Thievery Corporation is an American
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
duo consisting of Rob Garza (born March 28, 1970) and Eric Hilton. Their musical style mixes elements of
dub,
acid jazz,
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
,
Indian classical
Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...
,
Middle Eastern music
The various nations of the region include the Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East, the Iranian traditions of Persia, the Jewish music of Israel and the diaspora, Armenian music, Kurdish music, Azeri Music, the varied traditions of Cypriot ...
,
hip hop and
Brazilian music
The music of Brazil encompasses various regional musical styles influenced by European, American, African and Amerindian forms. Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as forró, repente, coco de roda, axé, sertanejo, ...
, including
bossa nova
Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...
.
History
Beginnings
Thievery Corporation was formed in the summer of 1995 at Washington D.C.'s Eighteenth Street Lounge. Rob Garza and Lounge co-owner Eric Hilton were drawn together over their mutual love of club life, as well as
dub,
bossa nova
Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...
and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
records. They decided to see what would come of mixing all these in a recording studio, and from this, in 1996 the duo started their
Eighteenth Street Lounge Music
Eighteenth Street Lounge Music (ESL Music) is an independent record label based in Washington, D.C. founded by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton in 1996. The duo, as Thievery Corporation, heads the label's roster of artists.
Roster
ESL Music's current a ...
record label.
The duo drew attention with their first two 12-inch offerings, "Shaolin Satellite" and "2001: a Spliff Odyssey", and with their 1996 debut LP, ''
Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi''. Their 1998 single "
Lebanese Blonde
"Lebanese Blonde" is a 1998 single released by the Thievery Corporation and later added to their 2000 album ''The Mirror Conspiracy''. It was also featured on the soundtrack to Zach Braff's 2004 film '' Garden State''. It features Pam Bricker o ...
", later included in their 2000 studio album, ''
The Mirror Conspiracy
''The Mirror Conspiracy'' is the second studio album by American electronic music duo Thievery Corporation, released in 2000 by ESL Music and 4AD. All the songs on the album were written, recorded and produced by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, alth ...
'', was featured on the
''Garden State'' film soundtrack.
In 2001, they released ''Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi'', a "best of" compilation of 1960s–1970s material of
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, ...
that includes
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
,
bossa nova
Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...
and
latin jazz
Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, whic ...
works from artists
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. ( ; July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982) was an American Latin Jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, even as he continued to perform music of Afro-Jazz, ...
,
Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a dist ...
,
Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66, and
Luiz Bonfá
Luiz Floriano Bonfá (17 October 1922 – 12 January 2001) was a Brazilian guitarist and composer. He was best known for the music he composed for the film ''Black Orpheus''.
Biography
Luiz Floriano Bonfá was born on October 17, 1922, in Ri ...
.
In the early Fall of 2002 they released ''
The Richest Man in Babylon
''The Richest Man in Babylon'' is a 1926 book by George S. Clason that dispenses financial advice through a collection of parables set 4,097 years ago in ancient Babylon. The book remains in print almost a century after the parables were origin ...
'' on their ESL label, featuring performances by vocalists
Notch,
Emilíana Torrini
Emilíana Torrini (born 16 May 1977) is an Icelandic singer and songwriter. She is best known for her 2009 single "Jungle Drum", her 1999 album '' Love in the Time of Science'', and her performance of " Gollum's Song" for the 2002 film '' The Lo ...
,
Pam Bricker
Pamela Carroll Bricker (July 7, 1954 – February 20, 2005) was a jazz singer and professor of music at George Washington University. She was a frequent collaborator and guest vocalist with the group Thievery Corporation, and the voice on their t ...
, and Loulou.
After ''The Richest Man in Babylon''
In 2004, they released ''
The Cosmic Game
''The Cosmic Game'' is the fourth studio album by American electronic music duo Thievery Corporation, released on February 22, 2005, by ESL Music. After the success of their previous album ''The Richest Man in Babylon'' (2002), the guest artists ...
'', which has a darker, more psychedelic sound than ''The Richest Man in Babylon''. The album also featured more high-profile guest singers on it, including
Perry Farrell
Perry Farrell (born Peretz Bernstein; March 29, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the frontman of the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction. Farrell created the touring festival Lollapalooza as part (one of the ...
,
David Byrne
David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...
, and
Wayne Coyne
Wayne Michael Coyne (born January 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is the lead singer, guitarist, keyboardist, theremin player and songwriter for the band the Flaming Lips.
Early life
Coyne was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United Stat ...
of
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (keyb ...
.
In 2006, the group released ''
Versions
Version may refer to:
Computing
* Software version, a set of numbers that identify a unique evolution of a computer program
* VERSION (CONFIG.SYS directive), a configuration directive in FreeDOS
Music
* Cover version
* Dub version
* Remix
* ''Ve ...
