New Radicals

New Radicals was a band that was at the height of its popularity in 1999. The band only released one album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, but was able to produce two commercially successful singles from it: "You Get What You Give" and "Someday We'll Know". The band's only constant members were lead-singer Gregg Alexander, who wrote and produced all their songs, and background-vocalist Danielle Brisebois, who often worked with Alexander (before and after the New Radicals) and also co-wrote the Radicals' second single "Someday We'll Know". All other members changed from recording to touring to video-shooting.

Contents

1 History 2 Discography 2.1 Albums 2.2 Singles 2.3 Promos 2.4 Live recordings 3 Videography 4 External links

History

The New Radicals were formed in L.A. in 1997 by producer/singer/songwriter Gregg Alexander. The concept behind the band was a revolving door with no permanent members other than Alexander, joined by a changing array of other musicians.

Their first and only album, Maybe you've been brainwashed too, was released on 20 October 1998, followed by their first single "You Get What You Give", which became a huge hit with heavy radio airplay and rotation on MTV and much media attention, in large part focused on the celebrity-slamming line "Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson/ Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson/ You're all fakes run to your mansions/ Come around we'll kick your ass in". When asked about it in an interview, Marilyn Manson replied he was "not mad that he said he'd kick my ass, I just don't want to be used in the same sentence with Courtney Love" and would "crack his skull open if I see him."[1] (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1430072/19981202/story.jhtml) Alexander later explained the line, along with the lines directly before it, "Health insurance rip off lying/ FDA big bankers buying/ Fake computer crashes dining/ Cloning while they're multiplying" was an experiment to see if the media would focus on the real issues, or on the celebrity dissing.[2] (http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/513079/03251999/new_radicals.jhtml)

To promote their album, the Radicals embarked on a tour through the United States, starting in fall of 1998. Apart from many concerts and festivals the tour also included several live performance on the radio, an appearance at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and a performance at the House of Blues in Chicago on New Year's Eve 1999 (which is probably the only New Radicals show of which bootlegs are circulating). They also opened for the Goo Goo Dolls on their tour starting 30 March 1999.

When the band canceled their appearance at RockFest as well as their UK tour (sheduled to start on 17 May 1999) rumors started they would break up, while MCA Records claimed a member of the band being ill was the cause for the canceled shows. The Radicals went on to shoot the video for their second single "Someday We'll Know", however even before its release, Gregg Alexander issued a press release on 12 July 1999 announcing he disbanded the group. He stated that "the fatigue of traveling & getting three hours sleep in a different hotel every night to do boring 'hanging and schmoozing' with radio and retail people, is definitely not for [him]", that he "lost interest in fronting a 'One Hit Wonder' to the point that [he] was wearing a hat while performing so that people wouldn't see [his] lack of enthusiasm." and that he would go on to form a production company to focus on producing and writing songs freelance for other artists.[3] (http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=49834) His first producion work after the Radicals' breakup was the album Portable Life by fellow Radical Danielle Brisebois.

In the following years he worked with artists such as Ronan Keating, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Enrique Iglesias, often collaborating with producer/song-writer Rick Nowels. His most successful song as a producer/song-writer was the 2003 Grammy Award-winning "Game Of Love" by Santana and Michelle Branch.

In 2003, a new Gregg Alexander song entitled "A Love Like That" was leaked onto the internet. While it was uncredited, fans immediately recognized Alexander's voice and parts of the lyrics that had already appeared in the booklet for Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. The song was (as official sites listing Alexander's song repertoire reveal) written by Alexander and Rick Nowels. Also, in 2005 LMC did a remix of "You Get What You Give" which was released as "Don't Let Go" by LMC vs New Radicals.

Years after their breakup, the New Radicals' songs are still being used for several commercials and trailers (for example the trailer to the 2001 film Bubble Boy), TV shows (like Scrubs), on soundtracks (like A Walk to Remember and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed) and covered by artists such as Mandy Moore and Hall & Oates.

Discography

Albums

• Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (1998) #41 US, #10 UK

Singles

• "You Get What You Give" (1999) #64 US, #5 UK, #13 Australia
• "Someday We'll Know" (1999) #28 US, #48 UK

Promos

• Songs from Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (album sampler)

1. "You Get What You Give" - 5:00
2. "Mother We Just Can't Get Enough" - 5:46
3. "I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away The Ending" - 6:37
4. "I Don't Wanna Die Anymore" - 4:24
5. "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too" - 5:20

• "You Get What You Give" (one-track promo)
• "Someday We'll Know" (one-track promo)
• "Mother We Just Can't Get Enough" (one-track promo - probably intended as third single) [4] (http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=311851)

Live recordings

Two live recordings of "You Get What You Give" were officially released:

• "You Get What You Give" (Live at WXPN's World Cafe) on Live at the World Cafe - Volume 8 (1999)
• "You Get What You Give" (Live at KBCO, February 1 1999) on KBCO Studio C - Volume 11 (1999)

Videography

• "You Get What You Give" (1999)
• "Someday We'll Know" (1999)

External links

• NewRadicals.net (http://www.newradicals.net) (fanpage with quite active forum)
• Press release anouncing the band's break-up (http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=49834) on PR Newswire
• Band's offical homepage at MCA (http://www.mcarecords.com/artistMain.asp?artistid=62)
• http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/TechnicolorLover/ (fanpage, no longer updated)
• http://www.geocities.com/thetiger97/newradicals (partial list of tour dates)