The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza was an American
mathcore
Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signatur ...
band from
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 152,769 according to the 2020 census, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010. Murfreesboro is located in the Nashville metropol ...
. The band was founded (sans a vocalist) in
Monroe, Louisiana
Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolita ...
by members Layne Meylain, Mason Crooks, Brad Thompson, and Mike Butler. They relocated to Murfreesboro, TN to look for a frontman and found Jessie Freeland.
The group derived their name (as a joke) from celebrity
Tony Danza
Tony Danza (born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza; April 21, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for co-starring in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983) and '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award a ...
, upon one of his professions being
tap dancing
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...
. The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza released four studio albums before disbanding in 2012.
History
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza was founded in 2004. They chose their band name after actor
Tony Danza
Tony Danza (born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza; April 21, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for co-starring in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983) and '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award a ...
; the humorous moniker is occasionally misinterpreted, as older concertgoers have attended shows in hopes of seeing Danza himself.
The group signed with Corrosive Recordings in 2005 after self-releasing their debut album.
Their second release, ''Danza II: Electric Boogaloo'', was issued in 2007 on
Black Market Activities
Black Market Activities (BMA) is an American independent record label that was founded in 2003 by Guy Kozowyk, the frontman of the Boston, Massachusetts-based extreme metal band the Red Chord.
History
Black Market Activities was started with ...
.
The album's name is a parody of the
Danzig album, ''
Danzig II: Lucifuge'', as well as the 1980s film ''
Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo''.
The album features short, humorous skits interspersed with the songs making fun of their surroundings growing up.
The group has toured with
Cattle Decapitation
Cattle Decapitation is an American deathgrind band from San Diego, California, formed in 1996. The band's current lineup includes vocalist Travis Ryan, guitarists Josh Elmore and Belisario Dimuzio, bassist Olivier Pinard, and drummer David McGr ...
,
Arsonists Get All the Girls
Arsonists Get All the Girls was an American avant-garde metal band from Santa Cruz, California. Founded in 2005, the band was known for taking influence from varying genres, particularly in their early years for fusing extreme metal with variou ...
,
Veil of Maya
Veil of Maya is an American metalcore band, formed in Chicago, Illinois, by members Marc Okubo and Sam Applebaum in 2004. They are currently signed to Sumerian Records and have released six studio albums. Their first four albums are considered ...
,
Full Blown Chaos
Full Blown Chaos is a metalcore band from Floral Park, Queens, New York. According to the band, their whole direction "is to keep a wide range of music, not to necessarily pigeonhole ourselves into metal or hardcore". They are well respected in ...
,
Despised Icon
Despised Icon is a Canadian deathcore band from Montreal, Quebec. Formed in 2002, the band is noted for the talent of its drummer, Alex Pelletier, who makes frequent use of the blasting technique, as well as for its dual lead vocalists; Alex E ...
,
The Acacia Strain
The Acacia Strain is an American metalcore band originally from Chicopee, Massachusetts. They are currently signed to Rise Records. The band has released ten full-length albums.
History
Forming in 2001, The Acacia Strain was started by h ...
,
Beneath the Massacre
Beneath the Massacre is a Canadian technical death metal band from Montreal, Quebec. Their debut EP ''Evidence of Inequity'', was released in 2005, under Galy Records. In early 2006, the band signed with Prosthetic Records and released their fir ...
,
Unearth
Unearth is an American metalcore band from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 1998, the group has released seven studio albums.
History Early career (1998–2002)
Unearth was formed by Trevor Phipps, Buz McGrath, Ken Susi, Mike Rudberg, a ...
,
See You Next Tuesday,
The Red Chord
The Red Chord is an American metal band from Revere, Massachusetts, formed in 1999. The group comprises vocalist Guy Kozowyk, guitarist/vocalist Mike "Gunface" McKenzie, bassist Greg Weeks and drummer Jon Rice. The band gained a fanbase with its ...
,
Shai Hulud
Shai Hulud is an American metalcore band formed in Pompano Beach, Florida, in 1995, and later based in Poughkeepsie, New York. The band is named after the giant sandworms in Frank Herbert's novel ''Dune''.
The two mainstay members of Shai Hul ...
,
Psyopus
Psyopus (sometimes written as PsyOpus) was an American mathcore band from Rochester, New York.
History
Formed in 2002, the band is noted for the unorthodox and extremely technical guitar techniques of Christopher Arp, often referred to as "Arpm ...
,
The Number 12 Looks Like You
The Number Twelve Looks Like You is an American mathcore band, formed in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, in 2002. The band went on a six-year hiatus in 2010. In May 2016, they performed a secret show and then announced their reunio ...
, Lye By Mistake,
A Life Once Lost
A Life Once Lost was an American metal band based in Pennsylvania.
History
A Life Once Lost formed in 1999 in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After the release of their first album, '' Open Your Mouth for the Speechless... in Case of ...
, and
Emmure
Emmure () is an American metalcore band formed in 2003. Originally based in New Fairfield, Connecticut, before moving to Queens, New York, the group has released eight albums, with their first public release being a 2006 EP entitled ''The Compl ...
, among others. In March 2008, the band crashed their tour van after playing a show in
Lewisville, Texas
Lewisville ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, predominantly within Denton County with a small part lying within Dallas County. As a suburban community within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the 2020 census tabulated a population of 111 ...
.
