The Beautiful Bodies performing at The Brick in Kansas City, Mo in 2012 2013-05-17 11-54

Beautiful Bodies were an American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band on

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most acts signed to the label were punk and pop punk acts, while there are many post-hardcore and emo bands ...

from

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

featuring Alicia Solombrino, Thomas Becker (

The Get Up Kids The Get Up Kids are an American rock band from Olathe, Kansas. Formed in 1995, the band was a major player in the mid-1990s Midwest emo scene, otherwise known as the " second wave" of emo music. Their second album ''Something to Write Home About' ...

Gratitude Gratitude, thankfulness, or gratefulness is from the Latin word ''gratus,'' which means "pleasing" or "thankful." Is regarded as a feeling of appreciation (or similar positive response) by a recipient of another's kindness. This can be gifts, h ...

), Luis Arana, and Michael Stout.

History

Formation

Beautiful Bodies developed as a band while the members resided in different countries. Becker, a

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

-educated human rights lawyer, was living in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, suing the former president for massacring protestors. Solombrino and Arana were based out of the United States, where they had previously played in bands together. Becker began demoing music with Solombrino, sending tracks back and forth via email, when one of the songs they recorded, "You're a Risk," was picked up by alternative rock station

KRBZ KRBZ (96.5 FM, “Alt 96-5”) is an alternative rock station, licensed to Kansas City, Missouri and serving the Kansas City metropolitan area. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc., with studios located in Mission, Kansas and a transmitter site ...

and spread to other regional college and alternative stations, garnering label attention for the band. In response to the widespread label interest, industry magazine HITS Daily Double referred to Beautiful Bodies as "one fthe biggest unsigned stories of the moment."

Epitaph signing and release of ''Battles''

In 2013, Beautiful Bodies won

Ernie Ball Ernie Ball (born Roland Sherwood Ball; August 30, 1930 – September 9, 2004) was an American entrepreneur and musician who developed guitar-related products. Ball began as a club and local television musician and entrepreneur, building an inte ...

's Battle of the Bands for Warped Tour, beating out 32,000 artists in the world's largest battle of the bands. In May 2014, after talks with indie and major labels, the band signed a record deal with Epitaph Records and toured with

Emarosa Emarosa ( ) is an American rock band formed in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2006. The band currently consists of lead guitarist and founding member ER White and lead vocalist Bradley Walden, who joined the band in 2013. The group has undergone severa ...

and

Pvris Pvris (pronounced "Paris" and stylized PVRIS) is an American pop rock act formed by multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen. Over her decade-long career, Gunnulfsen has released three studio LPs: ''White Nois ...

later that year. They went into the studio with

John Feldmann John Feldmann (born June 29, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He serves as the lead singer/guitarist of the band Goldfinger. Early life Feldmann grew up in Saratoga, California. He started writing song ...

(

Blink 182 Blink-182 (stylized as blink-182) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California in 1992. Their current lineup consists of bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has ...

The Used The Used is an American rock band from Orem, Utah, that formed in 2001. The group consists of vocalist Bert McCracken, bassist Jeph Howard, drummer Dan Whitesides, and guitarist Joey Bradford. Former members include Quinn Allman, Branden Stei ...

311 311 may refer to: * 311 (number), a natural number * AD 311, a year of the Julian calendar, in the fourth century AD * 311 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar * 311 (band), an American band ** ''311'' (album), band 311's self-titled album ...

, Five Seconds of Summer), and their debut album ''Battles'' was released on June 16, 2015. Their first single, “Capture and Release” received radio play on U.S. and European stations, including on radio giants

KROQ KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The stat ...

and

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

. In 2016,

Kerrang! Magazine ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-o ...

, the world's largest weekly rock magazine, nominated Beautiful Bodies for their Best New International Newcomer Award.

Touring

Known for their energetic live shows, the band toured extensively in North America and Europe, sharing the stage with alternative and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

bands, including

The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...

My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist Mi ...

Jane's Addiction Jane's Addiction is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1985. The band consists of vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery. Jane's Addiction was one of the first bands from t ...

, and

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O (born Karen Lee Orzolek), guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complem ...

. The band was known to cross genres, however, playing with artists such as

Dave Chappelle David Khari Webber Chappelle ( ; born August 24, 1973) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for his satirical comedy sketch series ''Chappelle's Show'' (2003–2006), which he starred in until quitting in the middle of p ...

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

, and

Bebe Rexha Bleta Rexha (; born August 30, 1989), known professionally as Bebe Rexha ( ), is an American pop singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single " The Monster" (which later ...

. Beautiful Bodies were repeat artists on several festivals, including

Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...

(U.S. and Europe) and

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

, and the band's music has been featured in television commercials such as

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

advertisements and live events such as the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

and

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning 7–9 days when international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press, and the general publ ...

Breakup and subsequent projects

The band announced they were to disband in 2017 via Solombrino's facebook account. Their last show was in Madrid, Spain with

Mayday Parade Mayday Parade is an American Rock music, rock band from Tallahassee, Florida. Their debut EP ''Tales Told by Dead Friends'' was released in 2006, and sold over 50,000 copies without any label support. In July 2007, Mayday Parade released their de ...

. Solombrino has continued to make music under the name Alicia Solo, self-releasing her first EP ''Solo'' in 2017. Becker returned to law and in 2018 won the first human rights lawsuit in U.S. history against a living ex-president. He currently teaches at Harvard Law School, though he took a leave in spring 2019 to climb Mount Everest, which he successfully summited despite it being one of the mountain's deadliest years. Stout is working as a record producer.

Band members

* Alicia Solombrino — vocals * Thomas Becker — guitar, drums * Luis Arana — bass * Michael Stout — guitar

References

External links

Official website

YouTube channel

Interview with peta2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beautiful Bodies Alternative rock groups from Missouri American musical trios Musical groups from Kansas City, Missouri