Weapons (band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Weapons


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Origin = London
Penarth
Genre = Indie rock Alternative rock Punk rock Rapcore
Years_active = 2003 - Present
Label = Wicked Old Lady Records
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Current_members = Justin Griffiths Georgia Griffiths Mo-laudi Bopape
Blair Macann
Pete Cherry
Tasha Baylis
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Weapons, or in their former guise, Weapons of Mass Belief are a sextet, indie/punk band from Wales.

Band members

* Justin Griffiths (Vocals)
* Georgia Griffiths (Vocals)
* Mo-laudi Bopape (Backing Vocals)
* Blair Macann (Guitar)
* Pete Cherry (Bass)
* Tasha Baylis (Drums)

Band biography

Compared in the same breath to such diverse acts as Rage Against the Machine, Cypress Hill, Dead Kennedys, Linkin Park, Eminem and Supergrass, Weapons cross skewed punk-rock with rapped vocals.

The Weapons story starts in the sleepy seaside town of Penarth in Wales, where Justin and his sister Georgia grew up. In the quiet environment of the Welsh coast, music was one of the few distractions available. Radiohead, The Prodigy, Beastie Boys, Pixies and The Smiths all played their part in defining the musical terrain, as did enthusiastic parents who encouraged their creativity. Recording equipment and instruments littered the household which also inspired their other sister, singer/songwriter Jemma.

A move to London via university followed for the siblings, but their capacity for new music remained ravenous, leading them to be inspired by hip-hops rhythms and its ability to communicate complex ideas, so the siblings started rapping.

Georgia's first performance as an MC was actually in prison. Sent down for nine months for a drug case that caused a media frenzy, Georgia got a group of yardie prostitutes to showcase with her to the rest of the inmates.

Whilst Justin and Georgia were planning the band's future in a north London pub, Mo-laudi overheard as he was serving them drinks. He's a multilingual South African from the tropic of Capricorn, born of activist parents in the days of the struggle. He grew up listening to maskanda, folk, mbaqanga, kwaito, ragga and hip-hop. After winning his first rap competition in high school, Mo started his own hip-hop nightclub.

Something gelled. The three started writing together with three views and three very different styles. By February 2003 they had enough material to know what they were doing was worthwhile. But they needed a band to give a rock 'n' roll framework to their extreme vocals.

Tasha was the first. She's played drums since she was twelve, and despite her diminutive size, she beats those drums harder than most fellas. The Verve's drummer Peter Salisbury remarked that he had never heard anyone hit the drums like Tasha did. [http://www.myspace.com/weaponsmusic "in the About weaponsmusic box".]

Guitarist, Blair was next. He was the chef in Mo-laudi's pub, and comes from New Zealand. Justin describes him as "mysterious, philosopher-type, with a temper as bad as Gordon Ramsay in Hell's Kitchen - he likes throwing plates at Mo!"The band was completed by bassist Pete. From Lowestoft, Pete once worked with Ed Graham, The Darkness' drummer, breading chicken giblets on a conveyor belt. He was nearly deported from Norway for wrecking a hotel, and currently earns his dough writing music for porn movies.

The band played their first gig in June 2003 at The Verge in London's Kentish Town, where the three rappers formed an unlikely yet compelling trio. Infectiously energetic, they ploughed a course through metal, punk, ska and post-rock.

Holed up in a north London studio over that new year, Weapons recorded their first demos with Damian Taylor. On the back of the recordings, they were invited to Texas to play the 2004 SXSW festival. Selected by Music Week alongside Franz Ferdinand and The Hives as one of the buzz bands of the week, Weapons were soon doing a BBC Radio 1 session for The Nations in Wales presenters, Bethan Elfyn & Huw Stephens. Later in the year they released their first UK single "Terrorist Youth", with plays across the evening sessions of Zane Lowe, Steve Lamacq and XFM's Ian Camfield.

Following the success of their second single "Black Line Ninja" in March 2005, the band went over to the US to play their first LA show at The Viper Rooms in May. When they got back, Weapons were fortunate to start working with Graeme Stewart, who recorded a limited edition third single "Death Of A Nation", which was released in November 2005.

In early 2006, the band finished writing their much anticipated debut album and recorded it with Graeme at Courtyard Studios in Oxfordshire. Recalling a multitude of musical references -the album is an exhilarating 36 minutes through the heads of this genre-crossing sextet. The self-titled record is released through the band's own label Wicked Old Lady Records on September 18, 2006, preceded by the single "Love Is Thunder", two weeks earlier.

Discography

Albums

* Weapons, September 18, 2006.

Singles

* Terrorist Youth, September 2004
* Black Line Ninja, March 2005
* Death Of A Nation, November 2005
* Love Is Thunder, September 4, 2006.

References

External links

* [http://www.weaponsmusic.net/ Official site]