Jellyfish (band)

While attending Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton, California in the early 1980s, Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning met and bonded over their love for jazz. Later in the decade, they joined Beatnik Beatch, Sturmer was the group's drummer, singer, and songwriter, while Manning was keyboardist. The duo soon began collaborating with one another, writing compositions that were stylistically different from the songs the band was producing at the time. At this juncture, they were still signed with Atlantic Records, but grew dissatisfied with the label's lack of interest for the new project. Virtually their only advocate at the label was A&R man John S. Carter, who was soon dismissed from the company. Jason Falkner was the lead guitarist for the Three O'Clock, a Los Angeles-based Paisley Underground band. He originally put a newspaper advertisement looking for "like-minded musicians" influenced by XTC, David Bowie, and the Blue Nile. Manning responded to Falkner's ad and the two met to collaborate. Nothing initially came out of the meeting. However, once Manning and Sturmer left Beatnik Beatch, Manning reconnected with Falkner to see if he was interested in joining the new group. Falkner was persuaded by the prospect of a major-label deal. He joined with the understanding – promised by Manning without consulting Sturmer – that he would be a contributing songwriter. Tensions arose immediately, as Sturmer was not ready to accommodate this arrangement, while Falkner struggled to connect with Sturmer on a personal level. Manning later called Falkner "the perfect part of the Jellyfish triangle during that period of our evolution". The name "Jellyfish" came at the suggestion of an Atlantic executive, but was initially ignored by the group. Once they finished recording for their first album and had to pick a name for themselves, Sturmer decided to go with Jellyfish, for lack of any better alternative. According to journalist Paul Rees, the name was chosen to evoke the feeling of something graceful, yet amorphous and ephemeral. ==Bellybutton==

Jellyfish recorded their first album Bellybutton at Schnee Studios in Hollywood with producer Albhy Galuten, best known for his work with the Bee Gees on Saturday Night Fever, and engineer Jack Joseph Puig. Unusually, the band's demos were almost as fully realized as the studio recordings. Manning explained that the group took extra care in writing and arranging material due to the stresses of hourly studio costs, as they wanted to use the time to experiment musically, and because "Andy and I had to believe 100 per cent, 'Okay, this [song] is working. This is mostly going somewhere. We feel that this is now fleshed out enough that we’re confident to be in the studio environment.'" No synthesizers or sequencers were used on the recording. Redd Kross bassist Steve McDonald, who played on the album, said that Manning intended the record to sound "somewhere between Queen and Partridge Family". they became subject to a bidding war among eight labels. Ultimately, they signed with Charisma Records, a newly-formed subsidiary of Virgin. when the prevailing rock music trend was hair metal. However, album sales numbered at a then-underwhelming 100,000 units sold. Jellyfish recruited Roger's younger brother Chris on bass guitar and spent 12 weeks rehearsing for their 50-minute live show. From August 1990 to September 1991, they toured in support of Bellybutton, opening for the bands World Party and the Black Crowes. although the heavy touring schedule fatigued the group substantially. Tensions also worsened among the band members. Frustrated by having his songwriting contributions ignored by Manning and Sturmer, Falkner left the group after the tour. He later said: “I was told that Jellyfish would be an equal three-piece, with us writing and playing everything. That turned out to be a total joke. I felt like I was duped." Chris also quit the band to become a chef. ==Spilt Milk==

As Jellyfish gathered prestige among industry insiders, many began soliciting the band for collaboration, including actress/singer Kim Basinger and Tears for Fears' Curt Smith. later appeared on Manning's solo album Solid State Warrior (2005), albeit with Wilson's contributions omitted. For the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, Sturmer and Manning backed William Shatner as he sang the Best Song nominees. Also featured on the album were guitarists Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, Lyle Workman, and Jon Brion (the latter soon formed the Grays with Falkner). Its fans included Queen's Brian May, who praised the album in a contemporary interview. This tour included guitarist Eric Dover, who Sturmer said was "not really a full-fledged member [of the group]", Jellyfish played their last show on November 20, 1993 at the Broward County Fair in Hallandale Beach, Florida. In 1994, Jellyfish contributed a cover of Harry Nilsson's "Think About Your Troubles" to the tribute album For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson (1995). According to Manning, Nilsson met the band at a concert in Los Angeles, and "we all agreed that we should hook up and do some writing soon. Six weeks later he passed away." The cover was the last song Sturmer and Manning recorded together. ==Breakup==

