AFI Biography
During AFI's 20 years as a band, they have released eight studio albums, 10 EPs, one live album and one DVD. It was not until the release of the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning that they achieved measurable commercial success; the album peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200 and it also peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers Albums Chart.
The band enjoyed its first major commercial success 12 years after it formed, in 2003, with Sing the Sorrow reaching number five on the Billboard 200, and remaining on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. It went onto receive Platinum certification in the US, having sold over 1.2 million copies as of September 2009.
The band returned in 2006 with Decemberunderground, which featured the hit single "Miss Murder". Both achieved the top spot on the Billboard 200 and Hot Modern Rock Tracks, respectively. The album also featured "Love Like Winter", which attained number four on the Modern Rock charts. It reached as far as Australia, where it grasped Gold certification. It has also been certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. AFI's eighth studio album Crash Love was released in 2009, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard 200, selling 52,000 copies in its first week of release.
AFI has been hailed by numerous publications for contributing to the modern melodic hardcore and post-hardcore genres and revolutionizing goth-punk; in 2006 MTV executive Amy Doyle called the band "one of the most compelling live rock bands today."
Early years, Answer That, Very Proud of Ya and Shut Your Mouth (1991–1998)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese (guitar) and Vic Chalker (bass) formed a band called AFI in November 1991. While the meaning of the acronym "AFI" currently stems from the full title "A Fire Inside," band members have stated that the name formerly originated from the titles "Asking for It" and "Anthems for Insubordinates." At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested his friend, Adam Carson, who had a drum kit join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge and AFI made its first EP in recording Dork (1993) with the now defunct band Loose Change, which included future AFI guitarist Jade Puget. AFI's beginnings were somewhat inauspicious, as Davey Havok laughed in a 1999 interview, "We were amazed that we even got our shit together enough to put out a split 7-inch with Jade's band at the time."
AFI disbanded when its members attended different colleges, one of which was UC Berkeley where members of the band lived and practiced for a time in the basement of the Delta Chi fraternity house on Channing Way. Kresge moved to New York where he played with street punk band Blanks 77. The members of the band decided to pursue playing in AFI full-time after enjoying an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, California in 1993.
Between 1993 and 1995 the band released several vinyl EPs (Behind the Times; Eddie Picnic's All Wet; This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay; AFI/Heckle; Bombing the Bay; Fly in the Ointment) independently.
Their first full-length, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released August 11, 1995 on Wingnut Records, and was produced by Tim Armstrong. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are well-vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". The album's cover is a parody of the film Reservoir Dogs's promotional poster. The album title takes root from a quote spoken in British TV show The Comic Strip Presents. Audio samples from both films/shows and European Vacation are featured in several of the album's tracks, namely "Don't Make Me Ill" and "High School Football Hero".
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, Dexter Holland of the Offspring's label. They would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP. Around this time they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre of music.
In 1996, AFI then released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. The songs "Cruise Control" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" from Very Proud of Ya were used in the 1996 independent film Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, which was first screened in 1997 and also featured Havok in a small role. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album.
After several tours in support of the album Very Proud of Ya, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by Hunter Burgan for the remaining Very Proud of Ya tour dates. Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become the full-time bassist. Future AFI guitarist Jade Puget also provided background vocals on Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes, making it the first album to feature all four current members of the band. The release of Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes is also notable because AFI started to gather a larger following.
When asked about the band's beginnings, Davey Havok stated to Revolver Magazine, "The reason why we started doing this is because we loved it," and "at the onset of the band, there was no real hope of burning bright at all. The goal was just to keep burning no matter how bright–to play music for the rest of our lives, at any cost."
Black Sails, All Hallow's EP and Art of Drowning (1999–2002)
After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period their style was mostly referred to as horror punk or "goth-punk". Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position".
Between 1993 and 1995 the band released several vinyl EPs (Behind the Times; Eddie Picnic's All Wet; This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay; AFI/Heckle; Bombing the Bay; Fly in the Ointment) independently.
Their first full-length, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released August 11, 1995 on Wingnut Records, and was produced by Tim Armstrong. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are well-vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". The album's cover is a parody of the film Reservoir Dogs's promotional poster. The album title takes root from a quote spoken in British TV show The Comic Strip Presents. Audio samples from both films/shows and European Vacation are featured in several of the album's tracks, namely "Don't Make Me Ill" and "High School Football Hero".
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, Dexter Holland of the Offspring's label. They would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP. Around this time they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre of music.
In 1996, AFI then released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. The songs "Cruise Control" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" from Very Proud of Ya were used in the 1996 independent film Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, which was first screened in 1997 and also featured Havok in a small role. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album.
After several tours in support of the album Very Proud of Ya, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by Hunter Burgan for the remaining Very Proud of Ya tour dates. Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become the full-time bassist. Future AFI guitarist Jade Puget also provided background vocals on Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes, making it the first album to feature all four current members of the band. The release of Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes is also notable because AFI started to gather a larger following.
