The Dillinger Escape Plan

Dillinger Escape Plan
The Dillinger Escape Plan performing in Budapest in 2008.
Background information
Origin	Morris Plains, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Mathcore, avant-garde metal
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Epitaph, Season of Mist, Relapse, Now or Never
Associated acts	Arcane, Coheed and Cambria, Jesuit, Starkweather, Mike Patton, Stolen Babies, Spylacopa
Website	dillingerescapeplan.org
Members
Ben Weinman Liam Wilson Greg Puciato Jeff Tuttle Billy Rymer
Past members
See former members

The Dillinger Escape Plan is an American mathcore band from Morris Plains, New Jersey. The group originated in 1997 after the disbanding of Arcane, a hardcore punk trio consisting of Ben Weinman, Dimitri Minakakis, and Chris Pennie.^[1] The band's current line-up consists of guitarist Ben Weinman, bassist Liam Wilson, vocalist Greg Puciato, guitarist Jeff Tuttle and drummer Billy Rymer. Their band name is derived from the famous convicted bank robber John Dillinger.

History

Early years (1997–1998)

The Dillinger Escape Plan was founded in 1997, the band emerged from a hardcore punk trio named Arcane.^[1] Previous to Arcane, Adam Doll, Craig McKeown, John Fulton and Chris Pennie played together in the bands Samsara and Malfactor from 1992–1997. Managed by longtime friend Tom Apostolopoulos and guitarist Ben Weinman, Arcane recorded a self-titled demo under the name The Dillinger Escape Plan, in reference to the early 1930s bank robber John Dillinger, famous for his multiple escapes from jail. Now or Never Records offered to release the demo.^[1] The six-track EP was released in 1997 by Now or Never Records, and set them off on a small club tour around northeast America. Shortly before their first tour under the new name, guitarist Derek Brantley left the group and was replaced by John Fulton.^[1]

During this time period, The Dillinger Escape Plan gained notoriety in the hardcore punk scene for the intensity of their performances. Their performances were increasingly wild, and often violent. These elaborate performances, as well as the creative, technical approach of their music led a record executive of Relapse Records to offer the band a multi-record contract. The band agreed to the contract, and recorded their second EP with Relapse entitled Under the Running Board. Shortly after its release, Fulton left the band over creative differences.^[1]

Calculating Infinity (1999–2001)

The three-song EP release served to bolster anticipation for their 1999 full-length release, Calculating Infinity. Before the recording of Calculating Infinity, bassist Adam Doll was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.^[2] The accident was a minor fender bender, but because Doll had leaned over to pick up a CD beneath the stereo, the accident caused a small fracture in his spine, inducing paralysis. Guitarist Weinman played both guitar and bass on the album, though liner notes credited Doll as providing a great deal of help.

Shortly before touring began for the new album, former Jesuit guitarist Brian Benoit auditioned for the band, taking the place of the departed John Fulton; Jeff Wood, former M.O.D. bassist, took the place of the injured Adam Doll. Calculating Infinity was met with great acclaim from both underground and mainstream press, even drawing the attention of former Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton, who asked Dillinger Escape Plan to tour with his band Mr. Bungle. Over time, their notoriously intense shows grew more so, incorporating samples, a light show, fireworks, fire breathing, and other antics.

After several months of touring, including appearances on the Warped Tour and March Metal Meltdown, the band and Wood parted ways, with Wood moving on to his own project, Shat. Liam Wilson, also bassist for Starkweather, took his place. In 2000, Now or Never Records re-released the band's self-titled album with added bonus tracks. Later that same year, the band parted ways with Minakakis. Minakakis credited his departure from the band to the rigorous touring schedule. The band remains in contact with him.^[3]

Irony Is a Dead Scene (2002–2003)

Without a vocalist, The Dillinger Escape Plan began a nationwide search for a replacement via their website, releasing an instrumental version of "43 % Burnt" from Calculating Infinity and inviting prospective vocalists to record and submit their own vocal tracks.

