Tag: Tragic Kingdom

Power POP Orbit

Tom Dumont launches more hooks for No Doubt’s Return of Saturn. By Kyle Swenson.

The moment the world got smashed over the head with No Doubt’s “Just a Girl” from 1996’s Tragic Kingdom, it was widely assumed the band was an overnight sensation. Not exactly.

The band formed in 1986, watched their major-label debut album flop in 1992, and logged years of recording an performing before its new wave/reggae/ska sound made a blip on the rock and roll radar.

In fact, as Tragic Kingdom was exploding towards number one on the charts, lead singer Gwen Stefani stated on the band’s Web site: “Last year, we were hanging by a thread. We were ready to quit and save ourselves from becoming a bunch of losers.” Read the rest of this article »

No Doubt

Like Anaheim, superstardom is a weird place to come from by Dave Wielenga

Three small orange trees grow along the curb in front of her stately mansion in an old-money neighborhood above Los Angeles, and the bright pink that has replaced brassy platinum as her hot new hair color glows all the way down to her scalp. No, Gwen Stefani has not forgotten her roots. But it’s going on five years since No Doubt, one of Orange County’s most enduring and identifiably local bands, experienced its overnight international sensation. Since then has come the 15 million-selling CD, the sold-out global tour, the fan zines and Web sites and MTV awards, the weekly photographic updates in Rolling Stone on every change of clothes, boyfriend or party itinerary—all of it laced with just enough rags-to-riches pathos and angst to green light an upcoming VH-1 Behind the Music special, which will be synergistically broadcast in April to coincide with the release of the band’s new album. By now, Stefani has been a bona fide pop Tinkerbell for so long that it’s sometimes hard to believe she was ever that just-a-girl who grew up near Disneyland. Her faithful little doggie—a 15-year-old Lhasa apso named Maggen that is one year older than the band—is still at her side, Toto-and-Dorothy-style. But the Oz they inhabit clearly isn’t Anaheim anymore. When No Doubt’s tour stopped for two nights at the Pond a couple of years ago, Stefani’s parents visited her in a hotel. “Something happens to you when you travel the world and embrace everything,” Stefani acknowledges. “Suddenly, you realize that the small, little back yard you came from is such a . . . like . . . Anaheim is such a weird place to come from.” Read the rest of this article »

No Doubt

It’s 1992 and your career looks bleak.

Your first record couldn’t have been less adept to the climate: In the midst of gloomy, distortion-saturated sounds emanating from Seattle, you’d gone and released a peppy, pop-infused ska/new wave record that plunged into obscurity almost upon release. Your label has pretty much shelved you, and your key songwriter is about to bail, What do you do?

If you’re No Doubt, you just keep to your game plan – and get famous. 1995’s Tragic Kingdom scored the Anaheim, California quartet a slew of hit singles and an eventual resting place a Billboard’s No. 1, but that’s not all. Critics who’d dogged the band early on as throwaway pop or simply more product from the Orange County ska scene were now praising them for their infectious zeal and singer Gwen Stefani’s potent stage presence. And fans were continuing to gobble up Tragic Kingdom, eventually rendering it platinum 15 times over. So what do you do for a follow up? (Gulp.) Read the rest of this article »

No doubt about it

‘Tragic Kingdom’ tour brings band to Hawaii by Nadine Kam

Being a rock guitarist is an iffy career choice at best, a one-way ticket to stardom or bust. It’s no wonder Tom Dumont remembers clearly the day in March 1995 when he quit his real-world job as file clerk at a mortgage company to enter the realm of videos, world tours, magazine covers and fame.

Then again, maybe the band would sink into oblivion.

The guitarist for No Doubt said, “We had just finished recording ‘Tragic Kingdom’ and I had a good feeling about it. But quitting was a real big deal at 27.

“I had a side thing where I promoted rock concerts, so I thought I could always fall back on that.”

So even though the band’s first album was canned by its label, Interscope, Dumont made the break. His office job, he said, “was miserable. Everyone there was miserable. For eight hours, we’d all watch the clock.”

The only good thing about the job was being able to look through files of mortgage applicants – “no one famous,” he said – studying their financial positions and dreaming of the day he would have a mortgage of his very own.

These days, as a member of one of the most popular bands in the nation, Dumont doesn’t have to worry about money, and he doesn’t watch the clock, so he has to apologize for missing an interview.

“Sorry,” he said. “Friday was my day off so I went out and played and I get forgetful.”

On work days, the band has been rehearsing like crazy so they can put on a show Saturday worthy, not only of the Honolulu set, but to impress or at least avoid making A in front of one of their favorite bands, Madness, also on the bill for the Nomad Festival at Richardson Field.

Luckily, touring is good practice and the band has done a lot of that since October 1995, crisscrossing the country 26 months out of 32 to promote “Tragic Kingdom.”

“Touring is something we really wanted to do,” Dumont said. “There are bands we looked up to – one that really inspired us was 311. They toured constantly and built up a following by crossing the country over and over again.

