Vigilantes of Love is an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band fronted by Bill Mallonee, with many secondary players drawn from the musician pool in and around

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

, United States. In its later manifestations in the later 1990s and early 2000s, Mallonee usually sang, played

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

and

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

, although in earlier bands he played

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

. The band takes its name from the New Order song "

Love Vigilantes "Love Vigilantes" is a song by English rock band New Order. It first appeared as the opening track of their third studio album, ''Low-Life'' (1985). The song is a departure from New Order's usual style in many ways. Described by AllMusic as "at i ...

," although their sound tends more to

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

, and

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

rock than new wave. Their 2001 album ''Summershine'' also showed some movement toward

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...

and

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

-style

college rock College rock was the alternative rock music played on student-run university and college campus radio stations located in the United States and Canada in the 1980s. The stations' playlists were often created by students who avoided the mainstream ...

, which would be more fully explored in Mallonee's solo career.

History

The band formed in 1990 in

, where Bill Mallonee attended the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. The act developed as a mostly acoustic, side-project of The Cone Ponies, the last in a long series of line-ups beginning in the mid-1980s with Windows and Walls, and Bed of Roses. For their first two recording projects—''Jugular'' and ''Drivin' the Nails''—the band performed as a trio between Mallonee, Mark Hall (accordion), and Jonathan "Dog-Mess Jonny" Evans (harmonica). The Athens, Georgia, performance venues in which they were booked regularly included The Flying Buffalo, the 40-Watt Club, Rockfish Palace, Uptown Lounge, and their musical "home"—The Downstairs Restaurant (now DT's Down Under). For the third and subsequent albums, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Billy Holmes played an increasingly important role. Later, when greater local success led increasingly to engagements more widely in the Southeast, and with the departure of Mark Hall and Dog-Mess Jonny, the band then re-formed as a traditional touring four-piece rock band including front man Mallonee, Newton Carter,

David LaBruyere David "DeLa" LaBruyere is a musician, songwriter, and producer. He was a longtime bass guitarist for John Mayer. He has also been a member of Vigilantes of Love and worked with Michelle Malone Michelle Malone is an American singer-songwrite ...

(later became bass player for

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

), and

Travis McNabb Travis Aaron McNabb (born November 18, 1969) is an American drummer and percussionist. McNabb is perhaps best known as a longtime member of the band Better Than Ezra, although he has performed session and touring work with many acts during his ...

(later of

Better Than Ezra Better Than Ezra is an American alternative rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and signed with The End Records. The band formed in 1988 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and consists of Kevin Griffin (vocals and guitar), Tom Drummond (bass g ...

and

Sugarland Sugarland is an American country music duo founded in Atlanta, Georgia. The duo consists of singer-songwriters Jennifer Nettles (lead vocals) and Kristian Bush (vocals, guitar, mandolin). They were founded in 2002, at which point Kristen Hall (vo ...

). The band was signed to Capricorn Records following their third album, ''Killing Floor''. Mallonee has stated that Capricorn's lack of investment in a music video to support Vigilantes made it difficult for them to break out in the broader marketplace. With Mallonee serving as Vigilantes of Love's frontman, the band's "Double Cure" was nominated for a 1997 Dove Award in the Alternative/Modern Rock Recorded Song of the Year category. The band experienced controversy in the CCM market for the song "Love Cocoon." The song, which described marital sex, led to the band's album ''

Slow Dark Train ''Slow Dark Train'' is an album by the American band Vigilantes of Love, released in 1997. Some Christian stores refused to carry the album due to the inclusion of "Love Cocoon", a song about marital sex. The band supported the album with a Nort ...

