Vendetta Red is 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 mainstream or commerci ...
band from
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, that was formed in 1998.
They released an
EP, ''6 Kisses, A Blatant Reminder of Why We Are Alive'', in 1999 and two albums, ''
Blackout Analysis'' in 2000 and ''
White Knuckled Substance'' in 2001, before signing their first major label deal with
Epic Records.
Their first release on Epic, ''
Between the Never and the Now'', charted at No. 1 on the
Billboard Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...
and No. 101 on the
''Billboard'' 200 in 2003 with the album's single, "Shatterday", peaking at No. 16 on the
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
The group's fourth album, ''
Sisters of the Red Death'', was released in 2005 and charted at No. 21 on the Top Heatseeker's Chart.
After a series of lineup changes, the group disbanded in 2006, but announced a reunion four years later.
History
Early career (1998–2002)
The group was formed in 1998 by Erik Chapman, Joseph Childres, Justin Cronk, Zach Davidson, Adam Garcia, and Mike Vermillion in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington and nearly a year later they issued their debut release, the ''6 Kisses, A Blatant Reminder of Why We Are Alive
EP'' with a tour of the
West Coast following after.
A year later, they released their first album, ''
Blackout Analysis'', with their second album, ''
White Knuckled Substance'', being released by Loveless Records in October the next year, which was well received by local radio,
with the band continuing to tour on the West Coast.
During their tour, they gained the attention of a number of labels and eventually signed with
Epic Records in 2002.
Major label years (2003–2006)
After finishing recording with the late
Jerry Finn
Jermone Gregory Finn (March 31, 1969 – August 21, 2008), sometimes credited as "Huckle" Jerry Finn, was an American record producer and mix engineer. He worked with numerous punk rock and pop-punk artists such as Blink-182, AFI, Sum 41, ...
,
the group's first major label album ''
Between the Never and the Now'', which was preceded by the EP ''
Cut Your Noose'',
was released in June 2003 and charted at No. 1 on the
Billboard Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...
and No. 101 on the
''Billboard'' 200.
The album's single, ''Shatterday'', peaked at No. 16 on the
Billboard Alternative Songs chart.
The album included reworked songs from their previous release, ''White Knuckled Substance''.
The band supported the album with a North American tour,
which included a stint on the
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 touri ...
.
The song ''The Long Goodbye'', from the album ''White Knuckled Substance'', was included on the ''Warped Tour 2002 Tour Compilation''.
After opening for
AC/DC at the
New York Roseland Ballroom
The Roseland Ballroom was a multipurpose hall, in a converted ice skating rink, with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree, in New York City's theater district, on West 52nd Street in Manhattan.
The venue, according to its website, accommodat ...
,
singer Zach Davidson said that the fans during the show were acting "blatantly homophobic":
They continued to tour, playing with the likes of
Dashboard Confessional
Dashboard Confessional is an American rock band from Boca Raton, Florida, led by singer Chris Carrabba. The name of the band is derived from the songThe Sharp Hint of New Tears off their debut album, '' The Swiss Army Romance''.
History
Early ...
,
Brand New and
MxPx
MxPx () is an American pop punk band from Bremerton, Washington, founded in 1992 as Magnified Plaid. As of 2016, current members include Mike Herrera on lead vocals and bass guitar, Yuri Ruley on drums and percussion, Tom Wisniewski on lead gu ...
.
The group entered the studio in 2004 with the producer
Howard Benson
Howard Benson is an American music producer and multi-instrumentalist. He was nominated for the Producer of the Year Grammy Award in 2007 and 2008.
Early life and education
Benson was born and raised in a middle-class family in greater Philad ...
to record the follow-up to ''Between the Never and the Now''. For the album, Childres switched to keyboards with Burke Thomas added to the group to record drums. The drummer from
Street Drum Corps, Bobby Alt, contributed
theremin
The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
to the album while Phil Perrone contributed backing vocals. The album, titled ''
Sisters of the Red Death'', was released in 2005
and charted at No. 21 on the Top Heatseeker's Chart.
Late in 2004, Chapman and Childres left the group and the guitarist Leif Andersen of Common Heroes and Pris joined the band on lead guitar and keyboards. In late 2005 Vermillion left the band and bass guitarist
Jeff Rouse, of
Alien Crime Syndicate and
Loaded was added to the group.
Breakup (2006)
Vendetta Red announced on
MySpace on March 8, 2006, that they were going separate ways to create different styles of music. Davidson later made the following statement:
Vendetta Red played their final show at El Corazon in Seattle, Washington, on April 8, 2006. They ended their set with "A Joyless Euphoria".
