Phantom Planet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Phantom Planet
Background information
Origin	Southern California, USA
Genre(s)	Rock Pop
Years active	1994-present
Label(s)	MCA Music, Inc/Geffen Records Sony BMG Music Entertainment/Epic Records/Daylight Records
Website	Official website
Members
Alex Greenwald Sam Farrar Darren Robinson Jeff Conrad
Former members
Jason Schwartzman Jacques Brautbar

Phantom Planet is an alternative music band based out of Southern California. The band is most widely known in popular culture for its track "California", which became the theme song for the popular Fox TV series, The O.C..

1 History
- 1.1 Upcoming album
2 Band members
3 Discography
4 Internal Links
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] History

Phantom Planet played their first show in 1995 at The Dragonfly in Hollywood. Most of their friends could not attend because they were still in high school, while the Dragonfly only serves customers that are 21 and over. Two of the songs they played are featured on the bonus material of the Chicago, Chicagogoing, Chicagogone DVD. Among the songs performed were "My Friend Liz's Dad" (misprinted as "My Friend Liz Is Dead on the DVD) and a cover of the Beastie Boys 1994 song "Sabotage".

Phantom Planet has appeared on the television programs Sabrina the Teenage Witch, performing "So I Fall Again", and "American Dreams", playing British rock band The Zombies. They have appeared in the 2005 remake Bad News Bears, playing a band called The Bloodfarts. In 2005, they covered the CSNY track "Our House" for the movie The Chumscrubber.

The band is named after the theme song of a 1961 B-movie called The Phantom Planet. They decided on the name in 1994 in a Pizza Hut.^{[citation needed]}

The band has opened for many well-known artists, including Guns N' Roses, Sting, Elvis Costello, Incubus, Guided By Voices, The Zombies, The Hives, American Hi-Fi, Maroon 5, and Ludacris.

Lead singer and songwriter Alex Greenwald became a popular model and the familiar face of many commercials for clothing retailer The Gap. Greenwald also played Seth Devlin in the 2001 film Donnie Darko. Bassist Sam Farrar is the son of John Farrar, the singer/songwriter known best for notable songs from the movie Grease and other hits sung by Olivia Newton-John.

Ex-drummer Jason Schwartzman is the son of actress Talia Shire and nephew of famed director Francis Ford Coppola. Schwartzman is now an acclaimed actor. He starred in Rushmore, Shopgirl, Roman Coppola's CQ, Bewitched, and his cousin Sofia Coppola's film Marie-Antoinette.

Phantom Planet also performed a cover of Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby" for Not Another Teen Movie. "Big Brat" was also introduced in the soundtrack to the video game Driv3r.

Their first record is a collection of surf-rock tunes reminiscent of The Beach Boys. Their second is classic rock harkening to U2 and Blur. Their third and most recent album is an amalgam of sounds, described by the band members as "a fight between" bands such as Fugazi, The Who, The Cure, The Flaming Lips, and The Clash. Alexander Greenwald has been very clear that he wants the band to change their sound on almost every record. "I love rock 'n' roll music," Greenwald said. "I especially loved bands, like the Beatles, that changed with every single record they made. That's been our plan from the get-go. We want our records to be like experiments. We want to have fun with the music. People can hear when you're not having fun. They discover you're bored and you're boring."[1]

[edit] Upcoming album

The band is currently working on their fourth studio album, which according to an official blog post from October 24, 2006, is due to be released around March 2007. In the post, guitarist Darren Robinson confirmed the titles of 18 new songs that will potentially make the album and claimed that "a good portion" of the tracks he mentioned will indeed make the final cut.^[1]

Listed in the entry are the songs Phantom Planet have recorded for their new record, according to their official blog on November 12, 2006:

"Can I Come Over"
"Torture Me"
"Never Apart"
"Judas Cradle"
"Confess"
"Quarantine"
"Leave Yourself For Somebody Else"
"Too Much Too Often"
"Leader"
"The Orange Couch Song"
"Dropped"
"They're All Paper"
"Pendant Heart"
"It Takes So Long"
"Geronimo!"
"From This Day On"
"Raise the Dead"
"Ivory Daggers"
"What Are We Waiting For"
"Demon Daughters"

Also, according to the blog, Phantom Planet have yet to record four more songs before they are finished with their record. These are listed below:

"ROTK (Return of the King)"
"Gorilla"
"Panic"
"Halloween"

[edit] Band members

Alex Greenwald - Lead Vocals, Guitar.
Sam Farrar - Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
Darren Robinson - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jeff Conrad - Drums

Former band members:

Jacques Brautbar - Guitar, vocals. Left the group in May 2004 to pursue photography. Was not replaced. Brautbar went on to join electronica band Something for Rockets.
Jason Schwartzman - Drums. Left the group to pursue an acting career. Starred in Rushmore opposite Bill Murray. Was replaced by Jeff Conrad, formerly of Big City Rock.