Dry Cell

Dry Cell was an American nu metal band.

History

Dry Cell's formation

Part of the band formed in 1998 when guitarist Danny Hartwell and drummer Brandon Brown met at the Ratt Show on the Sunset Strip. They later met up with then-vocalist Judd Gruenbaum. The original name of the band was "Beyond Control".

After forming, the band caught the attention of Warner Brothers' Jeff Blue, an A&R Executive responsible for discovering Linkin Park. He later signed the band to a development deal, and found a new lead singer for the band in Jeff Gutt from Detroit.

In an interview with the website, The A&R Online, Mr. Blue described Dry Cell (at the time tentatively called "Impúr") as: "they're like Metallica meets Incubus meets Linkin Park but heavier. No DJing, no rapping, very melodic and the kids are just phenomenal musicians".

Mr. Blue also goes on to tell how he discovered the band: "A friend of mine told me about the drummer who was 11 at the time and said how amazing he was. I ended up hearing a demo that wasn't very good but because I was right down the street from where they were playing I went up and saw them and was actually very impressed. I made a development deal and have now been working with them for over a year and a half. I'm with them six hours, six days a week. I have them in a rehearsal room right next to Warner Brothers".

The Disconnected album

Signed to Warner Bros. Records, the band went to work recording their debut album titled Disconnected.

The 12-track album was due to be released on July 16, 2002. It was later pushed back to August 27, 2002.

In the end, one of the band members father's got into a heated argument with Mr. Blue regarding the size of the band's promotion budget, the result of months of behind-the-scenes disagreement. Within 48 hours the father took his complaints to Warner, and two days later they released Dry Cell from their contract.

The only place Disconnected was ever sold at (albeit in limited quantities) was during the Locobazooka Festival in 2002. These were the final Warner pressed copies complete with artwork. On extremely rare occasions copies are sold on eBay. However, advanced copies of the album which come in a paper sleeve cover and contain different artwork, can be found more regularly.

The band always stated there was no chance of releasing the album, even if they were to sign a new record deal.

After Warner Brothers

After their departure from Warner Music, Dry Cell continued on.

It was reported that a deal had signed with Epic Records in March of 2003. For reasons unknown, nothing further eventuated.

In early 2004, Dave Wasierski was named as the band's new vocalist, after Jeff Gutt departed to form his own band named "Acrylic". At the time, it was reported that 8 new songs had been completed.

With vocalist Jeff Gutt re-joining the band, they recorded four new demo tracks in 2005. The two songs released to the public were titled "New Revolution" and "The Lie". In late 2005, band members Jeff Gutt and Danny Hartwell quit, and the group has since disbanded. After their split, two other tracks titled "Into Oblivion" and "Find a Way" were made available for download via their MySpace page.

Vocalist Jeff Gutt has since formed two new projects; "Band With No Name" and "Punch". Drummer Brandon Brown is now part of a group named "Katsumoto".

Members

* Jeff Gutt – vocals
* Danny Hartwell – guitar
* Judd Gruenbaum – bass, backup vocals
* Brandon Brown – drums

Former

* Dave Wasierski – vocals

Discography

Album

Disconnected

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/Disconnected_Cover.jpg

* Released: Unreleased
* Label: Warner Bros. Records/Beyond Control Records
* Singles: Body Crumbles

Released tracks

* 2002 – "Body Crumbles" – Used on the Queen of the Damned soundtrack, released February 19, 2002. Also part of the Madden NFL 2003 soundtrack.
* 2002 – "Heaven & Hot Rods" – Used on the NASCAR on Fox: Crank It Up soundtrack, released May 21, 2002.

Demo tracks

* 2002 – "I Confide" – Disconnected B-Side. Featured on the CD's test press release (Track 1/3).
* 2002 – "Sick" – Disconnected B-Side. Featured on the CD's test press release (Track 2/3).
* 2002 – "Sick" (Clean Edit) – Disconnected B-Side. Featured on the CD's test press release (Track 3/3).
* 2002 – "Body Crumbles" (The Humble Brothers Remix) – Part of a 3 track sampler disc (Track 3/3).
* 2003 – "Grape Jelly" – Demo part of a 3 track sampler disc (Track 1/3).
* 2003 – "Peewee" – Demo part of a 3 track sampler disc (Track 2/3).
* 2003 – "Velvet Elvis" – Demo part of a 3 track sampler disc (Track 3/3).
* 2005 – "Find a Way" – Demo part of a 4 track sampler disc (Track 1/4).
* 2005 – "New Revolution" – Demo part of a 4 track sampler disc (Track 2/4).
* 2005 – "Into Oblivion" – Demo part of a 4 track sampler disc (Track 3/4).
* 2005 – "The Lie" – Demo part of a 4 track sampler disc (Track 4/4).

Miscellaneous

* Dry Cell released four demo tracks which were recorded in 2005 on their MySpace page. They can be obtained from here.
* Dry Cell featured in a New York Times article regarding their brief stint with Warner Bros. It can be read here.
* The song "Body Crumbles" featured on Rob Zombie's sampler disc Calling All Maniacs which circulated with his 2001 release titled The Sinister Urge.
* A music video was made to accompany Disconnected's lead single "Body Crumbles".
* The video game Madden 2003 featured "Body Crumbles" on its soundtrack.
* The song "Slip Away" featured in the dirt bike video game "Freekstyle", although the version has a slight variation compared to the album's version.
* Dry Cell's own label was called Beyond Control Records, owned by Danny Hartwell's father.
* Vocalist Jeff Gutt is a member of two bands. One is named "Punch" and the other is "Band With No Name".
* Drummer Brandon Brown is part of a band named "Katsumoto".
* The song "Body Crumbles" was featured in the 2002 movie adaption of Anne Rice's novel Queen of the Damned