Eskimo Joe

Wikipedia:

Eskimo Joe is an Australian alternative rock band formed by Stuart MacLeod on guitars, Joel Quartermain on drums and guitar and Kavyen Temperley on bass guitar and vocals, in East Fremantle, Western Australia in 1997.

Their debut album, Girl, was released in 2001, which peaked into the Australian Albums Chart top 30, and was certified gold. Their second album, A Song Is a City, was released in 2004 and reached No. 2. It was later certified double platinum. The first single from that album, "From the Sea", debuted in the top 40 of the Australian Singles Chart, as well as being voted No. 3 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2004. Eskimo Joe issued their third album, Black Fingernails, Red Wine, in 2006, which peaked at No. 1 and was certified four times platinum. Its first single was the title track, "Black Fingernails, Red Wine", which became their first top 10 hit, and took out No. 2 in Triple J's Hottest 100 in 2006. The group's fourth album, Inshalla, was released in May 2009 and also reached No. 1. Its first single, "Foreign Land" peaked at No. 13. Their fifth album, Ghosts of the Past was released on 12 August 2011.

Eskimo Joe have won eight ARIA Music Awards, including four wins from nine nominations in 2006 for work associated with Black Fingernails, Red Wine.

History

Early years

Eskimo Joe founders Stuart MacLeod and Kavyen 'Kav' Temperley were school mates at John Curtin Senior High School. Temperley left school at sixteen to concentrate on writing music, moving into a share house with Simon Leach, who played bass guitar in a funk band called Carpet. The other members were his brother Stuart on drums and guitarist Joel Quartermain – all three were former students at Hollywood Senior High School. When Temperley joined Carpet they changed the name to Freud's Pillow. The band performed around Perth and Fremantle from 1995 to 1998, and released an EP, Pleasure Puppy in 1997. MacLeod, although not a member, is credited with co-writing "Mr Hoek" on the EP. Despite their modest popularity, Quartermain and Temperley were unhappy with the band's music style. While recording their EP, Temperley started jamming for a side project with MacLeod, writing several short simple pop, punk songs. They auditioned a number of drummers eventually settling on Quartermain – he was more musical.

Eskimo Joe was formed as an alternative rock group in 1997 in East Fremantle, initially they were a side project to Freud's Pillow, with MacLeod on guitar, Quartermain on drums and guitar, and Temperley on bass guitar and vocals. Eskimo Joe's first gig was in August at the University of Western Australia in a local heat for the National Campus Band Competition, they proceeded to the state finals in Perth and then the nationals in Sydney. For winning the national final, they were awarded a slot at the 1997 Livid Festival in Brisbane and a studio recording session in Sydney.

Freud's Pillow officially split within a few months of Eskimo Joes' win. Simon Leach eventually formed Little Birdy in 2002 and Stuart played drums for One Horse Town and later for The Bank Holidays. In April 1998, Eskimo Joe recorded their debut release, the Sweater EP. Its title track, "Sweater", received significant airplay on Triple J, which reached No. 33 on their Hottest 100 of 1998.

After touring for months, they returned to the studio and, in 1999, issued a second EP, Eskimo Joe. Two tracks, "Ruby Wednesday" and "Turn Up Your Stereo", reached the Triple J Hottest 100 of that year. The band were voted at No. 2 on the 'Brightest Hope' list by readers of Rolling Stone (Australia).

Album releases

Eskimo Joe signed with Universal Records' alternative offshoot Modular, in 1999. They recorded their debut album, Girl, with producer Ed Buller (Ben Lee, Pulp, Suede). It reached No. 29 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified gold. Tracks such as "Who Sold Her Out" and "Planet Earth" received airplay on Triple J, with the former reaching the top 100 on the ARIA Singles Chart and the latter listed at No. 31 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2001. Some tracks featured on TV series, The Secret Life of Us. Rock music journalist, Ed Nimmervoll, compared the album to their earlier work, "The nonsensical songs about stereos, alcohol and farting were replaced by Beatlesque highly relatable songs about the ups and downs about the day-to-day life". The band's live shows began to incorporate keyboards and an extra guitar. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2001, the band's single, "Wake Up", with a promotional clip by Ben Saunders, won the 'Best Video' category.

Despite Girl being a top 30 album and earning a gold record, Modular ended the band's contract. Eskimo Joe signed with Festival Mushroom Records in 2002. They recorded their second album, A Song Is a City, produced by Paul McKercher and mixed by Nick Launay, in 2003. Released in May 2004, it peaked at No. 2 and, by 2006, achieved double platinum status. For live shows, Quartermain switched to guitar and Paul Keenan – also from Fremantle – played drums. Temperley described A Song Is a City:

The lead single "From the Sea" reached the top 40 in March 2004, and was number-one on the Triple J Net 50. It was used as the backing track for a series of TV ads for the West Coast Eagles Football Club. "Smoke" was released as the second single and was listed in the top 5 on Triple J's Net 50 in May. The third single, "Older Than You", became their second top 50 ARIA Singles Chart hit after they performed it at the ARIA Music Awards of 2004 in October. At the ceremony, A Song Is a City won two awards for 'Producer of the Year' and 'Engineer of the Year' for both McKercher and Eskimo Joe. A fourth single, "Life Is Better with You", was issued in December.

