Tomahawk is an American rock supergroup. They formed in 1999 when singer/keyboardist Mike Patton (

Faith No More Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before settling on the current name in July 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist ...

Mr. Bungle Mr. Bungle is an American experimental rock band formed in Eureka, California in 1985. Having gone through many incarnations throughout their career, the band is best known for music created during their most experimental era. During this time, ...

) met guitar player Duane Denison (

The Jesus Lizard The Jesus Lizard is an American rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas and based in Chicago, Illinois. They were "a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground… hoturned out a series of independent records filled wit ...

) and the pair started swapping tapes with the intention of collaborating. Denison then recruited drummer John Stanier (

Helmet A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without protect ...

), while Patton invited bass player

Kevin Rutmanis Kevin Rutmanis (born October 17, 1958) is an American bass guitarist. He is of Latvian descent. Before getting into music, he was a student teacher. In late 1985, along with his younger brother Sandris Rutmanis, Thor Eisentrager, and then Jayha ...

(

Melvins Melvins (sometimes The Melvins) are an American rock band formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington. Their early work was key to the development of both grunge and sludge metal. Initially, they performed as a trio but later also sometimes appe ...

/ex- Cows). The group recorded three albums and toured extensively from 2000–2007 then went on extended hiatus, and reformed in 2013 with Trevor Dunn replacing Rutmanis.

History

Early days (1999–2000)

When Faith No More broke up in 1998 Mike Patton created the record label

Ipecac Recordings Ipecac Recordings is an independent record label based in California. It was founded on April 1, 1999 by Greg Werckman (ex-label manager of Alternative Tentacles, ex-lead singer of DUH, ex-employee of Mercury Records) and Mike Patton (Faith No ...

, returned to work with his other band Mr. Bungle, and formed the experimental metal supergroup Fantômas with Buzz Osborne of the Melvins and Dave Lombardo of

Slayer Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical styl ...

. Patton met Duane Denison in 1999 at a Mr. Bungle concert in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

and the two began exchanging music and jamming.

''Tomahawk'' (2001–2002)

During May and June 2001 the band recorded their eponymous debut album in Nashville. The album was released on October 30, 2001, it was produced by Joe Funderburk. After the release of ''

Tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Eur ...

'' the band began touring extensively, playing in many countries around the world, including the United States,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. They generally headlined shows but were the supporting act for bands such as

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates b ...

. When opening for Tool on their 2002 summer tour of North America, the band was frequently booed for insulting the crowds. Tomahawk also played at various festivals, including the 2002

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...

festival in Australia.

''Mit Gas'' (2003–2004)

Second album '' Mit Gas'', recorded with producer Joe Barresi, was released in 2003. Tomahawk took part in the "Geek Tour" during 2003, which featured labelmates the Melvins and Fantômas. During the band's early years they were known for dressing up as police officers in promotional photo shoots and during concerts. The band went on a short hiatus from 2004 to 2006 after finishing touring for ''Tomahawk'' and ''Mit Gas'' in late 2003 as the members began to focus on other projects.

''Anonymous'' (2007–2008)

The band's third album, ''

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anony ...

'', was released on June 19, 2007 through Ipecac Recordings. Kevin Rutmanis left the band during the recording; reasons for his departure are unknown. For the album, Denison and Stanier recorded their parts in Nashville, and then sent their finished product to San Francisco where Patton added his vocals and samples. No live shows were performed during this period. Tomahawk remained inactive from 2008 to 2011.

''Oddfellows'' (2012–2014)

In July 2011, Mike Patton announced that Tomahawk was preparing to record its fourth album.Nagy, Evie
"Mike Patton on Voicing a Video Game, Faith No More Reunion"
''Rolling Stone'', Jul 25, 2011. Retrieved April 8, 2011 In early 2012, Tomahawk announced that Trevor Dunn (

, Fantômas,

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of j ...

