Fishboy is an American four-piece

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

band from

Denton, Texas Denton is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, Denton County. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the List of cities in Texas by population, 20th-most populous city in Texas, the List of Un ...

which began as the solo project of Eric Michener. He was given the nickname while on a middle-school field trip after he was dared to pluck and swallow a fish at the

Dallas World Aquarium The Dallas World Aquarium is a for-profit aquarium and zoo located in the West End Historic District of Dallas, Texas, USA. It aids conservation and education by housing many animals that are threatened or endangered as part of a cooperative br ...

. The band has released albums with

Lauren Records Lauren Records is an American independent record label founded in Southern California in 2011 by Aaron Kovacs. The label mostly specializes in indie rock, emo, and other melodic punk rock adjacent genres. History Kovacs had experience booking ...

Happy Happy Birthday To Me Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records is an American independent record label based in Athens, Georgia. Its catalogue features indie rock, indie pop and hip-hop music, with several of its artists associated with or influenced by The Elephant 6 Reco ...

Records in

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

and associated with

Business Deal Records Business Deal Entertainment is a music collective in Austin, Texas that grew from the 1988 collaborations of Smokey Farris and Dirk Michener and their respective circles of friends in Cypress, Texas, Cypress and Denton, Texas, Denton, Texas. The ma ...

, a music collective in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. Their second album, '' Little D'' was acclaimed by the ''

Dallas Observer ''Dallas Observer'' is a free digital and print publication based in Dallas, Texas. The ''Observer'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circ ...

'' and ''

Austin Chronicle Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

'' and named to a Best Local of 2005 list by the ''

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

''. The band's 2007 release, '' Albatross: How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State with the Power of Rock and Roll'', is a record which Michener calls "a rock opera about how myself, the band, and the ghost of

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...

attempt to save Texas by going on a tour/crime spree in order to perform all 8,030 of the songs I've written in my sleep since I was in the womb." In 2011, the band released ''Classic Creeps'', described as "the first in an ongoing series of Fishboy records featuring characters whose lives interconnect to form a bigger story." Each track is listed in alphabetical order and each character's name begins with the letter A. in 2014, the band self-release
An-Elephant.
A rock opera and graphic novel about the death and after life of Topsy the Elephant as she plotted revenge against her murderer

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

and is given sage advice from

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla (;"Tesla"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...

. The albums release featured a website with the graphic novel formatted into small

animated gifs The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on June 15, 1987. The format can ...

. It can be found at An-Elephant.com May 19, 2017 the band released ''Art Guards'' on

. The album considered a spiritual successor to ''Classic Creeps'', features nine songs about nine different characters all grappling with their relationship to art. Similar to ''Creep''s the characters all meet at the end of the record. Art Guards was released with a self-published mini-

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

drawn by Michener. Following the release of Art Guards the band toured with

AJJ AJJ may refer to: *Amy Jo Johnson, actor *AJJ (band), an American folk punk band, formerly known as Andrew Jackson Jihad * Akjoujt Airport, Mauritania (IATA airport code AJJ) * American Jiu-Jitsu *Arakkonam Junction railway station, Tamil Nadu, Indi ...

in 2017. In 2017, Fishboy appeared on the podcast "Don't Feed the Artists" to promote their album ''Art Guards'' for

. On April 2, 2021, the band released Waitsgiving, the third in the series of interconnected story songs inspired by the real lif
forgotten time capsule
of Denton, TX. The album features 10 songs about 9 characters across three generations who are all dealing with patience and celebrate a fictional holiday every May 17 called Waitsgiving. In addition to Michener and bandmates, Waitsgiving features

Matt Pence Matthew Louis Pence (born April 13, 1972) is an American recording engineer, producer, and drummer. He owns and manages The Echo Lab studio in Denton, Texas. Early life and education Pence is from St. Louis, Missouri. In 1990, Pence moved to Den ...

on drums and

Sean Bonnette AJJ is an American folk punk band from Phoenix, Arizona, originally formed in 2004 as Andrew Jackson Jihad. Their lyrics handle themes of shyness, poverty, humanity, religion, addiction, existentialism, and politics. Singer/guitarist Sean Bonne ...

of AJJ singing backup vocals on ''Snocone Creator.'' Following its release Michener has given a free performance of Waitsgiving on the down town Denton square every May 17. Feb 2022, Michener released ''The Best Ever Boombox Cassette Tape from Durham'' to celebrate the 20th anniversary of

The Mountain Goats The Mountain Goats are a United States band formed in Claremont, California, Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina, Durham, North Carolina. For many years, the sole me ...

album

All Hail West Texas ''All Hail West Texas'' is the sixth studio album by the Mountain Goats. After the slight increase in production values on '' The Coroner's Gambit'' album of 2000, ''All Hail West Texas'' was the last Mountain Goats album recorded entirely on ...