In August 2005, the Eskimo Joe DVD was released with all the film clips for tracks from the Eskimo Joe EP and the first two albums, a feature length documentary, a collection of live performances, and some rare tracks, including "Sweater". They won 'Best Group' at the ARIA Music Awards of 2005 for "Older Than You".

MacLeod arranged for the band to produce their third album, Black Fingernails, Red Wine, themselves which "shifted the emphasis from the songs and their performance to an over-all sound". Its title track, "Black Fingernails, Red Wine", released in May 2006, which peaked at No. 6, became their first Top 10 single. The song also reached No. 1 on ARIA's digital track chart. The album followed in June and debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. It spent 51 weeks in the Top 50 and achieved four times platinum status. Its second single, "Sarah", was issued in September and peaked at No. 12. The B-sides are live and acoustic versions of "Black Fingernails, Red Wine" and a cover of the Pixies' "Hey" recorded for Triple J's Like a Version collection. The third single "New York" was released early in 2007 and reached No. 26. The fourth single, "Breaking Up", attained the top 100. In August, "Black Fingernails, Red Wine", was issued as the band's debut United States single. The fifth Australian single, "London Bombs", was released in October as a digital only single. The song was awarded first place in the 'Performance Category' at the 2007 International Songwriting Competition. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2006, Eskimo Joe were nominated for nine awards and won four. Black Fingernails, Red Wine won 'Producer of the Year' for Eskimo Joe and 'Engineer of the Year' for Matt Lovell, "Black Fingernails, Red Wine" won 'Single of the Year' and Eskimo Joe won 'Best Music DVD'.

Their fourth studio album, Inshalla, appeared in May 2009. The group had played tracks at gigs prior to its release, including the title track, "Inshalla". The term, insha'Allah is Arabic for 'God willing' which Temperley had heard during a visit to Egypt. According to Nimmervoll, "The album was put together in the same spirit, instead of the extremelely [sic] focused record they had wanted with Black Fingernails, Red Wine with Inshalla Eskimo Joe let the songs and the music take them wherever they led". The lead single, "Foreign Land", was issued in April and peaked at No. 13. Inshalla became the band's second album to debut at No. 1, and remained in the charts for 17 weeks. It was nominated at the ARIA Music Awards of 2009 for 'Album of the Year'. The second single, "Losing Friends Over Love", released in June failed to chart. However, the third single, "Don't Let Me Down", which was released in September, reached No. 50.

In April 2010, Eskimo Joe were announced as number-one ticket-holder for the Fremantle Football Club, replacing golfer Nick O'Hern. Quartermain joked that they might pen a club song, "We'll give it a crack. We're back here this winter writing our new record so, while we're at it, we may as well knock off a new theme song". The band held the honour until 2012, being replaced by Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith.

They recorded their fifth album, Ghosts of the Past, in February 2011 at The Grove Studios in Sydney and the new Wasteland Studios in O'Connor, which is owned by the band under their own label, Dirt Diamonds. In May, the group announced that Ghosts of the Past was due for release on 12 August. It has the band aiming for more honesty and less polish than "Inshalla". The album will contain 12 new songs. Some tracks include "Love Is a Drug", "Itch", "Running", "Speeding Car", "When We Were Kids" and "Gave It All Away". The first single from the album "Love Is a Drug" was first performed at 2011 Southbound Music Festival in Busselton and was released on iTunes on 24 June.

Tours

In November 2006, Eskimo Joe played at the CMJ Music Festival in New York City, returning to Australia for Southbound in Western Australia and the Falls Festival in Victoria and Tasmania. They performed on all legs of the 2007 Big Day Out concerts. In July, they played at the Australian leg of Live Earth in Sydney. At the end of that month, they had a secret gig in Perth under a pseudonym, The Andy Callison Project, as a warm-up to their US tour. Joining Eskimo Joe's line-up for live shows were Lee Jones on keyboards and Shaun Sibbes on drums. In January 2008, Eskimo Joe performed in New York, Houston and Los Angeles as part of the annual G'day USA - Australia Week. Later that year, the group performed at both the East Coast and West Coast Blues & Roots Festivals (Byron Bay and Fremantle, respectively).

In March 2009, Eskimo Joe performed at the Sound Relief concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Sound Relief was a benefit concert for victims of the Victorian Bushfire Crisis and the Queensland floods. Appearing with Eskimo Joe at the Sydney concert were, Coldplay, Hoodoo Gurus, Icehouse, Jet, Josh Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and additional artists. Prior to the benefit concert the band played in Perth as The Andy Callison Project.

Members

Core members

The core members of Eskimo Joe are:

Auxiliary members

A number of musicians have played with the band on tour and on recordings. They include:

Management

Eskimo Joe are managed by Catherine Haridy Management.