Information Society (band)

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Information Society
James Cassidy, Kurt Harland, Paul Robb (1992)
Background information
Origin USA
Genre(s) Synthpop
Techno
Freestyle
Years active 1982 – 1997
2006 – present
Label(s) Hakatak,Tommy Boy Records,Reprise,Cleopatra,Dancing Ferret
Website InformationSociety.us
Members
Paul Robb
James Cassidy
Kurt Harland
Former members
Amanda Kramer
Christopher Anton
Murat Konar
Sonja Meyers

Information Society (also known as InSoc) is a U.S. band originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, primarily consisting of Kurt Larson (aka Kurt Valaquen/Kurt Harland), Paul Robb, and James Cassidy; the latter two reconvened the band in 2006, initially with Christopher Anton as lead vocalist, then with Harland rejoining them as lead vocalist in 2007. Their breakout hit was 1988's "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)", a dance hit which included a sample of Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) from Star Trek, saying "pure energy," and opened with a sample of Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), also from Star Trek, saying, "It's worked so far, but we're not out yet!" They are known for their loyal fan base in Brazil, Japan, Spain and Mexico.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Founding and debut album

The band was formed in Minneapolis in the early 1980s, and they performed avant-garde electronic music with flourishes of hip-hop, dub, and electro. The name was chosen partly after Ingsoc, the newspeak term for English socialism in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In 1983 they independently released two albums, The InSoc EP and Creatures Of Influence. Two years later they released Running, their first single, which became a hit popular in New York City Latin dance clubs and "put them on the map". The song, a 7-minute excursion into electro-freestyle, was written and sung by Murat Konar, who left the band soon after. Their growing success led them from their native Minneapolis to NYC, and the ensuing revenues and contacts, as well as the addition of Amanda Kramer to the lineup, led them to record their proper debut album for Tommy Boy Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records. Kramer left the band shortly after the second single "Walking Away" was released.

In addition to "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)", their self-titled major release debut Information Society (1988) also produced another Top 20 Billboard hit in "Walking Away", as well as a third single, the ballad "Repetition." The final single from the album was a cover of ABBA's "Lay All Your Love on Me."

The audio samples from Star Trek were authorized for use on the album partially thanks to the efforts of Adam Nimoy, fan of the band and son of Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy. The album sold out its initial pressing in 2 weeks in the US. Information Society reached gold status after 5 months of its release and would eventually turn platinum. The disc was one of the few to use CD+G, which included digital graphics on the compact disc version in addition to the music. The graphics for the CD+G portion can be seen on the Information Society Website along with computer based information which has been included on other releases. The songs "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" and "Walking Away" were used in a sampler disc bundled with the Sega CD to showcase the console's CD+G capability, using the same graphics as the album.

During this time the band released an anonymous single (comprised of 2 tracks from their forthcoming second album) under the name Think Tank. Years later, Robb would release tracks under the name Think Tank through the formerly-fictional record label Hakatak.

They also had a song - the instrumental track "Hit Me" - placed on the soundtrack to the movie Earth Girls Are Easy. By 1989 Information Society joined the "Club MTV Tour" which also included Paula Abdul, Milli Vanilli, Tone Loc, Was Not Was and Lisa Lisa.

[edit] Hack and Vector

The second release, Hack (1990), wasn't as successful, but had small hits with "Think" and "How Long." and managed to sell quite well in late 1990. Videos were produced for those two tracks, but only "Think" got video airplay; the Adam Ant-directed spot for "How Long" was put aside as nobody involved was happy with it. A third single, "Now That I Have You", was remixed and sent out to DJs but was never released.

Kurt was also the owner of the heavily-modified The Road Warrior-inspired art car named "Vector" featured on the cover of Hack. The car sported a functioning ranging laser, among other unusual features. "Vector" was eventually given to a friend at Burning Man in 1997.

[edit] Peace & Love, Inc. and Cleopatra Records

The third release, Peace & Love, Inc. (1992), proved to be more powerful and critically acclaimed, although their label failed to do much to promote them. Their first single "Peace & Love Inc." reached #1 on the Billboard Dance Chart. A music video was produced for the track, but MTV declined to play it. The album is also notable for being perhaps the first album ever produced to contain a track of modem tones, which when played into a telephone connected to a computer resulted in a bonus text message from the band.

Five years later a fourth album, Don't Be Afraid (1997), was released. Written and performed by Kurt Harland alone and produced by Steven Seibold, DBA was more industrial-driven than previous albums and reflected more of what Kurt had been wanting to do during most of his tenure with InSoc. Cleopatra Records released the album, but - like Tommy Boy Records - did little to promote it. Harland's love of computer-related materials continued to be evident, as the album included a CD-ROM filled with bonus material, not yet a common occurrence in 1997. The disc included a selection of digital samples used in the album's production, miscellaneous works of art by InSoc fans, a program to generate the distinctive border graphics used on the album's cover, and the music video of "Peace and Love, Inc."

There was also a carefully-orchestrated digital scavenger hunt culminating in the discovery of a bonus track called "White Roses". The scavenger hunt began with decoding a modem's signal recorded at the end of the audio CD, resulting in a text message from Kurt which pointed the way to a website where the search began. There is also a cover included of Gary Numan's "Are 'Friends' Electric?". Also included is "Ozar Midrashim", later used as the main theme for the videogame Soul Reaver. The album eventually went out of print, but it had a second release in a remastered version in 2008, this time with "White Roses" included as an audio track. So far, this release has only been available as digital media and not on CD or vinyl.

