You Am I

History

The band released several EPs and singles in the early 90s, though the real breakthrough came when Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth caught the band performing at the 1993's Big Day Out festival. Ranaldo also produced their debut album, Sound As Ever. The album went on to win the 1993 ARIA Award for Best Alternative Release. The band was signed to Ra Records, an alternative rock oriented sub-branch of rooArt Records, with U.S. distribution by Restless Records.

After the release of their first album, Tunaley and the band parted ways. He was replaced by Russell Hopkinson (formerly of the band Nursery Crimes), creating the core line-up of the band to the present day. Since then, the line-up has been augmented by David Lane of The Pictures on second guitar. Lane is said to have come to the band's attention via his own work with The Pictures, and by transcribing, with extreme accuracy, the band's guitar tabs on a You Am I web website. Lane has also said (on the Cream & The Crock documentary) that he almost decided not to be a part of the band, saying he was "fucking up his favourite band by playing in it" after playing his first show with them and stuffing up a bunch of solos.

You Am I had toured the United States beginning in the mid-'90s, including playing with Soundgarden on the Lollapalooza festival, Redd Kross, The Strokes, and Smoking Popes. (Soundgarden first came across them at the 1994 Big Day Out festival .) Despite little success in The States, the band became well known throughout Australia.

Further success came with the albums Hi Fi Way and Hourly, Daily, with both picking up ARIA Awards. Hourly, Daily was the first album released on the Shock label to go to number one in the ARIA charts upon launch. These albums were marked by retro-inspired '60s bop and folky 12 string melodies, a departure from the band's earlier hard rock/ grunge sound.

Subtle country influences were apparent on their 1998 #4 Record, that included "Heavy Heart." A heart-rending, borderline- karaoke inspired ballad... about being dumped by one's girlfriend.

In 1999, front man Tim Rogers released his first solo album What Rhymes With Cars And Girls.

After an album absence prolonged by touring and record label interference, Dress Me Slowly was released April 2001. Dress Me Slowly was guitarist David Lane's first bona fide appearance on a studio record.

Deliverance was released in 2002, but did not enjoy the kind of critical and commercial success that the band's earlier work had enjoyed. The band released "Who Put The Devil In You?" as a download-only internet single that year.

In September 2003, the band parted ways with its record label BMG, with whom it had been signed in 1998 after BMG acquired rooArt Records.

In the four years between Deliverance and You Am I's next album, Convicts, both Davey Lane and Tim Rogers kept busy with their own solo projects. Lane performed at the 2004 ARIA Music Awards as part of the supergroup The Wrights, featuring members of many other Australian rock bands, and in 2005 released an LP with The Pictures, Pieces of Eight. Rogers released two albums with The Temperance Union in this period, Spit Polish in 2004 and the Dirty Ron/Ghost Songs double album in 2005.

At the Falls Festival held at Marion Bay over New Years Eve of 2004/05, You Am I were scheduled to play a set. Tim Rogers appeared heavily intoxicated on stage, and when a fight broke out between band members, You Am I were forced off stage much to the disappointment of festival goers. John Butler and Missy Higgins were re-called onto stage to do a quick impromptu to fill the hour set-time.

On 29 January 2005, You Am I performed at WaveAid, which was to raise money for the relief effort after hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tidal wave disaster. In late 2005, You Am I recorded their seventh studio album entitled Convicts with producer Greg Wales. The title is believed to be a tongue in cheek dig of English people referring to Australians as convicts because of their First Fleet origins. It may also refer to the alternate name used by the band to perform secret gigs during the Hi Fi Way–#4 Record era. The album was released on 13 May 2006 on the band's new record label, Virgin. The Convicts album was also released in the USA on Yep Roc Records. The band toured America in the fall and summer of 2007 to promote the record.

The band's 8th studio album, Dilettantes, was released on 13 September 2008, alongside the radio-only single Erasmus. The album debuted at number one on the ARIA Australian Music charts, and number twelve on the overall chart.

You Am I performed at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 14 March 2009 for Sound Relief, a benefit concert for victims of the Black Saturday Victorian bushfires and the Queensland Floods.

In July 2009 You Am I came in at #52 with "Berlin Chair" in Triple J Hottest 100 of all time, voted by the Australian public.

In August 2010, it was announced that they had left EMI to sign with new Sydney label Other Tongues. Their ninth album is self-titled and will be released on 8 October.

In an interview with music journalist Nick Milligan on Friday 24 September 2010, Tim Rogers said of the new self-titled album, "I'm still bewildered by this record. I haven't gotten my head around it. It was extraordinary making it and I don't feel like I've finished the creation of it. I'm still yet to understand it. I like that. I think with previous records I felt I understood what went on and what we were supposed to do. What it's references were. With this [record] I just let myself freefall into it and get lost in the creation of it. I haven't got a grasp on it and I'm enjoying the exhilaration of that. I'm still listening to this record wondering who the person was that wrote that... and whether I'd like to meet him."

Former members

Mark Tunaley was the band's first "official" drummer, and is You Am I's only drummer to date to employ heavy metal style of drumming, which included double bass drum parts. He left the group shortly after the recording of Sound As Ever, due to differing perceptions of the band's direction. His sole songwriting contribution to the band ('Off The Field') was left off the US release of the album.

Greg Hitchcock, formerly of The Verys, was a touring member of the band for the Hourly, Daily era. He played guitar and electric piano with the band for some time up until #4 Record. He was never formally a member of the band, but appeared in the video clips for 'Soldiers', 'Good Mornin' and 'Tuesday' (though ironically not in the 'Trike' clip, on which he actually played the organ solo). Rogers later said that he was never quite comfortable with the electric piano on stage because he felt the band lost its spontaneous feel.

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

References

External links

Category:Australian rock music groups Category:New South Wales musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1989 Category:ARIA Award winners