OPERATION IVY (BAND)

'Operation Ivy' were an influential ska-core band that originated from the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The band consisted of frontman Jesse Michaels (vocals), Tim Armstrong (credited as "Lint") (vocals/guitar), Matt Freeman (credited as Matt McCall) (bass/backing vocals), and Dave Mello (Drums/backing vocals). Their name was derived from the Operation Ivy series of nuclear tests; the name was one of many previously abandoned by another Gilman band, Isocracy.

Contents

History

Post-Operation Ivy careers

Leaving Lookout!

Discography

LPs and EPs

Compilations

Live/Rare Recordings

Members

Samples

See also

External links

History

The band existed between May of 1987 and May of 1989, as was chronicled in the lyrics of Rancid song "Journey to the End of the East Bay", which appeared on Rancid's ''...And Out Come the Wolves'': "Started in '87 / Ended in '89 / You got a garage or an amp, man we'll play anytime / It was just the four of us, / Yeah man, the core of us, / Too much attention unavoidably destroyed us".
Their first show was performed on May 16, 1987 in Dave Mello's garage. The next day began a tradition of performances at the Berkeley ska/punk collective center 924 Gilman Street. They began playing a lot of gigs which led to their almost immediate cult-following. Later in 1987 they made their debut on a Maximum Rock'n'Roll compilation called ''Turn it Around''. In January 1988, they signed to Lookout! Records, and released ''Hectic'', their first E.P., which became one of Lookout!'s strongest sellers. By this time Operation Ivy (along with Crimpshrine and The Mr. T Experience) was one of the most popular Gilman/Berkeley Punk bands. They began getting many gigs and set out on a tour across the United States. By mid-1988 they began selling out larger venues and the pressure to sign to major labels began to rise.
They released ''Energy'' on Lookout! Records in May 1989. The band broke up the same month, and their last official show was on May 28, 1989. It was also Green Day's first show with the name "Green Day" at Gilman, at what was supposed to have been their release party. They played one more show the following day, mainly for friends and family, in Robert Eggplant's backyard in Pinole, California. In two years, the band had performed 185 shows and recorded a total of 28 songs.
The lyrics and tone of Operation Ivy's music portray a youthful desire for social justice and a strong distrust of mainstream or conformist culture.
Green Day did a cover of the Operation Ivy song "Knowledge" on the ''1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours'' compilation and have continued to play the song live. Several other artists have covered Operation Ivy songs, many of which are included on Glue Factory Records' 1997 Operation Ivy tribute album, titled ''Take Warning: The Songs of Operation Ivy.'' The most notable bands on this tribute are: Reel Big Fish covering "Unity" (track 2), Blue Meanies covering "Yellin' In My Ear" (track 5), Cherry Poppin' Daddies covering "Sound System" (track 6), The Hippos covering "Freeze Up" (track 10) and The Aquabats with a campfire-style cover of "Knowledge" (track 13). Other bands to cover Operation Ivy songs include a rendition of "Healthy Body" by Area-7, "Sound System" by Big D and the Kids Table, "Caution" by No Trigger and more covers of "Knowledge" by both Millencolin and Evergreen Terrace (band). Many local bands from around the country are keeping the spirit of 87' alive, covering Operation Ivy songs. Additionally, it is not uncommon for Rancid to play a few Operation Ivy songs at their shows.
In 1991, two years after their breakup, Lookout! put together a compilation consisting of the ''Energy'' album, the ''Hectic'' EP, and songs from compilations. It was released as a complete discography (sometimes referred to as a re-release of the ''Energy'' album). It contains 27 songs, following the band's recorded history.

Post-Operation Ivy careers

Two of the band's members, Armstrong and Freeman, also perform(ed) with the bands Rancid (their current and biggest project), Dance Hall Crashers, Basic Radio, Downfall, Devil's Brigade, Shaken 69 and Transplants. Additionally, Freeman has performed with Auntie Christ, Generator, MDC and Social Distortion.
Mello went on to perform with Schlong, and currently The Bowel-Tones and Jewdriver.
There was a great deal of speculation regarding the fate of Michaels. He revealed in an interview that he became a Buddhist monk for about 6 months in 1992 [1]. Legend had it that he had moved to Nicaragua. Michaels eventually resurfaced into the music world with a project band, Big Rig who only released a 4 song EP titled Expansive Heart, and later with a more active band, Common Rider, which included bassist Mass Giorgini (producer and bassist for Squirtgun and occasionally Screeching Weasel) and drummer Dan Lumley (of Squirtgun and Screeching Weasel). Common Rider released a 7" EP and two full-length albums and did some nationwide touring in the United States before eventually disbanding. The band then got back together and did a split EP with the Florida Skacore band Against All Authority. This created rumors of a potential third album by Common Rider, but there has been nothing hinting toward anything coming to fruition.
During Rancid's 2006 US tour, Operation Ivy alumni Armstrong and Freeman were playing a select few tracks from their previous bands catalog. At a stop in San Francisco on December 17th, Jesse Michaels reunited with his two former bandmates to perform the track "Unity." It was his first time on stage with the two in over 15 years.^[1]

Leaving Lookout!

