The Murderdolls are an American horror punk band founded during 2002 in Hollywood, CA, California.[1] The band line-up consists of Wednesday 13, Joey Jordison, Acey Slade, Eric Griffin and Ben Graves, though the group are currently on a hiatus.
To date the band has released one album in the form of Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls which was released in 2002, the band had limited initial success in the United States, though their album and singles charted well in the United Kingdom and around the same time they picked up a strong following in Japan.
Love at First Fright
The sound of the band is made up of their shared influences, which musically are; punk rock and glam metal, as well as from some of the 1970s hard rock and glam rock acts (Such as KISS and Alice Cooper). The band also share a large interest in horror movies, from which they take images, and references.
Lyrically the group most often present themselves in a "tongue-in-cheek" manner,[2] covering topics of necrophilia, grave robbing, cross dressing, amongst other things. This is standard practice for many horror punk bands.
The Murderdolls are often described as "Mötley Crüe meets the Misfits"[3] by critics and fans alike. Their bassist Eric Griffin also bears a considerable resemblance to the Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx.
Dawn of the Dead
Some consider the Murderdolls history to go back as far as 1994 to a Des Moines, Iowa based band Joey Jordison played in, named The Rejects, which was fronted by vocalist Dizzy Draztik. The sound of the band was somewhat comparable to what the Murderdolls would later develop, minus the horror themed lyrics.
The Rejects split up as Jordison's "other band" Slipknot were signed to a major label. During the 1999 Ozzfest tour, Jordison met Tripp Eisen and asked him if he was interested in a project he had in mind; the reforming of the Rejects with Draztik. Eisen agreed to join the project and a friend of his from the band Dope and previously the Genitorturers, Racci Shay played drums with them. Also a bassist named Ian, who had played in New York based band the Vampire Love Dolls (fronted by Acey Slade who was known as J at the time), played with them live.
[Wednesday 13 brought into project
Ironically, Dizzy Draztik introduced Joey Jordison to the music of the Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, a horror punk band from Charlotte, North Carolina, fronted by vocalist Wednesday 13. Eisen persuaded the band to invite the Drag Queens frontman to play with the Rejects, the two had previously considered bringing 13 into the band before Eisen joined. Wednesday joined them on November 2001, where he was brought into the Rejects as a bassist. Tripp Eisen has claimed that he suggested that his friend Acey Slade was brought into the band around this time, but was turned down.
Soon, Wednesday 13 was moved to the frontman position and Draztik was taken out of the project. The band changed their name to the Murderdolls (which Jordison came up with) and would soon adopt a horror themed approach. In fact, in terms of material used Wednesday 13 became the driving force for it. Most of the tracks on the Murderdolls debut album came from his previous band Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, which would later introduce a whole new audience to the past music of Wednesday 13.
Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls
13, Jordison, and Eisen went into the recording studio to record an album of material. Which because of the association of Eisen and Jordison's other bands, was to be released on Roadrunner Records. Primarily the recording features Wednesday 13 and Joey Jordison playing all of the instruments and vocals, however Eisen recorded some of the guitar solos on it.
Around this time in late March 2002, Ben Graves and Eric Griffin, two musicians native of Boston, Massachusetts but were living in Hollywood, California at the time joined the Murderdolls. They were brought in after Eisen showed Jordison a video of himself jamming with the pair, they decided the duo would be right for the band. And although they would feature on the debut album artwork, they did not actually play on the album itself. The band played their first show together as the Murderdolls on July 30, 2002 at San Diego's Epicenter club.
An EP was released in early 2002 named "Right to Remain Violent" and featured some tracks from the forthcoming album. The full length album soon followed, titled; "Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls", the initial release featured fifteen tracks; twelve in total had previously been recorded by 13 with Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 and one from an earlier band Maniac Spider Trash, 13 did however write all of the aforementioned tracks himself.