While the search was underway, vocal duties were handled by a number of the band's friends, including Sean Ingram of Coalesce and Mike Patton, who agreed to help the band produce an EP. The plan to record with Patton was in place before a replacement vocalist had been found. By the time Mike Patton had recorded vocals and the EP was released, the band had been touring with Minakakis's replacement, Greg Puciato from the band Error, for nearly a year.

The group released their first EP via Epitaph Records, titled Irony Is a Dead Scene.^[4] It features Weinman, Pennie, Benoit, Wilson, and Mike Patton on vocals, with ex-bassist Adam Doll assisting with keyboards and sample effects. It marked Doll's last appearance with the band, until he returned to contribute briefly towards Option Paralysis. The four-song EP contains, among others, a cover of electronic music artist Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy". Buddyhead Records released the EP in a limited vinyl version.

Miss Machine (2004–2005)

Greg Puciato and Liam Wilson in 2005.

In late 2001, Dillinger Escape Plan met Greg Puciato, one of many would-be vocalists who had submitted a recording to the band. Puciato included both a faithful version of "43 % Burnt" (in the style of Calculating Infinity) and the same song with his own personal spin. The band offered him the job after two practice sessions. He accepted, first appearing at the 2001 CMJ Music Festival in New York City. Soon after, Puciato and the band recorded two songs for a Black Flag tribute compilation. In 2003, the band appeared on the soundtrack for Underworld with the song "Baby's First Coffin", their first original song with Greg Puciato on vocals. They also recorded a cover of "My Michelle" for the Guns N' Roses tribute album Bring You to Your Knees, released on March 23, 2004.

On July 20, 2004, Relapse Records released the band's first full-length album with Puciato, entitled Miss Machine. Miss Machine sold 12,000 copies its first week, becoming their largest selling release. The album polarized The Dillinger Escape Plan audience; some fans were critical of the band's increasing artistic and musical departures from their earlier efforts, while others preferred them.

Following the controversial release, The Dillinger Escape Plan began a two year touring cycle, headlining tours of their own or occasionally providing support for acts such as Slipknot, System of a Down, and Megadeth. These tours were replete with injuries; in late 2004, guitarist Benoit suffered nerve damage (brachial plexus neuritis) in his left hand, and other than a short return to the stage in 2005, he has not played with the band since.^[5] Former Fenix*TX guitarist James Love ended up playing most shows in the late 2004–2006 period. In 2005, the band was forced to drop out of Dave Mustaine's "Gigantour" slightly early due to a rotator cuff injury and fractured vertebrae Weinman had sustained performing in Anaheim, CA at the famous Chain reaction.

Plagiarism (2006)

In June 2006 the band released an iTunes exclusive EP of cover songs entitled Plagiarism. The title is a reference to the fact that four of the EP's six tracks are covers faithful to the original songs. And their first DVD, a short accompanying piece to Miss Machine (entitled Miss Machine: The DVD). Guitarist James Love played in the band during the recording of their Plagiarism EP. Dillinger toured supporting AFI and Coheed and Cambria in the summer of 2006.

Four shows before the end of the Coheed tour, Weinman flew home for undisclosed personal reasons. In an interview, Greg Puciato announced that actual reasons for Weinman flying home was because of the growing tension between him and Chris Pennie. In an interview with Danish metal magazine Devilution, Pennie claims Weinman went home because he was involved in illegal activity of an undisclosed nature and had to deal with it.^[6] The night of August 4, the group played their first show as a four-piece in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Murat Theatre Egyptian Room. It was previously announced during an interview on the Jekyll and Hyde show in November 2007, during the Coheed tour, Weinman had briefly quit the band in order to recover from compounding medical and financial problems.^[7]

During the time Weinman was apart from the band, Chris Pennie received an offer from Coheed and Cambria to be the band's permanent drummer when their former drummer left the band. Coheed had been impressed with Pennie after seeing him live, and Pennie accepted the offer. Pennie left the band right before the recording of Ire Works.^[8]

Ire Works (2007–2009)

The Dillinger Escape Plan performing live in 2005.

