Dave Matthews Band

views updated Jun 08 2018

Dave Matthews Band

Rock band

Native of South Africa

Birth of Dave Matthews Band

Major Label Debut

Selected discography

Sources

Recalling the first time he played with the musicians who would eventually fill out his band, Dave Matthews remarked in Guitar World, We all got together just to jam and I was blown away. I had never experienced anything like it before. What immediately appealed to me was the spontaneity of their playing. Everything just flows for them. The other musiciansviolinist Boyd Tinsley, saxophonist LeRoi Moore, bass player Stefan Lessard, and drummer Carter Beaufordwere excited by the results of that April 1991 gig as well, and within a matter of weeks the players coalesced under the banner of the Dave Matthews Band. The group quickly embarked on a wave of furious touring that sparked a devoted cult following and, a few years later, a contract with recording giant RCA. Since then, two well-received albums1994s Under the Table and Dreaming and 1996s Crashhave firmly established the Dave Matthews Band as one of rock and rolls most talented and versatile musical groups.

Native of South Africa

Matthews was born in 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The son of a physicist, he grew up in comfortable surroundings but was appalled by the countrys political system of apartheid. By the time he graduated from high school, he had participated in a number of marches and other activities designed to end apartheid. There would be people singing the most incredible music in the face of police with tear gas and bats, he recalled in an interview with the Boston Globes Steve Morse. The singing gives a sense of being completely invincible, which is not true, but it is in a way. It keeps the spirit of the people up. A lot of that hope and spirit is going to save that country, and has enabled the guilty people there to be forgiven.

After graduating from high school, Matthews left for the United States, eventually settling in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his mother. I got an inscription letter from the South African army and said, Im out of here, he told Guitar World. This, of course, was when apartheid still ruled, and I wasnt going to serve in that army. Over the next several years he worked on his songwriting and guitar playing, supporting himself as a bartender. After a while he became acquainted with LeRoi Moore and Carter Beauford, two highly regarded local jazz musicians. I served both LeRoi and Carter a lot of drinks, Matthews recalled in Guitar World, and somewhere along the way I told them about this tape I was making and asked if theyd be interested in doing some recording, maybe playing out a little. I didnt ask for any commitmentI wouldnt have dared. They were both

For the Record

Band members include Dave Matthews (acoustic guitar and lead vocals), Boyd Tinsley (violin), LeRoi Moore (saxophone), Stefan Lessard (bass guitar), and Carter Beauford (drums).

Group formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1989; made first appearance as band in Charlottesville on Earth Day, April 1991; toured throughout early 1990s, including withH.O.R.D.E. festival; releasedRem ember Two Things and EP Recently on own Bama Rags label; after signing with RCA, released Under the Table and Dreaming, 1994, which went triple platinum; participated in 1996 H.O.R.D.E. tour; released Crash, 1996.

Awards: Two Grammy Award nominations, 1994, for single What Would You Say.

Addresses: Agent Red Light Management, P.O. Box 1911, Charlottesville, VA 22903. Record company RCA Records, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

older than me, and much better musicians. And when I met Stefan [Lessard], he was some kind of bass prodigy. He was still in high school and was playing upright bass with both Carter and LeRoi, cats twice his age.

Birth of Dave Matthews Band

Once the musicians got together, they quickly realized that Matthews pop-folk-African music sensibilities and the other players jazz background made for a tantalizing mix. We gelled in a really profound way, said Matthews in Guitar World, and it was obvious to all of us that we should stick with it, keep exploring and see what we could come up with. A short time later, the musicians added violinist Boyd Tinsley to the stew, and the fledgling band began making plans to play live.

