Tackhead

2025-08-09T21:57:54Z

2605:A601:AAEB:B400:0:0:0:33F: /* Discography */Minor change: title

{{Short description|Industrial hip-hop group}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox musical artist 
| name = Tackhead
| image =
| caption =
| image_size = 250
| landscape = yes
| alias =
| origin = [[New York City]], United States
| genre = {{Flatlist|
*[[Industrial hip hop]]
*[[funk]]}}
| years_active = 1987–1991, 2004–present
| label = ON-U, [[Nettwerk Records|Nettwerk]], [[SBK Records|SBK]], World
| spinoff_of = {{hlist | [[Fats Comet]] | [[Dub Syndicate]] }}
| spinoffs = {{hlist | Barmy Army | [[Strange Parcels]] }}
| website = {{URL|tackhead.com}}
| current_members = [[Little Axe|Skip McDonald]]
* [[Adrian Sherwood]]
* [[Doug Wimbish]]
| past_members = [[Bernard Fowler]]
* [[Keith LeBlanc]]
}}

'''Tackhead''' (styled '''TACK>>HEAD''', sometimes known as '''Fats Comet''') is an [[industrial hip-hop]] group that was most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where [[funk music|funk]], [[dub music|dub]], [[industrial music]] and [[electronica]] intersect. The core members were [[Doug Wimbish]] ([[bass guitar|bass]]), [[Keith LeBlanc]] ([[percussion instrument|percussion]]) and [[Skip McDonald]] ([[guitar]]) and [[Record producer|producer]] (sometimes credited as "mixologist") [[Adrian Sherwood]]. Despite being short-lived as a band proper, the legacy and output of these groups of musicians has been prodigious.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}}

== History ==
In the late 1970s, Wimbish, LeBlanc and McDonald were members of the house band for the [[Sugar Hill Records (rap)|Sugarhill Records]] [[record label]]<ref name="sugarhill1" /> and the trio of hip-hop artists known as the [[Sugarhill Gang]]. They were also the musicians playing behind [[DJ Grandmaster Flash]]'s 1982 hit "[[The Message (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five song)|The Message]]" (the vocal was by [[Melle Mel]]) and another hit "[[White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)|White Lines]]".<ref name="sugarhill2" />

During a visit to New York City, to help with a remix, London-based producer Sherwood (already noted in the [[dub music]] scene) met LeBlanc, and they began to collaborate. Soon the trio of Wimbish, LeBlanc and McDonald were producing tracks on Sherwood's [[On-U Sound]] record label.<ref name="LarkinDM">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1998|edition=First|isbn=0-7535-0252-6|page=333}}</ref> One of their earlier collaborations was as "[[Mark Stewart (English musician)|Mark Stewart]] and the Maffia", which featured Stewart, former member of Bristol’s [[The Pop Group]], on vocals.<ref name="formation" /> Their first LP produced under that name ''[[As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade]]'' was amongst the most industrial, noise-oriented and uncompromising of the group's output, described by John Leland as "a scary mess of random sounds, spoken words, and tiny snippets of music, processed and distorted to a grating electric edge."<ref name="leland" />

Later to join forces with Tackhead was Bristol-based [[Gary Clail]],<ref name="LarkinDM"/> who as MC for the touring version of the On-U [[sound system (DJ)|sound system]], would shout and rant over Tackhead's live playing,<ref name="trouser-press">{{cite web |last1=Fletcher |first1=Tony |last2=Frampton |first2=Megan |title=Tackhead |url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/tackhead/ |website=Trouser Press |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref> and both were then mixed live by Sherwood to produce a wall of sound effect that was highly novel for the mid-1980s.<ref name="LarkinDM"/> They released one LP ''[[Tackhead Tape Time]]'' in 1987 as "Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System" and some of the most distinctive and well-known Tackhead tracks (some were released as [[12-inch single]]s) date from this period particularly: "[[What's My Mission Now?]]", "[[Mind at the End of the Tether]]" and "Hard Left". These tracks combined funk basslines, hammerblow percussion and Sherwood's trademark sample-laden dub production and represent the defining Tackhead sound.<ref name="sugarhill2" />

During this period, LeBlanc also produced two solo LPs: the highly inventive ''[[Major Malfunction]]'' (1986) (inspired by the [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster]]) and ''[[Stranger Than Fiction (Keith LeBlanc album)|Stranger Than Fiction]]'' (1989), which although credited to LeBlanc, featured all the rest of members of Tackhead. Around this time the group began to gel as a band, and started adding vocalists to what had been up until then a largely instrumental affair. On the first Tackhead LP proper, ''[[Friendly as a Hand Grenade]]'', vocalist [[Bernard Fowler]] joined the line-up,<ref name="LarkinDM"/> and many older instrumental tracks re-appeared with lyrics, in what Trouser Press characterized as "Tackhead at its most coherent."<ref name="trouser-press" /> In 1990 Tackhead mounted a world tour which probably marked the zenith of the band's commercial success.

