Biography
The Vehicle Birth (VB) was a rock band that performed and recorded between January 1993 and May 1999. They released the full-length record "Tragedy" on Crank! Records and achieved some success with radio play, reaching 24 on the CMJ charts and charting in The Gavin Report in the summer of 1998. They toured extensively throughout the United States. Travis Morrison from the The Dismemberment Plan recorded or produced most of their early output, and the two bands frequently played shows together.
The VB played rock music with a wide dynamic range. Their influences included math rock (characterized by a preoccupation with odd time signatures); lo-fi (a repudiation of records which sounded "overproduced" and thus lacked spontanaety, often charaecterized by primitive recordign methods meant to keep musicians from focusing on production instead of performance or songwriting); slowcore; and emo/spazcore/screamo as it developed on the East Coast through bands such as Rites of Spring and Fugazi; and heavy use of tape delay. Some songs were fairly straight forward, but a common theme was tension and release, which was accomplished through alternating between jarring sections and quiet sections, varied time signatures, frequent use of minor keys and alternate instrument tunings.
Read full biography ↓
The VB began performing at the Dharma Coffeehouse and The Music Store in Fairfax City, Virginia. At that time the band was performing with bands like The Dismemberment Plan, the Sun Monkeys, and 5 state drive. In 1994, they moved to Boston, Massachusetts, continued to tour, and released several 7” records. A July 1996 session in Rhode Island was self-released as an LP called Tragedy in early 1997. In 1998, Crank! Records re-released it, providing greater distribution. Touring proved to be stressful for the band, and they chose to end their existence in 1999, playing their last show in Portland, Oregon.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.