| HORSE the band | |
|---|---|
| Origin | |
| Genre(s) | Metalcore Post-hardcore Nintendocore |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Label(s) | Combat Records Koch Entertainment LIF Records |
| Website | horsetheband.com |
| Members | |
| Nathan Winneke Chris Prophet David Isen Dashiell Arkenstone Erik Engstrom |
|
| Former members | |
| Eli Green Andy Stokes Jason Karuza Jason Robert Jason Burkitt Adam Crook Alex Siudy |
|
HORSE the band is an experimental metalcore band. Their keyboardist uses the Korg MS-2000 and more recently, the Roland Juno-D synthesizer and LSDJ Gameboy cartridge to achieve an 8-bit video game-influenced sound, resulting in them often being referred to as "Nintendocore".
Contents |
Biography
The band booked its own self-managed tours starting the summer of 2002, including a 3-month orange tour spanning seven cities, in which most shows were unplanned and not promoted. Afterwards the band began to appear on more mainstream shows, first touring with The Dillinger Escape Plan, Hella, and Between the Buried and Me in late 2005. Throughout 2006 the band toured with a diverse assortment of artists. It toured around the country with The Fall of Troy, Poison the Well, and Criteria. Then, a month after this tour finished on May 28, 2006, HORSE started a tour with Gatsby's American Dream, Portugal. The Man, and Forgive Durden. The band dropped off of the tour early, proclaiming that the reason the members couldn't continue was because they were in Chicago eating pizza, and claiming that it was the best pizza they had ever eaten. After dropping out of the tour, the band went on to perform at the Warped Tour, as well as the Sounds of the Underground tour. During these tours, the band recorded Pizza and played shows with GWAR. The EP was released on September 5, 2006. During the fall of 2006, the band has continued touring to support Pizza with All That Remains and DragonForce. The tour began in Los Angeles, California on September 8, 2006. After the tour finished, the band began writing its new album, and had hoped to have had it recorded by March 2007. On Dec 25 2006, the band issued a special song for Christmas on its MySpace page entitled "A Partridge", a comical spin on the popular Christmas song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". According to a Myspace bulletin concerning the song, it was written and recorded in a single day. Contrary to what people believe, the removal of the song was not because of David Isen's mother's request, but because "Christmas was over", according to Nathan, on a live interview on the website musicplustv.com(Currently undergoing construction). In February 2007, during the recording of the band's next album, an official HORSE the band YouTube channel was started to display videos of the recording process. The channel quickly turned into a forum for the band to post episodes of its own drama "Lawrence and Friends," a show about a love triangle between a sugar cube, a suicidal pencil, and a postcard of Carla Hassett. The band has even gone as far as to write a theme song for the show in its classic synthesizer fashion.
Stage Performance
HORSE the Band is known for their tremendously energetic live performances. When asked about their on-stage creativity in an interview with their bassist, Dash Arkenstone, he said that "[they] see a lot of bands, a lot of boring bands. [They] thought it would be rad to play in a forest surrounded by wildlife every night." And so they just went ahead with it. So, the stages they performed on during their last tour was filled with pseudo-shrubbery and lifelike stuffed animals that were sometimes brought to them by fans. The fans' response is equally as energetic. It is customary that fans clap their hands above their heads during the song "Cutsman" to imitate the scissors above the head of the Mega Man boss Cut Man that the song references. Also catching on is the new pre-Cutsman-breakdown "dance" pose "The Phalanx", in which fans form a circle in the center of a mosh pit by getting back to back, moving clockwise, and bringing their hands above their heads to continue the traditional Cutsman hand-cutting style. Meanwhile, vocalist Nathan Winneke begins with the words "Cut, cut...". Another recent trend is the dance for the song The Red Tornado in which fans enter mosh pits, extend their arms in complete opposite directions, and spin 360º to emulate the "tornado" image.
Song lyrics
HORSE the Band's lyrics are chaotic and colorful metaphors for vocalist Nathan Winnekes life, often with humorous or "geeky" titles and basises. He once described his lyrics as "lynchian" referring to film director David Lynch. The band had labeled themselves "Nintendocore" very early on in their career. Some such characters referred to include Cut Man from Mega Man, although the song is spelled "Cutsman"; Birdo, one of the bosses from the NES game Super Mario Bros. 2, in the song "Birdo"; and the rabbit-like nemesis from The Legend of Zelda in the song "Pol's Voice". Similarly, the song "A Million Exploding Suns" refers to the Marvel Comics character Sentry, a schizophrenic hero with this abundance of power. 2007's A Natural Death featured significant lyrical and musical evolution into the concepts of nature and mortality while moving slightly away from the Nintendo metaphors. The song "Murder" is inspired by the Western novel Lonesome Dove, in which a Native American named Blue Duck stalks and kills white settlers on the plains. A Natural Death can be played infinitely and in a continuous loop. The last song, "Lif" ends with the sound of howling winds that open the album's first song, "Hyperborea". This is likely a representation on the infinite progressive continuity of the cycle of life and death; in line with the main themes of the album.
Members
Current members
- Nathan Winneke – vocals
- Chris Prophet – drums
- David Isen – guitar
- Dashiell Arkenstone – bass
- Erik Engstrom – Synthesizer/LSDJ
Former members
- Andy Stokes – bass
- Adam Crook – vocals
- Risto - vocals
- Eli Green – drums
- Jason Karuza – drums
- Alex Siudy - bass
- Jason Burkitt - theremin
- Daniel Garner - Cow Bell
- Bj Baker - Fiddle
- Mat Winstead - ( Keyboards )
- Zach Mohlar - ( Groupie )
Discography
- Scabies, The Kangarooster, and You demo (1999)
- Secret Rhythm of the Universe CD (2001)
- I Am a Small Wooden Statue on a Patch of Crabgrass Next to a Dried Up Riverbed EP (2001)
- Beautiful Songs by Men EP (2002)
- R. Borlax CD (2003, Pluto Records)
- The Effing 69 World Tour tour footage DVD (2004)
- The Mechanical Hand CD (2005, Combat Records)
- Pizza EP (2006, Combat Records / LIF Records)
- R. Borlax Re-Release CD (2007, Koch Records)
- A Natural Death CD (2007, Koch Records)
References
- Bonnie Johnson. "Majoring in Rockstar Studies: Part I: 'HORSING' around", The Stanford Daily, 2004-10-22.
- http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1509692/09152005/horse_the_band.jhtml
- Andrew Parks. "Horse the Band", Decibel Magazine, 2005.
- http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/entertainment/entertainment_item.asp?NewsID=85


