Scissor Sisters
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The Scissor Sisters are a five-piece American band strongly influenced by the gay-club scene of New York and named after a lesbian sex position. The group was formed, with the full name Dead Lesbian and the Fibrillating Scissor Sisters in 2001 by lead vocalist Jake Shears (born Jason Sellards) and bass guitarist Babydaddy (born Scott Hoffman). The other members are Ana Matronic (born Ana Lynch,vocals), Del Marquis (born Derek Gruen, guitar) and Paddy Boom (born Patrick Secord, drums). The lyrics of their songs are largely written by Shears and Babydaddy, and are known for their mixture of wit and tragedy.
Their first single Laura had a limited release in 2003 (reaching #54 in the UK singles chart), but received little attention except from British music paper New Musical Express. They came to prominence in 2004 with the release of Comfortably Numb (reaching #10 in the UK), a disco-style cover of the Pink Floyd song. This was followed by fan favourite Take Your Mama (#17 in the UK), a re-release of Laura (#12 in the UK), the ballad Mary (#14 in the UK), and the randy Filthy/Gorgeous (#5 in the UK). All the singles came from the self-titled debut album Scissor Sisters, which reached #1 in the UK albums chart, and became the best selling album of 2004 beating their closest rival Keane by just 582 copies. In late 2004, Shears and Babydaddy co-wrote & produced the hit I Believe In You for Kylie Minogue.
At the 2005 Brit Awards the group won all the awards they were nominated for; International Group, International Breakthough and International Album; the first time in the Awards history that an act won all three International catergories. They also opened the show with Take Your Mama, featuring a set made by The Jim Henson Company.
They have received a lot of attention in the United States by music video station VH1, and such magazines as Entertainment Weekly. So far, in the U.S., two videos have received play - the Take Your Mama clip and the second "Laura" clip. They have also been interviewed on VH1's website, and Del Marquis had been interviewed by the music section of IGN.com. As their early successes have been almost exclusively in Europe, they are often mistaken in the U.S. for an import band, despite their New York roots.
Their music is evidently influenced by Elton John (Shears' singing, particularly, sometimes sounds uncannily like Elton), The Bee Gees, Duran Duran, Supertramp and various other dance, rock and funk acts, and they are the first to point out that their music in general is hard to categorize. They are renowned for strong live performances, and count David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Elton John among their fans. They were the opening act for Duran Duran's 2004 reunion tour.
Scissor Sisters' CDs, records and DVDs feature artwork by an English illustrator named Spookytim, who has a studio in Brighton called Studiospooky. The artwork is created by a wide variety of techniques and mixes traditional paper-based processes with digital and photographic elements in order to reflect the multi-referential nature of the band's music.
Discography
- "Laura" - (2003) #54 UK
- "Comfortably Numb" - (2003) #10 UK
- "Take Your Mama" - (2004) #17 UK
- "Laura" (re-release) - (2004) #12 UK
- "Mary" - (2004) #14 UK
- "Filthy Gorgeous" - (2005) #5 UK
- Scissor Sisters - (2004) #1 UK, #7 US
External links
- Official Site (http://www.scissorsisters.com/)
- StudioSpooky (http://www.studiospooky.tv)
- New Musical Express Scissor Sisters articles (http://nme.com/artists/251690.htm)
- KEXP Interview and Live Performance (http://www.kexp.org/aspnet_client/KEXPViewMediaGroup.aspx?rID=2229&pID=528&fID=539&artist=SZ)