI in Australia in April 2002. The single "Highly Evolved" earned them more critical hype as
NME
made it a single of the week in March 2002
[10]. The single charted in the UK at #32 on the singles chart and on Australia's
ARIAnet top 100 singles chart.
The release of the album saw more critical success with the band appearing on the cover of
Rolling Stone and
NME. The album debuted at #3 in the UK's albums chart, #5 in Australia's ARIAnet albums chart, and #11 in the
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 albums chart. The band played high-profile slots on
The Late Show with David Letterman [11] and the
MTV Video Music Awards. A few more singles were released from the album, including "Get Free" and "Outtathaway!". A fourth single, "Homesick", was released in Australia only. The band went on to win an
ARIA Award for "Breakthrough Artist" for their single "
Get Free" in 2003, and were nominated for "Best Group," "Best Rock Album," "Best Cover Art" and "Breakthrough Artist - Album."
sold 1.5 million copies throughout the world with distribution through
Capitol Records.
[12]
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In May 2003, the band went into a studio in
Woodstock, New York with
Rob Schnapf again on production. While Craig Nicholls had talked of having a highly produced album, he told the Australian edition of
Rolling Stone in March 2004 that they decided to stick to a less-is-more philosophy. "I wanted it to be - in my head - something grand, with big ideas and that vision sort of thing. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that something can't be special if it's just simple. Because I think that the songs are the main thing".
[13]
Winning Days
(2004 - 2005)
Their second album,
Winning Days
, was released on
March 29,
2004 and debuted at #7 in Australia, #23 in the US and #29 in the UK. The Vines had recently finished their "Australian Invasion" tour with
Jet and
The Living End, which started on
March 11,
2004 in
Houston, Texas. "Ride" was the first single off the album, and a second single off the album, the title track "Winning Days" was released in Australia (where it did not chart) and the UK. There was speculation that "Animal Machine" would have been the next American single, and early American promotional flats for the album note this. However, there was no American follow-up to "Ride". The song was featured on a
Nissan Cars commercial and an iPod commercial in the US in 2005.
[14], and was featured on season one of the hit FOX show
The O.C. The Vines were featured in The WB television network's image campaign for the 2004-2005 season.
After the conclusion of the
Winning Days
tour, the band found itself in difficulty.
Winning Days
had not lived up to the success of
Highly Evolved
, and had received a generally lukewarm reception from both critics and audiences. Lead singer Nicholls was becoming increasingly erratic, and had to be barred from doing media interviews after several bad experiences on the American tour.
Things came to a head in late May 2004, when bassist Patrick Matthews walked off stage, after Craig shouted at the crowd, calling them sheep, in frustration after repeatedly asking the crowd to stop talking during the first song of a radio promotion performance for national station
Triple M at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney. In the aftermath, Nicholls assaulted a photographer, and charges were pressed. After the incident the band's management stated that the Vines would cease touring in support of
Winning Days
and would record another studio album.
Vision Valley
and a return to the stage (2006 - 2007)
In mid 2005, the group announced they were working on their third album with producer
Wayne Connolly. Andy Kent of fellow Australians
You Am I filled in on bass playing duties. In November of that year, the band's management announced they had finished recording all the songs that would appear on the album. Mixing and mastering of the tracks commenced January 2006. In mid December 2005, it was discovered that one of the songs from the album had been leaked. Although the song was as yet untitled and unfinished, it contained guide vocals and instruments. The band's manager asked for the song to be taken down from the blog it was found on, and drummer Hamish Rosser issued a statement on the band's fan club forum asking fans not to post or distribute the song on the internet.
"
Don't Listen to the Radio" was released as the album's first single and was made available for digital download on March 7th on
iTunes. The song was used on the soundtrack for the video game,
FlatOut 2. "Gross Out" was made available for digital download on March 18th, and was the first song leaked from the album.
Vision Valley
was released on
April 1,
2006 in
Australia,
April 3 in
Europe and
April 4 in the
United States.
Vision Valley
was packed full of short, immediate songs; the album running little over 30 minutes in length. "
Anysound" was the second official single from the album, and an animated music video was released exclusively through
YouTube. "Dope Train" was released as a third single, with a music video composed of candid and live footage of the band from
Big Day Out in 2007.
On
July 19 2006, The Vines played a gig at the Annandale Hotel under the name "Joe Dirt" with a new bassist,
Brad Heald, former bassist
Patrick Matthews having departed the group for Australian alternative band
Youth Group. They announced to their official fan club website, Dreamin The Insane, that they are ready to perform again and are going to schedule shows "any day now."
On July 23rd, the band appeared as a mystery guest at the
Splendour in the Grass festival,
Byron Bay. September 2006 saw The Vines perform at their own shows for the first time in two years. The Vines played in two venues in
Sydney and
Melbourne. All shows at both venues sold out.
