Mushroomhead

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Mushroomhead is an American band from Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 1993, Mushroomhead’s music can be described as a synthesis of alternative, heavy metal, and industrial influences. The members of Mushroomhead have identified themselves by each adopting masks or facial disguises as well as individual pseudonyms. Mushroomhead is identified by its distinct “X Face” logo – commonly worn boldly on the masks of most members, as well as clothing and associated merchandise.

In 1993, Mushroomhead was established as a side project. Its line-up comprised members from several bands from Cleveland, Ohio. To differentiate itself from members’ existing bands and to dispel any misconceptions about the group’s sound and musical content, Mushroomhead adopted costumes, masks and pseudonyms.

Mushroomhead played its first show in 1993. Days later, Mushroomhead found itself on stage alongside established metal band GWAR. “We played our first show on a Saturday,” said the band’s drummer, Skinny, in an article for Mushroomhead’s official website. “Three days later, we got a call to play with GWAR at the Cleveland Agora in front of 2000 people – our second show ever!”.

In 1995, Mushroomhead released its self-financed debut album with Filthy Hands Co., “Mushroomhead”. For the members, Mushroomhead became a priority with their original bands breaking-up. Mushroomhead’s line-up saw many changes throughout the 1990s, stayed active, steadily releasing music and gaining new fans.

In 2001, Mushroomhead released a compilation album titled “XX” on the independent label Eclipse Records. Later in the year, Mushroomhead signed with major label Universal Records and the compilation was remastered and re-released internationally. The release of this album lead Mushroomhead to major tours, national and international including Ozzfest 2002 as well as television exposure via its first music video “Solitaire/Unraveling”. XX sold 300,000 copies. Their current masks, as one of their producers confirmed, are them coming back from hell after being killed in war.

2003 saw the release of XIII, Mushroomhead's first album of entirely new material for Universal Records. The album produced the single "Sun Doesn't Rise" which was featured on MTV:Headbangers ball soundtrack and Freddy Vs Jason. Also featuring the hidden track "Crazy" a cover song originally by Seal. The album debuted at No. 40 on the Billboard Top 200 charts and sold 400,000 copies worldwide.

After an extensive world tour, singer Jmann (aka Jason Popson) announced that he had left Mushroomhead in August 2004 due to exhaustion and personal reasons. Reasons such as his father being sick and wanting to be there for him.

The late 1990s held controversial myths and legends for Mushroomhead. Record labels began to take notice of Mushroomhead and expressed interest in the Ohio outfit, most notably Roadrunner Records. In 1998, Mushroomhead came close to signing with Roadrunner Records, however, due to the two parties’ inability to reach a mutual agreement, pen never touched paper. One year later, a nine-piece metal band from Des Moines, Iowa – Slipknot – debuted on Roadrunner Records with its 1999 album “Slipknot”. Corey Taylor has stated that Slipknot had never heard of Mushroomhead until they were recording their debut album in 1998.1

After Roadrunner's acquisition, controversial similarities could be seen. Mushroomhead and its fans believed that Slipknot had stolen their image due to similarities such as a large line-up, Mushroomhead’s eight men and Slipknot’s nine, all band members of both bands wearing masks, several identical masks (Skinny’s gas mask v. Sid Wilson’s gas mask, Pig Benis’ pig mask v. Paul Gray’s pig mask) and uniform costumes (Mushroomhead’s camouflage coveralls v. Slipknot’s barcode coveralls).[citation needed] Each member of Slipknot adopted a number in place of their birth name. This caused rivalries between Slipknot and Mushroomhead that continued even after the turn of the millennium.

The 1999 signing of Slipknot to Roadrunner Records led to changes within Mushroomhead. Mushroomhead felt their image had been stolen for financial gain, Mushroomhead “killed” their individual characters. Their once colorful costumes, camouflage and rubber masks, were replaced by a black uniform. Later, cartoon style X marks over each eye were added to further illustrate the death of Mushroomhead’s image. This X mask design later lead to the “X Face” logo which today is recognised as Mushroomhead’s iconic symbol. These changes were also reflected on the band’s 1999 release “M3”. 

An incident between Mushroomhead fans and Slipknot themselves occurred when Slipknot trekked to Cleveland as part of their tour in support of their debut album, Mushroomhead fans flocked to the concert and peppered Slipknot with batteries forcing them off-stage. In a press conference, lead singer Corey Taylor stated that members of Mushroomhead had encouraged fans to do these acts. Mushroomhead has publicly stated that the band in no way encourages this sort of behavior. In a May 2007 interview it Imhotep.com, singer Jeffrey Nothing stated that the day after the Cleveland incident, his then girlfriend went down to the venue and the members of Slipknot and some of their crew harassed her saying: "You're wearing a Mushroomhead shirt, what do you know?" Nothing went on to say, "The bottom line is: here is our city, our fans support us completely! They felt just as fucked over by these pony "Clowns" as us and they aren't afraid to show it. Welcome to Cleveland bitches.”

In August of 2005, Mushroomhead self-released its first DVD on its own Filthy Hands label – “Volume 1”. Produced, directed, shot and edited by the band, “Volume 1” covers the band’s rise in the 2000s with live performances, music videos and behind the scenes footage. Waylon, however, is not featured in "Volume 1", though he is given a camera operator credit.

While on the road in 2005, Mushroomhead began the process of writing new material and recording a new album. In December of 2005, Mushroomhead signed with Megaforce Records, ensuring the new albums availability nationally and internationally. This rebirth brought on a new look for Mushroomhead. All the masks still displayed the X-face but have an individual mask look, not the same identical masks as in the XX and XIII eras. Mushroomhead has completely revamped their website to display their new look and sound.

Mushroomhead headlined with Dope, Nocturne, and New Orleans locals (now Dallas) Invain played a show on The Music For Freedom Tour sponsored by Jägermeister at the House of Blues in New Orleans, Louisiana on Tuesday, August 16, 2005. This show was one of the last big acts to play in New Orleans for a long time due to Hurricane Katrina striking New Orleans on August 29, 2005.

On June 6, 2006, Mushroomhead launched MushroomKombat - an interactive flash feature as a part of the band's official website. The mini-game pits Mushroomhead members against each other in a Mortal Kombat-style environment, each member having a unique fatality.

from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.