The Upper Crust is an American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. The members adopt the

personae A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatri ...

of 18th-century aristocratic

fop Fop is a pejorative term for a foolish man. FOP or fop may also refer to: Science and technology * Feature-oriented positioning, in scanning microscopy * Feature-oriented programming, in computer science, software product lines * Fibrodysplasia o ...

s and sing songs from that perspective. They use titles of

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

, wear powdered

wigs A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona' ...

and period costumes, and maintain a snobbish attitude both during live performance and on their albums. The members say that their guiding

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

is "if not great and excellent, then debauched." Their major music influence is Bon Scott-era

AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...

, along with glam rock band

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

and fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' wrote, " smiss Boston's Upper Crust as a joke rock band if you must, but give them this much: they're actually funny, and there's as much rock as mock to their singular brand of ‘roque’", adding "there's plenty of worthy riffs and

double-entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially a ...

wit to go around". The group originated from a

surf rock Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a Music genre, genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is in ...

band called 'The Clamdiggers'. Other related bands were The Bags, The Titanics, The Satanics, The Flies, The Oysters and Seks Bomba. The Upper Crust has appeared on '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' and ''

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airing from January 3, 2005, to December 19, ...

''. The music video game '' Guitar Hero'' included the band’s

signature song A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...

"Eureka, I've Found Love" as a bonus song. The band has also guest starred in an episode of '' Codename: Kids Next Door'' ("Operation: P.A.R.T.Y.") on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

on January 26, 2007, as they perform the songs "Tell Mother I'm Home" and "Let them Eat Rock".

Members

*Lord Bendover (Nat Freedberg) (guitar, vocals) (1995–present) *Count Bassie (Chris Cote) (bass, vocals) (1996–present) *The Duc D'istortion (Dave Fredette) (guitar, vocals) (1995–present) *Jackie Kickassis (Jim Janota) (drums) (1995–present)

Former members

*Lord Rockingham (

Ted Widmer Edward "Ted" Ladd Widmer (born 1963) is an American historian, writer, librarian, and musician who served as a speechwriter in the Clinton White House. He serves on boards of the Harvard Lampoon, Massachusetts Historical Society and ''The New E ...

) (guitar, vocals) (1995–1997) *Marquis de Roque (aka Marquis Marque, Marc Mazzarelli) (bass) (1995–1996)

Discography

*''Let Them Eat Rock'' LP (1995) (Upstart Records) *''The Decline and Fall of The Upper Crust'' LP (1997) ( Emperor Norton Records) *''Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be: A Tribute to AC/DC'' (compilation) one track: "Back in Black" (1999) (Reptilian Records) *''Entitled'' - double live album (2000) (Reptilian Records) *''Once More Into the Breeches'' LP (2001) (Emperor Norton Records) *''Cream of the Crust'' CD (2006) (Upper Crust Ltd) *''Revenge for Imagined Slights'' (2009) *''Delusions of Grandeur'' (2017)

Filmography

* ''Let Them Eat Rock'' (Documentary - 2004)

References

External links

* * *Carioli, Carly
"Money shots: Why the Upper Crust rule
''Boston Phoenix'', July 6–13, 2000. *Green, James Jr
"The Buckled Shoe of Rock: Paul Revere & The Raiders vs. The Upper Crust"
''Crawdaddy! Magazine'', November 12, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Upper Crust, The Hard rock musical groups from Massachusetts Musical quartets Bands with fictional stage personas Musical groups established in 1995 Musical groups from Boston