Death in Vegas

Death in Vegas
Origin	England
Genres	Psychedelic rock, electronic rock, electronica, big beat
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Drone Records
Members
Richard Fearless Tim Holmes also: Mat Flint - bass Ian Button - guitar Danny Hammond - guitar Simon Hanson - drums Terry Miles - keyboards Seamus Beaghen - keyboards
Past members
Steve Hellier

Death in Vegas are a psychedelic rock and electronic rock band from the United Kingdom, comprising two permanent members: Richard Fearless (Richard Maguire) and Tim Holmes (also known as Chris Holmes, 37, (Worcs)).^[1] Influenced by a wide range of musical genres including psychedelic rock, electronica, krautrock, dub and industrial, the band's sound is constantly changing, moving between live rock sounds, electronica and minimal techno. The band was formed in 1994 by Fearless and Steve Hellier and signed to Concrete Records under the name of "Dead Elvis". Objections from the Elvis Presley estate forced them to change their name, and Dead Elvis became the title of their first album instead.

History

Dead Elvis

The first album, Dead Elvis, was a mixture of many musical genres, although most of the tracks are predominantly based in electronica. Shortly after the release of the album, Hellier left the band and was replaced by Tim Holmes, who had already been involved with mixing and engineering tracks on Dead Elvis.^[1]

The Contino Sessions

The band's second album, The Contino Sessions (1999), marked a slight change in direction with more attention to live instrumentation than their first and the inclusion of guest vocalists (including Dot Allison, Bobby Gillespie, Iggy Pop, and Jim Reid).^[1] Although predominantly rock-influenced, the album still retained some electronic elements, in particular the opening track "Dirge" with its drum machine-based rhythm track. "Dirge", featuring a vocal chant by Allison, is perhaps one of the band's most recognisable tracks. "Dirge" was featured on a Levi's jeans commercial, as well as the second installment of the Blair Witch Project, and was used in the trailer for the 2006 film The Black Dahlia. The song was also used at the end of the 2009 remake of Last House On The Left, near the end of the Being Human episode "The Longest Day", and in the second episode of season two of Misfits. Along with "Aisha" (with vocals from Iggy Pop), "Dirge" helped the band gain more recognition, culminating in a Mercury Music Prize nomination in 2000. "Aisha" was a Top 10 hit in the UK and also featured in the Playstation 2 title Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.^[2]

Scorpio Rising

In September 2002, the band released its third album, Scorpio Rising, after almost a three-year gap. During their time off, the band had toured and briefly returned to their techno roots with the track "Scorpio", which, although not appearing on any album, was included as the B-side of "Hands Around My Throat", the first single from Scorpio Rising. Scorpio Rising takes its name from the cult avant-garde film of the same name by Kenneth Anger. The lyrics of the title track (featuring vocals from Liam Gallagher) reflected the controversial nature of Anger's film. It also continued to attract attention from advertisers and filmmakers with "Hands Around My Throat" being used in a Sony Ericsson advert and appearing on the soundtrack to The Animatrix, while the track "Girls" was used on the soundtracks to Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and Angela Robinson's D.E.B.S.,^[3] as well as in an episode of the TV show Veronica Mars and a commercial for BBC's most recent production of Sense and Sensibility. This was their last studio album for Concrete Records. Concrete released a best-of album, entitled Milk It, in 2004.

Satan's Circus

Death in Vegas set up their own label, Drone Records (not to be confused with the existing German label of the same name) and released their fourth album, Satan's Circus, in 2004.

The melody of Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express" is featured in the track "Zugaga". Unlike the previous two albums, Satan's Circus did not feature any guest vocalists. The album was also released as a limited edition double pack including a live CD, recorded on the Scorpio Rising tour at the Brixton Academy, London.

Trans-Love Energies

The band released their fifth studio album, Trans-Love Energies, on September 26, 2011 in the UK. In a 2008 interview, Richard Fearless claimed that: "I've recorded a new Death In Vegas album but it just needs to be mixed. I re-scored these psyche/surf films that were filmed at the Barbican a couple of years ago and worked on it in the studio for about 8 months. We rehearsed it and performed it a few times but as yet haven't actually released it. That's basically what the next Death In Vegas album will be. I just had to have a break from it - Death In Vegas is something I've been doing since I was a teenager."^[4]

In a 2007 interview, Tim Holmes confirmed the band had a potential un-released album: "We’ve got at least another album worth of music recorded and we just need to mix it. It’s just not something that we want to push or stress over. I guess that because we do not have the commercial constraints that signed bands have we can please ourselves."^[5] Trans-Love Energies does not contain a credit for Holmes, however; when asked in a 2011 interview by the Australian music magazine Onion whether Holmes was "part of the current line-up", Fearless replied: "No. No he's not".^[6]

Work for other acts

Outside of Death in Vegas Ian Button has produced various upcoming acts including Extradition Order, Char Johnson, the Beat Maras, David Cronenberg's Wife and Paul Hawkins. Button plays drums in Hawkins's backing band Thee Awkward Silences and also in D.I.V bassist Mat Flint's band Deep Cut, as well as playing guitar for Dot Allison. Button releases his own material under the name of the Anthony Anderson Project and is credited as Anthony Anderson on Dead Elvis.

Keyboard player Terry Miles has also played with Bernard Butler, Denim and Go Kart Mozart (the latter both fronted by former Felt frontman Lawrence Hayward).

Bass player Mat Flint sang and played guitar in early 90s indie band Revolver, and is currently guitarist in Deep Cut.

The Now

In August 2011, a full scale live tour was announced.

Discography

Studio albums

• Dead Elvis (March 1997)
• The Contino Sessions (September 1999)
• Scorpio Rising (September 2002)
• Satan's Circus (October 2004)
• Trans-Love Energies (September 2011) (UK chart peak: #57)

Compilation albums

• Back to Mine Vol. 16 (January 2004) as part of the Back to Mine series.
• Milk It: The Best of Death in Vegas (February 2005)
• FabricLive.23 (August 2005)
• The Best of Death in Vegas (October 2007)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 250. ISBN 1-84195-017-3. 
2. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 146. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
3. ^ "MusicBrainz D.E.B.S. soundtrack page". http://musicbrainz.org/release/7da16832-39f2-4795-8956-42986dd8e622.html. 
4. ^ "Black Acid - Interview at Leeds Festival 2008", Contact Music, August 01, 2008.
5. ^ "Interview - Tim Holmes / Death in Vegas", FLOmotions, April 20, 2007.
6. ^ "Interview - Death in Vegas", Onion, September 22, 2011.