A remix album, InSoc Recombinant (1999), was produced, featuring vocals to the band's earlier hits remixed by various artists. The vocals to songs pre-Don't Be Afraid were not the originals, they were new versions re-recorded by Kurt alone specifically for the remixers' use. Included on a bonus, unadvertised CD-ROM were digital copies most of the band's officially-produced promotional videos, including a copy of the "Peace and Love, Inc." video of higher quality than that distributed with Don't Be Afraid. This CD-ROM did not feature the "How Long" video.

[edit] Compilations and Bands Reunited

In 2001, strange haircuts // cardboard guitars // and computer samples was released including all the hits from 1988 to 1992.

In 2004, Cleopatra Records released a compilation titled Pure Energy. The release consisted of tracks from Don't Be Afraid and InSoc Recombinant, supplemented with a slightly altered mix of "Are Friends Electric?" and two new remixes of "What's On Your Mind," one by Effcee, and one unattributed mix labeled "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" which attempted to emulate the original Tommy Boy version of the track. Robb called the album "an insult to both the band and the fans."[1]. Harland, despite being credited as producer in the liner notes, had nothing to do with the release; and while declining to either "endorse or un-endorse" the album, he did take particular issue with the cover art, both for its low quality and for its portrayal of him holding a gun. [2]

The group was featured in an episode of VH1's Bands Reunited in November 2004. As broadcast, it appeared that Aamer Haleem (host of the show) got every member to agree to reuniting. However, Kurt had declined to appear in the planned concert, for reasons he later detailed in a post on the band's official website. The post also details his experiences behind the scenes of the production, and how they differ from the portrayals in the episode as broadcast.

Jim Cassidy, Kurt Harland, Paul Robb (2007)
Jim Cassidy, Kurt Harland, Paul Robb (2007)

The VH1 show was followed by a period of relative quiet, although Harland, Cassidy, and Robb gave two performances at a weekend music festival in New York on August 20-August 21, 2005.

[edit] Oscillator and Synthesizer

In 2006, it was announced that Paul Robb and James Cassidy had decided to reconvene Information Society, initially without Kurt Harland's full participation in the recording process. [3] Harland's absence in the studio line-up was cited as being due to family and work obligations. Harland ultimately contributed lead vocals to one track, "Seeds of Pain."

The new lineup included Christopher Anton as lead vocalist and co-writer for several tracks from Oscillator and Synthesizer including the title track of the latter. They were also joined by Sonja Meyers who played additional keyboards and provided a return to female background vocals.

Anton and Myers performed live with Information Society throughout 2006-2007, including shows in California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, and São Paulo, Brazil. By mid-2007, the band returned to its original lineup of Kurt, Paul and James, who performed on July 21, 2007 at the Freestyle Reunion 2 Concert at Madison Square Garden. After the release of Synthesizer, the trio performed a series of concerts in Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco and Austin, TX. The concert in Philadelphia was filmed for a forthcoming DVD[4]

On 19 March 2007, Information Society self-released an EP titled Oscillator, as an Internet-only release - their first commercial release in over six years. This was followed by a new album, Synthesizer which was released on October 9th in North America and October 5th in Europe on Dancing Ferret Discs. The album was released digitally in North America and Europe on September 4, 2007.

Information Society commissioned chiptune/micromusic artist 8 Bit Weapon to remix "I Like the Way You Werk It." 8 Bit Weapon remixed the song using both a Commodore 64 computer and a Game Boy Classic handheld console. The remix was titled "I Like the Way You Werk It - 8 Bit Weapon Remix."

[edit] Personnel

Information Society is a musical collective which has been recording and performing for over twenty years.

[edit] Complete band roster

This is a list of everyone who has ever played with InSoc's live show, in order of appearance.[1]

  • Paul Robb
  • Kurt Harland
  • Pamela Tzara/Brustman
  • Heather LeFay
  • Kristin/Kaerlin Leader
  • James Cassidy
  • Chris Little
  • Murat Konar
  • Lisa Tonra
  • Shawntelle Martin
  • Belinda Beasley
  • Mithat Konar
  • Amanda Kramer
  • Sally Venue-Berg
  • Ed Potokar
  • Mariuccia Nocera
  • Ed Wozniak
  • Sherry Hart
  • Will Loconto
  • Kristoffer Larson
  • Liam Hart
  • Sonja Meyers
  • Christopher Anton

[edit] Principal members

Paul Robb cites his influences in earlier albums as hip-hop and house music, and he was integral to the early operations of Tommy Boy Records. He went on to release solo material under the Think Tank name and was half of Brother Sun Sister Moon who later became known as Luminous. In addition to his ongoing work with Information Society, Robb is a composer for TV and film whose credits include Orgazmo, South Park, and Clio Award-winning commercials.

James Cassidy is a professor of soil Science at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

Kurt Harland lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife and son, and is the Audio Director for a video game production company. He remains the lead vocalist for Information Society and is also the lead singer of an unrelated group.

[edit] Performance line-ups

Principal performers by time period.

  • 1983–1984: Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, Kristin (Kaelin) Leader, Pamela Brussman
  • 1984–1985: Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, James Cassidy, Murat Konar, Lisa Tonra
  • 1986–1990: Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, James Cassidy, Amanda Kramer
  • 1990–1993: Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, James Cassidy
  • 1993–1998: Kurt Harland
  • 2006: Paul Robb, James Cassidy, Christopher Anton, Sonja Meyers
  • 2007: Paul Robb, James Cassidy, Christopher Anton, Kurt Harland
  • 2008: Paul Robb, James Cassidy, Kurt Harland

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

[edit] Articles and reviews

[edit] 2000s

[edit] 1990s

[edit] 1980s

  • 1988: Keyboard Interview - Keyboard Magazine interviews Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, James Cassidy
  • 1988: Interview in MT - Music Technology Magazine interviews Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, James Cassidy
  • 1983: Music Review - Minneapolis City Pages newspaper

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Information Society