'' being dropped by some Christian bookstores. After many years of successful touring nationally and abroad — the UK and the Netherlands being particularly fond of Mallonnee's music. The band disbanded in 2001 as Mallonee went solo as a singer-songwriter/guitarist/raconteur playing to the renewed interest in roots-music Americana. The band reformed in November 2008. The band played its first show back together on November 20 at the

40 Watt Club The 40 Watt Club is a music venue in Athens, Georgia. Along with CBGB, the Whisky a Go Go, and selected others, it was instrumental in launching American punk rock and new wave music. The 40 Watt Club was the primary performance space for numero ...

. That version of the band only lasted a short time before it broke up, and Mallonee returned to his solo career.

Band members

Besides Bill Mallonee, other band members have included at various times: *

Chris Bland Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), N ...

: bass * Jacob Bradley: guitars, bass * Newton Carter: guitars * Tom Crea: drums * Chris Donohue: guitars, bass * Jonny "Dog-Mess" Evans: harmonica *Bob Goin: bass *Mark Hall:

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

* Kevin Heuer: drums *Billy Holmes: guitars,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

s, bass * Kenny Hutson: guitars, mandolin,

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

* John Keane: guitars, pedal steel *Scott Klopfenstein: drums *

: bass *

: drums * Drew Grow: guitars * Doug Nissley: mandolin *John Mallory: guitar, bass, vocals, songwriting

Discography

*''Jugular'' (

Fingerprint Records Fingerprint Records is an independent record label formed in 1990 by Mark Heard, Dan Russell, and Chuck Long. The label released Heard's albums and albums by The Call, Vigilantes of Love, Ramona Silver, bob., and two tribute albums to Heard af ...

, 1990) *''Driving the Nails'' (Core, 1991) *''Killing Floor'' (Fingerprint Records/Sky, 1992) Produced by

Mark Heard John Mark Heard III (December 16, 1951 – August 16, 1992) was an American record producer, folk rock singer and songwriter from Macon, Georgia. Heard released sixteen albums, and produced or performed with many artists, including: Sam Phil ...

and

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his car ...

*''Welcome to Struggleville'' (Capricorn, 1994) *''

Strong Hand of Love ''Strong Hand of Love: A Tribute to Mark Heard'' is a compilation of songs by various artists in tribute to songwriter, Mark Heard. Recorded and released in 1994, after Heard's death in 1992. Proceeds benefit the Heard Family Fund. In 1994, wit ...

'', tribute to

, 1994 *''Blister Soul'' (Capricorn, 1995) *''My Year in Review'' (1995, fan club cassette) *''V.O.L.'' (Warner/Resound, 1996, compilation) *''

Orphans of God ''Orphans of God'' is a 1996 two-CD compilation of songs performed by various artists in tribute to songwriter Mark Heard. Recorded and released after Heard's death in 1992, proceeds from the album benefit the Heard Family Fund. This album was li ...

'', tribute to

, 1996 *''

'' (Capricorn, 1997) *''Compass'' (EP) (January 1, 1997) *''To The Roof Of The Sky'' (Meat Market, 1998) *''Live At The 40 Watt'' (Paste, 1998) *''Free For Good'' (A Startled Chameleon, 1998, Europe-only release) *''Audible Sigh'' (True Tunes, 1999, pre-release) *''Cross the Big Pond'' (EP) (1999, ''Free For Good'' + extra track) *''Audible Sigh'' (Compass, 2000, wide release) *''Audible Sigh w/ Room Despair EP'' (Compass, 2000, limited release) *''Electromeo'' (EP) (2000, limited release) *''Summershine'' (Compass, 2001) *''Resplendent (Audibly Live)'' (2002) *''Live at the Acoustic Cafe'' (Fundamental, 2007) *''Slow Dark Demos: Archive Series Vol. 1'' *''Live at Eddie's'' (March 1, 2009) *''Manicphaseshifter (Live @Schuba's, Chicago, IL'') (April 16, 2015) *''Need to Bleed (Expanded Edition)'' (January 31, 2018)

Video

* ''Fade to Black: Live at the Axiom Arts Centre, Cheltenham, UK 1999'' (2004?)

References

External links