Wheatus (album)

Wheatus formed in 1995 after guitarist and vocalist Brendan B. Brown left the skate-pop band Mr. Jones to write his own material.[4] Brown brought in his younger brother, Peter, to play drums[5] and Rich Liegey to play bass.[6] Peter enjoyed the songs Brendan had written.[5] Multi-instrumentalist and engineer Phil A. Jimenez wanted to work with Brown after hearing "Teenage Dirtbag".[5] The following week, Jimenez was at band rehearsal, appreciating every song.[5] The energy "of the pop elements" in addition to "the story-telling and the social commentary" made Jimenez feel like he "really wanted to be a part of [the band]."[5]

All of the material on Wheatus was written by Brendan B. Brown, except for "Punk Ass Bitch", which was written by bassist Rich Liegey,[7] and their cover of Erasure's "A Little Respect",[2] which was written by Vince Clarke and Andy Bell.[7] The song titles came to Brown first with the subject matter following as he considered the name "an emotional blueprint".[5] Brown mentioned that the beat in "Teenage Dirtbag" was "sort of a hip-hop thing" and that the guitars "are definitely heavy metal".[8] Brown had the chorus melody and the "oh yeah" section before finishing the song's lyrics, it was "one of those once-in-a-lifetime melodies that works for every reason."[8] Brown claimed the song was autobiographical, however, none of the band members "wound up getting the girl in the end. So I guess that's the inspiration—the hope that that happens to someone someday."[8]

Talking about "Truffles" and "Wannabe Gangstar", Brown explained that when you're younger "You can't do anything [...]. You have no power; you have no resources. You're subject to everyone else's crap".[5] "Sunshine", the first song written for the album, was Brown realizing he was working for the wrong kind of people.[5] "Hump'Em N' Dump'Em" was written when the Senate was thinking of impeaching the president.[5] "Hey, Mr. Brown" was written after Brown was not being paid for something he had done.[5] "Love Is a Mutt from Hell" was about a dysfunctional romance.[9] "Wannabe Gangster" was inspired by "white, middle class glorification of inner city problems", according to Brown.[10]

Using the knowledge he gained from being in his former band,[5] Wheatus was recorded in the basement of Brown's mother's house.[5] A control room was set up in the dining room, with a one hundred-foot cable leading down to the basement.[5] Wheatus was produced and engineered by Wheatus and Philip A. Jimenez.[7] One of the reasons the band self-produced the album was their idea to take specific sounds from different genres and include them into songs.[8] Brown explained that "When you're a small band and nothing's going on for you, you can't explain to somebody bigger than you [...] what you want to do. They just won't care."[8] New York-based band Soul Coughing had a big influence on the production of the album.[11]

Despite the multitude of electric guitar tones, no electric guitars were used in the recording process.[12] The tones originate from Brown's acoustic Martin guitar, which is set up through two preamplifiers which are connected to their own power amplifiers.[12] Brown can swap between the preamplifiers with the aid of an expression pedal so that he is able to "swell into a distortion sound while fading out the clean tone".[12] Brown claimed he does not know "[that] many guitar players", thus he took three different guitar sounds that he enjoyed and merged them into his sound.[12] Jimenez provided percussion, harmonica and banjo.[5] David Thoener mixed almost all of the tracks apart from "Wannabe Gangstar", which was mixed by Brown, and "A Little Respect", which was mixed by Richard A. LaSalvia.[7] The album was mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound in New York.[7]

Wheatus was named artist of week at billboardtalentnet.com in February 2000.[13] In March, Wheatus signed to Columbia.[14] Liegey left the band prior to the release of Wheatus[2] and was replaced by Mike McCabe in July,[6] who left his job as a flight attendant to join the band.[15] "Teenage Dirtbag" was released as a single on July 18.[16] The music video, directed by Jeff Gordon,[17] was nominated for Best Video at the Kerrang! Awards.[18] The song was given extra promotion due to its inclusion on the soundtrack to the film Loser (2000).[13] According to an issue of Billboard dated July 2000 Wheatus was the most-download artist at billboardtalentnet.com.[13] In the same issue, it mentioned that the band's debut album was planned to be called Teenage Dirtbag and was set for release on August 1.[13] Instead, Wheatus was released through Columbia on August 15.[19][nb 1] In September, the band toured the US.[21]

Wheatus toured the UK in April 2001.[22] "A Little Respect" was released as a single on July 2.[23] The music video, directed by Brendan Malloy,[24] is about how a boyfriend fails to impress his girlfriend until Wheatus stages a private concert for the pair.[25] It features Shawn Hatosy and Brittany Murphy.[25] Wheatus tour the UK again in November and December 2001.[26] A double A-side single of "Wannabe Gangstar" and "Leroy" was released on January 22, 2002.[27] The music video for "Wannabe Gangstar" was directed by Gordon,[28] while the video for "Leroy" was directed by Mark Hartley.[29] A remixed version of "Wannabe Ganstar" featuring Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson was released earlier on January 7.[30] In March, Brown asked Shannon Harris to join the band as a keyboardist.[31] Tired of being a session musician, Harris accepted.[31] Harris moved to New York and lived with Brown.[31] The band toured the UK in June.[32]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
ChartAttack	favorable[3]
Consequence of Sound	favorable[33]
Drowned in Sound	6/10[1]
Entertainment Weekly	C[34]
Exclaim!	favorable[35]
NME	4/10[36]
Ox-Fanzine	Unfavorable[37]
PopMatters	favorable[38]

"Teenage Dirtbag" reached number two on the UK Singles Chart[39] and number seven on the US Alternative Songs chart.[40] Wheatus charted at number 76 in the US[41] and number seven in the UK.[39] In February 2001, the "Teenage Dirtbag" single was certified silver in the UK and in the following month it was certified gold.[42] The album was certified silver in the UK in April 2001.[42] The following month, it was certified gold in the UK.[42] "A Little Respect" peaked at number 3 in the UK.[39] By August, the album had sold one million copies worldwide.[43] "Wannabe Gangstar"/"Leroy" peaked at number 22 in the UK.[39]

In July 2013, the album was certified platinum in the UK, as was the "Teenage Dirtbag" single.[42] The single is also certified three times platinum in Australia.[44] In July 2014, the "A Little Respect" single was certified silver.[42] By August 2015, the album had sold over five million copies worldwide.[45] Discussing the album's legacy, Brown revealed that the recognition "did not initially happen in America. At home we were a bit under the radar. Most people at the label didn't really understand how we fitted, or didn't fit, into what was happening in music at the time."[46] The band played the album in full in the UK in September and October[47] with support from Mike Doughty and The Hipstones.[46]

All songs written by Brendan Brown, except where noted.[7]

Personnel per booklet.[7]

Footnotes

Citations

Sources

• Wheatus at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)