Over the next few years, the Dave Matthews Band became a fixture on the college concert circuit in the Southeastern United States. Dazzled by the bands high-energy stage presence and unquestioned musical chops, a devoted grassroots following soon emerged. As the bands visibility increased, much was made of Matthews South African background, since three other members of the bandMoore, Beauford, and Tinsleyare black. However, Matthews expressed little patience with suggestions that the fact of his birthplace somehow made their collaboration illegitimate. Its such an absurd idea that by virtue of living in a place that Im guilty of the sins, he told huH magazine, pointing out that the United States has had more than its share of problems with race relations. My feelings are that South Africa is a raging example to the rest of the worldand most poignantly to Americaon a way to deal with the issues of race. In a small period of time, theyve done the most thorough and the most relentless purging; its phenomenal. Its something that America has done the opposite of over the years: were patching and hiding and shoving under the carpet. If you show the wounds, they have time to heal, but if you hide them, they just fester.

Major Label Debut

The bands blistering live shows, which were on full display during acoupleof H.O.R.D.E. tours, where they shared the stage with such bands as Blues Traveler and Phish, soon gained the attention of major record labels. RCA eventually signed the band, and in 1994 the Dave Matthews Band unveiled their first major label effort, Under the Table and Dreaming. The album garnered largely favorable reviews from critics impressed with the bands instrumental facility and its unique blend of jazz, rock, and folk. People reviewer Geoffrey Welch-man remarked that the album has a beguiling sound all its own, a sound that mixes jazzy acoustic guitar riffs with spiraling sax solos. Buoyed by their live reputation and What Would You Say, a catchy single that eventually garnered two Grammy nominations, Under the Table and Dreaming sold more than three million copies.

Two years later the Dave Matthews Band released their follow-up effort, Crash. In contrast to the bands first effort, Crash featured a heavier emphasis on electric guitar, courtesy of Matthews friend, guitarist Tim Reynolds. As with its predecessor, however, the album was hailed as a funky hybrid of roots rock and freewheeling jazz fusion. Los Angeles Times reviewer Sara Scribner wrote that Matthews mostly fuels Crash with the same sultry, loose-limbed offering of polyrhythmic, jazzy fusion that marked the earlier album, and Andréw Abrahams commented in People that as alternative music threatens to become just another bland pop category, the Dave Matthews Band successfully redefines it on its own eclectic terms. Entertainment Weekly agreed, noting that to rock fans burned out on the hordes of Nirvana knockoffs and Hootie hopefuls, the Virginia-based quintets ear-catching jazz-folkf usion must seem like an entirely new genre.

For his part, Matthews indicated that the band enjoyed putting together Crash more than their first RCA album. For [Under the Table and Dreaming], we did it by the book, he told Morse. [Crash] is more by ourbook. We just got in a circlereminiscent of our early rehearsalsand played to each other. There was a lot of creating as we went, a lot of jamming, and hours and hours of tape used up. And it really lent itself to an energy. There are very different songs from one to the next, but I feel there was a sensibility that stayed the same.

Armed with two lively, popular records and a devoted grassroots following, the members of the Dave Matthews Band are enjoying their stardom. But Matthews seemed to recognize that fame can be a fleeting thing. This will pass, he told huH magazine. It may be twenty-five years, it may be two years, who knows? I might go over the edge in a week. My time is temporary, so Im going to make the most of it.

Selected discography

Remember Two Things, Bama Rag, 1993.

Under the Table and Dreaming, RCA, 1994.

Crash, RCA, 1996.

Sources

Baltimore Sun, April 25, 1996.

Boston Globe, April 26, 1996.

Detroit News and Free Press, April 28, 1996.

Entertainment Weekly, November 11, 1994; May 3, 1996.

Guitar Player, August 1996.

Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1996.

New York Post, April 30, 1996; June 11, 1996.

New York Times, May 26, 1996; June 11, 1996.

People, November 7, 1994; May 6, 1996.

Philadelphia Inquirer, June 8, 1996.

Rolling Stone, May 16, 1996; June 27, 1996.

Stereo Review, February 1995.

Additional information was gathered from RCA Records publicity materials, Spin magazine, Guitar World magazine, and huH magazine.