During the tour for Spilt Milk, Sturmer and Manning grew increasingly distant as friends. On their return home, the two songwriters independently wrote material for a third album, provisionally titled Nausea Trois. By then, they were drifting apart musically. He said that he was "rediscovering my love of [...] high-energy, fun melodic pop with attitude. And Andy was Leonard Cohen. That was it." Financial pressures also loomed over the band. On April 4, In a June Denver Post article, Falkner responded to the news: "It's ironic. Let's just say that I didn't have a moment of silence when I heard about it." ==Aftermath==

1994–2000s Soon after Jellyfish broke up, Manning formed the Moog Cookbook and Imperial Drag, the latter group with Eric Dover. He has also released a few solo records and worked as a session musician. In a 2008 interview, Manning stated: "Except for Andy, we all speak to one another. [...] nobody is interested in working with Andy in a personal or creative capacity. It would serve no purpose, but I don’t say that with any animosity or sadness." In 2016, Not Lame Media published the band's first biography, Brighter Day: A Jellyfish Story, written by Craig Dorfman. Reviewing the book for PopMatters, Eric Rovie wrote that it was a "balanced" and "well-researched" work that presents the principal members "in conflicting but complementary lights: brilliant, driven, and talented on the one hand, but also selfish, overly-introspective, and obnoxiously perfectionist in others. The music speaks for itself." The musicians had not played together since 1994 and are scheduled to release three EPs from early 2020 to mid 2021. ==Influences==

(pictured in 1977) and for artists that included the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Harry Nilsson, Falkner's inspirations overlapped with his bandmates and included The Fall, Magazine, The Monochrome Set, Yes, and UK. He was originally contacted by Manning specifically because he listed XTC as an influence in his newspaper ad. Manning's original concept for the group was akin to the early multimedia crossovers of bands that turned into TV shows or vice versa: the Monkees, the Archies, the Partridge Family, and the Banana Splits. In response to the band frequently being compared to past acts, Sturmer said: "There are certainly bits of what we do that people could go, 'This sounds to me like that,' but I think that's just a bit of a wank, frankly. [...] I think when things are referenced to death, it's like trying to describe the color blue to a blind person." Washington Post contributor Eric Bruce opined in 1990: "It's impossible not to hear Beatles and Beach Boys, especially, in the band's music, with nods to Supertramp, Cheap Trick, Gilbert O'Sullivan, 10cc, the Hollies, the Monkees, the Raspberries, Crowded House -- heck, just about every pop purveyor of above-average intelligence in the past 25 years". Similarly, Andy Edelstein of Newsday felt that their "greatest influence seems to be the '70s groups who themselves were derivative of the mid-'60s British Invasion bands". ==Legacy==

Nielsen SoundScan listed the combined US sales of Spilt Milk and Bellybutton with 269,000 copies sold, although the number was likely higher, as Soundscan was launched a year after the release of Bellybutton. Their following also grew significantly. AllMusic's James Christopher Morgan wrote that their influence extends to the Merrymakers, the Hutchinsons, the Excentrics, and Ben Folds Five, and added that the band "secure[d] for themselves the same kind of cult status bestowed upon so many of their heroes." Writing for Louder Sound in 2015, Dave Everley attributed Jellyfish to have "bridged the world of power-pop and progressive rock like no one before or since". ==Members==

• Andy Sturmer – vocals, drums, keyboards, guitar (1989–1994) • Roger Manning – keyboards, piano, guitar, percussion, vocals (1989–1994) • Jason Falkner – guitars, bass, keyboards, backing vocals (1989–1991) • Chris Manning – bass, backing vocals (1990–1991) • Eric Dover – guitar, banjo, keyboards, backing vocals (1993–1994) • Tim Smith – bass, backing vocals (1992–1994) Timeline ==Discography==

Albums Studio albums Live albums EPs Compilations Singles ==References==