. Michener writes:

''"As most Fishboy audiences are fans of this song/album we routinely get roped into small talk where we are pressed to explain that the Mountain Goats, as great as they are, have no hard connection to Denton, TX as far as I know.'' ''One night in the car I told my bandmates that I should write a revenge song about the Goats hometown and have it haunt them in greenrooms and merch tables across the world.'' ''This joke came in and out of my mind until I was giving a virtual interview last Spring by Riley Soloner. Again, he mentioned the song, and again I made the revenge joke but this time I felt compelled to give it a shot."''

In 2023 the band toured with

Koo Koo Kanga Roo Koo Koo (formerly Koo Koo Kanga Roo) is an American comedy disco duo from Minneapolis, Minnesota, consisting of vocalists Bryan Atchison and Neil Olstad. Billed as an "interactive dance party duo" and described as "the Beastie Boys meet ''Sesa ...

and

The Homeless Gospel Choir The Homeless Gospel Choir is an American folk punk project by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania–based musician Derek Zanetti. He is signed to A-F Records and has released seven albums to date. His debut album, ''Some People Never Go Anywhere'', was ...

Band members

* Eric "Fishboy" Michener - Vocals, guitar * Grahm Robinson - Drums * Samuel Escalante - Guitar, Keys, horns * Brooks Martin - Bass

Prior members

* Dave "Cleveland" Koen * Adam "Sweatpants" Avramescu - Keyboard, horns, percussion * Scarlett Wright - Bass, backup vocals * Tommy "Medicine Ball" Garcia - Drums * Ryan "Secret Crystal" Williams of The

Baptist Generals The Baptist Generals are an American indie band from the town of Denton, Texas. The band's list of releases include a 9-song EP, ''Dog'' released in 1998 on now-defunct Quality Park Records, as well as the LP '' No Silver/No Gold'' released in ...

- Bass * Justin "Sixlets" Lloyd - Bass * John "Christakis" Clardy of

Tera Melos Tera Melos is an American math rock band from Sacramento, California, formed in 2004. They incorporate many styles of rock, ambient electronics and unconventional song structures. They are currently a three-piece, consisting of founding member ...

- Drums * Winston Reed "Slapbracelet" Chapman of

Bosque Brown Bosque Brown is an American indie band from the music town of Denton, Texas. While attending college there, singer-songwriter Mara Lee Miller chose "Bosque Brown" for her music, named after a river that runs through Stephenville, Texas, her ...

and The

- Drums * Brady "The Bear" Goodwin - Bass, tuba * Drew "Albatross" Erickson of Roy G and the Biv - Drums, keys

Discography

Albums

* '' Zipbangboom'',

(2003) * '' Little D'',

(2005) * '' Albatross: How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State with the Power of Rock and Roll'',

Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records is an American independent record label based in Athens, Georgia. Its catalogue features indie rock, indie pop and hip-hop music, with several of its artists associated with or influenced by The Elephant 6 Reco ...

(2007), Fishstick Records, (2011) * ''Classic Creeps'',

(2011)
''An Elephant''
Self Released (2014) * ''Art Guards'',

(2017) * ''Waitsgiving'',

(2021)

EPs

* ''NOM'', Self Released (2009)

Singles

* Split 7" with

Baby Calendar Baby Calendar is an American three-piece indie pop band from Miami, Florida who were signed to Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records in 2006. The band has scheduled and performed hundreds of tour dates all across the United States, including spots at ...

, Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records (2007) * IMAVOLCANO 7" and comic,

(2013) * The Best Ever Boom Box Cassette Tape from Durham (2022)

Compilations

* I Think We Should Stay Away From Each Other,

(2011)

Early recordings

* '' Tim Fly's Cause He's Having Fun'',

(2000) * ''The American Friends of Carlos Velez'', Self Released (2002)

References

External links

Official band siteAllmusic.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fishboy (Band) Musical groups from Denton, Texas