Laurie Collier Hillstrom

Dave Matthews Band

views updated May 23 2018

Dave Matthews Band

Rock group

Recalling the first time he played with the musicians who would eventually fill out his band, Dave Matthews remarked in Guitar World, "We all got together just to jam and I was blown away. I had never experienced anything like it before. What immediately appealed to me was the spontaneity of their playing. Everything just flows for them." The other musiciansviolinist Boyd Tinsley, saxophonist LeRoi Moore, bass player Stefan Lessard, and drummer Carter Beaufordwere excited by the results of that April 1991 gig as well, and within a matter of weeks the players coalesced under the banner of the Dave Matthews Band. The group quickly embarked on a wave of furious touring that sparked a devoted cult following and, a few years later, a contract with recording giant RCA. Not long afterward, two well-received albums1994's Under the Table and Dreaming and 1996's Crash firmly established the Dave Matthews Band as one of rock and roll's most talented and versatile musical groups.

Matthews was born in 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The son of a physicist, he grew up in comfortable surroundings but was appalled by the country's political system of apartheid. By the time he graduated from high school, he had participated in a number of marches and other activities designed to end apartheid. "There would be people singing the most incredible music in the face of police with tar gas and bats," he recalled in an interview with the Boston Globe 's Steve Morse. "The singing gives a sense of being completely invincible, which is not true, but it is in a way. It keeps the spirit of the people up. A lot of that hope and spirit is going to save that country, and has enabled the guilty people there to be forgiven."

After graduating from high school, Matthews left for the United States, eventually settling in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his mother. "I got an inscription letter from the South African army and said, 'I'm out of here,'" he told Guitar World. "This, of course, was when apartheid still ruled, and I wasn't going to serve in that army." Over the next several years he worked on his song-writing and guitar playing, supporting himself as a bartender. After a while he became acquainted with LeRoi Moore and Carter Beauford, two highly regarded local jazz musicians. "I served both LeRoi and Carter a lot of drinks," Matthews recalled in Guitar World, "and somewhere along the way I told them about this tape I was making and asked if they'd be interested in doing some recording, maybe playing out a little. I didn't ask for any commitmentI wouldn't have dared. They were both older than me, and much better musicians. And when I met Stefan [Lessard], he was some kind of bass prodigy. He was still in high school and was playing upright bass with both Carter and LeRoi, cats twice his age."

Once the musicians got together, they quickly realized that Matthews' pop-folk-African music sensibilities and the other players' jazz background made for a tantalizing mix. "We gelled in a really profound way," said Matthews in Guitar World, "and it was obvious to all of us that we should stick with it, keep exploring and see what we could come up with." A short time later, the musicians added violinist Boyd Tinsley to the stew, and the fledgling band began making plans to play live.

For the Record

Members include Carter Beauford , drums; Stefan Lessard , bass guitar; Dave Matthews (born in 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa), acoustic guitar, lead vocals; LeRoi Moore , saxophone; Boyd Tinsley , violin.

Group formed in Charlottesville, VA, 1989; made first appearance as band in Charlottesville on Earth Day, 1991; toured throughout early 1990s, including with H.O.R.D.E. festival; released Remember Two Things and EP Recently on own Bama Rags label; after signing with RCA, released multi-platinum album Under the Table and Dreaming, 1994; participated in H.O.R.D.E. tour, 1996; released Crash, 1996; released Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95, 1997; released Before These Crowded Streets, 1998; released live recording Listener Supported, 1999; released Everyday, 2001; released Live at Folsom Field, Boulder, 2002; released Central Park Concert, 2003.

Awards: Grammy Award, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, 1997; My VH1 Music Awards, Best Live Act and Coolest Fan Website, 2000; My VH1 Music Awards, Favorite Band, Favorite Album for Everyday, and Favorite Song for "The Space Between," 2001; Grammy Award, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Gravedigger," 2003; NAACP Chairman's Award, 2004.

Addresses: Agent Red Light Management, P.O. Box 1911, Charlottesville, VA 22903. Record companies RCA Records, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. Bama Rags Record, 3305 Lobban Pl., Charlottesville, VA 22903. Website Dave Matthews Band Official Website: http://www.davematthewsband.com.

