Artist description Major Healy is a popular original alternative rock/pop/ska band from New York. Since their inception in early 1999 they have already played with Smashmouth, G. Love and Special Sauce,RUN DMC, Citizen King, The Flys and Sponge.

Music Style Original Alternative Rock/Pop/Ska

Musical Influences Sublime, Cake, G. Love and the Special Sauce, Beastie Boys, Less Than Jake, Clash, Velvet Underground, Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Dr. Israel, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Sublime

Similar Artists Sublime, Cake ,Suicide Machines, G.Love and the Special Sauce, Goldfinger, Clash, Velvet Underground, Beastie Boys,

Artist History Major Healy plays high energy alternative/rock/ska that combines amazing songs with a kicking live show. This emerging band was formed as a so-called, supergroup, by members of several top bands from Western New York during the summer of 1998. The band played a season as house band on Comedy Central's "Premium Blend" with David Alan Grier. The show was filmed in New Yorks Y/Kauffman Theater in front a live audience of over 800 people every night. The shows still air regularly on the Comedy Central Network. The band has played in cities all over the Northeast and New England including New York City, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Portland, Bangor, Providence and many more. They've played shows with Smashmouth, G. Love and the Special Sauce, Run DMC, Sponge, Less Than Jake, the Verve Pipe, Citizen King, Vitamin C and more. Major Healy continues to tour endlessly, earning their fans one show at a time. Major Healy's music is a combination of alternative rock, ska, punk, drum and bass and reggae that draws comparisons to Sublime, G. Love and the Special Sauce, Beck and Goldfinger. The influences may seem diverse but the songs are very contagious and have always convinced fans of all types. Major Healy released its first CD, Nonstop!, in late 1999 and has sold thousands of copies. The major success of Nonstop! is not just in the real world, but the cyber one. Major Healy placed its music on the hugely popular MP3.com and watched it shoot quickly up the ska charts. Out of thousands of bands from all over the planet, Major Healy's songs all placed in the Top Ten for extended periods on several occasions with "Now's the Time and "Boot in the Face" both hitting number one. The songs endeared Major Healy to some of the staffers at MP3.com earning Major Healy the position of Featured Artist for the entire MP3.com site, putting the band on page one of a site that contains hundreds of thousands of artists. The band received thousands of hits and downloads of their songs on a daily basis and their site still continues to be a popular place for the ska punk crowd. Another opportunity that California's, MP3.com, offered Major Healy was the chance to play two shows with hugely successful Buffalo native's, the Goo Goo Dolls. Its strange that the offer would come from all the way across the nation, but that just shows how small the internet can make the world music scene. Major Healy receives email from around the globe on a daily basis and has found their music on MP3 sites all over the web.

Group Members Joe Bacon - Lead vocals and guitars Mike Morrissey - Bass and vocals Monkis - Drums

Instruments Electric Guitar and Bass, Drums

Albums Nonstop!

Press Reviews Major Healy on the Road to Major Success By Steven P. Wheeler of MP3.com (09/20/99) Irreverent ska/punk is what the five-piece band Major Healy stands for. And the happy-go-lucky attitude of this New York-based outfit goes beyond their irresistibly infectious music. After all, not many groups can come up with a story--or flight of fantasy--as humorous as the one they spin about how Major Healy came to be. "While in the VH1 Studios, filming our segments for 'Where Are They Now?' " Intones lead vocalist Joe Bacon, "[lead guitarist] Dave Julian, [drummer] Tim O'Connell and I were introduced to each other by Daisy Fuentes, who was dating [bassist] Mike Morrissey at the time. As it happened, we were all depressed after seeing our bands and personal lives disintegrate on film (except Mike, who was actually happy as a clam. After all, he was dating Daisy Fuentes). So we drove to the nearest tattoo parlor to ink away our sadness. It was pure coincidence that [sax player] Pam Taylor's boyfriend was our skin artist. He tattooed Pam's number on my chest and the rest is history." OK, so it seems getting a straight answer out of Major Healy is going to be as easy as pulling a sore tooth from a lion's mouth with a frayed thread tied to a rusty doorknob. But that's rock & roll, right?Just try to ask them about their name, and the Dangerfield one-liners continue. As Julian explains: "The name was born from a heated discussion about who would win in a cat fight between Jeannie from 'I Dream of Jeannie' and Samantha from 'Bewitched.' But why would they fight anyway? We decided that no woman in her right mind would fight for Darrin Stephens, Samantha's whiny hubby, or Major Nelson, Jeannie's unsupportive 'master.' The answers only get a little more serious when the subject turns to the band's music, which would fit in quite snugly between your own Save Ferris and Sublime bookends. "We are fans of Save Ferris, Reel Big Fish and other modern ska/punk/rock bands like Less Than Jake, Sublime and Goldfinger," Bacon says. But while a majority of these bands arose from Southern California, the music of Major Healy has wormed its way right to the core of the Big Apple, as Julian notes: "This style of music goes over well, live, in New York and really wherever we play. People really go nuts when you give them music they can dance to. We mix in a lot of other influences from our very diverse musical tastes, which is even more evident in our new songs." Material from the band's debut CD, Nonstop, can of course be tasted here at MP3.com, a new home for a group that's determined to do things themselves. "Nonstop is getting considerable airplay on Internet, college and some commercial radio stations," Julian says. "We will continue promoting it until early next year, via Internet promotions, record stores, music stations and, of course, through our lives shows--we play throughout the Northeast at theaters, clubs and colleges." Major Healy's move to the Internet was a gradual progression for these do-it-yourselfers, as Bacon makes clear: "We were already concocting alternative methods of getting our music to the people. MP3.com fit right in with our plan to reach out in new and exciting ways. We would like to use all of the tools and ideas available to spread our music." Julian adds, "We received fan mail from Italy and Brazil. Traditional methods would have made reaching these fans expensive and nearly impossible." "We really are going for more of a grass-roots approach," says Bacon, "so we can have a strong following of fans who will stay with us as we grow and interact with us on a more personal level. That would be difficult in the traditional meteoric rise to the top of the one-hit charts." Even major label interest doesn't seem to sway the best-laid intentions of this quintet. "The response to Major Healy by the labels and attorneys has been really good," Julian says, "but we are focusing on gathering our fans and doing things ourselves. That's the way it's always been with us. With the Internet and all that's happening, bands can really have a DIY attitude and become big. We are still looking into major and indie labels, but have not made any firm decisions yet." As for future plans, band members are working on new material and plan to have a follow-up to Nonstop released next year. No matter what happens between now and then, you can expect the members of Major Healy to continue to put their collective heart and soul into every aspect of that thing they do. "This is a band that really focuses on bringing people the best show and recorded music we can," says Bacon. "We realize that people don't want to spend money or time on something mediocre. We put 150 percent into live shows and 150 percent into the studio." "Make that 300 percent," corrects Julian. And with numbers like that, these guys just may get higher on the charts than their namesake ever did in a rocket during that old TV show. Or was it Major Nelson in the rocket? How did that story go again? Help me out, guys...

Location Buffalo, New York - USA

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