Jakob Dylan to Reunite Wallflowers, New Album in Works : November 02, 2011

Just a few days after announcing he was hitting the road again in support of his mostly acoustic solo album Women & Country, Jakob Dylan told Rolling Stone that he pl [...]

the wallflowers Biography

The Wallflowers are an alt-rock outfit based in Los Angeles. The group was formed in 1989 with lead vocalist and guitarist Jakob Dylan at the helm. The band survived not only two decades of changing landscapes and trends in rock music, but also two line-up changes with Dylan and keyboardist Rami Jaffee as the only remaining original members. Completing the band’s current line-up are bassist Greg Richling and drummer Fred Eltringham.

The band started out as a constant fixture in the L.A. rock club scene in the late ‘80s. they were originally composed of Dylan on vocals, Jaffee on keyboards and second vocals, Barrie Maguire on bass, Tobi Miller on guitar and Peter Yanowitz on drums and percussion. Maguire and Yanowitz left the band shortly after the release of their eponymous debut in 1992, which received insufficient airplay and commercial success.

Guitarist Michael Ward, drummer and percussionist Mario Calire and bassist Greg Richling have filled in for Maguire and Yanowitz. Together with the three original members, they would make up The Wallflowers’ line-up until 2002. Four years later, they released what would be their most successful studio effort to date, ‘Bringing Down the Horse’, featuring their yet-to-be-followed chart-topping and Grammy winning single, ‘One Headlight’. The single earned the group two Grammy Awards in 1998, one for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and another for Best Rock Song. In the same event, the band performed the hit track live alongside Bruce Springsteen. ‘One Headlight’ was one of the most played songs across all formats in 1997, ending the year as the top video in VH1 and as the 5th most popular video in MTV. ‘Bringing Down the Horse’ peaked at no.4 at the Billboard 200 and topped the Billboard Heatseekers chart. It was also quadruple-platinum certified and to date, it is the band’s only album that has garnered such feat.

In 2000, fresh from the heels of their mainstream success, the band released ‘(Breach)’, their third studio set. The gold-certified album peaked at no.13 and spawned the single ‘Sleepwalker’. In 2002, the aggressively sounding ‘Red Letter Days’ surfaced in the market with Dylan handling most of the lead guitar work after Ward’s departure, citing creative conflicts with the rest of the group. Songs from the said album received insufficient mainstream attention and airplay. The album ‘Rebel, Sweetheart’ (2005) would mark the band’s last release to date. Peaking at no.40, the album is a two-disc audiovisual set containing twelve tracks, music videos directed by Jason B. Bergh, interviews with the band, exclusive footages from their live performances, and re-worked versions of their previous hits including ‘One Headlight’ and ‘6th Avenue Heartache’. The band did not support the release with a tour and had gone into a long hiatus. Jaffee left the band in 2007 and was replaced by Stuart Mathis, only to come back in 2011 as the band now gears up for its first tour since 2005 in support of their upcoming new album marking their reunion. During their hiatus between the years 2007 and 2010, Dylan released his debut solo set, 2008’s ‘Seeing Things’.