Formation and God Lives Underwater (1993–1995) David Reilly had recorded various home demos in the late 1980s and early 1990s as he handled the vast majority of the vocals and instruments on his own.
Jeff Turzo was a studio engineer creating remixes and assisting in the studio for artists such as
Pop's Cool Love and
Fishbone, among others. Reilly and Turzo had attended the same high school together in the town of
Perkiomenville, Pennsylvania (near the city of
Philadelphia), and after graduation, the duo decided to form a band that had electronica and industrial influences, eventually named God Lives Underwater. In late 1993, they recorded a six-track demo tape on their own. Throughout 1994, the pair had self-released the EP (titled
God Lives Underwater) as they also passed it on to various labels and friends. Prolific producer
Rick Rubin obtained the EP and subsequently signed the duo to his label
American Recordings. Reilly and Turzo then decided to transform their project into a full-fledged band; thus, they added drummer Adam Kary and guitarist
Andrew McGee to the lineup. American then gave
God Lives Underwater a proper national release in January 1995. It gained coverage in various publications as it peaked at No. 82 on
CMJ's Radio Top 150 chart. "
No More Love" was released as the sole single, and a music video was produced which, depicted the band outdoors near a nuclear power plant. Around the same time, "Drag Me Down", also from
God Lives Underwater, had appeared in the comedy film
The Doom Generation. About four months after the release of
God Lives Underwater, "No More Love" was featured during the end credits of the film
Johnny Mnemonic and was included on its soundtrack. Another music video was created for the track, which intertwined scenes of
Johnny Mnemonic and of the band. During the first half of 1995, God Lives Underwater went on a national tour, co-headlining with the band
Maids of Gravity (which was formed by former
Medicine founding members Eddie Ruscha and Jim Putnam). At a June show in
Rochester, New York, Reilly had attempted to hype the fans in attendance. Numerous people then started to throw objects at the security guards and police officers, and the officers ended up using pepper spray on the audience. Kary was physically assaulted and maced while Reilly was arrested, and he spent the night at the local jail along with a dozen other fans. He was later charged with a misdemeanor for inciting a riot. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service. Around the same time, Reilly and Turzo recorded two songs ("Someone Else" and "Lost") for a Nitrus Records compilation (simply titled
The Compilation) under the alias of Heavy. McGee had also contributed two tracks to the compilation ("Sunking" and "Track #12") under the alias of Sputnik.
Empty and increased activity (1995–1997) God Lives Underwater recorded their full-length album throughout 1995. In September 1995, the song "Tortoise" (off of the then-upcoming album) was featured in the movie ''
National Lampoon's Senior Trip''. The following month, American released the band's full-length album
Empty. It peaked at No. 83 on
CMJ's Top 200 chart. "No More Love" was included on its tracklist, while both "All Wrong" and "
Don't Know How to Be" were released as the album's singles. The video for "All Wrong" had exclusively premiered on MTV's
120 Minutes program. After a show in
Florida, God Lives Underwater was kicked off Spacehog's tour. God Lives Underwater claimed that they were drawing in more fans and selling more merchandise than Spacehog which led to the majority of the attendees leaving prior to Spacehog's performance; however, Spacehog claimed that God Lives Underwater's fans were too violent and had caused too much trouble during the shows. In early 1996, God Lives Underwater had recorded the music for the shooting video game
Slamscape, released on
PlayStation and
PC. They had created original compositions for the in-game music. The videos for "No More Love" (the original 1994 version), "Don't Know How to Be", and "All Wrong" were included as bonus content.
Slamscape received below-average reviews, although many critics praised the band's contributions. Also in 1996, God Lives Underwater contributed the song "Weight" to the
Mortal Kombat: More Kombat compilation. It was an outtake from the
Empty recording sessions. The band also toured with
Far for a brief U.S. tour in the middle of 1996. Towards the end of the year, the band decided to add a fifth member to the lineup, Dave Alverado. He was on-stage as an extra bassist in an attempt to make the band's live-sound thicker; however, by 1997, Alverado was no longer in the band, and the lineup reverted to four members. After the extensive touring schedule, God Lives Underwater's manager Gary Richards, started his own label, 1500 Records. They were in a partnership with the major label
A&M Records for distribution purposes, and God Lives Underwater became one of the first acts signed with the label.
