Stroke 9

Stroke 9 is an American alternative rock band that was formed in Marin County, California in 1989.

Stroke 9
OriginMarin County, California, U.S.
Genres
Years active1989–present
Labels
  • Rock Ridge Records
  • Universal Records
Associated acts
WebsiteOfficial website
Members
  • Luke Esterkyn
  • Jens Funke
  • John McDermott
  • Greg Gueldner
Past members
  • Erick Stock
  • Tom Haddad
  • Kirsten Stromberg

History

The band formed due to a "Rock Band" class at Marin Academy in San Rafael, California. In 1990, as a project, students Luke Esterkyn, Greg Gueldner, Tom Haddad and Kirsten Stromberg went to Jim Reitzel's Right Sole Studio in Kentfield, California. They produced a demo containing five songs, including "Blindness", "Wild", and "Dream Song". After spring that year, they took their final half-semester off during Senior Project to form the band Stroke 9 for full credit. They set up in Esterkyn's basement, and started writing songs for their next demo.

Stroke 9 had their first "official" live performance at Caffe Nuvo in San Anselmo. They split up for the summer and didn't get back together until the summer of 1991. Haddad and Stromberg had no desire to revive Stroke 9, so Esterkyn and Gueldner recruited old schoolmates John McDermott and Stephen Heath. They moved from the basement to the garage and played publicly anywhere that they could. The band put out two independent releases in 1993 and 1995. Eric Stock began filling in on drums in April 1997; Stock was a New York transplant who had previously toured with Modern English.

After signing to Universal Records, the band released Nasty Little Thoughts in 1999, which charted in the US, yielded two rock radio hits, a re-release of "Little Black Backpack" (originally released in Bumper to Bumper) and "Letters", and was certified Gold by the RIAA on April 21, 2000.[1] The band appeared in the film EDtv as part of the promotion of Nasty Little Thoughts.[2] A second album on Universal followed, entitled Rip It Off. The album's art cover was made to resemble a bootleg CD-R, similar to that of System of a Down's Steal This Album!, which was released about a year later.

The album was not promoted heavily, and its lead single, "Kick Some Ass", was less successful at radio. "Kick Some Ass" appeared in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back during a montage of Jay and Silent Bob flying around the country to attack message board users who bashed them. Late in 2003, the band split with Universal and announced plans to release its next album, All In, independently.[3]

The band released The Last of the International Playboys on June 5, 2007, on Rock Ridge Records. Stroke 9 also recorded "Tap Tap Domination" for the iPhone OS game Tap Tap Revenge. It features "The Yeah Song" as a free downloadable track.[4]

On November 14, 2019, the band announced via their social media a new single "Calafrio" as well as a new album of the same name.

Members
PositionCurrentOriginal UniversalOriginal Rock Band
Guitar & VocalsLuke Esterkyn[5]
DrumsGreg GueldnerLord Eric StockGreg Gueldner
GuitarJohn McDermott
Keyboard & VocalsN/AKirsten Stromberg
BassJens Funke[6]Greg GueldnerTom Haddad

Discography

Studio albums

Demo albums
  • Bad Language Makes for Bad Feelings (1990)
  • Music About Friends, Acquaintances, and People We Don't Even Know (1991)

Compilation albums
  • Hidden Treasures (Rock Ridge Records, 2005) [unreleased tracks & other demos]
  • Cafe Cuts (Rock Ridge Records, 2006) [acoustic versions of popular songs from their discography]

Extended plays
  • Jessica Album Part 1 (EP) (2010)[8]

Charting singles
Year Title Chart Positions[9] Album
US Modern Rock US Top 40 Mainstream CAN
Alt.		 NZ
1999 "Little Black Backpack" 6 39 3 16 Nasty Little Thoughts
2000 "Letters" 27 – – – Nasty Little Thoughts
2001 "Kick Some Ass" 36 – – – Rip It Off
gollark: Difficult things MUST be good!
gollark: Coming soon to Intel processors™.
gollark: New x86 instruction: `SFNFW7L - Search For Nearby Fabs With 7nm Lithography`.
gollark: *Does* it block you from doing so? You have free time, no?
gollark: You can, you see, learn things without going through formal education.

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-02-25. Retrieved 2012-08-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Biography, AllMusic
  3. Stroke 9 Goes Unsigned Archived 2007-05-21 at the Wayback Machine, AlternativeAddiction.com, October 12, 2003; accessed May 8, 2006.
  4. "The Yeah song - Stroke 9 Tap tap revenge". YouTube.
  5. "Free Family Tree, Genealogy and Family History". Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  6. "For The Record: Quick News On Lindsay, Katharine McPhee, Foxy Brown, 'Idol,' Kanye, Fergie, K-Fed & More - Music, Celebrity, Artist News". MTV. January 17, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  7. Billboard, AllMusic
  8. "Jessica Album (part 1), by Stroke 9". Stroke9.bandcamp.com. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  9. Billboard Singles, AllMusic
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