WOLFMOTHER

'Wolfmother' is an Australian Grammy Award and ARIA award winning hard rock band from Sydney, New South Wales.

Contents

History

International success

Critical response

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

Videography

Awards and nominations

Awards

Nominations

References

External links

History

After releasing their self-titled debut EP through Modular Recordings in September 2004, Wolfmother began appearing at several high profile music events, such as Homebake and the Big Day Out. The EP was a success, reaching number thirty-five in the ARIA singles chart and receiving consistent radio play on Triple J.
In 2005, the band made their way to Los Angeles, working alongside producer Dave Sardy (Marilyn Manson, Oasis) to record their eponymous debut album, released in October 2005.
The first single to be released was "Mind's Eye"/"Woman" (a double A-side), making its debut on the Australian music charts at number twenty-nine. The album itself entered the Australian Charts at number three and has been a regular feature of the Top 20 ever since, having gone platinum three times. Wolfmother won the 2005 J Award from the Australian youth radio network Triple J for the best Australian album of the year,^[5] and finished the year with Falls Festival appearances. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine listed Wolfmother as one of their "Top 10 Bands to Watch 2006."^[6]
They achieved a record breaking six songs in the influential 2005 Triple J Hottest 100, with "Mind's Eye" their highest entry at number six. This breaks the record of five songs previously held by Powderfinger, Queens of the Stone Age, Silverchair and The White Stripes.

In 2006, they played their second Big Day Out tour in January, and released their second Australian single, "White Unicorn." The band performed at the Austin, Texas SXSW festival in March and Coachella in April where they were commonly cited as the 'breakout' band of the year.^[7] They also performed at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in May, and at the Oxegen festival, Bonnaroo and the Roskilde Festival in July.

International success

Wolfmother have enjoyed considerable success in reaction to the mid-2000s Retro Metal movement, at which they are often considered the chief pioneer. Many of their songs have been featured in the advertising of many products including the Apple iPod, multiple Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 games, the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer, and TV programs and movies such as ''Jackass Number Two'', Dane Cook's ''Tourgasm'', ''House'', the 2006 Australian Football League (AFL) finals, and the Winter X Games 11.
The band also made many promotional appearances. They appeared on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' on May 4, 2006. Additional stops in June 2006 included the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', where Letterman would remark to a sweaty Stockdale in their interview "That was pretty damn cool!" In July, they played the famous T In The Park festival in Scotland. On August 1, 2006, Wolfmother appeared on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' show before playing in San Diego's Street Scene.

Starting on July 14, 2006, Wolfmother played a total of 18 shows in Australia including the Splendour in the Grass music festival. On July 29, they played at Fuji Rock Festival in Japan before continuing their tour of US and Europe which included high profile music festivals such as Lollapalooza and the Reading and Leeds Festivals. On September 10, they took part in the inaugural North American V Festival in Toronto, Canada. On September 23, they were in Baltimore playing at the Virgin Music Festival. Wolfmother was also scheduled to appear at the Download Festival in San Francisco on September 30, but on September 25, bassist Chris Ross's wife had a baby. The baby was one month early and Wolfmother cancelled/postponed their dates in the following month. During this break, Wolfmother released their final single from the self-titled album, "Joker and the Thief", in Australia on October 28, where it reached number eight on the Australian Singles Chart, their highest position to date in Australia. Wolfmother resumed touring on November 4 in the United Kingdom.
On November 14, 2006, legendary hard rock/heavy metal band Led Zeppelin were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, they asked Wolfmother to appear as their guests. The band covered the Led Zeppelin song "Communication Breakdown," a common Wolfmother concert vehicle before and since. Half way through the song, lead vocalist Robert Plant turned to guitarist Jimmy Page and famously remarked "These guys are pretty good!"^[8]

During an interview in March 2006, Andrew and Myles created a 'Free the Gnomes!' design using the 'consequences' method, where each couldn't see what the other had drawn. The design was contributed to the Yellow Bird Project to raise money for the charity, Teenage Cancer Trust.^[9]
On the February 13, 2007, it was announced on that the band would be playing at the Download Festival in June and the band where given the third headline spot on the first day (Friday June 8, 2007) in between Velvet Revolver and Dragonforce playing various songs from their self titled album.
At the 2007 Grammy Awards, Wolfmother won the Best Hard-Rock Performance award for their song "Woman."^[10] Prior to winning, Stockdale had jokingly discussed with reporters his prediction of "no chance" at the awards. They beat bands such as System of a Down, Tool and Nine Inch Nails to win the award. "I was a huge Tool fan back in the day, I saw them at Hordern Pavilion and Newcastle Uni," said Heskett about their nomination for the award.^[11]
The band released an exclusive new song titled "Pleased to Meet You" on '' through the Record Collection label.^[12]
On May 12, 2007, they announced at Pointfest 20 that that would be their last concert in America for an undetermined amount of time.
On June 28, 2007, they headlined at Summerfest, "The World's Largest Music Festival", in Milwaukee, WI. This is the first time the band performed the song "Pleased to Meet You" live, according to Stockdale during the show. Finishing up their US Tour in Detroit, Michigan to an abundantly enthusiastic crowd on June 30, 2007, Andrew Stockdale mentioned during the encore that they wanted to finish up in Detroit since that's where the post production finishing touches for the first album were conducted.
On July 7, 2007, they performed on the Australian leg of the Live Earth concerts in Sydney. Andrew Stockdale said in an interview "That will be our last show for this album. We will find out what a green note sounds like on the next record".^[13] According to an interview with ''Billboard'', the band has begun recording for their second album which is slated to be released in early 2008.^[14]
Wolfmother has taken video footage from a live performance and will release it on DVD format sometime in close proximity to September 10, 2007. The title is ''Please Experience Wolfmother Live''. The footage of the main DVD is from their performace at the ARIA Awards ceremony in Sydney, Australia. Other live shows, music videos and interviews are included in the bonus features. ^[15]

