Switchblade Symphony was an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Their music combined

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ...

sounds with heavy synth sequences and

ethereal Ethereal may refer to: * Ethereal (horse), a horse that won Australia's Caulfield Cup as well as Melbourne Cup in 2001 *Ethereal wave, or simply ethereal, a subgenre of dark wave music *Wireshark, formerly named Ethereal, a free and open-source pac ...

vocals to create a union of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

and gothic rock.

History

Switchblade Symphony was formed in 1989 by composer Susan Wallace and vocalist Tina Root. The band's name refers to the cutting up elements of classical music to mix them with harder sounds. They released their first album in 1995 on the

Cleopatra Records Cleopatra Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1992 by Brian Perera. The record label has since grown into a family of labels, including Hypnotic Records, Purple Pyramid Records, D ...

label. They also had two live guitarists, first Robin Jacobs (who later joined Razor Skyline) and then

George Earth George Earth (born July 3, 1966) is an American musician, guitarist, songwriter, composer, music producer, comic book artist, and talk show host from Echo Park, California. He is perhaps best known as the lead guitarist for both World Entert ...

(most recently of Small Halo, also with Tina Root), and three live drummers, first Eric Gebow (now with

Blue Man Group Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. It was purchased in July 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, bot ...

), Justin Clayton, and then Scott van Shoick. The band's second album, ''Bread and Jam for Frances'', was released in 1997. The album peaked at #119 on the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

Radio Top 200. Switchblade Symphony disbanded in November 1999. Subsequently, Tina Root started Tre Lux. In 2008, Tina Root and George Earth formed Small Halo, a band based out of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California. Their song "Clown" was featured in the 1998 film ''

Wicked Wicked may refer to: Books * Wicked, a minor character in the ''X-Men'' universe * '' Wicked'', a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that inspired the musical of the same name * ''Wicked'', the fifth novel in Sara Shepard's ''Pretty Little Liars'' s ...

'' starring

Julia Stiles Julia O'Hara Stiles (born March 28, 1981) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Stiles began acting at the age of 11 as part of New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Her film debut was a small role in ''I'' ''Love Yo ...

. Their song "Gutter Glitter" was also featured in an episode of ''

The Boulet Brothers' Dragula ''The Boulet Brothers' Dragula'' is an American reality competition television series produced by Boulet Brothers Productions, hosted by the Boulet Brothers. The series originally aired on YouTube and has aired on Netflix in the United States, ...

''.

Discography

Albums and EPs

* '' Serpentine Gallery'' (1995) * ''Scrapbook'' (1997) ( EP) (out of print) * '' Bread and Jam for Frances'' (1997) * '' The Three Calamities'' (1999) * '' Sinister Nostalgia'' (2001) (

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es) * ''Sweet, Little Witches'' (2003) (live performances and video track) * '' Serpentine Gallery Deluxe'' (2005)

Singles

* "Clown" (1996) * "Drool" (1997)

Other

* ''Fable'' (1991) (out of print demo cassette) * ''Elegy'' (1992) (out of print demo cassette) * "Girlscout" (single) (recorded with

Jack Off Jill Jack Off Jill was an American gothic rock band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, founded in 1992 by vocalist Jessicka, drummer Tenni Ah-Cha-Cha, bassist/keyboardist Robin Moulder, Agent Moulder, and guitarist Michelle Inhell. Though these four women w ...

) (1998)

Compilation albums

* ''From the Machine'', featured the song: "Mine Eyes" (Index Records, 1990) * ''Gothic Rock Volume 2: 80's Into 90's'' (1995) * ''Gothik'' (1995) (re-released in 2006) * ''Wired Injections'' (1996) * ''Gothic Divas Presents: Switchblade Symphony, Tre Lux, and New Skin'' (Cleopatra, 2006) * ''Psycho Tina's Hell House Of Horrors'', featured the song "Witches (Live)" (Cleopatra, ) * ''Burning From the Outside: Retail Slut'', featured the song "Clown (Razed In Black Vs. Transmutator Remix) " (Cleopatra, 2007) * ''The Devil's Songbook'', featured the song "Wicked" (2010) * ''Virgin Voices 2, A Tribute to Madonna'', featured the song "Lucky Star"

References

External links

Tre Lux
– Tina Root's new band
Cleopatra Records
– Switchblade Symphony's record label {{Authority control Rock music groups from California Musical groups from San Francisco Trip hop groups American gothic rock groups Musical groups established in 1989