Rachel Haden (born October 11, 1971 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
) is an American musician and one of the triplet daughters of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
bassist
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...
and Ellen David.
Career
In the early 1990s, Haden played
bass guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
for
That Dog
That Dog (stylized as that dog.) is a Los Angeles-based rock music, rock band that formed in 1992 and disbanded in 1997, reuniting in 2011. The band originally consisted of Anna Waronker on lead vocals and guitar, Rachel Haden on bass guitar an ...
, a band that also included her sister
Petra
Petra (; "Rock"), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu (Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: or , *''Raqēmō''), is an ancient city and archaeological site in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, P ...
. Her sister
Tanya also contributed cello on several That Dog recordings, but did not tour as an official member of the band. Around this time Haden also played drums and performed backup vocals for
Beck
Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...
on the songs "Totally Confused" and "Steve Threw Up". She also played drums for Beck's "Pink Noise (Rock Me Amadeus)".
Later, Haden became one of the four early members of the band the
Rentals, along with Rod Cervera and
Weezer
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Brian Bell (guitar, keyboards, backing ...
's
Patrick Wilson
Patrick Joseph Wilson (born July 3, 1973) is an American actor. He began his career in 1995, starring in Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals. He received nominations for two Tony Awards for his roles in ''The Full Monty (musical), The Full Mont ...
and
Matt Sharp
Matthew Kelly Sharp (born September 22, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Until 1998, he was the bassist for the Rock music, rock band Weezer, which he co-founded in 1992. He appears on their first two albums, the ''Weezer (B ...
. In 1996, she performed lead vocals on the Weezer song "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams", originally written for the abandoned ''
Songs from the Black Hole'' album. Haden was
Rivers Cuomo's choice to play the "good girl" character, Laurel. The song was eventually released on the deluxe edition of ''
Pinkerton'' but with Haden's vocals uncredited.
In 1999, Haden contributed a cover of the song "Poems, Prayers, and Promises" to the album ''A Tribute to John Denver''. Around this same time, she played bass and performed vocals as a member of
The Martinis
The Martinis are a rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1993. The band consists of Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago and his wife Linda Mallari. They have released one album under the label Cooking Vinyl, Artist Direct, and Distracted/BM ...
, along with
Pixies guitarist
Joey Santiago
Joseph Alberto Santiago (born June 10, 1965) is a Filipino-American guitarist and composer. Active since 1986, Santiago is best known as the co-founder and lead guitarist of the alternative rock band Pixies. After the band's breakup in 1993, ...
and his wife
Linda Mallari. In 1999 Haden also contributed backing vocals on "Snoother" by
The For Carnation on their eponymous album.
In 2001, Haden toured as a backup singer and keyboardist for
Jimmy Eat World
Jimmy Eat World is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Mesa, Arizona, in 1993. The band is composed of lead vocalist and lead guitarist Jim Adkins, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Linton, bassist Rick Burch, and drummer Zach ...
and is credited on their album ''
Bleed American'' released that same year. She contributed vocals to the
Dntel album ''
Life Is Full of Possibilities''. In 2004, Haden, along with her sisters
Petra
Petra (; "Rock"), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu (Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: or , *''Raqēmō''), is an ancient city and archaeological site in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, P ...
and
Tanya, recorded a set of traditional country songs as the Haden Triplets with their longtime friend and former
Dieselhed member Zac Holtzman, currently of the band
Dengue Fever
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue virus, prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. Asymptomatic infections are uncommon, mild cases happen frequently; if symptoms appear, they typically begin 3 to 14 days after i ...
.
In 2004, she contributed backing vocals for four songs on Lucky Pierre's ''ThinKing'' album. She continued to make music in the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
area, including with sister Petra's
a cappella
Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...
choir the Sell Outs and as a member of the most recent lineup of
The Rentals
The Rentals is an American rock band fronted by vocalist Matt Sharp. Sharp has been the only consistent member since the group's inception. The band's best selling single is "Friends of P." (1995). The Rentals released two albums, ''Return of t ...
. Haden performed the female vocals for the duet "Heartache Vs Heartbreak" from
Ozma's 2007 album ''Pasadena''. She also performed the female vocals on the
Fightstar album ''
One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours''. She sings backing vocals on the tracks "Unfamiliar Ceilings", "You & I", and the new
b-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
"Gracious".
Haden can also be heard doing vocals throughout comedian
Neil Hamburger
Neil Hamburger is a standup comedy, standup comedian and singer character created and portrayed by American entertainer Gregg Turkington. Distinguished for his misanthropic jokes and anti-comedy style, Turkington has released a number of albums ...
's foray into music, the album ''Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners''. She duets with Hamburger on the song "Please Ask That Clown To Stop Crying". She also contributed her vocals for a duet with
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese
alternative rock
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band
Asian Kung-Fu Generation
(stylized in all caps) is a Japanese alternative rock band formed in Yokohama in 1996. For its entire career, the band has consisted of vocalist Masafumi Gotoh, guitarist Kensuke Kita, bassist Takahiro Yamada (musician), Takahiro Yamada, and dr ...
, the song "Hello, Hello".
Haden toured with
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophistica ...
in late 2008, temporarily replacing longtime Rundgren bassist and collaborator
Kasim Sulton, who at the time was touring with
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), known professionally by his stage name Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor. He was known for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. ...
. She played bass guitar and sang backing vocals for
Brendan Perry
Brendan Michael Perry (born 30 June 1959) is a British singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard.
Early life
Perry was born in Whitechapel, London, England, UK, in 1959 to a mot ...
on his 2010 ''
Ark'' tour. In 2010 under the billing "The Haden Triplets," Haden joined her sisters Petra and Tanya to sing the role of the Fates in
Anaïs Mitchell
Anaïs Mitchell (; born March 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. Mitchell has released eight studio albums, including ''Hadestown (album), Hadestown'' (2010), ''Young Man in America'' (2012),[Hadestown
''Hadestown'' is a musical with music, lyrics, and a book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial vers ...]
''. In 2011, she collaborated with
Nerdcore
Nerdcore is a genre of hip hop music characterized by subject matter considered of interest to nerds and geeks. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot has the earliest known recorded use of the term (to describe this genre) in the 2000 ...
group Supercommuter for the song "#1 Kyabajo" on their album ''Products of Science.''
Also in 2011, she contributed the track "I like Luci (demo)" to the various artists compilation, ''Kat Vox: A CD To Celebrate 20 Years of timmi-kat ReCoRDS'' on timmi-kat ReCORDS. In 2023, Haden recorded "Raging Bull’s Jaw", a duet with
Mark Kozelek of
Sun Kil Moon.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haden, Rachel
1971 births
Living people
Singers from New York City
American women bass guitarists
The Rentals members
That Dog members
Jimmy Eat World
Crossroads School alumni
Guitarists from New York City
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American bass guitarists