My Dad Is Dead
Formed by drummer Mark Edwards, in August 1984 after the break-up of the Cleveland band Riot Architecture, My Dad Is Dead has remained his solo project — with occasional help from a revolving-door cast. Edwards learned to play guitar during late 1984, and played his first show the following year with a backing band consisting of a Roland TR-606 drum machine. He recorded his first LP And He's Not Gonna Take It Anymore at Beat Farm studio, and released it in October 1986 on the Cleveland Co-op St. Valentine Records. After shows supporting bands such as Modern English and the Butthole Surfers, and a solo U.S. Tour, he connected with Boston based Wild Stares, who released the bands 2nd album, Peace, Love and Murder on their Birth records label in May 1987
After another solo US tour, Edwards played at CMJ in the fall of 1987 where he met Gerard Cosloy and eventually signed a contract with Homestead Records early the following year, releasing Let's Skip the Details in May 1988.
Soon after, he added the first band members to the revolving My Dad Is Dead touring lineup: bassist Jeff Curtis and drummer John McEntire (later to gain fame in Tortoise). The Best Defense, an album of material from the previous album's sessions, was released on Homestead in December 1988. In the spring of 1989 the band toured with Homestead labelmates Bastro. Shortly after the tour Mcentire left the band and joined Bastro,
In June of 1989 the band participated in a European tour dubbed the "Homestead Package Tour" with Happy Flowers and Bastro, coinciding with the release of it's last album for Homestead, a double LP titled The Taller You are the Shorter you Get. With McEntire gone on to Bastro and Curtis unwilling to tour, Edwards recruited the Prisonshake rhythm section — Chris Burgess on bass and Scott Pickering on drums — for the tour. .
After Gerard left Homestead, My Dad Is Dead moved to Scat Records in April 1990 for the Shine EP, which was recorded after the first European tour with the 1989 lineup. With yet another lineup (this time guitarists Tim Gilbride and Doug Gillard plus Burgess on bass), the band toured Europe again in June 1990 with Gillard and Edwards splitting drumming and guitar duties. and the same band performed as opening act for half of the fall Pixies tour that year.
The band's first album for Scat, Chopping Down the Family Tree, was released in October 1991, just after Nirvana's breakout Nevermind. In 1992, Burgess, Pickering and Gillard became more active in Doug's band Gem. Matt Swanson (Clockhammer/Lambchop) joined on bass, and toured in 1992 with a drum machine again, this time an Alesis HR-16. Pickering rejoined on drums for half of the songs on 1992's Out of Sight, Out of Mind which also appeared on Scat in the fall of that year.
Edwards and co. moved to Emperor Jones the following year, and recorded For Richer, For Poorer in Nashville in 1994, releasing the album in the spring of 1995..
The band released 2 more records for Emperor Jones (1996's "enhanced" 20 song version of the Scat Records Shine 2x7" called Shine(r), and 1997's Everyone Wants the Honey but Not the Sting (with Shayne Ivy replacing Pickering). The band toured sparingly in 1995-1997 before taking a 5 year hiatus.
In 2002 Edwards returned with "Engine of Commerce" for Vital Cog records. Recorded mostly at home and with Mark Edwards playing all the instruments again, the record came full circle back to the beginning days of the "band".
2005 saw the release of "A Divided House", back to a full band format and joined again by old friends Scott Pickering, Chris Burgess, Tim Gilbride and Scott Lasch in Don Depew's 609 Studios in Cleveland. This was the first release on the band's own "Unhinged Records" label.
In the fall of 2009 the band is preparing to release it's 13th LP, "A New Clear Route". Pickering remains on drums and the band is joined by new member Billy Buckley on bass.
Edwards ended the project in 2010. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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