New Rock Music - Wolfmother

Wolfmother is an Australian band from Erskineville, Sydney. The band consists of Andrew Stockdale (vocals/guitar), Chris Ross (bass/keyboards) and Myles Heskett (drums). Their music is inspired by rock acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple.

After releasing their self-titled debut EP through Modular Recordings in September 2004, Wolfmother began appearing at several high profile music events, such as Homebake and the Big Day Out. The EP was a success, reaching #35 in the ARIA singles chart and receiving consistent radio play on Triple J. Total sales exceeded 10,000 copies.

In 2005, the band made their way to Los Angeles, working alongside producer Dave Sardy (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, and Oasis) to record their eponymous debut album, released in October 2005.

The first single to be released was "Mind's Eye/Woman" (a double A-side), making its debut on the Australian music charts at #29. The album itself entered the Australian Charts at #3 and has been a regular feature of the Top 20 ever since, having gone twice platinum. Wolfmother won the 2005 J Award from the Australian youth radio network Triple J for the best Australian album of the year, and finished the year with Falls Festival appearances. Rolling Stone magazine listed Wolfmother as one of their "Top 10 Bands to Watch 2006."

They achieved a record breaking six songs in the influential 2005 Triple J Hottest 100, with "Mind's Eye" their highest entry at #6. This breaks the record of five songs previously held by Queens of the Stone Age, Silverchair, The White Stripes, and Powderfinger.

In 2006, they played their second Big Day Out tour and in January, and released their second Australian single, "White Unicorn". The band performed at the Austin, Texas SXSW festival in March and Coachella in April where they were commonly cited as the 'breakout' band of the year[1]. They also performed at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in May, and at the Oxegen festival and the Roskilde Festival in July.

In April of 2006, their song "Love Train" was featured on a psychedelia-tinged TV advertisement for the Apple iPod. The song "Vagabond" appeared on an Australian Optus commercial. Another one of their songs, "Dimension", is heard in the advertisements and credits sequences for comedian Dane Cook's HBO series, Tourgasm. The song "Woman" is currently the opening theme song for John Force's new reality TV show called Driving Force and is also featured on the Madden 07 soundtrack. The song will also be featured in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 video game Guitar Hero II and Rugby 06 (the song used was Dimension). "Joker & the Thief" has been used on TV advertisements to promote the 2006 Australian Football League (AFL) finals, as well as the movie, Jackass: Number Two.

On May 4, 2006, Wolfmother appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In June, the band performed several songs on air for the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman. In July, they played the famous T In The Park festival in Scotland, gaining huge accolades amongst the British public. On August 1, 2006, Wolfmother appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno before playing in San Diego's Street Scene. The band performed "Woman" on all three late night shows.

Starting on July 13, 2006, Wolfmother played a total of eight shows in Australia including the Splendour in the Grass music festival. On July 29, they played at Fuji Rock Festival in Japan before continuing their tour of US and Europe which included high profile music festivals such as Lollapalooza, Lowlands and the Reading and Leeds Festivals. On September 10, they took part in the inaugural North American V Festival in Toronto, Canada. On September 23, they were in Baltimore playing at the Virgin Music Festival. Wolfmother was also scheduled to appear at the Download Festival in San Francisco on September 30, but on September 25, bassist Chris Ross's wife had a baby. The baby was one month early and Wolfmother cancelled/postponed their dates in the following month. They have now replaced many of those original dates. Wolfmother resume touring on November 5 in the UK.

Wolfmother recently shot a music video for their single "Joker & the Thief". The video also features members of the Jackass cast and has been used to promote Jackass: Number Two. They have also released the music video for "Love Train", which is their newest single. They will release their final single from the self-titled album, "Joker & The Thief", in Australia on October 28.