Over the next few years, the Dave Matthews Band became a fixture on the college concert circuit in the Southeastern United States. Dazzled by the band's high-energy stage presence and unquestioned musical chops, a devoted grassroots following soon emerged. As the band's visibility increased, much was made of Matthews' South African background, since three other members of the bandMoore, Beauford, and Tinsleyare black. However, Matthews expressed little patience with suggestions that the fact of his birthplace somehow made their collaboration illegitimate. "It's such an absurd idea that by virtue of living in a place that I'm guilty of the sins," he told huH magazine, pointing out that the United States has had more than its share of problems with race relations. "My feelings are that South Africa is a raging example to the rest of the worldand most poignantly to Americaon a way to deal with the issues of race. In a small period of time, they've done the most thorough and the most relentless purging; it's phenomenal. It's something that America has done the opposite of over the years: we're patching and hiding and shoving under the carpet. If you show the wounds, they have time to heal, but if you hide them, they just fester."

The band's blistering live shows, which were on full display during a couple of H.O.R.D.E. tours, where they shared the stage with such bands as Blues Traveler and Phish, soon gained the attention of major record labels. RCA eventually signed the band, and in 1994 the Dave Matthews Band unveiled their first major label effort, Under the Table and Dreaming. The album garnered largely favorable reviews from critics impressed with the band's instrumental facility and its unique blend of jazz, rock, and folk. People reviewer Geoffrey Welchman remarked that the album "has a beguiling sound all its own, a sound that mixes jazzy acoustic guitar riffs with spiraling sax solos." Buoyed by their live reputation and "What Would You Say," a catchy single that eventually garnered two Grammy nominations, Under the Table and Dreaming sold more than three million copies.

Two years later the Dave Matthews Band released their follow-up effort, Crash. In contrast to the band's first effort, Crash featured a heavier emphasis on electric guitar, courtesy of Matthew's friend, guitarist Tim Reynolds. As with its predecessor, however, the album was hailed as a funky hybrid of roots rock and freewheeling jazz fusion. Los Angeles Times reviewer Sara Scribner wrote that "Matthews mostly fuels Crash with the same sultry, loose-limbed offering of polyrhythmic, jazzy fusion" that marked the earlier album, and Andrew Abrahams commented in People that "as alternative music threatens to become just another bland pop category, the Dave Matthews Band successfully redefines it on its own eclectic terms." Entertainment Weekly agreed, noting that "to rock fans burned out on the hordes of Nirvana knockoffs and Hootie hopefuls, the Virginia-based quintet's ear-catching jazz-folk fusion must seem like an entirely new genre."

For his part, Matthews indicated that the band enjoyed putting together Crash more than their first RCA album. "For [Under the Table and Dreaming, ] we did it by the book," he told Morse. "[Crash ] is more by our book. We just got in a circlereminiscent of our early rehearsalsand played to each other. There was a lot of creating as we went, a lot of jamming, and hours and hours of tape used up. And it really lent itself to an energy. There are very different songs from one to the next, but I feel there was a sensibility that stayed the same."

Playing on the strength of their live performances and the energy derived from jamming together, by 2003 the group had released no less than four live albums. One of these included a benefit for New York City public schools that was performed to a crowd of 10,000 in Central Park. In 1998, they released their third studio album, Before These Crowded Streets. The album showcased the band in collaboration with diverse artists such as Canadian alternative pop star Alanis Morrisette, banjo innovator Bela Fleck, and avant-garde musicians Kronos Quartet. Their 2001 release Everyday strayed from the band's typical jam-style, which disappointed many of their fans. In response, they went back to the studio and reworked the material. That collection, called Busted Stuff found the band back in familiar territory and eventually made it to number one on the Billboard 200.

Matthews is well aware of the ephemeral quality of his band's popularity but also the importance of making a difference while he can. "This will pass," he told huH magazine. "It may be twenty-five years, it may be two years, who knows? I might go over the edge in a week. My time is temporary, so I'm going to make the most of it." In 1999, they formed the Bama Works Foundation, through which the band channels millions of dollars to charitable organizations worldwide as well as supporting those in their community of Charlottesville, Virginia. For this work, the band was a 2004 recipient of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) Chairman's Award.