On 4 May 2006, it was announced that ''Energy'' had officially been removed from Lookout! Records' catalog. The album had been, after Green Day's first two albums, the label's biggest-selling album. Following such bands as Green Day, Screeching Weasel, The Queers and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Operation Ivy is the latest in a series of bands who have left Lookout! in recent years and taken back the rights to their back catalog due to unpaid royalties.[2] Originally Rancid Records had set a reissue date for July 10th, 2007, but recently it has been said that the record will come out on Epitaph Records with a planned release date of October 9th, 2007, remastered and with a digipak case. A reunion of the band is not planned for anytime in the future.

Discography

LPs and EPs

'Year'	'Title'	'Label'	'Other information'
1988	''Hectic''	Lookout! Records	Debut EP
1989	''Energy''	Lookout! Records	Original 19-song LP
1991	''Energy''	Lookout! Records	27-song reissue including "Hectic" and "Turn it Around" tracks
1992	''Plea for Peace''	Unknown	Posthumous EP, featuring ''Uncertain'', ''Troublebound'', ''Someday'', and ''Plea for Peace''

Compilations

''Note: these are compilation albums featuring multiple artists. Most of them contain only one or two Operation Ivy songs.''

'Year'	'Song Title'	'Album Title'	'Label'	'Other information'
1987	''Officer,'' ''I Got No''	''Turn It Around''	Maximum Rocknroll	2 7" Vinyl compilation
1988	''Hangin' Out''	''The Thing That Ate Floyd''	Lookout! Records	Compilation
?	''Officer''	''Gilman St. Block Party''	For the Fans by the Fans	Compilation
2004	''Unity''	''Rock Against Bush Vol.2''	Fat Wreck Chords	Compilation

Live/Rare Recordings

'Year'	'Title'	'Label'	'Other information'
?	''Unreleased Energy''	Red Robin Records	Live demo tracks from original Energy LP recordings, collecting some bootleg 7-inches such as Plea For Peace and 69 Newport.
1987	''69 Newport''	Very Small Records	7" Vinyl of unreleased songs.
1987	''Ramones EP''	Metropolis Records	One-sided 12" Vinyl Bootleg of 6 Ramones covers, only 500 copies pressed by an obscure German label. Notorious for being the rarest bootleg, yet having repulsive recording quality.
?	''Lint Rides Again''	Slashout!	Operation Ivy's last show at Gilman St.
1992	''Plea For Peace EP''	Fanclub	First Operation Ivy "Bootleg," put out by friends of the band. Contains four outtakes from the "Hectic" sessions.
1993	''Lint: The King of Ska''	Squamosal	This features a live track and two demos. First pressing has Foghorn Leghorn on side A, black label on side B. Later pressings have blank white labels on both sides.
1994	''Live at Gilman''	Berkeley Archive	A live 7" bootleg EP, containing an Isocracy cover.
1995	''East Bay EP''	57 Ink	A bootleg 7" of live recordings.
1996	''Seedy''	Karma Kredit	A posthumous collection of unreleased material released by David Hayes of Very Small Records.
1996	''Unity: The Complete Collection''	Berkeley Archive	Compilation of several 7" Bootlegs and the rare Ramones EP 12".
1999	''Radio Daze''	Spiked Belts and Beer	Live KSPC Radio recording from March 17, 1988 and April 21, 1988
2000	''Sound System''	Gilman St. Records	Live Radio Show recording, Feb. 1988
?	''Smell Rancid''	Confusion Records	Live at the River Theatre, 1988 recordings
2004	''There's a Place''	Baltan-69	2xCD-R collection of live recordings and studio outtakes taken from original analog sources and master tapes with no mixing, noise reduction, or equalization.

Members

★ Jesse Michaels vocals

★ Tim Armstrong (Lint), guitar and vocals

★ Matt Freeman (Matt McCall), bass and vocals

★ Dave Mello drums and vocals

★ Pat Mello (unofficial 5th member) saxophone and roadie

Samples

★ of "Bad Town" from ''Energy''

★

See also

★ tribute album

External links

★ Fan Site

★ Flipside Interview - Operation Ivy interview from 1988

★ Maximumrocknroll Interview - Operation Ivy interview from 1988