'', a selection of remixes by Thievery Corporation for other artists. They toured around the United States, playing at
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...
. The tour was photographed by Rob Myers, Thievery Corporation's sitar and guitar player, in the
Blurb
A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dust jacket of a book, and are now also fou ...
photo book
A photo book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. A photo book is related to and also often used as a coffee table book.
Early
Early photo books are characterized by their use o ...
''Thievery Corporation 2006''.
In 2006, the band also recorded "Sol Tapado" for the
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
benefit album ''
Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux'' produced by the
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization (RHO) is a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.
Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilati ...
. As well, in the 2006 release of ''
Tiger Woods PGA Tour
''PGA Tour'' is a series of golf video games developed and published by Electronic Arts - and later their EA Sports sub-label - since 1990. The series primarily features courses featured on the U.S. PGA Tour, and other notable courses (such as t ...
'' for Xbox, their music was featured as the soundtrack to the game. Also in 2006, Puma Ptah, then known as Ras Puma, joined and toured with Thievery Corporation and continues to tour with them today.
The group released their fifth studio album, ''
Radio Retaliation
''Radio Retaliation'' is the fifth studio album by American electronic music duo Thievery Corporation, released on September 23, 2008 by ESL Music. Intended to be a political album, it was recorded in the band's hometown of Washington, D.C. from ...
'', on September 23, 2008. It was nominated for the
Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
for best recording package.
Thievery Corporation's tour started out with five consecutive sold-out shows at the
9:30 Club in Washington, DC.
They were the opening act on August 1, 2009, for
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
at
FedExField
FedExField (originally Jack Kent Cooke Stadium) is an American football stadium located in Summerfield, Maryland, east of Washington, D.C. The stadium is the home of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). From 2004 un ...
in
Landover, Maryland
Landover is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 25,998.
Landover is contained between Sheriff Road and Central Avenue to the so ...
.
On July 27, 2010, ''Babylon Central'', the cinematic directorial debut of founding member Eric Hilton, was released. Set (and shot) in Washington, D.C., the film follows tripwire events in the interconnected lives of its characters, each influencing power brokers' schemes to manipulate international currencies.
In June 2011, Thievery Corporation released their sixth album, ''
Culture of Fear
Culture of fear (or climate of fear) is the concept that people may incite fear in the general public to achieve political or workplace goals through emotional bias; it was developed as a sociological framework by Frank Furedi and has been mor ...
'', which also featured the vocal stylings of Puma Ptah, then known as Ras Puma, on the tracks: "Overstand" and "False Flag Dub".
In January 2012, Thievery Corporation launched a remixes contest in conjunction with Dubspot. The same year, Eric Hilton from Thievery Corporation produced the debut album, ''Archives'', for Washington D.C. based reggae band The Archives.
The band released ''
Saudade
''Saudade'' (, , , ; plural ''saudades'') is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for something that one loves despite it not necessarily being real. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of long ...
'' on March 25, 2014, via
ESL Music
Eighteenth Street Lounge Music (ESL Music) is an independent record label based in Washington, D.C. founded by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton in 1996 in music, 1996. The duo, as Thievery Corporation, heads the label's roster of artists.
Roster
ESL Musi ...
.
On January 11, 2017, the band released the song "Ghetto Matrix" from their album ''
The Temple of I & I'', which was released on February 10, 2017, again via their own
ESL Music
Eighteenth Street Lounge Music (ESL Music) is an independent record label based in Washington, D.C. founded by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton in 1996 in music, 1996. The duo, as Thievery Corporation, heads the label's roster of artists.
Roster
ESL Musi ...
label.
On April 20, 2018, the band released ''Treasures from the Temple'' via ESL Music.
Throughout their career, the duo has repeatedly expressed their fondness for
Brazilian culture
The culture of Brazil is primarily Western, being derived from Portuguese culture, as well as the cultural and ethnic mixing that occurred between the Indigenous peoples, Portuguese colonizers and Africans. In the late 19th and early 20th centu ...
in interviews and liner notes of their releases, especially of the 1960s
Bossa Nova
Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...
music movement. Some of their earlier recordings were accompanied by artwork paying specific homage to classic releases by bossa nova artists like
João Gilberto
João Gilberto (born João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira – ; 10 June 1931 – 6 July 2019) was a Brazilian guitarist, singer and composer who was a pioneer of the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s. Around the world, he was o ...
(his
self-titled 1973 album) or
Tom Jobim
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
(
''Stone Flower''). Their 1997 debut album ''
Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi'' is also dedicated to the memory of Brazilian musician
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
, who died three years earlier.
The language of the group's lyrics throughout their career include English, Spanish, French, Italian,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, Portuguese,
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
and
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
. This reflects the group's world music influences.