The Dillinger Escape Plan completed their follow-up album to Miss Machine in 2007, entitled Ire Works, produced by Steve Evetts at his studio Omen Room in Los Angeles. Drums were recorded at Sonikwire Studios in Irvine, California.^[9] On June 15, the band announced the title of the album as well as confirming the departure of Chris Pennie (now with Coheed and Cambria^[10]). Gil Sharone of Stolen Babies handled drum duties for the album.^[11] Ire Works was released on November 13, 2007. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at #142 with 7,000 copies scanned, but was later corrected when it was revealed that Relapse somehow forgot to scan the pre-release album sales, which made the first week total actually around 11,000.

Missing from the new line up was guitarist Brian Benoit, who had left the band because of injury. Although assured his place in the band is secure should he ever be able to perform again,^[12] Jeff Tuttle (formerly of Heads Will Roll and Capture the Flag) has taken his place on stage. Tuttle, however, does not make an appearance on the record.^[13]

Ire Works has been a critical and commercial success, with the album being on many critics' top ten lists, making it the band's most critically successful album. Allmusic said that "DEP should be careful, or they'll end up the Radiohead of metalcore." On February 6, 2008, the band had two songs from Ire Works broadcasted on two television programs in the United States. The song "Milk Lizard" was featured on the CSI: NY episode "Playing With Matches",^[14] and the band performed live the song "Black Bubblegum" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.^[15] In January 2009 Gil Sharone left the band. Billy Rymer was then confirmed to be the band's new drummer.

On Saturday, February 21, as The Dillinger Escape Plan played at the Soundwave music festival in Brisbane, Australia at the RNA Showgrounds, where they joined Nine Inch Nails onstage during the Soundwave 2009 festival, helping them perform the songs "Wish" and "Mr. Self Destruct" as part of the last encore song of Nine Inch Nails' live show at the event.

Option Paralysis and new recordings (2009–present)

On May 27, 2009, it was reported by Benjamin Weinman that the band started their own label, Party Smasher Inc., which is a collaboration with French record label Season of Mist. After having fulfilled their contract with Relapse, The Dillinger Escape Plan released their fourth studio album in March 2010 through Party Smasher Inc and recorded by Steve Evetts.^[16] Option Paralysis was confirmed as the title of the new album in a press release by Season of Mist. Puciato has noted that Option Paralysis was the toughest album the group and himself have ever written. In an interview in The Aquarian, Weinman stated that "it was the most organic and less forced than previous works."^[17]

The Dillinger Escape Plan started the Option Paralysis touring cycle with a short North American tour with Thursday in December 2009, followed by a headlining run in Feb/March 2010 with Darkest Hour, Animals As Leaders, and Iwrestledabearonce. While on the tour, the band received a Golden God Award from Revolver Magazine, for "Best Underground Band", which Weinman and Puciato accepted. ^[18] After a short trip to Europe, they participated in Warped Tour 2010, playing June 24 through August 15.^[19] After that the band embarked on a massive European headlining run. During a January 12, 2011 interview on the Metal Injection Livecast, vocalist Greg Puciato announced the band is currently in the process of writing new music which would either surface as an EP later in the year or a full-length album the following year.^[20] However, in 2011 Dillinger continued to tour, accompanying Deftones for a nine-week long North American trek from April to June.

They are currently on a North American tour with Mastodon and Red Fang.