Post-breakup (2006–2010)
Following the breakup, Davidson, Andersen and Rouse formed
Sirens Sister in 2006 along with the drummer Ben Libey. They signed to
The Control Group
The Control Group is an independent record label, founded by Nabil Ayers in Seattle, Washington in 2002. Notable artists who have released albums on The Control Group include El Perro del Mar, Lykke Li, Cate Le Bon, Alice Boman and Wildbird ...
and released their first album, ''Echoes from the Ocean Floor'', in September 2006, produced by Martin Feveyear. In 2007, Rouse left the group and was replaced by Andersen's brother, Levi Andersen, on bass guitar with the group going on to release ''Unspeakable Things'' in 2009 on The Control Group recorded by John Goodmanson and mixed by Martin Feveyear in Seattle.
Vermillion enjoyed a solo career now playing his own folk and American roots songs as well as covering many classic but perhaps lesser-known American country artists such as Townes Van Zandt, Merle Haggard and Jim Croce. He plays shows frequently in the Seattle area and also DJs under the name "Sad Bastard", usually playing country, Motown, folk and soul. His first official full-length solo album was released on May 21, 2008.
Cronk is now playing drums for With Friends Like These. The band includes fellow Bakersfield native Matthew Shaw, local producer
Tyler Coffey and Brian Pake. Cronk owns a recording studio with bandmate Coffey in Seattle called The Toy Box.
Chapman has been enjoying life outside of the music industry as a bar tender at a Seattle area up-scale bar. He was married in 2006 to Andrea and they currently reside in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.
Their song "Silhouette Serenade" is used in the video game ''
Saints Row
''Saints Row'' is a series of action-adventure video games created by Volition and published by THQ and Deep Silver. The series follows the 3rd Street Saints, a fictional street gang originally operating out of the Saints Row district, hence ...
''.
Childres was playing for Blood Hot Beat. He was reported dead on June 3, 2020.
Thomas formed a band called Megasapien with Lian Light (formerly of Magneto). Their second album was expected to be released at the end of March 2011.
Reunion (2010–present)
In December 2010, it was announced that Vendetta Red would reunite for a one-off show at El Corazon in Seattle on March 5, 2011. This turned out to be an extended reunion. The band members later announced they had also begun working on new material and had enlisted the noted rock/metal producer
Terry Date
Terry Date (born January 31, 1956) is an American record producer and audio engineer specializing in rock genres, especially heavy metal. He is well known for his work with Metal Church, Dream Theater, Soundgarden, Overkill, Pantera, Dark Ang ...
to produce what would be their first album in six years.
Vendetta Red performed some of this new material at
Bumbershoot 2011, as well as material from their previous studio albums, a
Sirens Sister song, and a solo (Davidson) acoustic version of Seconds Away. A new song called Blank Screens was released on January 15, 2012
as a single on various digital music services including iTunes, and the album title ''Scripture'' was announced.
On January 24, 2017, Vendetta Red announced on their Facebook page that they had signed with Cleopatra Records and were in the process of recording the new album. The album, titled ''Quinceañera'', was released on April 13, 2018.
Band members
Current members
* Zach Davidson – lead vocals, guitars, piano, organ, tambourine, glockenspiel, percussion
(since 1998)
* Leif Andersen – lead guitar, lap steel, mandolin, violin, keyboards, programming, synthesizers, backing vocals
(since 2005)
* Jonah Bergman - bass guitar
(since 2010)
*
Burke Thomas – drums, percussion
(since 2000)
Past members
* Eric Chapman – guitar
(1998–2004)
* Justin Cronk – guitar
(2000–2006) (d. 2022)
* Michael Vermillion – bass guitar
(2000–2005)
* Joseph Childres – drums, percussion, keyboards
(1998–2004) (d. 2020)
*
Jeff Rouse – bass guitar
(2005–2006)
* Adam Garcia - drums
(1998-1999)
Timeline
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bar:Thomas from:12/01/2010 till:end color:Drums
Discography
Studio album
*''
Blackout Analysis'' (2000)
*''
White Knuckled Substance'' (2001)
*''
Between the Never and the Now'' (2003)
*''
Sisters of the Red Death'' (2005)
*''Quinceañera'' (2018)
EPs
*''6 Kisses, A Blatant Reminder of Why We Are Alive'' (1999)
*''
Cut Your Noose EP'' (2002)
*''
Shatterday EP'' (2003)
*''Scripture'' (2013)
*''Light Year Anniversary'' (2013)
Singles
See also
*
List of Warped Tour lineups by year
The Vans 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 ...
References
External links
*
*
Vendetta RedFacebook
Michael Vermillion interviewon MyNorthwest.com
{{Authority control
1998 establishments in Washington (state)
2006 disestablishments in Washington (state)
2010 establishments in Washington (state)
Alternative rock groups from Washington (state)
Emo musical groups from Washington (state)
American post-grunge musical groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
American screamo musical groups
Epic Records artists
Musical groups disestablished in 2006
Musical groups established in 1998
Musical groups from Seattle
Musical groups reestablished in 2010