Hollywood Undead
Is an American rap rock band from Los Angeles, California. They released their debut album, Swan Songs, on September 2, 2008, and their live CD/DVD Desperate Measures, on November 10, 2009. Their second studio album, American Tragedy, was released April 5, 2011. All of the band members use pseudonyms and wear their own unique mask, most of which are based on the common hockey goaltender design. The band members currently consist of Charlie Scene, Da Kurlzz, Danny, Funny Man, J-Dog, and Johnny 3 Tears. The band has sold over two million records in the United States alone, and about three million records worldwide. Their third studio album, titled Notes from the Underground, was released on January 8, 2013.
Their fourth studio album, Day of the Dead, was released on March 31, 2015. The group had the album available for pre-order on February 17. Up to the release of the album, the band released five new singles off of the album, "Usual Suspects", "Gravity", "How We Roll", "Live Forever", and "Disease".
History:
Formation (2005–2007)
The band originated on June 3, 2005 from a song titled "The Kids" that Jorel Decker (J-Dog) and Aron Erlichman (Deuce) posted on the band's MySpace profile to positive reviews, leading them to form the group Hollywood Undead with their friends Jeff "Shady Jeff" Phillips, George "Johnny 3 Tears" Ragan, Jordon "Charlie Scene" Terrell, Dylan "Funny Man" Alvarez, and Matthew "Da Kurlzz" Busek. In an interview with Shave magazine, J-Dog explained that when forming the band "Whoever was in the room at the time and played an instrument was in the band."
Shady Jeff later left the group because of conflict with Deuce, who had threatened and disrespected Shady's family and he had been forced to pull a gun on Deuce to protect himself and his family. He told Deuce, Charlie Scene, and some of their friends to "Get the fuck out of my fuckin' house." Deuce said he would "Fuck everybody up before the cops showed up," so Jeff pulled a gun on Deuce, and told them to get out again. He quit Hollywood Undead as a result of this. Afterward, Deuce claimed in an interview that Shady had pulled the gun on him as a gang-related crime, not self-defense. He currently works as a mechanic and is working on converting diesel cars into vehicles that can run on vegetable oil.
Swan Songs, Desperate Measures, and record deal (2007–2009)
The band only took one year working on their debut album, Swan Songs. The other two years were spent looking for a company that wouldn't try to censor the album. They first signed a record contract with MySpace Records in 2005 but they left the label after the label tried to censor their first album. They then signed a contract with A&M/Octone Records and their first album, Swan Songs was released on September 2, 2008 and reached No.22 on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release, selling 21,000 copies;which was later on released in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2009 with two bonus tracks. In April 2009, the band toured with American electronic musician Skrillex as "Sonny and the Blood Monkeys". On June 23, 2009, Hollywood Undead released Swan Songs B-Sides EP through iTunes.
The band released a CD/DVD set entitled Desperate Measures on November 10, 2009. The set includes a CD of previously unreleased six new songs, three of which are cover songs, as well a previously unreleased remix of "Everywhere I Go", and six live recordings of songs from Swan Songs, and a DVD of a full live performance by the band. In December 2009, the band won Best Crunk/Rock Rap Artist at the Rock on Request Awards. In its first week of release, Desperate Measures reached No. 29 on the Billboard 200. It also peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard's Rock Albums chart, No. 8 on the Alternative Albums chart, No. 5 on the Hard Rock albums chart, and No. 15 on the Digital Albums chart.
Departure of Deuce (2010)
For more information about the solo artist, see Deuce.
In early 2010, the band announced that singer, Deuce, had left the band due to musical differences. Hints of Deuce's departure were noticed when he did not take part in the Vatos Locos tour. After a couple weeks on tour, the band asked long-time friend, Daniel Murillo, to fill in for Deuce's role. This was not too long after Murillo had just advanced past the auditions for season 9 of American Idol. Murillo decided to drop out of the competition and join the band. Daniel Murillo was also the lead singer of the band, Lorene Drive, which is currently on hiatus due to his involvement with Hollywood Undead. Deuce later released a song titled Story of a Snitch against the group, claiming he was kicked out. The band stated that they didn't want to "stoop to his level" and chose to simply ignore the controversy. In mid-January, the band announced Daniel Murillo was an official member, going by the nickname of "Danny".