The follow-up album, 1990's ''[[Strange Things]]'' (the first on a major label, [[EMI]]), despite some praise for harder-edge singles such as "[[Dangerous Sex]]" and "[[Class Rock]]" was not as well received by critics.<ref name="LarkinDM"/> Many followers of the group were disappointed by the more restrained production, less [[industrial music|industrial]] and more mellow [[rhythm and blues|R&B]] elements.<ref name="LarkinDM"/> Yet the album was still experimental enough that it did not gain as wide an audience as had been hoped, and the band was dropped from their record label shortly after.

Despite not recording any new material as Tackhead since, group members continued to record as the backing band or along with various Sherwood-led On-U Sound productions artists such as Gary Clail's solo efforts, [[African Head Charge]], [[Dub Syndicate]], [[New Age Steppers]] and others. Subsets of the group have also appeared in various guises such as the [[Strange Parcels]], Barmy Army and the blues-oriented [[Little Axe]].

In addition to continuing to collaborate with Sherwood and the On-U Sound record label, each of the other members continues to lead active solo careers. McDonald leads the Little Axe project, and LeBlanc ran a record label and played with two [[jazz]] outfits, Noah Ground and [[Nikki Yeoh]]'s Infinitum. As well as remaining much in demand as a session bass player, Wimbish later became the bass player for [[Living Colour]] and has recorded solo material as well as forming the short-lived [[Jungle Funk]] (later '''Head>>Fake'''), a live [[drum and bass]] outfit also featuring [[Living Colour]] drummer [[Will Calhoun]].

In 2004, Tackhead briefly reformed to engage in a limited tour of North America and Europe. In April 2022, the entire group, also featuring Mark Stewart, played a short tour of the UK, comprising performances in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tackhead - Edinburgh, Scotland |url=https://www.dougwimbish.com/past-events-2022/tackhead-edinburgh-scotland |access-date=2022-09-13 |website=Doug Wimbish |date=April 25, 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref>

LeBlanc died in April 2024.

==Discography==
{{Main|Tackhead discography}}
'''Studio albums'''
* ''[[Tackhead Tape Time]]'' (1987)
* ''[[Friendly as a Hand Grenade]]'' (1989)
* ''[[Strange Things]]'' (1990)
* ''[[For the Love of Money (album)|For the Love of Money]]'' (2014)
* ''[[Powerstation 2.0]]'' (2023, Emergency Hearts)
* ''[[Powerstation 2.0 (scott crow Hard Left Remix)]]'' (2024, Emergency Hearts)

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="sugarhill1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFb8rSDLQmkC&q=doug+wimbish&pg=PA34 |title=p34 ''Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop'' by Joseph G. Schloss |date=2004-07-26 |isbn=9780819566966 |accessdate=2011-09-14|last1=Schloss |first1=Joseph G. |publisher=Wesleyan University Press }}</ref>
<ref name="sugarhill2">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=reUCAAAAMBAJ&q=doug+wimbish&pg=PA30 |title=New York Magazine Feb 22, 1988 |date=1988-02-22 |accessdate=2011-09-14}}</ref>
<ref name="formation">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-eDfuEXUHp8C&q=Sherwood+met+Leblanc&pg=PA12 |title=SPIN Sep 1987 |date= September 1987|accessdate=2011-09-14}}</ref>
<ref name="leland">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rOtx9nPM4ncC&q=As+the+Veneer+of+Democracy+Starts+to+Fade&pg=PA35 |title=SPIN June 1986 |date= June 1986|accessdate=2011-09-14}}</ref>
}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040719143710/http://www.tackhead.com/ Official Tackhead website]
* [http://www.skysaw.org/onu/artists/tackheadfatscomet.html Artist page at unofficial On-U Sound site]
* [http://www.skysaw.org/onu/discography/tackheadfatscometdiscog.html Discography at unofficial On-U Sound site]

{{Tackhead}}
{{Keith LeBlanc}}
{{Little Axe}}
{{Adrian Sherwood}}
{{Doug Wimbish}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Tackhead| ]]
[[Category:American funk musical groups]]
[[Category:American dub musical groups]]
[[Category:American industrial music groups]]
[[Category:On-U Sound Records artists]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1987]]
[[Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1991]]

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Tackhead