The Vines played in the Big Top as part of the
Homebake festival in December 2006. In early February 2007, the band completed their Big Day Out performances to strong and positive press reviews. As part of their set for the
Big Day Out tour, The Vines performed a cover of an
OutKast song, "
So Fresh, So Clean". Frontman Craig Nicholls praised the audience and fans throughout the festival tour, thanking them for "sticking with the band" during the tough times the band had faced preceding the incident at the Annandale Hotel on
May 14,
2004.
Melodia
(2008 - 2009)
After the limited commercial success of
Vision Valley, The Vines were subsequently dropped by their record labels
Capitol Records,
EMI and
Heavenly Records in Mid-2007. All of the labels are owned by
EMI which was bought out by
Terra Firma Capital Partners in Mid-2007. The new owners restructured the label and dropped bands from their roster that they considered to be underperforming in the album sales department. Shortly after however the band was picked up by
Ivy League Records run by the bands management
Winterman & Goldstein for an Australian record deal.
Once a budget was worked out, finalized and given the green light by Ivy League Records for their forthcoming album, The Vines returned to the recording studio in mid-November 2007, with
Highly Evolved and
Winning Days producer
Rob Schnapf in Los Angeles to begin recording
Melodia
.
Bass and Drum track recordings for 15 songs that were considered for inclusion on the forthcoming album were completed in December 2007 during a 5 day recording stint. In March 2008,
NME reported that The Vines fourth studio album had been completed during the week of March the 3rd, 2008 to March the 10th, 2008 with a tentative release date of June, 2008.
After completing
Melodia
in early March, the Vines played the
South By South West festival in
Austin, Texas showcasing new material. They played small venues during this time. On the 23rd of May 2008, it was announced officially that The Vines' new album was to be released on the 12th of July and would be titled 'Melodia'. The first single preceding the release was to be 'He's A Rocker', which saw release through
iTunes on the 3rd of June, 2008 along with two bonus tracks. Follow up singles to 'He's A Rocker' have been the 2nd single
MerryGoRound
which was released for radio airplay in Australia during August 2008. MerryGoRound only received support and backing from
Triple J radio.
Get Out
was released as the third single from
Melodia
in September 2008 for radio airplay and a music video was released to coincide with the release of
Get Out
as a single by Ivy League Records on
Youtube.
Get Out
made its way onto the in game soundtrack of
Midnight Club: Los Angeles released in late October 2008 on
Xbox 360 and
Playstation 3 gaming platforms.
In October 2008, The Vines commenced a national Australian tour in support of
Melodia
playing small venues across major cities throughout Australia including
The Metro Theatre (Sydney), ANU Bar (Canberra), The HiFi Bar (Melbourne), The Great Northern Bar (Byron Bay), The Tivoli (Brisbane), The Governor Hindmarsh (Adelaide)and The Rosemount Hotel (Perth).
In November 2008, The Vines were announced as being part of the lineup for the 2009 Australian
Big Day Out but on November 14 the band cancelled all forthcoming live appearances, including
Homebake 2008 and their Japanese tour citing the deterioration of Nicholls' mental health during the course of their October tour in Australia as the reason.
[15]
5th Album
(2009 - Present)
Signs of a follow-up to Melodia emerged in early May 2009, when photos surfaced on The Vines official forum, showing Nicholls "recording demos for the new album". The photos, posted by Nicholls' sister, Jessica, show Craig with an acoustic guitar and what appears to be a 4-track cassette recorder.
[16]
Musical style
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, yet they are a band which often defies classification. On their debut album alone, the eclectic talents of the band can be heard in the
"1969". Much of the band's early
cover band. Nicholls' high energy guitar riffs and the band's raw sound draws influence from American lo-fi rockers
. Additionally influenced by 60s psychedelic music and 70s punk, Nicholls and the band create a sound that they can call their own.
presented a different side of the band. No sooner had they finished their lengthy tour, they wearily boarded a plane to record their sophomore album. On
, ex-bassist Matthews believed that it was a step in a different direction for the band. "The themes are more introspective and less wild rock'n'roll."
Nicholls’ continues to push the limits of his vocal ability; his distinct "vocal wail" contrasting his "seductive melodic curls"
shows a "back to basics" approach, with independence inside and outside the recording studio. No longer bound to strict contracts, the band was able to cope with Nicholls' condition and record a record with the utmost freedom.
Upon the release of their debut album, The Vines were hailed as “the second coming of Nirvana" by the British press; their post-grunge/garage sound was considered reminiscent of the Seattle scene circa ’91, and Nicholls' erratic on stage behavior, heavy
use and raw vocals drew comparisons between him and Kurt Cobain.
, became a huge success and their accompanying live shows in the early years were praised as "electrifying" and "sensational".
were varied at best. Described as being "nothing more than boring and harmlessly vapid" yet showing "only mild promise" by
Chris Ott.
was lackluster.
In 2006, The Vines created a decorated heart card to benefit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals . In 2007, the group joined the organization in calling for an end to Canada's seal hunt.
.