Information Society (band)
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- This article is about the band. For other concepts, see Information Society (disambiguation).
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. 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!"
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[edit] History
[edit] 1980s
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. 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, 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. Kramer mysteriously 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 had another hit, "Walking Away", and a cover of ABBA's "Lay All Your Love on Me." 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 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. The album sold out it's initial print in 2 weeks in the US alone and was impossible to find for a month. The album would soon reach gold status after 5 months of it's release and would eventually turn platinum.
During this time the band released an anonymous single (comprised of 2 tracks from their forthcoming second album) under the name Think Tank. 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 consisted of Paula Abdul,Milli Vanilli,information society,Tone Loc,Was Not Was and Lisa Lisa.
[edit] 1990s
The second release, Hack (1990), wasn't as successful, but had small hits with "Think" and "How Long." but still managed to sell quite well in the fall of 1990.Videos were produced for those two tracks, but only "Think" got video airplay, as 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 DJ's 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 the mid 1990s.
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.
The fourth album, Don't Be Afraid (1997), written and performed by Kurt Harland alone and produced by Steven Seibold, was more industrial-driven. 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, a track which was later used as the main theme for the videogame Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver.
During the course of the four albums and about a dozen remix singles from them, Information Society's sound went from more electronic pop music to a darker industrial type, though they will always be remembered for their first hit song and the cardboard guitars they wielded in its music video.
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 of the band's entire released videography, including a copy of the "Peace and Love, Inc." video of higher quality than that distributed with Don't Be Afraid. The CD-ROM did not feature the "How Long" video.
[edit] 2000s
In 2001, Greatest Hits: 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 Very Best of Information Society. Despite Cleopatra's crediting of Harland as producer in the liner notes, none of the band's members had anything to do with this release. 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 labelled "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" which attempted to emulate the original Tommy Boy version of the track. Robb himself 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. While Harland declined to either "endorse or un-undorse" 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 of 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.
Information Society, until recently, had no plans to work on new material, although Harland, Cassidy, and Robb did come out of retirement for two well-received performances at a weekend music festival in New York on August 20-21, 2005.
In 2006, it was announced that Paul Robb and James Cassidy are putting the band back together sans Kurt Harland. Kurt Harland will not be participating in the new line-up due to family and work obligations. The new lineup includes Christopher Anton replacing Harland as the lead singer and keyboardist Sonja Myers.
No details are available about the release date of the new album; however, tour dates are listed on the MySpace page for the band.
[edit] Band members
Paul Robb's influences in earlier albums ranged more to the prototypal 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. Robb is currently a composer for TV and film whose credits include Orgazmo, South Park, and Clio Award-winning commercials.
James Cassidy left the music business altogether and became a professor of Farm Sciences at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.
Kurt Harland is currently occupied with family obligations and composing video game music and sound.
Amanda Kramer has also been a member of the Golden Palominos and 10,000 Maniacs, and currently performs with the Psychedelic Furs.
[edit] Lineups
- 1983-1984 - Kurt Harland aka Kurt Valaquen, Paul Robb, Kaelin/Kristie Leader, Pamela Brussman
- 1984-1985 - Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, Jim Cassidy, Murat Konar
- 1985-1986 - Disbanded
- 1986-1990 - Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, Jim Cassidy, Amanda Kramer
- 1990-1994 - Kurt Harland, Paul Robb, Jim Cassidy
- 1994-1997 - Kurt Harland
- 2006-today - Chris Anton, Paul Robb, Jim Cassidy, and Sonja Myres
[edit] Trivia
- Between 1987 and 1993, the band enjoyed a huge success in Brazil.
- Ingsoc is the newspeak term for English socialism in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. This was also part of why the band chose this name.
- The cassette single for "Think" was once a promotional item from a cereal box offer.
- Their song "Pure Energy" was used on video demo cd for the Sega-CD, which included information about the song, as well as lyrics.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- The InSoc EP (1983)
- Creatures Of Influence (1985)
- Information Society (1988) Platinum US #25
- Hack (1990) #77 US
- Peace & Love, Inc. (1992)
- Don't Be Afraid (1997)
- InSoc Recombinant (1999 remixes)
- Boot Disk 2.0
- Pure Energy : The Best of Information Society (2004 cleopatra compilation)
- Greatest Hits: Strange Haircuts / Cardboard Guitars / and Computer Samples (2001)
- Synthesizer (2007)
[edit] Singles
- Running (1985 original, 2001 remixes) #2 Dance
- What's On Your Mind? (Pure Energy) (1988) #3 Pop, #1 Dance
- Walking Away (1989) #9 Pop, #5 Dance
- Repetition (1989) #76 Pop
- Lay All Your Love On Me (1989) #83 Pop, #23 Dance
- Think (1990) #28 Pop, #5 Dance
- How Long (Information Society single) (1991) #20 Dance
- Peace & Love, Inc. (1992) #10 Dance
- Going, Going, Gone (1993)
- Are Friends Electric? (1997)
- Baby Just Wants (2007)
- Back In The Day (2007)
[edit] See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
[edit] External links
- Information Society (InSoc) official site, written and maintained by Kurt Harland
- The new official Information Society site with the 2006 line-up
- The official Myspace page of Information Society, previewing some of their new material of 2006
- Fan community on the LiveJournal site
- Email-based discussion list
- Usenet newsgroup
- InSoc Brasil (fan site in Brazilian Portuguese)
- History, lyrics, and a download of the "White Roses" track
- Reunion news on the InSoc LiveJournal community
