Johnny Society is an American rock band from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Biography
Johnny Society was formed in 1996 by multi-instrumentalist
Kenny Siegal and
Brian Geltner. They released a self-titled album as Hunk on Geffen in 1996, but disbanded less than a year after their album came out, only for Siegal and Geltner to reunite shortly thereafter under their new identity.
Meanwhile, they had already begun experimenting and writing songs on the side with Indian-trained musician
Chris Rael
Chris Rael is an eclectic American musician, singer, composer, and songwriter.
He is the founder and leader of Indo-pop band Church of Betty, based in New York City. He has composed, recorded, and produced more than 25 CDs, collaborating with ar ...
in a project they called
The Hand, which released an album (''Mule Me'') before re-forming Johnny Society. Their debut album, ''It Don't Matter'', was recorded and released in 1997, after which Rael left the band to give his full-time to the reconvened
Church of Betty. Wood arrived the following year with additional contributions from Rael, The Hand live keyboardist
Jan Kotik,
Bryce Goggin
Bryce Goggin is an American record producer and sound engineer. His career began in the early 1990s, working at Baby Monster Studios. He first received note for mixing the album ''Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain'' by Pavement. He has since worked with ...
, and labelmate
Chris Whitley
Christopher Becker Whitley (August 31, 1960 – November 20, 2005) was an American blues/rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. During his 25-year career he released more than a dozen albums, had two songs in the top 50 of the Billboard mains ...
. The album was named to the "Top Ten List of Independent Records of 1998" by The
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
at year's end. Johnny Society became a trio in 1999 when
Gwen Snyder (who also records under the moniker Blueberry) joined in time to record the band's third album, ''Clairvoyance'', released at the beginning of 2000.
[ ''Clairvoyance'' was named "Album of the Year" at the 2002 Independent Music Awards by a panel of judges that included ]Tom Waits
Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...
, Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee Skaggs (born July 18, 1954), known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, ma ...
, Me'Shell NdegéOcello
Michelle Lynn Johnson, better known as Meshell Ndegeocello (; born August 29, 1968), is a German-born American singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on so ...
, Mitchell Froom
Mitchell Froom (born June 29, 1953) is an American musician and record producer. He was a member of the bands Gamma (band), Gamma and Latin Playboys, and is currently the keyboardist for Crowded House. He has produced albums for several artists, ...
, Don Byron
Donald Byron (born November 8, 1958) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet but has also played bass clarinet and saxophone in a variety of genres that includes free jazz and klezmer.
Biography
His mother w ...
, Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter.
A major figure in the development of soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, many of which crossed over to the ''Bill ...
, Victoria Williams
Victoria Williams (born December 23, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. Diagnosed with multi ...
, and George Duke
George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a pr ...
.
Discography
*''Hunk'' (1996, Geffen)
*''It Don't Matter'' (1997, Messenger)
*''Wood'' (1998, Messenger)
*''Clairvoyance'' (2000, Messenger)
*''Life Behind the 21st Century Wall'' (2003, Messenger)
*''Coming to Get You'' (2005, Messenger)
References
External links
at MySpace
*
Johnny Society
at MySpace
Johnny Society
at Messenger Records
*Johnny Society
Johnny Society is an American rock band from New York City.
Biography
Johnny Society was formed in 1996 by multi-instrumentalist Kenny Siegal and Brian Geltner. They released a self-titled album as Hunk on Geffen in 1996, but disbanded less t ...
at Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
Johnny Society
at Brightcove
Brightcove, Inc. () is a Boston, Massachusetts–based software company that produces an online video platform.
History
Brightcove was founded in 2004 by Jeremy Allaire, who served as Executive Chairman until April 2016, and Bob Mason. The c ...
*
{{Authority control
Alternative rock groups from New York (state)
Indie rock musical groups from New York (state)
Independent Music Awards winners