Life in the So-Called Space Age and mainstream success (1997–2000) In 1997, God Lives Underwater went to
Los Angeles, California, to record their follow-up album with producer Gary Dobbins. During the recording process, there were creative tensions with drummer Kary. Afterwards, he was dismissed from the band and was ultimately replaced by
Scott Garrett. Garrett was previously a member of
The Cult and also Pop's Cool Love, with whom Turzo worked in the early 1990s. The resulting album,
Life in the So-Called Space Age, was released in March 1998. It became the band's best-selling effort (eventually selling over 90,000 copies) as it peaked at No. 6 on
Billboard's
Heatseekers chart and at No. 137 on the
Billboard 200 chart. Its lead single, "
From Your Mouth", appeared on
Billboard's
Modern Rock Tracks chart at No. 17 and on
R&R's Alternative Top 50 chart at No. 18. Its music video was directed by
Roman Coppola (the son of famed director
Francis Ford Coppola). The video was a single take played in reverse, and it featured champion hot-dog eater Hirofumi Nakajima taking food out of his mouth. The album's song "
Rearrange" was also released as a single, but it failed to match its predecessor's success. God Lives Underwater supported
Life in the So-Called Space Age by embarking on a U.S. tour with
Stabbing Westward and
Econoline Crush. Also in 1998, God Lives Underwater was at the helm of the
Depeche Mode tribute album
For the Masses, released on 1500. They had kick-started the project and had recorded a cover of "Fly on the Windscreen" for the compilation. Other artists that were brought in for the compilation included
The Cure,
Failure,
The Smashing Pumpkins,
GusGus,
Veruca Salt,
Dishwalla,
Meat Beat Manifesto,
Monster Magnet,
Apollo 440,
Deftones,
Rammstein,
Rabbit in the Moon,
Self,
Locust, and
Hooverphonic. The compilation eventually peaked at No. 69 on the
Billboard 200 chart.
Various issues and Up Off the Floor (2000–2004) God Lives Underwater had begun recording their subsequent album in 2000, but various problems emerged. The band's manager, Richards, and his 1500 label had faced financial difficulty. They were unable to sufficiently promote God Lives Underwater, and Richards eventually sold the label to the website
Riffage. In addition, tragedy struck the band when Reilly's fiancée, Monica "Seven" Young, was accidentally killed on foot by a train while crossing the tracks with headphones on. Her death had impacted Reilly greatly, and his drug usage increased as a result. He also spent time in various jails and facilities, and claimed to be homeless at one point as well. The band played a live show on July 13, 2000, in
Hollywood, California. A few songs in their setlist were tracks off of the band's then-upcoming album; however, the live show ultimately ended up being the band's final performance. They continued recording regardless of the various issues, and in early 2001, the band contributed a cover of
David Bowie's "Fame" to the soundtrack of the film
15 Minutes (which starred
Robert De Niro and
Edward Burns). "Fame" was also released as a standalone single to promote the soundtrack. The single ended up being the final God Lives Underwater release by 1500, as shortly after, 1500's then-new parent company
Riffage had declared bankruptcy, thus dropping the band before their album was released. Promotional copies of
Up Off the Floor had also existed, which had superior audio quality, and overall, the band members were dismissive of the Locomotive pressing; however, Locomotive attempted to promote the album by issuing the track "
Tricked" as a radio single without much success. In 2006, Turzo formed the band
Wired All Wrong with
Matt Mahaffey of the band Self. They both bonded over the loss of their former bandmates (as Matt Mahaffey's brother,
Mike Mahaffey, also of Self had died in May 2005). Both Garrett and McGee also eventually joined Wired All Wrong as the drummer and guitarist, respectively. In October 2007, Brian Paone (a close friend of Reilly and the band) released the book
Dreams are Unfinished Thoughts, which chronicled his relationship with God Lives Underwater and Reilly in particular. In 2010, Reilly's RuffNation/Universal solo album,
How Humans Rx, was released in limited form. Various other unreleased recordings by Reilly also surfaced afterwards, and Paone also updated
Dreams are Unfinished Thoughts in 2014 with extra passages that detailed events from 2007 to 2014. ==Members==