, MadLove, Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant) would play bass for the band. On April 21, 2012 the band released '' Eponymous To Anonymous'', a box set containing the band's first three records released on vinyl for the first time. In late 2012, the band began playing their first live shows since 2003. On December 3, 2012, a full-length video for first single, "Stone Letter", was posted online. '' Oddfellows'' was released January 29, 2013. The band were scheduled to play in Mexico for the first time on March 21, 2014 but withdrew due to an illness. On April 9, 2014 the band announced they would be releasing two previously unreleased tracks from the Oddfellows recording session. The single, entitled '' M.E.A.T.'', was first released on May 23, 2014 on vinyl.

''Tonic Immobility'' (2020–present)

In February 2020, Duane Denison revealed that Tomahawk had been writing and recording new record material. On January 21, 2021, a single called "Business Casual" was released, which also revealed the name of their upcoming fifth album as ''Tonic Immobility'', which has later been released on March 26, 2021. Bassist Trevor Dunn remarked in 2021, "Me and Duane enisonand John tanierrecorded all of our parts for that record about four years ago actually. Duane had finished the music and I guess Mike was busy at the time, so John and I flew down to Nashville and recorded with Duane. Then over the years, we've just been waiting for Mike, and he's been doing other stuff so it took a while. I think the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of in ...

kind of helped spur it along because he was stuck at home, so he wrote the vocal melodies and the rest of the lyrics at his studio in San Francisco."

Musical style and influences

Critics have described the band's sound as

alternative metal Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music that combines heavy metal with influences from alternative rock and other genres not normally associated with metal. Alternative metal bands are often characterized by ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

, avant-prog,

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. I ...

, and

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation w ...

. In 2002, the band considered their genre to be "cinematic rock", since all members were fans of

film soundtracks A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of ...

. Butch Lazorchak of the ''

Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Puli ...

'' has compared the band's sound to 1970s

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest ha ...

groups such as

Blue Öyster Cult Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed on Long Island in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, and best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". The band h ...

. The band's self-titled first album combines rock with elements of

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

, and hardcore; critic

Blake Butler John David Blake Butler (22 October 1924 – 15 April 1981) was an English actor best known for his role as the lecherous chief librarian Mr. Wainwright during the first and third series of ''Last of the Summer Wine'' in 1973 and 1976 res ...

of Allmusic described their debut album as one of the most straightforward rock-oriented projects of Patton following his work with Faith No More, but he still notes their eclectic side stating that they are not a “mass-marketable band.” Their second album '' Mit Gas'' features influences from

metal A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...

as well as punk rock. The album also includes

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

segue A segue (; ) is a smooth transition from one topic or section to the next. The term is derived from Italian ''segue'', which literally means "follows". In music In music, ''segue'' is a direction to the performer. It means ''continue (the next ...

s. The band's 2007 album ''

'' incorporates

Native American music Indigenous music of North America, which includes American Indian music or Native American music, is the music that is used, created or performed by Indigenous peoples of North America, including Native Americans in the United States and Abor ...

elements. '' Oddfellows'' features a more accessible sound which the band has labeled as "avant-pop". The record includes influences from

jazz music Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a maj ...

Discography

Studio albums

Box sets

Singles

Music videos

The band's first music video was for Rape This Day from Mit Gas, featuring a cameo from

Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated QOTSA) is an American rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout multiple lin ...

Nick Oliveri Nick Steven Oliveri (born October 21, 1971) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. He is perhaps best known as a former bassist of Kyuss and later Queens of the Stone Age from 1998 to 2004. Oliveri is also a solo artist a ...

. No official music videos were released for

. For the release of Oddfellows in 2013 the band made music videos for Stone Letter and the title-track. In August 2014, over a year after the release of Oddfellows, the band released a music video for South Paw. In addition to the band's four official music videos, there have also been a number of unofficial/fan-made videos.

References

External links

*
Ipecac Recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomahawk Musical groups established in 1999 Musical groups disestablished in 2004 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical groups disestablished in 2008 Musical groups reestablished in 2011 Musical groups disestablished in 2014 Musical groups reestablished in 2020 Heavy metal musical groups from California American alternative metal musical groups Alternative metal supergroups Alternative rock groups from California American experimental rock groups Ipecac Recordings artists 1999 establishments in the United States