Upon its release the Murderdolls album was promoted to the public as the "other band" of Joey Jordison, the drummer of Slipknot, or a "collaboration" between Jordison and Tripp Eisen. At the time 13's importance wasn't known by the public, but fans later discovered the history. The lead off single from the album was titled "Dead In Hollywood", the promotional video featured a guest appearance by industrial rocker Marilyn Manson, who had previously become friends with Jordison and was returning the favour of him earlier appearing in the video for "Tainted Love".
After only playing two live shows with the Murderdolls, Eisen returned to his main band Static-X as they were due to record a new album at the time. A friend of Eisen's Acey Slade was brought in to replace him on guitar.[4]
Dead in Hollywood
The first tour dates took the band through parts of the United States including; Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Jordison's native Iowa. Their first major date was at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, Japan during August 18, 2002, two days before their debut album was released. This helped them gain a fan base in Japan.
Following this they played some dates in Europe, including a tour of the United Kingdom with AntiProduct (the lead singer of which, Alex Kane replaced Griffin on Bass, when he had to return home during the tour[5]) and Ireland. At the time, there were no similar acts combining elements of punk and trashy glam for them to tour with, so the band toured with label mates and friends of Jordison's Papa Roach.
Their restless touring continued throughout 2002 into 2003 where they played several major festivals, first in Australia they played at the Big Day Out where Murderdolls went on after Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters headlined the event. The other major festival dates during this time were Download Festival and Rock am Ring, Iron Maiden headlined both of the festivals.
Special Edition 2002 cover of "Beyond the Valley..."Together the band recorded a cover version of Billy Idol's "White Wedding", a promotional video was recorded for it, in which they mocked popstar singing contests such as the Idol series. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom and they even performed it on the premier UK chart show; Top of the Pops.
Mid 2003 The Murderdolls co-headlined a tour of England with fellow Roadrunner Records band, Stone Sour, which contained two of Jordison's fellow members of Slipknot.
Murderdolls toured at the end of 2003 in support of the single and the re-release of their debut, with six added bonus tracks, as well as their Billy Idol cover, other bonus tracks included; "Let's Fuck", "I Take Drugs", "Crash Crash", "Welcome to the Strange" and "I Love to Say Fuck". The latter two had previously been recorded by 13 with the Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13. Their tour in support of this went through many European countries including Spain, Italy, Croatia, and Scandinavian countries before ending with a four date tour of the UK supported by English psychobilly band the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster.
Gracerobbing
Murderdolls played their last show on January 17, 2004 in Corona, California. After this they went on an indefinite hiatus with Jordison returning to Slipknot. Since this hiatus begun, both Wednesday 13 and Jordison have maintained that the band have not split up for good, and that they would return to record a second album together in the future.
Slit my wrist
Wednesday 13 recording under the Wednesday 13 name has released several albums and toured extensively, also he resurrected the Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 for a brief tour, and created and performs as part of outlaw country act Bourbon Crow. Acey Slade performed as vocalist and guitarist with sleaze rock band Trashlight Vision, before their split in 2007, and is now recording a solo album, and producing Scottish acoustic punk, Billy Liar. Joey Jordison continues to drum for Slipknot, he has also played live with various other band such as as well as live guest stints with other bands, such as Ministry and Satyricon though he was not a fully fledged member of those bands. In 2007 toured for KoRn after the departure of original drummer David Silveria. Eric Griffin has toured as guitarist with Faster Pussycat, The Napoleon Blownaparts, and Roxy Saint. During 2006 he joined up with the Murderdolls front man as lead guitarist for the Wednesday 13 band, but left the following year. Ben Graves filled in as drummer on the Japanese tour for the band Dope and has played with AntiProduct and industrial rock act Nocturne.
Zombies
Wednesday 13 - vocals
Joey Jordison - guitar, backing vocals
Acey Slade - guitar, backing vocals
Eric Griffin - bass, backing vocals
Ben Graves - drums
Former Zombies
Tripp Eisen - guitar
Discography
Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls
(Re-released with bonus tracks and DVD in 2003.) 2002 #102 #40
EP
"Right to Remain Violent" - (2002)
Singles
Title Date of Release US Chart Position UK Chart Position
"Dead in Hollywood" 2002 ??? #54
"White Wedding" 2003 ??? #24