Our Daughter's Wedding was an American
synthpop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
trio, consisting of Layne Rico on
Synare The Synare was a series of electronic drums made by Star Instruments in the mid-1970s through the 1980s. The Synare was a drum synthesizer, meaning that it was essentially a synthesizer, but instead of being controlled by a keyboard, it was triggere ...
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
, Keith Silva on
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
and
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, and Scott Simon on bass-synth and
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
. Though the group was based in New York, Silva and Rico were from California. The group took their name from a type of DIY photo album.
Career
Silva and Rico played in a group, Human Bends, in their hometown of
Fairfield in the Bay Area of California. They moved to New York, where Our Daughter's Wedding debuted in 1979 with Silva, Rico and 'a woman named Vanessa'. Simon replaced Vanessa soon afterwards. Of the group's name, Silva later said "It's so simple it's disgusting... You buy a little photo album at Woolworth’s and you get a stencil with it to write something on the cover like 'Baby’s first Year.' Or 'Our Daughter’s Wedding.'"
[Michael Snyder, "No Punk, No Wave, Just Music from the Coast" San Francisco ''Examiner'', "Datebook" section, 31 January 1982, p. 34]
In 1981, the group's "Lawnchairs", an independently funded and released single, reached #31 on the ''Billboard'' Disco Chart
and #49 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in August 1981.
They
toured
''Toured (A Live Album)'' was a live album by Huntington Beach pop punk band Big Drill Car. The concert was recorded live at New York's CBGB's on September 3, 1991, at the beginning of a nineteen-week tour known as ''The Batch World Tour'', in su ...
with other
bands of the day including
U2,
Duran Duran
Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...
,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboar ...
,
Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...
,
The Psychedelic Furs
The Psychedelic Furs are a post-punk band founded in London in February 1977. Led by lead vocalist Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from the British post-punk scene ...
and frequently appeared on
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
as guest hosts. Their
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
resume also included various shows on both BBC & ITV. They appeared in Episode One of the ITV drama 'Jangles' (Opportunity) which starred
Hazel O'Connor
Hazel Thereasa O'Connor (born 16 May 1954) is a British singer-songwriter and actress. She became famous in the early 1980s with hit singles " Eighth Day", " D-Days" and " Will You?" She also starred in the 1980 film '' Breaking Glass''.
Caree ...
and
Jesse Birdsall
Jesse Birdsall (born 13 February 1963) is an English actor, known for his roles as Marcus Tandy in the BBC1 soap opera ''Eldorado'', Nick Beckett in the adventure series '' Bugs'' (1995–1999), football manager Roger Webb in ''Footballers' Wive ...
.
They released the ''Digital Cowboy''
EP on
EMI America
EMI America Records was started in 1978 by EMI as a second US label next to Capitol Records. It absorbed Liberty Records in 1984. In the late 1980s, EMI America was consolidated with Manhattan Records to form EMI Manhattan Records, which later ...
in 1981,
produced by
Colin Thurston
Colin Thurston (13 July 1947 – 15 January 2007) was an English recording engineer and record producer.
Born in Brentford, Middlesex, Thurston played in bands in London before he "bluffed his way" into audio engineering.Pierre Perrone (24 ...
. The EP was
recorded at
Chipping Norton Recording Studios
Chipping Norton Recording Studios was a residential recording studio in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, which operated from 1971 until October 1999.
The studios were created by Mike and Richard Vernon as the in-house studio for Mike Ver ...
in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
(with notes "no sequencers used"), and it featured "Target for Life" which had a similar sound to early
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English band formed in 1981, led by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drummer), Lee Harris (drums), and Paul Webb (bass). The group achieved early chart success with the synth-pop singles "Talk Talk (Talk Talk s ...
hits that came a year later. In addition to "Lawnchairs" the other tracks are "Red Alert", "Dance Floor" and "No One's Watching." Although the band did have a song titled "Digital Cowboy", it was not recorded for the EP. Simon later teamed with the band
Hyperbubble
Hyperbubble is an international visual and performing arts electropop/synth-pop duo from San Antonio, Texas, formed by Jeff DeCuir and Jess Barnett DeCuir. The music of this American group is variously described as "early Eurythmics meets Josie and ...
to finally record the song for Hyperbubble's 2017 album ''
Western Ware''.
After ''Digital Cowboy'', the band released an
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
in 1982 - ''
Moving Windows''.
The record was
co-produced by David Spradly (writer of "Atomic Dog" and a member of P-Funk) who gave the music a prescient
hip hop sound. Locked in a
recording contract
A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...
and with no record or tour support, the band remained on the road for one year touring the USA with The
Psychedelic Furs
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...
. The band broke up in 1984, but regrouped in 2012 with a new record label (Dreamfield Records) and a new release, "Life's A Party."
Following Our Daughter's Wedding Rico was a member of Gogoplex, which released one single in 1986.
Equipment used in live shows as a trio included
Roland Corporation
is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It has fact ...
RS-09, Micro
Moog, Prophet-5, Sequential Circuits Pro-1,
Synare The Synare was a series of electronic drums made by Star Instruments in the mid-1970s through the 1980s. The Synare was a drum synthesizer, meaning that it was essentially a synthesizer, but instead of being controlled by a keyboard, it was triggere ...
2 percussion
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
, Electro-Harmonix DRM-32 drum machine.
Discography
Albums
*''Digital Cowboy'' (1981), EMI
*''
Moving Windows'' (1982), EMI
*''Nightlife: The Collection'' (2007, compilation album), Almacantar Records
Singles
*"Lawnchairs" (1980), Design Records
*"Nightlife" b/w "Raincoats & Silverware" (1980), Design Records
*"Digital Cowboy" (1981), EMI
*"Auto Music" (1982), EMI
*"Elevate Her" (1982), EMI
*"Take Me" (1984), EMI
References
External links
Synthpunk.org*
{{Authority control
Electronic music groups from New York (state)
American synth-pop groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1984
EMI Group artists