Artist: Tesla Genre(s):
Metal
Rock: Hard-Rock
Rock
Metal: Heavy
Discography:
Real to Reel Year: 2007
Tracks: 13
Into The Now Year: 2004
Tracks: 12
Standing Room Only Year: 2002
Tracks: 13
Time's Makin' Changes: The Best Of Year: 1995
Tracks: 15
Bust A Nut Year: 1994
Tracks: 14
Bonus and Unreleased Year: 1993
Tracks: 15
Five Man Acoustical Jam Year: 1990
Tracks: 14
The Great Radio Controversy Year: 1989
Tracks: 13
Mechanical Resonance Year: 1986
Tracks: 12
RePlugged Live (CD 2) Year:
Tracks: 10
RePlugged Live (CD 1) Year:
Tracks: 10
Although Tesla emerged during the glorification days of haircloth alloy, they ne'er totally match the flavor of the times. Their music was well-produced pop-metal, to be certain, simply they never indulged in the glammed-up excess that made cartoons out of many of their peers. Instead, Tesla's music was bluesy, no-frills, '70s-style hard careen; it concentrated more on solid musicianship than tremendous, arena-ready choruses (or hairdos), and it had a obtrusive guts -- not so much the urban cheapness of Guns N' Roses, merely a grounded attitude and a true philia for old school intemperate tilt. Despite their tonic want of posturing, Tesla was scarce as hard-hit as the rest of the pop-metal populace when grease wiped out classic-style hard rock music, just they did produce unmatched of the more healthy bodies of put to work of the geological era.
Tesla was formed in Sacramento, CA, in 1985, out of an sooner, locally popular mathematical group called City Kidd which dated back to 1982. Tesla's card featured singer Jeff Keith, the underrated guitar tandem of Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch, bassist Brian Wheat, and drummer Troy Luccketta. At management's suggestion, the band named itself subsequently the character discoverer Nikola Tesla, world Health Organization pioneered the radio set only was given only late credit entry for doing so. After playing various showcases in Los Angeles, Tesla quickly scored a handle with Geffen and released their debut album,
Mechanical Resonance, in 1986; it produced a minor hard rock 'n' roll impinge on in "Modern Day Cowboy," reached the Top 40 on the album charts, and finally went platinum. However, it was the follow-up, 1989's
The Great Radio Controversy, that unfeignedly stony-broke the band. The first single, "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)," was another hit with intemperate rock audiences, stage setting the phase for the second single, a warm, comforting ballad called "Dearest Song" which substituted a dash of hipster utopianism for the common power ballad histrionics. "Erotic love Song" hit the bug out Top Ten and made the band stars, push
The Great Radio Controversy into the Top 20 and double-platinum gross revenue figures; the follow-up single, "The Way It Is," was as well something of a hit.
In retention with their unpretentious, blue-collar roots, Tesla responded to stardom not by aping the glam theatrics of their tourmates, only by uncovering things grim. The idea behind 1990's
Five-spot Man Acoustical Jam was virtually unheard of -- a pop-metal band playing loose, informal acoustic versions of their best-known songs in concert, summation a few favorite covers ('60s classics by the Beatles, Stones, CCR, and others). Fortunately, Tesla's music was inflexible enough to hold up when its roots were exposed, and one of the covers -- "Signs," an rarefied bit of hippy outrage by the Five Man Electrical Band -- became another Top Ten hit, as well as the band's highest-charting single. Not only did
Basketball team Man Acoustical Jam hit the Top 20 and go pt, but it likewise helped directly inspire MTV's
Unplugged series, both with its relaxed vibration and its monitor that acoustic medicine could sound vital and gumptious.
The studio apartment reexamination to
The Great Radio Controversy,
Psychotic person Supper, was released in 1991 and quickly became another platinum impinge on. It didn't grow whatsoever singles quite as successful as "Honey Song" or "Signs," but it did spin off the sterling figure of singles of whatsoever Tesla album: "Edison's Medicine," "Call It What You Want," "What You Give," "Song and Emotion." Perhaps that was partly because Tesla's workmanlike hard rock 'n' roll didn't good ludicrous if it was played on rock music wireless aboard the fresh crop of Seattle bands. But careless, the winds of change were blowing, and by the fourth dimension Tesla returned with their 1994 follow-up,
Fall apart a Nut, those winds had blown pretty much whatever new blue-collar voiceless stone off the airwaves.
Rupture a Nut did sell over 800,000 copies -- an exceedingly respectable exhibit, disposed the musical climate of 1994, and a testament to the fan fundament Tesla had managed to crop over the years. But all was non well inside the band. Tommy Skeoch had been battling an addiction to tranquilizers, and his problems worsened to the item where he was asked to leave the band in 1995.
Tesla attempted to continue as a quartette for a clip, but the chemistry had been irreparably neutered, and they stone-broke up in 1996. Most of the bandmembers began playacting with littler outfits, none of which stirred beyond a local layer. When Skeoch's health improved, the banding arranged a modest reunion in 2000, which quickly became full-fledged. In the fall of 2001, the mathematical group released a two-disc live album,
Replugged Live, which authenticated their reunion hitch.
Into the Now, which was co-produced by Michael Rosen (Will, AFI), appeared in March 2004. A collection of '70s covers called
Real to Reel arrived in 2007.
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