Former member Brad Thomson founded Midgets with Machetes, a record label distributed by
Uprising Records
Uprising Records is a record label founded in 1994 by Sean Muttaqi. It has released records by Fall Out Boy, 7 Angels 7 Plagues, Cipher, Red Knife Lottery, Underminded, Amir Sulaiman, iCON the Mic King, The Crest and more. The label releas ...
.
On September 24, 2009, the band announced that Layne Meylain and Mike Butler had amicably left the group.
At the same time, the band formally announced their next album, ''Danza III: A Series of Unfortunate Events''. The album focuses on lyrical themes such as personal, social, political and global "unfortunate events" tied around the three musical themes of
technical
Technical may refer to:
* Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle
* Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data
* Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...
,
groove-based and
ambient
Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to:
Music and sound
* Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds
* Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere
* ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby
* ...
music. It was recorded in November 2009 with
Jeremiah Scott
Demon Hunter is an American Christian metal band from Seattle, Washington, started in 2000 by brothers Don Clark and Ryan Clark. Although the brothers created the band together, only Ryan remains, since Don left the band to take care of his ...
and Steve Blackmon.
The band released their third album, ''
Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events'', on July 6, 2010. On the record, Josh Travis performs lead and rhythm guitar on an
8-string guitar
An eight-string guitar is a guitar with eight strings, or one more than the Russian guitar's seven. Eight-string guitars are less common than six- and seven-string guitars, but they are used by a few classical, jazz, and metal guitarists. The e ...
as well as the bass. It also marks the first album by the band to include drummer Mike Bradley. The songs "I Am Sammy Jankis" and "The Union" were released as singles.
During May 2011, the band confirmed that ''Danza IIII'' is in the works. In the meantime of its creation, guitarist Josh Travis has joined
Jerry Roush
Gerald Allen "Jerry" Roush (born November 15, 1986) is an American musician, best known as the former vocalist for Sky Eats Airplane, Of Mice & Men, and Glass Cloud. He has also volunteered as a substitute vocalist for American Me during their ...
's new band
Glass Cloud
Glass Cloud was an American metalcore band from Hampton, Virginia formed by Jerry Roush, Joshua Travis, Travis Sykes, and Chad Hasty in late 2011. The band released their debut album, ''The Royal Thousand'' on July 10, 2012 via Equal Vision Reco ...
as a side-project with their debut album, ''The Royal Thousand'', being released on July 3, 2012.
On October 16, 2012, their album ''
Danza IIII: The Alpha – The Omega'' was released. Dave Mustein of MetalSucks gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating, "Danza's bottom end is the single most unified element on The Alpha The Omega. There's no denying that previous Danza releases are heavy
..but the record's heaviness is primarily due to the fact that all the instrumentation on the album was performed by rhythmic mastermind Joshua Travis
..The production holds it all together, sounding gritty but professional, digital but uncompressed," but criticized the band for falling "into the trap of writing filler; the numerous samples begin to run together, decreasing the impact of songs like ''Hold the Line.'' And it's almost impossible to sit through the entirety of the glitchy, gimmicky ''Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid.''"
On August 23, 2012, Joshua Travis made this statement, regarding Danza's future:
"For this album, Jessie and I were looking to create more of a visceral vibe than a completely technical vibe. There's parts that do still get a bit chaotic of course, but not nearly as much as the avid listener is used to. Everything about this record is way more to the point, with much more heart put into it rather than just seeing how many notes could be thrown into a part or seeking to create 'the heaviest shit ever' or any of that nonsense. The record being titled The Alpha – The Omega, to us symbolized the beginning and the end of Danza. Jessie and I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it for you all."
The band's breakup has led the members to pursue different careers. Guitarist Travis went on to join the metalcore band
Glass Cloud
Glass Cloud was an American metalcore band from Hampton, Virginia formed by Jerry Roush, Joshua Travis, Travis Sykes, and Chad Hasty in late 2011. The band released their debut album, ''The Royal Thousand'' on July 10, 2012 via Equal Vision Reco ...
and later,
Emmure
Emmure () is an American metalcore band formed in 2003. Originally based in New Fairfield, Connecticut, before moving to Queens, New York, the group has released eight albums, with their first public release being a 2006 EP entitled ''The Compl ...
.
Band members
Final lineup
*Jessie "Danza" Freeland – lead vocals
*Josh Travis – guitars
Previous members
*Layne Meylain – guitar
*Brad Thomson – guitar
*Mike Butler – bass
*Phil Lockett – bass
*Mason Crooks – drums
*Djed Cyril – drums
*Mike Bradley – drums
; Timeline
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bar:Jessie text:"Jessie Freeland"
bar:Brad text:"Brad Thompson"
bar:Layne text:"Layne Meylain"
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bar:Mason text:"Mason Crooks"
bar:Djed text:"Djed Cyril"
bar:Mike1 text:"Mike Bradley"
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bar:Phil from:01/07/2010 till:01/04/2011 color:bass
bar:Josh from:01/04/2011 till:end color:bass width:3
bar:Mason from:01/01/2004 till:01/11/2007 color:drums
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bar:Mike1 from:01/01/2009 till:01/04/2011 color:drums
bar:Josh from:01/04/2011 till:end color:drums width:7
Discography
Studio albums
Demos
Music videos
References
External links
*
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganzaat Black Market Activities
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, The
Heavy metal musical groups from Tennessee
Black Market Activities artists
American mathcore musical groups
American grindcore musical groups
Musical quartets
Musical groups established in 2004
Metalcore musical groups from Tennessee