History
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History
Founding and debut album
The band was formed in Minneapolis in the early 1980s, and they performed avant-garde electronic music with flourishes of hip-hop, dub, and electro. In 1983 they independently released two albums, The InSoc EP and Creatures Of Influence. Two years later they released Running, their first single, which became a hit popular in New York City Latin dance clubs and "put them on the map". The song, a 7-minute excursion into electro, was written and sung by Murat Konar, who left the band soon after. Their growing success led them from their native Minneapolis to NYC, and the ensuing revenues and contacts, as well as the addition of Amanda Kramer to the lineup, led them to record their proper debut album for Tommy Boy Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records Kramer left the band shortly after the second single "Walking Away" was released.
In addition to "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)", their self-titled major release debut Information Society (1988) also had another hit, "Walking Away", and a cover of ABBA's "Lay All Your Love on Me." The disc was one of the few to use CD+G, which included digital graphics on the compact disc version in addition to the music. The audio samples from Star Trek were authorized for use on the album partially thanks to the efforts of Adam Nimoy, fan of the band and son of Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy. The album sold out its initial print in 2 weeks in the US. Information Society reached gold status after 5 months of its release and would eventually turn platinum.
During this time the band released an anonymous single (comprised of 2 tracks from their forthcoming second album) under the name Think Tank. They also had a song - the instrumental track "Hit Me" - placed on the soundtrack to the movie Earth Girls Are Easy. By 1989 Information Society joined the "Club MTV Tour" which also included Paula Abdul, Milli Vanilli, Tone Loc, Was Not Was and Lisa Lisa. Years later, Robb released tracks under the name Think Tank through his record label Hakatak.
[edit] Hack and Vector
The second release, Hack (1990), wasn't as successful, but had small hits with "Think" and "How Long." and managed to sell quite well in the fall of 1990.Videos were produced for those two tracks, but only "Think" got video airplay; the Adam Ant-directed spot for "How Long" was put aside as nobody involved was happy with it. A third single, "Now That I Have You", was remixed and sent out to DJ's but was never released.
Kurt was also the owner of the heavily-modified The Road Warrior-inspired art car named "Vector" featured on the cover of Hack. The car sported a functioning ranging laser, among other unusual features. "Vector" was eventually given to a friend at Burning Man in 1997.
[edit] Peace & Love, Inc. and Cleopatra Records
The third release, Peace & Love, Inc. (1992), proved to be more powerful and critically acclaimed, although their label failed to do much to promote them. Their first single "Peace & Love Inc." reached #1 on the Billboard Dance Chart. A music video was produced for the track, but MTV declined to play it. The album is also notable for being perhaps the first album ever produced to contain a track of modem tones, which when played into a telephone connected to a computer resulted in a bonus text message from the band.
A fourth album, Don't Be Afraid (1997) was written and performed by Kurt Harland alone and produced by Steven Seibold. DBA was more industrial-driven than previous albums and reflected more of what Kurt had been wanting to do during most of his tenure with InSoc. Cleopatra Records released the album, but - like Tommy Boy Records - did little to promote it. Harland's love of computer-related materials continued to be evident, as the album included a CD-ROM filled with bonus material, not yet a common occurrence in 1997. The disc included a selection of digital samples used in the album's production, miscellaneous works of art by InSoc fans, a program to generate the distinctive border graphics used on the album's cover, and the music video of "Peace and Love, Inc."
There was also a carefully-orchestrated digital scavenger hunt culminating in the discovery of a bonus track called "White Roses". The scavenger hunt began with decoding a modem's signal recorded at the end of the audio CD, resulting in a text message from Kurt which pointed the way to a website where the search began. There is also a cover included of Gary Numan's "Are 'Friends' Electric?". Also included is "Ozar Midrashim", later used as the main theme for the videogame Soul Reaver.
A remix album, InSoc Recombinant (1999), was produced, featuring vocals to the band's earlier hits remixed by various artists. The vocals to songs pre-Don't Be Afraid were not the originals, they were new versions re-recorded by Kurt alone specifically for the remixers' use. Included on a bonus, unadvertised CD-ROM were digital copies most of the band's officially-produced promotional videos, including a copy of the "Peace and Love, Inc." video of higher quality than that distributed with Don't Be Afraid. This CD-ROM did not feature the "How Long" video.
[edit] Compilations and Bands Reunited
In 2001, strange haircuts // cardboard guitars // and computer samples was released including all the hits from 1988 to 1992.
In 2004, Cleopatra Records released a compilation titled Pure Energy. Despite Cleopatra's crediting of Harland as producer in the liner notes, none of the band's members had anything to do with this release. The release consisted of tracks from Don't Be Afraid and InSoc Recombinant, supplemented with a slightly altered mix of "Are Friends Electric?" and two new remixes of "What's On Your Mind," one by Effcee, and one unattributed mix labeled "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" which attempted to emulate the original Tommy Boy version of the track. Robb himself called the album "an insult to both the band and the fans."[1]. Harland, despite being credited as producer in the liner notes, had nothing to do with the release. While Harland declined to either "endorse or un-endorse" the album, he did take particular issue with the cover art, both for its low quality and for its portrayal of him holding a gun. [2]
The group was featured in an episode of VH1's Bands Reunited in November of 2004. As broadcast, it appeared that Aamer Haleem (host of the show) got every member to agree to reuniting. However, Kurt had declined to appear in the planned concert, for reasons he later detailed in a post on the band's official website. The post also details his experiences behind the scenes of the production, and how they differ from the portrayals in the episode as broadcast. Jim Cassidy, Kurt Harland, Paul Robb (2007) Jim Cassidy, Kurt Harland, Paul Robb (2007)
The VH1 show was followed by a period of relative quiet, although Harland, Cassidy, and Robb gave two well-received performances[citation needed] at a weekend music festival in New York on August 20-21, 2005. [edit] Oscillator and Synthesizer
In 2006, it was announced that Paul Robb and James Cassidy had decided to reconvene Information Society, albeit without Kurt Harland's full participation in the recording process. [3] Harland's absence in the studio line-up was cited as being due to family and work obligations. The new lineup included Christopher Anton as lead vocalist on Oscillator and Synthesizer with Anton co-writing several tracks including Synthesizer’s title track. Christopher Anton also performed live with Information Society throughout 2006-2007, including shows in California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Information Society performed on July 21st at the Freestyle Reunion 2 Concert at Madison Square Garden, NYC with the original lineup of Kurt, Paul and James.
Information Society commissioned chiptune/micromusic artist 8 Bit Weapon to remix "I Like the Way You Werk It." 8 Bit Weapon remixed the song using both a Commodore 64 computer and a Game Boy Classic handheld console. The remix is titled "I Like the Way You Werk It - 8 Bit Weapon Remix"
On 19 March 2007, Information Society self-released an EP titled Oscillator, as an Internet-only release - their first commercial release in over six years. According to a recent press release, their new album, Synthesizer was released on October 9th in North America and October 5th in Europe on Dancing Ferret Discs. The album was released digitally in North America and Europe on September 4th, 2007. A Brazilian release is also planned.[citation needed] This new album is something of a throwback to their 1988 self titled album and also returns female vocals to many songs (although not by Amanda Kramer).
Information Society announced a series of exclusive US live shows (Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco and Austin) to take place in January 2008 in support of Synthesizer, with the Philadelphia concert being filmed for a forthcoming DVD[4].