“We wanted to play Hawaii, which we feel like we missed. We didn’t go when we should have at the peak of ‘Tragic Kingdom’ so we’ve felt guilty about that. This is our chance to make that better.”

No Doubt is one of few bands that takes active interest in tour planning. They favored the switch in Oahu venues from Turtle Bay Hilton to Richardson Field.

“I know (the North Shore) is beautiful, and we’d like to hang out there, but we tried to get it closer to the city to make it easier for people to come out to.

“We try to be proud of everything we do, having the best quality sound system, giving the best experience,” Dumont said. “We still go to concerts so we know what it’s like to be in the audience.

“Being that playing live has been our strength for 10 years, we wanted to bring that kind of organic experience to people.”

Although No Doubt last played Hawaii at the 1996 Big Mele, ubiquitous radio play of “I’m Just a Girl,” “Spiderwebs” and “Don’t Speak” makes it seem as if the band was never really far away.

To those outside of No Doubt’s hometown underground scene in Orange County, Calif., the band seemed to appear from nowhere in 1995 with its playful new wave-meets-ska sound and chirpy-voiced singer Gwen Stefani.

Stefani’s so-called “loser band” had actually been kicking around since 1987, representing a joyful parallel universe to grunge’s bleak landscape. Dumont joined in 1988.

He saw promise in No Doubt, and an exit from his own frustrating world of rock and heavy metal. “This was in 1988, so you have to keep it in context, but it was a different age and those bands weren’t about music. They were into drinking, wearing Spandex. I was into music, and being a part of No Doubt, that was the first time people actually came to see the band.”

Still, it’s doubtful people will continue to follow a band based on one album, and Dumont says he knows fans are waiting to hear something new. Two months ago the band leased a home in the Hollywood Hills to write and record demos for a new album. This trip to Hawaii represents a vacation from the process.

“We’re trying not to set a date for (an album),” Dumont said. “Our philosophy is, just spend the time to make it great. It’ll be a step up from where we left off last time.

Girl without a doubt

No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani’s Happy Sound Delights Millions of Young Fans

Halfway through No Doubt’s feminist-lite hit “Just a Girl,” vocalist Gwen Stefani invites the boys in the Worcester Centrum audience to sing along: “I’m just a girl… I’m just a girl in the world.”

The boys comply, so Stefani gloats – “Haa-ha!”

“Now what about the girls? What about all the cute, sweet, innocent, sexy girls?” she asks. Her voice is sugary and almost Betty Boop. “Okay, girls, ready? It goes like this: `{Expletive} you, I’m a girl!’ ” The filled-to-capacity arena explodes with shrieks and giggles. The girls are self-conscious and red-faced as they repeat after Stefani, but they’re also as defiant as you can be when you’re 12 years old and have come to your first-ever concert with your mom. Read the rest of this article »

No Doubt

Tom Dumont & Tony Kanal signal The End of Modern Rock

One this is for sure. The bell has tolled. Alternative rock is dead. Shut the coffin, tighten the bolts. After some brilliant contributions (Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth) to the music world over the last decade, the flame is now extinguished, sending its last, weakened plume skyward. Eh… better to burn out than fade away, right?

Though “serious” players may be breathing a collective sigh of relief at the news – alternative rock having served as a thorn in the side of many of you for quite a while – its death leaves a few questions unanswered. First how did it die> Wasn’t it just storming the airwaves? Second, what will take its place in the national market? And last, does anybody care? Read the rest of this article »

Gwen in doubt

Gwen Stefani’s survived a friend’s suicide, a flop record, and a band that was set on self-destruct. Now she’s a international sex symbol with a hit record, a hip boyfriend, and a whole new set of troubles. By David A. Keeps

Imagine being in high school back in the mid-80s. You play piccolo in the marching band. You hate math. You’re a little shy of confidence and creativity. And a little chubby. One day your older brother brings home a record by a nutty English group called Madness. It’s rad and it totally changes your life. You hang out with the punkers and the mods and start making your own clothes. Then your brother decides to form a band and makes you the lead singer. You are Gwen Stefani, sixteen going on seventeen. Read the rest of this article »

No Doubt’s happy-go-lucky ska-influenced sound

Back in early 1987, Gwen Stefani was a pretty well adjusted high school junior who loved the early 80’s ska band Madness. And she shared a fascination for The Sound Of Music soundtrack album with her older brother Eric. By Jessica Letkemann

“Eric got way too much creativity and motivation when we were kids,” Gwen told Circus about her brother. “He was always pounding on the piano and forcing me to come into the living room and sing with him and stuff like that. He was the one who got me into this. He’s my biggest musical influence.”

It was Eric who coerced his little sister to be in his new band with his high school buddy John Spence. Tony Kanal, who was born in India and lived in England until he was 11, joined the band after hearing that they needed a bassist. Kanal, not long after joining the fledgling No Doubt, was not only their manager, but also Gwen’s boyfriend.

