Severe Tire Damage (band)

Severe Tire Damage is an American rock and roll "garage" band from Palo Alto, California, United States.

Don't Back Up!

Innovation

Severe Tire Damage was the first band to perform live on the Internet.[1][2] On June 24, 1993, the band was playing a gig at Xerox PARC while elsewhere in the building, scientists were discussing new technology (the MBone) for broadcasting on the Internet using livestreaming (known as multicasting at the time). As proof of their technology, the band was broadcast and could be seen live in Australia and elsewhere.

On Friday, November 18, 1994, the Rolling Stones decided to broadcast one of their concert tours on the Internet. Before their broadcast, Severe Tire Damage returned to the Internet, this time becoming the "opening act" for the Stones. Instead of an obscure Australian researcher, the entire world press was watching this time, and Severe Tire Damage was elevated from obscurity to Warholian fame.

Newsweek magazine described Severe Tire Damage as being "a lesser known rock band."[3] The Rolling Stones told The New York Times: "the surprise opening act by Severe Tire Damage was a good reminder of the democratic nature of the Internet."[4]

Band members

The core band consisted of these people:[5]

Additional people came and went during the band's history:

Music

Besides performing rock and roll standards, the band wrote a number of original songs that run the range from rock to punk. These songs appears on their two albums: "Who Cares" (a full CD album) and "Trial Starter Kit" (a mini-CD with only 4 songs). Both albums are out of print but are available on their collection CD "The Best We Can Do."

Downfall

On April 27, 1999, Weiser died,[6] and the band never fully recovered. For Rubin, this was the second band in which the drummer had died, making his life into a Spinal Tap-like experience. For a brief time afterward silicon valley drummer Joel Jewitt practiced with the band and played some local gigs; as of March 2010 Jewitt was believed to be alive. Rubin and Haines continue to keep score on dead drummers; currently (2020) Haines is ahead of Rubin three to two.

References

  1. Savetz, K., Randall, N., and Lepage, Y., "MBONE: Multicasting Tomorrow's Internet", John Wiley, 1996, ISBN 1-56884-723-8
  2. Rogers, Adam, "15 Years of Wired", Wired Magazine, June 2008, page 166
  3. Hafner, Katie, "The MBone: Can't You Hear It Knocking", Newsweek, Dec 5, 1994
  4. Strauss, Neil (November 22, 1994), Rolling Stones Live on Internet: Both a Big Deal and a Little Deal, The New York Times, retrieved 2007-02-25
  5. Wasserman, Elizabeth (November 15, 1997). "Performing Live – With a Net". San Jose Mercury News.
  6. In Memoriam: Mark Weiser Archived 2008-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.