Not much was known about the situation until the subject was brought up by interviewer Bryan Stars on YouTube. Johnny 3 Tears and Da Kurlzz told the interviewer that the band had to constantly satisfy Deuce while touring. "It was so bad, that I don't think there would've been another record if he was still with us", Da Kurlzz told the interviewer. "We bent over backwards to accommodate Deuce", he said. Johnny 3 Tears, growing weary about the subject, said, "It was just that he didn't like being on the road, so we would have to do things to make him happy. He also claimed to be writing all the songs, and all this B.S.". The band decided to drop the subject afterwards, saying that they have moved on from the situation and would prefer not putting in too much detail.
Martini Beerman of rock.com interviewed Charlie Scene and J-Dog, and the two decided to explain the final events that led up to the split. Charlie Scene told the interviewer, "He wanted to have his personal assistant (Jimmy Yuma) come on the tour. None of us have personal assistants, we're not egomaniacs. We don't need that, and he wanted the band to pay for it and we did for like four months. After that we were like, 'we're not gonna pay $800 a week to have your buddy out on tour'. We went to the airport to fly out for our next tour, and he didn't show up. We were like, what the fuck do we do? We called him and he didn't answer. So for the first 2 weeks of that tour, I sang all his parts."
American Tragedy and Redux (2010–2011)
The band soon began writing material for their second studio album; American Tragedy. On April 1, 2010, the band started its own iheartradio station, with horror and thriller tales. In recent interviews, the band has stated intentions to record their second album in summer 2010 and release it in the fall. James Diener, head of the band's record label, confirmed the next album for a fall 2010 release and believes that it will launch the band into more mainstream success, making it a "big next step" for the group.The band has also confirmed that producer Don Gilmore, who also worked on their debut album, has returned to produce the new album. Recording concluded around mid-November and the band began mixing the album the day after Thanksgiving.
The band began a marketing campaign for the second album. They co-headlined the Nightmare After Christmas Tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Stone Sour to support the album. On December 8, 2010, the band released the artwork for the album's first single, titled "Hear Me Now". The track was released on December 13, for radio and on the band's YouTube page, and was made available online as a digital single on December 21. J-Dog commented that this is his favorite song that the band has done so far. The song's lyrics tell the story of a person who is depressed and hopeless, taking a very somber tone to the track. Despite this, the instruments and melodies contrast to make a "great rock smash", reports AOL Radio blog. Within its first couple days of release, the single made it to number 2 on the iTunes Rock Chart.
On January 11, 2011, the band announced the upcoming album will be titled American Tragedy. The next day, they released a preview of the album on their YouTube page. On January 21, they released a new song, "Comin' in Hot" available for a free download. They also revealed in the "Comin' in Hot" trailer that the new album will be released in March 2011. In a recent interview, the group announced that the official release date for the album would be March 8, 2011 but as of February 22, 2011, it was announced that the album has been pushed back to April 5, 2011.
Notes from the Underground (2011–2013)
Following extensive touring throughout 2011 to promote their second studio album, American Tragedy, and their first remix album, American Tragedy Redux, Charlie Scene announced plans to begin a third studio album in late November 2011. The announcement came after the conclusion of the band's World War III Tour with Asking Alexandria. Charlie Scene stated that the band will begin writing and recording demos while on the Buried Alive Tour with Avenged Sevenfold and begin recording once the tour concludes in December 2011. He also stated the album will sound more similar to Swan Songs than American Tragedy. Commenting on the difference in recording this time around, he stated, "I would say that this time the label gave us full creative control. I think it's going to be more like 'Swan Songs' than 'American Tragedy.' It'll be a mixture of both; I mean, we all grow as artists, we get older, and we've been doing it a long time so I think it'll be more like 'Swan Songs' and I think the fans are gonna like it a lot.
Day of the Dead (2014–present)
In 2013 Hollywood Undead announced plans to release a new studio album early the following year. On April 12, 2014, Johnny 3 Tears posted a photo on his Instagram revealing plans for the band to release a new album in the summer. On October 16 the band posted a picture on their official Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages hyping October 21 with #HUDayOfTheDead. On October 17, Hollywood Undead's Vevo channel leaked the audio video with a song from their new album titled "Day of the Dead," although it was removed shortly afterwards. This wouldn't last long as iTunes made the song available for purchase on October 21, 2014, just four days after the song was taken down from Vevo.
On October 21, the band premiered "Day of the Dead" through Revolver Magazine. It was also revealed that the new album will also be titled "Day of the Dead".
The first single, titled "Day of the Dead," was released on October 23, 2014. The second single, titled "Usual Suspects," was released on February 17, 2015. The next single, titled "Gravity," was released on February 24, 2015. Hollywood Undead's new album Day of the Dead was released on March 31, 2015.