Moby
From Wikinfo
Moby is an American electronic musician. Moby's real name is Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965 in Harlem, New York City) - he takes his performing name from his relative Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick.
Arguably most famous among his peers for the track "Go", a progressive track using the string line from the Twin Peaks theme song, Moby is also well known for the singles "Next is the E", "Southside", and "We Are All Made of Stars". Moby has released singles under the names "Voodoo Child", "Barracuda", "UHF", "The Brotherhood", "DJ Cake", "Lopez", and "Brainstorm/Mindstorm". Several of his songs have also found their way into major motion pictures, most notably the ambient piece "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters", which was featured in the 1995 motion picture, "Heat".
Moby plays keyboard, guitar, and bass guitar, and expresses mild irritation at the assumption that everything on his newer albums is a sample. He used to be in a punk band, but abandoned punk in 1989 for electronic music, performing under various names including "Barricuda." His first album for Elektra Records was Everything Is Wrong, which earned early critical praise and minor notoriety. He followed that up with a hard rock/electronic album called Animal Rights in 1996. in 1997, he released I Like to Score, a collection of music included in music and movies. Among those tracks was an updated version of the James Bond theme. However, both Animal Rights and I Like to Score were commercially unsuccessful and Moby and Elektra parted company.
After a decade's worth of music, Moby's latest efforts have gained him international notice. Mainstream reviewers have raved about his talents on the 1999 album Play, (released on the much smaller V2 label) though some early fans were let down. The album has 18 tracks on it and was the first album in history to have all of its tracks commercially licensed: "Porcelain," for instance, appeared on a commercial for Bailey's Irish Cream and Nordstrom; "Find My Baby" was on a commercial for American Express featuring golfer Tiger Woods. The album's tracks eventually were accepted in various radio formats, but because of Play's extensive licensing, the album could have been financially successful even without radio play.
In 2002, Moby had a television show on MTV, [[Se�or Moby's House of Music]], which focused mostly on more obscure electronic music. The show is no longer produced.
In 2001 Moby earned the ire of Eminem after calling his music misogynist and homophobic; Eminem later satirized Moby in "Without Me", calling him a "fag" and questioning his relevance with the claim, "Nobody listens to techno!". The two were in a confrontation at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, though Moby expresses respect for Eminem's musical talents.
As of June 2004, Moby, a vegan non-denominational Christian and self-proclaimed simpleton (for his often sincere and idealistic political assessments), lives in New York City's Little Italy, where he's lived for a decade in a small apartment in a five-story building across the street from David Bowie. He owns a small restaurant and coffee shop called TeaNY, where he occasionally waits tables.
Contents |
Discography
- Baby Monkey (as Voodoo Child, 2004)
- 18 B Sides+DVD (2003)
- 18 (2002)
- Play (1999)
- Play: Limited Edition 2 CD Box Set
- Mobysongs
- I Like to Score
- Rare: The Collected B-Sides 1989-1993
- The End of Everything (as Voodoo Child)
- Animal Rights
- Everything is Wrong (DJ mixed)
- Everything is Wrong
- Early Underground
- Ambient
- The Story So Far
- Instinct Dance
External links
References
- The May 2002 issue of Wired has a largely skeptical but nonetheless informative cover story on Moby.
"Moby" is also slang, in hacker parlance, for "big" or "impressive."
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Moby" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