Members
Full members
* Rob Garza – bass, guitar, keyboards, production
* Eric Hilton – bass, guitar, keyboards, production
Touring and studio musicians
* Jeff Franca – drums
* Rob Myers – sitar, guitar
*
Frank Orrall – percussion, drums, vocals
* Dan Africano – bass
* Ashish Vyas – bass
Touring and studio vocalists
* Natalia Clavier
* Loulou Ghelichkhani
*
Shana Halligan
Shana Beth Halligan (born October 11, 1973) is a singer, songwriter, and composer based out of Los Angeles, California best known for her work as the former vocalist for the trip-hop act Bitter:Sweet. She is the daughter of Dick Halligan, a fou ...
* Racquel Jones
*
Mr. Lif
Jeffrey Haynes (born December 28, 1977), better known by his stage name Mr. Lif, is an American rapper from Boston, Massachusetts. While being praised because of his political lyrics, he has released two studio albums on Definitive Jux and one ...
*
Notch
* Puma
* SEE-I
* Laura Vall
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
* ''Dubbed Out In DC'' (1997)
* ''Abductions and Reconstructions'' (1999)
* ''Rare Tracks: 18th Street Lounge'' (1999)
* ''
DJ-Kicks: Thievery Corporation'' (1999)
* ''Thievery Corporation and Revolution Present: Departures'' (2000)
* ''Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi'' (2001)
* ''The Outernational Sound'' (2004)
* ''
Versions
Version may refer to:
Computing
* Software version, a set of numbers that identify a unique evolution of a computer program
* VERSION (CONFIG.SYS directive), a configuration directive in FreeDOS
Music
* Cover version
* Dub version
* Remix
* ''Ve ...
'' (2006)
* ''
Red Hot + Latin: Silencio = Muerte Redux'' (2006)
* ''It Takes a Thief'' (2010)
Singles
Singles released on
ESL Music
Eighteenth Street Lounge Music (ESL Music) is an independent record label based in Washington, D.C. founded by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton in 1996 in music, 1996. The duo, as Thievery Corporation, heads the label's roster of artists.
Roster
ESL Musi ...
, unless noted.
*"2001 Spliff Odyssey" (1996)
*"Shaolin Satellite" (1996)
*"The Foundation" (1996)
*"ESL Dubplate" (1996)
*"Encounter in Bahia" (1997)
*"
Lebanese Blonde
"Lebanese Blonde" is a 1998 single released by the Thievery Corporation and later added to their 2000 album ''The Mirror Conspiracy''. It was also featured on the soundtrack to Zach Braff's 2004 film '' Garden State''. It features Pam Bricker o ...
" (4AD 1997)
*".38.45 (A Thievery Number)" (4AD 1998)
*"Halfway Around the World" (1998)
*"So Com Voce" (1998)
*"Incident at Gate 7" (1998)
*"DJ-Kicks EP / It Takes a Thief" (Studio !K7, Rough Trade, 1999)
*"Focus on Sight" (2000)
*"The Lagos Communiqué" (2000)
*"Focus on Sight" (2000)
*"Sound File 001" (4AD 2000)
*"Sound File 002" (4AD 2000)
*"Shadows of Ourselves" (4AD 2000)
*"DC 3000" (2000)
*"Thievery Corporation Vs Nicola Conte – Bossa Per Due" (2001)
*"The Richest Man in Babylon" (2003)
*"The Heart's a Lonely Hunter" (2005)
*"Revolution Solution" (2005)
*"Warning Shots" (2005)
*"The Time We Lost Our Way" (2005)
*"Sol Tapado" (2005)
*"Originality" (2006)
*"Supreme Illusion" (2007)
*"Radio Retaliation Extras" (2008)
*"Sound the Alarm / La Femme Parallel" (Sonik Magazine 2009)
*"Vampires" (2011)
*"Culture of Fear" (2011)
Eric Hilton albums
*''Peace Bureau Inner City Booms LP'' (2017)
*''Infinite Everywhere'' (2020)
*''The Impossible Silence'' (2020)
*''Ceremony'' (2021)
*''Lost Dialect'' (2022)
*''Present Past and Future - EP'' (2022)
*''Corazón Kintsugi'' (2023)
*''Sound Vagabond'' (2024)
References
External links
*
Eighteenth Street Lounge Music*
{{Authority control
American hip hop groups
American electronic music duos
Electronic music groups from Washington, D.C.
4AD artists
Lounge music groups
Musical groups from Washington, D.C.
American anti–Iraq War activists
Trip hop groups
Chill-out musicians
Downtempo musicians
Remote Control Records artists
Live Here Now artists
1995 establishments in Washington, D.C.