One of the annual highlights of our Mental Health Benefit is the performance by Five-Eight at the Forty Watt Club. I was pleased to find out they have a new cd coming later this year. What follows is the band’s Wikipedia entry:
Five-Eight is a rock band from the Athens/Atlanta Georgia area.
Five-Eight is known for their energetic live shows, but has recorded six Compact Discs since 1992. They have toured with REM (fall 2004) and have performed with Cheap Trick, Lahto, AIDSDIA, and Seven Mary Three.
The band was formed in 1988 in Athens, GA when the band The Reasonable Men disbanded. Before settling on the name Five Eight, at least one show was played under the name The Helgrammites.
The original three members of the band were Mike Mantione- vocals and guitar, Dan Horowitz- bass, and Mike Palmatier- drums. In 1989, Palmatier was forced to take a break from Five Eight after his right leg was crushed in a work-related accident at the Armstrong and Dobbs lumberyard in Athens.
His temporary replacement was Patrick Ferguson, the drummer for the LaBrea Stompers and Angle Lake, a band which also included Vic Chesnutt. Palmatier eventually returned long enough to become disillusioned with playing music, and after leaving the band, he moved to the Boston area.
Ferguson rejoined the band and was Five Eight’s full-time drummer until 1998. After the release of ‘I Learned Shut Up’ guitarist Sean Dunn joined the band and was a fulltime member after the recording of ‘The Angriest Man’ EP.
During the years between 1992 and 1998, Five Eight toured extensively as a four-piece in the United States and Canada and often played as many as 200 live shows a year, exceeding that number for the years 1995-1997. Ferguson left the band in 1998 and was soon followed by Dunn. Ferguson was briefly replaced by former Bughummer, Little Red Rocket and The Runs drummer Scott Sosebee.
Sosebee’s tenure as drummer was very short, and he was replaced by Mike Rizzi, who was the band’s drummer until 2007. In 2007, the band went on hiatus when Rizzi moved to California to join the band Ghost Hounds. In late 2007, drummer Ferguson rejoined the band to play “a few shows.” Ferguson is now officially the full-time drummer the band.
Five EIght is currently writing a new album in Ferguson’s recording studio in Athens. Their website has confirmed that a new album, entitled “Did it fell?” will be coming out in 2009.
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