Trip Shakespeare
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History
Harvard student Matt Wilson found percussionist Elaine Harris (a Harvard grad herself) after placing an ad for someone with "wicked percussion hands". Matt dropped out of Harvard and returned home to Minneapolis to establish Trip Shakespeare along with John Munson, a Chinese-Language major at the University of Minnesota.
Only a trio at the release of their first album Applehead Man in 1986 (Re-released in 1988), the band expanded to include another Harvard student: Matt's elder brother Dan Wilson.
Trip Shakespeare's music is defined by three part harmonies, catchy guitar hooks and intelligent lyrics. "Toolmaster of Brainerd", "Reception", and "Two Wheeler, Four Wheeler" were early hits on their second release Are you Shakespearienced?
In 1990 Trip Shakespeare signed a big time recording contract with A&M and quickly released Across the Universe, which contained the minor hit "The Crane" and prompted the local PBS station to feature them in a special Minnesota Music show.
1991 saw the band release their last major work, Lulu. Lulu was a well produced "story" type disc, where each song contributed to the "whole" CD experience. "Bachelorette" was a hit single off of Lulu.
Containing studio covers of songs performed by Trip Shakespeare in concert, 1992's EP release, Volt marked the death knell for the group as a whole, although Matt, Dan, And John still work together on occasion and reunited for a Trip Shakespeare reunion (sans Elaine) in 2003. The band broke up shortly after the release of Volt. Elaine Harris returned to the Boston area and Matt Wilson began performing with several Minneapolis-area bands, including "Polara" and "The Flops", eventually becoming a well established solo artist. In winter of 1992 Dan Wilson and John Munson joined with Jacob Slichter to form "Pleasure", which subsequently became known as "Semisonic".
Members
Matt Wilson
John Munson
Elaine Harris
Dan Wilson
Discography
Applehead Man - 1986 - Self-Release (Re-released in 1988 by Clean/Twin Tone)
Are you Shakespeareanced? - 1989 - Clean/Twin Tone
Across the Universe - 1990 - A&M
Lulu - 1991 - A&M
Volt (EP) - 1992 - Clean/Twin Tone
Audio
Related Web sites
Related groups
Polara
Semisonic
The Flops
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