Band members

Main article: The Dillinger Escape Plan band members

Current Ben Weinman – lead guitars, programming, backing vocals (since 1997) Liam Wilson – bass guitar (since 2000) Greg Puciato – lead vocals (since 2001) Jeff Tuttle – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (since 2007) Billy Rymer – drums (since 2009)

Former Derek Brantley – rhythm guitar (1997) John Fulton – rhythm guitar (1997–1999) Dimitri Minakakis – lead vocals (1997–2000) Adam Doll – bass guitar (1997–1999), keyboards (2001–2002) Brian Benoit – rhythm guitar (1999–2005) Chris Pennie – drums (1997–2007) Gil Sharone – drums (2007–2008)

Discography

Main article: The Dillinger Escape Plan discography

Studio albums

• Calculating Infinity (1999)
• Miss Machine (2004)
• Ire Works (2007)
• Option Paralysis (2010)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Apostolopoulos, Tom. "Dillinger Escape Plan Bio", Biography. . Retrieved on 2008-03-22
2. ^ "Donnelly, Justin. Blistering.com Feature – Interview with The Dillinger Escape Plan". Blistering.com. 2007-11-22. http://www.blistering.com/fastpage/fpengine.php/link/1/templateid/6841/tempidx/5/menuid/3. Retrieved 2011-10-24. 
3. ^ "Dillinger Escape Plan interview // Interviews // Features // Lambgoat". Lambgoat.com. http://www.lambgoat.com/features/interviews/dillinger_escape_plan2.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-24. 
4. ^ "The Dillinger Escape Plan – Irony is a Dead Scene", Review. Retrieved on 2008-03-22
5. ^ "Brian Benoit Retires from Dillinger Escape Plan." News. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
6. ^ Quote: "It was actually quite interesting. The band I played in the past opened for Coheed ... The guitarist in my previous band left us rather unexpectedly during the tour, and when we got home we had talked about a lot of things. He said simply that he would not tour with us in a year's time because he was doing some things that ... hmm ... was not entirely legal. And it was something he had to do something about." (translated) Retrieved from "Et fedt band at være med i", Interview. (requires login.)
7. ^ "Dillinger Escape Plan on the Jekyll and Hyde Show 106FM Jerusalem" Retrieved on Nov. 17 2009
8. ^ "Drummer Leaves DEP – Joins Coheed and Cambria?", News. Retrieved on 2008-03-22
9. ^ "THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: BEGIN WORK ON NEW ALBUM – News from Relapse Records / Release Entertainment". http://shop.relapse.com/content/news.aspx?NewsItemID=524. Retrieved 2011-10-24. 
10. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
11. ^ "The Dillinger Escape Plan Show Flashes of Ire Works : ALARM Magazine – Music & Art Beyond Comparison". Alarmpress.com. 2007-07-06. http://www.alarmpress.com/650/music-news/the-dillinger-escape-plan-give-glimpses-of-ire-works/. Retrieved 2011-10-24. 
12. ^ Dillinger Escape Plan, The – Official Relapse Records Band Page
13. ^ "THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Adds New Guitarist". Blabbermouth.net. 2007-07-31. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=77863. 
14. ^ "Playing with Matches". TV.com. http://www.tv.com/csi-ny/playing-with-matches/episode/1150663/summary.html. Retrieved April 28, 2010. 
15. ^ "The Dillinger Escape Plan on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien". Blabbermouth.net. February 7, 2008. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=90226. Retrieved April 29, 2010. 
16. ^ "THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Signs With SEASON OF MIST". Blabbermouth. 2009-05-27. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=120839. 
17. ^ Slevin, Patrick March 2010
18. ^ "2010 Revolver Golden Gods Award Winners". Heavymetal.about.com. http://heavymetal.about.com/b/2010/04/14/2010-revolver-golden-gods-award-winners.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-24. 
19. ^ "2010 Warped Tour Lineup"
20. ^ "DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Frontman Talks New Album, Possible New Max Cavalera Collaboration". Metal Injection. 2011-01-13. http://www.metalinjection.net/upcoming-releases/dillinger-escape-plan-frontman-talks-album-max-cavalera-collaboration. 

External links

• Official website