Armed with popular records and a devoted grassroots following, the members of the Dave Matthews Band are enjoying their stardom. The band continues to draw huge numbers of fans to its live performanceswith concert procedes often outstripping sales of its album sales. Their humility aside, it would appear that the Dave Matthews Band will be around for years to come.

Selected discography

Remember Two Things, Bama Rags, 1993.

Under the Table and Dreaming, RCA, 1994.

Crash, RCA, 1996.

Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95, Bama Rags/RCA, 1997.

Before These Crowded Streets, RCA, 1998.

Listener Supported, RCA, 1999.

Everyday, RCA, 2001.

Live at Folsom Field, Boulder, RCA, 2002.

Busted Stuff, Bama Rags/RCA, 2002.

Central Park Concert, RCA, 2003.

Sources

Associated Press, December 1, 2000.

Baltimore Sun, April 25, 1996.

Boston Globe, April 26, 1996.

Calgary Herald (Canada), May 6, 1998, p. F3.

Detroit News and Free Press, April 28, 1996.

Entertainment Weekly, November 11, 1994; May 3, 1996.

Guitar Player, August 1996.

Hollywood Reporter, December 4, 2001.

huH, 1996.

Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1996.

New York Post, April 30, 1996; June 11, 1996.

New York Times, May 26, 1996; June 11, 1996.

People, November 7, 1994; May 6, 1996.

Philadelphia Inquirer, June 8, 1996.

Rolling Stone, May 16, 1996; June 27, 1996.

Stereo Review, February 1995.

Times Union (Albany, NY), January 29, 2004, p. 16.

Additional information was obtained from RCA Records publicity materials, 1997.

Laurie Collier Hillstrom and

Eve M. B. Hermann

Dave Matthews Band

views updated May 21 2018

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND


Formed: 1991, Charlottesville, Virginia

Members: Carter Beauford, drums (born Charlottesville, Virginia, 2 November 1958); Stefan Lessard, bass (born Anaheim, California, 4 June 1974); Dave Matthews, vocals, guitar (born Johannesburg, South Africa, 9 January 1967); LeRoi Moore, saxophone, flute (born Durham, North Carolina, 7 September 1961); Boyd Tinsley, violin (born Charlottesville, Virginia, 16 May 1964).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Crash (1996)

Hit songs since 1990: "What Would You Say," "Crash into Me," "The Space Between"


With jazzy chords, theatrical vocals, and impeccable guitar solos, the Dave Matthews Band was one of the most musically masterful groups to make the Top 40 playlists during the 1990s and 2000s.

Lead singer Dave Matthews picked up plenty of musical influences during his childhood. His father was a physicist who performed research in remote locales; the family moved constantly. During his time in South Africa, Matthews absorbed African rhythms but also listened to rock. In the 1980s, he settled in Virginia and began playing small gigs. He formed his band with other local musicians he admired. However, he later expressed regret about naming the band after himself, emphasizing that his band mates influence him more than he influences them.

With three black and two white members, the band is one of the few that is racially integrated. The group attracted label RCA's attention by selling 100,000 copies of independent release Remember Two Things (1993). The band's major-label debut, Under the Table and Dreaming (1994), followed and it broke through the grunge and neopunk prevalent at modern rock radio with the single "What Would You Say." With a time-signature change and outstanding tenor saxophone solo, it is musically far more challenging than typical radio fare. However, the song's rumbling groove and Matthews's extroverted baritone overcame doubts by nervous program directors, and the group had its first hit.

With the potentially make-or-break sophomore album coming up, the band decided to show more of its personality, figuring that long-term success would only be worthwhile if it reflected the band's true nature. For Crash (1996), the band pretested much of the new material on the road and recorded many of the tracks "live in the studio" as a band, instead of one instrument at a time. The first single "Too Much" is a grooving, funk track that skewers gluttony. While its relatively simple hook makes it a logical choice for radio and MTV, that quality makes it seem too blatantly commercial for many diehard fans. For a band with Matthews's reputation, it was not the best choice for a single. Even boosters wondered if the band's 19941995 success had been a fluke.