With Spence singing, Gwen singing harmony, Eric playing any instrument he could teach himself (trumpet, keyboards, even accordion), and Kanal bass, the band began playing small gigs like high school talent shows. But Gwen was still very young and her mom and dad wouldn’t let her go out on tour outside of Anaheim, even with Eric there to protect her.

In fact, “Just A Girl,” No Doubt’s endlessly catchy first hit, was inspired by Gwen’s dad worrying about her safety when she was younger.

“I got the idea,” Gwen explains, “when my dad used to yell at me for going to Tony’s house and coming home real late. I don’t think a lot of guys know what a burden it is to be a girl sometimes.”

In the punk-heavy music scene of the time, having a girl in a band didn’t exactly make things easy. For whatever reason, they didn’t get their first real gig until they opened for a band called The Untouchables in nearby Long Beach in 1987.

But Gwen’s gender was soon to be the least of the band’s problems. In December, 18-year-old John Spence shot himself in the head, sending his bandmates spiraling down into depression over his demise, and leaving the band’s future inevitably doomed.

Or not.

Again using his talent for persuasion, Eric Stefani convinced Gwen that maybe she could try being the lead singer. She did not like the idea, but eventually agreed to try it.

It was after Spence killed himself that guitarist Tom Dumont, whose previous band shared rehearsal space with No Doubt, and drummer Adrian Young joined.

Dumont loved Kiss, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath. Adrian was a Hendrix, Journey, and Steely Dan fan until discovering ska, New Wave, and punk in junior high. Dumont and Young melded with the other two musicians and Gwen Stefani’s two-tone British ska fanaticism. This created an odd mix of influences that would ultimately result in No Doubt’s distinct melting pot sound.

Turning their troubles into energy, the band began playing a smany gigs as they could find. Gwen has said in interviews, time and time again, that No Doubt is a live band, not a studio band. It’s no wonder that within a couple of years the band was opening for famous Southern Californian bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (whose eccentric bassist Flea produced their original demo) and Fishbone. And once that happened, it wasn’t long before record companies noticed them.

No Doubt was signed in 1991, and their first, self-titled album was released in Febuary 1992 on Interscope Records at the height of the “grunge” revolution. Unsurprisingly, the uncompromisingly happy-sounding reggae, ska, New Wave, funk, and pop wasn’t what the country at large was interested in buying in terms of music and No Doubt sold very poorly.

When it came to making a second album, Interscope got cold feet and tried to discourage them. So without any new releases, they plowed ahead through the early 90’s playing shows and eventually became so frustrated about their inability to release tunes from their increasingly-huge repertoire that they recorded, produced, and released their own offcial bootleg, The Beacon Street Collection. “We had so many songs we knew weren’t going to make it onto Tragic Kingdom – we’d written about 60 – that we decided to put a CD of some of the stuff out ourselves.” says Kanal.

By the time it was released in early 1995, No Doubt had hit an interpersonal brick wall. Gwen and Kanal’s romance fell to pieces and Gwen’s brother, Eric, left the band to become a full-time cartoonist for “The Simpsons.”

Instead of letting these events stop her, Gwen was inspired to become the band’s key songwriter. Where Eric had written a lot of No Doubt’s lyrics before, Gwen stepped in with lyrics that told semi-autobiographical tales of everyday feminism (“Just A Girl”) and failed love (“Don’t Speak”). Interscope was so impressed at their self-made album that they gave the green light for another one, which soon became Tragic Kingdom (released under their subsidiary Trauma Records.)

“We went through some really bad times in the past couple of years – personally and bandwise – and out whole way of dealing with that is humor,” Gwen said. “I think that’s really apparent in the record. Even though things may have been bad, and some of the songs are sad if you really listen to them, there’s still an element of humor to it all.”

Within weeks of releasing “Just A Girl,” the album’s first single, the band were an overnight success. This took nine years in the making, of course. Following up with “Spiderwebs,” and “Don’t Speak,” and touring so hard that Gwen lost her voice, No Doubt quickly became one of 1996’s bigger success stories.

Personal intrigue has also been a subtext to the band’s year in the sun. It’s ironic that the songs inspired by Stefani’s relationship with Kanal are now what is making them famous. And it’s just a little too fitting that Stefani has been rumored to be dating America’s reigning modern rock pin-up Bush’s Gavin Rossdale. When asked by Spin about the status of their relationship Rossdale vaguely explained, “I think that she’s amazing but so do a lot of people. As far as her being my girlfriend, when you’re on tour with someone for three months…”

But personal lives aside, what really counts is still the energy and the band’s willingness (perhaps even need) to put on a great show musically and with a touch of light and fun for anyone who comes.

“Gwen gets the girls into it,” Kanal explains. “With a lot of other bands it’s a testosterone thing. Gwen will definitely get the girls involved, give them songs that are their songs and it’s their time in the pit, whatever. Everyone feels like they’re part of it, nobody gets left out.”

Transcription Source: NoDoubt.com