When asked about the band's beginnings, Davey Havok stated to Revolver Magazine, "The reason why we started doing this is because we loved it," and "at the onset of the band, there was no real hope of burning bright at all. The goal was just to keep burning no matter how bright–to play music for the rest of our lives, at any cost."
Black Sails, All Hallow's EP and Art of Drowning (1999–2002)
After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period their style was mostly referred to as horror punk or "goth-punk". Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position".
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The Art of Drowning's success helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream success, Sing the Sorrow and Decemberunderground (2003–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. A&R Luke Wood signed them to DreamWorks Records following intense record label interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboard's top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA. Around this time, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called "the Church of Havok"."
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single "Miss Murder" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. Also, the band's second single, "Love Like Winter", enjoyed tremendous success on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007 as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On January 20, 2007, AFI played "Miss Murder" and "Love Like Winter" on Saturday Night Live. Although the band performed "Love Like Winter" according to plan, technical difficulties occurred during their set of "Miss Murder," in which Davey's microphone went out during various parts of the song.
Though "The Missing Frame" was originally supposed to be the third single off Decemberunderground, Davey Havok confirmed in the "Ask AFI" section of the Despair Faction message boards that there would not be a video for the song. Havok also confirmed on the same boards that there would be no summer tour that year. Puget began writing some material for the next album.
On July 7, 2007 AFI performed at the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame," "Love Like Winter," "Miss Murder," and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Begin Transmission, Crash Love and Side Projects (2007–2012)
"Carcinogen Crush" was made available as a downloadable song exclusively for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock by obtaining a code from purchasing the official soundtrack of the game. The song was later released as a digital single on December 4, 2007.
A new EP was set for a December release, however, Havok announced through the Despair Faction forums that it would not be available until early 2008. The EP was to contain previously unreleased songs from the Decemberunderground and Sing the Sorrow sessions. It was later announced that the EP would be released after Crash Love, but then Havok said that due to political issues, it would not be released. The songs that were to be on the EP would instead be distributed on various versions of Crash Love.
In December 2008, the band released a video through YouTube revealing a contest for the upcoming album called Begin Transmission. It invited fans to make videos, telling the band about themselves in two minutes or less. Lead singer Davey Havok posted a video on December 19 that thanked the fans for their support and said he had watched every video up to that point (about 43 videos at the time). The contest ended on January 5, and fans were given the ability to score many of the videos themselves. The fans who won met the band and provided backing vocals for "I Am Trying Very Hard to Be Here", a song on the new album.
In late February it was confirmed via press release that AFI's eighth studio album would be titled Crash Love and that they would be embarking on a summer tour in support of it. In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, the upcoming album would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). AFI previewed Crash Love on their MySpace page for two days starting September 22, 2009, seven days ahead of the official album release.
In a 2009 interview with theywillrockyou.com, Jade Puget stated that Crash Love was written in a hotel on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. In regards to the process of writing with Davey, Puget said "I’ve got my guitar and he’s got his tape recorder ... anything can happen. We don’t know what kind of song we’re going to write; it could be the best song you’ve ever written or nothing, just the amount of possibilities is exciting to me."
The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009 and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. A music video directed by Paul Minor premiered October 2. In January 2010, AFI released a teaser for the video of their new single "Beautiful Thieves". The full video officially premiered on February 4, 2010 on MTV television networks and websites.
On September 8, 2011, a post was made to the band's official forum, DespairFaction.com, from frontman Davey Havok's forum account, which said that the band had split up. This was shortly confirmed by the management to be a hoax, and the thread in question was deleted.
Burials (2013–present)
On April 17, 2013, AFI's website was replaced with a single video of Davey Havok walking down a corridor followed by a shot of the band together, before displaying the text, "A Fire Inside" and "September 2013." The band's MySpace reads "unknown major" under record label since June, 2013.
On May 2, 2013, a second teaser video was posted to the band's website entitled "Convergence". The video is black and white and one minute in length. On May 14, 2013, a third video was posted to the band's website entitled "No Harbingers". Like "Convergence" before, "No Harbingers" is black and white and is a little over a minute in length. On May 30, 2013, a fourth video was posted entitled "Openings", having the same black and white theme as AFI's previous videos. On June 13, 2013, a fifth video was posted entitled "Silence". The band was later announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records.
On July 1, 2013, a sixth image was released titled "The Rite". A new single titled "17 Crimes" has also been confirmed by Republic Records for the upcoming "The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones" film. It was revealed by Amazon.com that a single titled "I Hope You Suffer" would be released on July 22. This was also announced on Universal Music's Norwegian page. On July 18, 2013, AFI's website was replaced with the single cover for "I Hope You Suffer", and a stream of the new song. The song was made available for purchase on July 23; the same day, Burials was announced as the title of the album, and will be released on October 22. Another single, "17 Crimes", was revealed by Amazon.com. It will be released on August 6th.
On July 31, 2013, AFI released the official music video for "I Hope You Suffer" via VEVO. It contained primarily shots of the band performing the song in black and white and contained similar imagery to the teaser videos previously released by the band.
Source: wikipedia.org
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