The follow-up single, "So Much to Say," whose midtempo groove, baritone saxophone, and wide-ranging vocals are more representative of the Dave Matthews Band that fans know and love, was another modest hit. It took a third single, "Crash into Me," to both please the old fans and create new ones. The song is a ballad, but the rainy guitar riffs, seductive lyrics, and gentle percussion make it far different from cloying adult contemporary fare. A perfect soundtrack to romantic activities, the song spent fifty-two weeks on the Hot 100 chart. After some tense moments, the gamble on a more authentic sound paid off, and the album went on to sell more than 7 million copies.

For many bands, live albums seem like little more than vanity affairs full of gratuitous applause and frantic

postproduction. However, the Dave Matthews Band is in its element on stage. Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95 (1997) is one of the band's most important albums, showing the group's improvisational prowess.

The stellar success of Crash seemed to give the band license to indulge its jam-band tendencies on Before These Crowded Streets (1998), many of whose songs clock in at more than seven minutes. Interestingly, the group denies it is a jam band, saying extended solos are common in jazz. The album boasts some interesting guest artistsalternative rock star Alanis Morissette sings on "Spoon" and the Peter Gabriel-esque "Don't Drink the Water" features Bela Fleck on banjo. Matthews opens the album with the world beat groove and scat singing of "Pantala Naga Pampa." The variety continues with the next track, "Rapunzel," one of the group's most R&B-influenced tunes. Steve Lillywhite, one of the top and best-known producers in rock, produced the album, as he did with the previous two studio sets. Although the album was geared more toward die-hard fans and produced no big hits, it sold more than 3 million copies.

By the late 1990s, the Dave Matthews Band had become a phenomenon among college students, young professionals, and so-called bourgeois bohemians. The loyal fans at its concerts prompted comparisons to the Grateful Dead's followers, known as Deadheads; both bands took a relaxed attitude toward home taping of their concerts. Matthews kept the bootleggers from making all the live-recording profits by releasing live albums at a frequent pace, every two years or so.

The band headed back to the studio with Lillywhite in 2000, but management and the label were unhappy with the sessions, which were proceeding under the working title The Summer So Far. Before These Crowded Streets had been a more self-indulgent effort, and it sold less than half of what Crash did. Now the label was getting reports that the band's new material was even less pop-oriented and more introspective. Worried, the band and label agreed to scrap the sessions and start from scratch with proven hit-maker Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette, No Doubt). Matthews began writing more upbeat material.

The result, Everyday (2001), represents a commercial comeback, though naturally some hardcore fans were skeptical of the more mainstream material. Ballard updates the group's sound, bringing electric guitars to the forefront and using echo and reverb to recast Matthews's voice. Matthews sings with a grainier, less twangy tone, and comes across somewhat like Peter Gabriel. He gamely goes along with plugging in his guitar, saying he preferred acoustic guitar in the past because it was what he knew best. "I Did It," a funky confession of sins along the lines of "Too Much," showcases the more compact, slick sound. The group kicks into an uncharacteristically aggressive rock groove on "When the World Ends," which also throws a curve by using layered strings, not just Boyd Tinsley's violin. Ballard brings the drums high in the mix on "So Right," all the better with which to get radio's attention, though Tinsley's colorful violin keeps the song grounded in the band's familiar tradition. Like Crash, this album earned its biggest hit with a ballad. "The Space Between" fuses the group's jazzy, sax-fueled, loose-jointed groove with a bright, modern electric guitar riff. Not quite as steamy as Crash, it delighted listeners nonetheless. With economic uncertainty and the September 11 terrorist attacks, 2001 was a depressed year for music sales, but Everyday managed to equal its predecessor's sales of 3 million.