Critical response

While the band has gained much success, reception is divided. A Total Guitar review calls Wolfmother's music "ruddy marvellous",^[16] and Pitchfork praises them for "how capably they strike a balance between meaty vintage metal and crisp, stoner-rock melodies".^[17] Others hold that their music is too derivative of 70's rock; a Stylus Magazine review states "everything there is to say about them is best said by immediate reference to another band and Wolfmother always come up short in the comparison",^[18] while a largely positive ''Billboard'' review ends with "Next time, however, they'll have to give us more than just a tour of their uncle's vinyl collection."^[19] An allmusic review is more critical, calling their music "precious, inarticulate, [and] confused"^[20] when compared to that of their musical influences, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Discography

Albums

'Year'	'Album'	'Chart positions'
		Australia	UK	U.S.
2005	''Wolfmother''	3	25	22

EPs

'Year'	'Album'	'Chart positions'
2004	''Wolfmother EP''	35	-	-
2006	''Dimensions''	-	-	-

Singles

'Year'	'Title'	'Chart positions'				'Album'
		Australia	U.S. Modern Rock	U.S. Mainstream Rock	UK Singles Chart
2005	"Mind's Eye"	29	-	-	142	''Wolfmother''
2006	"White Unicorn"	33	38	29	-
	"Dimension"	-	-	-	49
	"Woman"	34	10	7	31
	"Love Train"	-	-	-	62
	"Joker and the Thief"	8	31	27	64
2007	"Pleased to Meet You"	-	-	-	-	''

Videography

★ "Mind's Eye" (2006)

★ "Dimension" (2006)

★ "Woman" (2006)

★ "White Unicorn" (2006)

★ "Love Train" (2006)

★ "Joker and the Thief" (2006)

Awards and nominations

Awards

Year	Award	Issued for
2005	J Award
2006	Jack Awards	Best Bass Guitarist - Chris Ross from Wolfmother [21]
2006	ARIA Awards	Best Breakthrough Album - ''Wolfmother'' [22] Best Rock Album - ''Wolfmother'' Best Group
2007	Grammy Award	Best Hard Rock Performance for "Woman" [23]
2007	Jack Awards	Best Live Band [24]
		Total Guitar Reader's Poll Best International Newcomer

Nominations

Year	Award	Nominated for
2005	ARIA Awards	Single of the Year ''Woman'' Best Breakthrough Artist - Single ''Woman''
2006	MTV Australian Video Music Awards	Spankin' New Aussie Artist Best Group Best Rock Video ''Mind's Eye''
2006	Jack Awards	Best Live Band Best Male Performer - Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother Best Lead Guitarist - Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother Best Bass Guitarist - Chris Ross from Wolfmother Best Drummer - Myles Heskett from Wolfmother
2006	ARIA Awards	Album of the Year Single of the Year ''Mind's Eye''
2007	BRIT Awards	International Breakthrough Act
2007	MTV Australian Video Music Awards	Best Group (TBA) Best Rock Video ''Joker and the Thief'' (TBA) Video Of The Year ''Joker and the Thief'' (TBA) Viewers' Choice Award (TBA)

References

1. http://www.wherehouse.com/music/product-detail.jsp?id=2581222
2. http://www.ampcamp.com/product_info.php?products_id=1537
3. http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/wolfmother/wolfmother/index.html
4. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jbfixquald0e
5. triple j - The J Award - Wolfmother
6. 10 Artists to Watch: Aussio Trio comes bearing monster riffs Green, Andy
7. Heavy Duty Getlen, Larry
8. Led Zeppelin and Brian Wilson For UK Music Hall of Fame
9. Clap Your Hands, Wolfmother design T-shirts
10. Wolfmother win Grammy award
11. Wolfmother Honored With Grammy In 'Best Hard Rock' Category
12. Snow Patrol, Flaming Lips Ensnared For 'Spider-Man 3' Cohen, Jonathan
13. Now rock plugs into solar Dunn, Emily
14. Wofmother Hoping To Further Rock Ambitions On New CD Benson, John
15. Please Experience Wolfmother Live DVD unknown
16. Total Guitar (UK) - Album Ascott, Phil
17. Wolfmother: Wolfmother: Pitchfork Record Review Byroum, Cory
18. Wolfmother - Wolfmother - Review McNally, Patrick
19. Wolfmother Philip, Sven
20. allmusic (((Wolfmother > Review))) Erlewine, Stephen Thomas
21. Jack Awards Winners Announced
22. Media Release - 2006 ARIA Awards - Everyone's a Winner!
23. Wolfmother wins Grammy Award
24. Wolfmother wins at Jack Awards

External links

★ Wolfmother official website

★ Wolfmother label page

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★ Wolfmother fan site and forums

★ Time Off interview with Andrew Stockdale

★ Pics of Wolfmother @ Bonnaroo

★ Wolfmother at Rolling Stone

★ Wolfmother at MusicPlace.Co.Nr