Delighting fans, the group resurrected much of the unreleased 2000 material in 2002, promoting longtime engineer Steve Harris as producer of Busted Stuff (2002). Matthews goes back to the acoustic guitar and the tempo slows down a bit. "Grey Street" exemplifies the slightly more melancholy approach, as Matthews croons sympathetic lyrics: "There's an emptiness inside her / and she'd do almost anything to fill it in." However, the group still lets loosethe minor-key "Captain" features some of Stefan Lessard's best bass playing. The album includes a bonus DVD with live footage. Matthews is more lyrically introspective and mellow, perhaps a consequence of his becoming a father. Despite his fame, he continues to live in Charlottesville, Virginia, though he and his wife also have a home in suburban Seattle, Washington.

Long solos, complex chords, and diverse instrumentation are far from the stereotypical makings of a band that regularly conquers the Top 40. Outliving grunge, bubblegum, and skate-rock fads, the eclectic, unpredictable Dave Matthews Band gives idealists faith in an industry where sometimes talent is not as important as looks and demographic trends.

Spot Light: Busted Stuff

The Dave Matthews Band stood at a crossroads in 2002. It was about to release Busted Stuff, even though much of the album's material had been circulating around the Internet for more than a year. Nine of the album's eleven songs were originally recorded in 2000 with longtime producer Steve Lillywhite. However, when the project was scrapped in 2001 for seeming too melancholy and the band put out the sunnier Everyday instead, fans had a field day sending each other copies of what they dubbed The Lillywhite Sessions. Redoing the material with producer Steve Harris in 2002, the band changed some lyrics and added two new songs, "Where Are You Going" and "You Never Know." Many wondered if the release was redundant, since almost every loyal fan already had most of the material. But the band's reworking paid off. The word quickly got around that the arrangements and many of the lyrics were different, and fans also banded together to send a message that they were not trying to pick the band's pocket by avidly trading music. The album easily debuted at number one, selling more than 621,000 copies its first week.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Under the Table and Dreaming (RCA, 1994); Crash (RCA, 1996); Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95 (Bama Rags/RCA, 1997); Before These Crowded Streets (RCA, 1998); Everyday (RCA, 2001); Busted Stuff (RCA, 2002).

ramiro burr

Dave Matthews Band

views updated May 23 2018

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band , cosmopolitan roots rock band; formed Charlottesville, Va., 1991. MEMBERSHIP : Dave Matthews, voc., gtr. (b. Johannesburg, South Af-rica, Jan. 9,1967); Boyd Tinsley, vln.; LeRoi Moore, sax.; Stefan Lessard, bs.; Carter Beauford, drm.

Dave Matthews, a regular-joe musician who initially played clubs on the Univ. of Va. campus, has used constant touring and a hypnotic jazz-rock sound to become one of the biggest rock stars of recent years. At age two, he and his family moved from racially divided Johannesburg to the N.Y.C. suburb of Yorktown Heights. After relocating to Charlottesville as an adult, he put together a band, picking up Carter Beauford and LeRoi Moore (regular performers at Miller’s, a jazz club where Matthews tended bar), then-16-year-old bass prodigy Stefan Lessard, and violinist Boyd Tinsley. Dave Matthews Band played its first gig in front of 40 people on May 11, 1991, on the roof of a Charlottesville apartment building. After performing as part of a 1991 Earth Day festival, the band found a permanent place to play: the Eastern Standard, a small restaurant, on Tuesday nights. Eventually, the band moved on to a club called Trax and its Tuesday night shows became a “must see.” Because the band allows fans to tape shows, Dave Matthews Band’s first recordings were bootlegs; its first official album was the live Remember Two Things. From those small beginnings, DMB won opening concert slots from fellow jam-rockers such as The Samples, then made smash hits out of catchy, bouncy numbers from its breakthrough 1994 album, Under the Table and Dreaming. Ambitious but unpretentious, Matthews’s open-minded music found its moment with later- 1990s youth’s peace-craving outlook and genre-crossing tastes, and the band has been turning arenas and stadia into the intimate clubs of their ascension ever since.

Discography

Remember Two Things (1993); Under the Table and Dreaming (1994); Crash (1996); Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95 (1997); Before These Crowded Streets (1998); Listener Supported (1999). DAVE MATTHEWS AND TIM REYNOLDS:Live at Luther College (1999).

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