Operation Ivy (band)

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Operation Ivy <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3"> The cover for Operation Ivy's only LP, Energy, which features their famous "Dancing Ska Man" </td></tr>
Background information <tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Berkley, California, USA</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Ska-Core Ska Punk Third Wave Ska</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1987–1989</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Lookout! Records</td></tr><tr><td textalign="top" style="padding-right: 1em;">Associated acts</td><td colspan="2">Rancid Downfall Big Rig Common Rider Dance Hall Crashers Basic radio Shaken 69</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Former members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Jesse Michaels Tim Armstrong Matt Freeman Dave Mello</td></tr>

Operation Ivy was an influential ska punk band that originated from the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The band consisted of frontman Jesse Michaels (vocals), Tim Armstrong (credited as "Lint") (vocals/guitar), Matt Freeman (credited as Matt McCall) (bass/backing vocals), and Dave Mello (Drums/backing vocals). Their name was derived from the Operation Ivy series of nuclear tests; the name was one of many previously abandoned by another Gilman band, Isocracy.

1 History
2 Post-Operation Ivy careers
3 Leaving Lookout!
4 Discography
5 Members
6 Samples
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

The band existed between May of 1987 and May of 1989, as was chronicled in the lyrics of Rancid song "Journey to the End of the East Bay", which appeared on Rancid's ...And Out Come the Wolves: Started in '87 / Ended in '89 / You got a garage or an amp, man we'll play anytime / It was just the four of us, / Yeah man, the core of us, / Too much attention unavoidably destroyed us

Their first show was performed on May 16, 1987 in Dave Mello's garage. The next day began a tradition of performances at the Berkeley ska/punk collective center 924 Gilman Street. They began playing a lot of gigs which led to their almost immediate cult-following. Later in 1987 they made their debut on a Maximum Rock'n'roll compilation called "Turn it Around". In January 1988, they signed to Lookout! Records, and released Hectic, their first E.P., which became one of Lookout!'s strongest sellers. By this time Operation Ivy (along with Crimpshrine and The Mr. T Experience) was one of the most popular Gilman/Berkeley Punk bands. They began getting many gigs and set out on a tour across The United States. By mid 1988 they began selling out larger areas, and the pressure to sign to major labels began to rise.

They released Energy on Lookout! Records in May 1989. The band broke up the same month, and their last official show was on May 28, 1989. It was also Green Day's first show with the name "Green Day" at Gilman, at what was supposed to have been their release party. They played one more show the following day, mainly for friends and family, in Robert Eggplant's backyard in Pinole, California. In two years, the band had performed 185 shows and recorded a total of 28 songs.

The lyrics and tone of Operation Ivy's music portray a youthful desire for social justice and a strong distrust of mainstream or conformist culture.

Green Day did a cover of the Operation Ivy song "Knowledge" on the 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours album and to this day play still play the song at many shows, calling members from the audience to play the drums, guitar, and bass, with frontman Billie Joe Armstrong singing. Many other artists have covered Operation Ivy songs: Reel Big Fish covered "Unity", Area-7 covered "Healthy Body", Big D And The Kids Table covered "Sound System", No Trigger covered "Caution", and Millencolin as well as The Aquabats and Evergreen Terrace (band) have all covered "Knowledge". It is not uncommon for Rancid to play a few Operation Ivy songs at their shows.

In 1991, after their breakup, Lookout! put together a compilation consisting of the Energy album, the Hectic EP, and songs from compilations. It was released as a complete discography (sometimes referred to as a re-release of the Energy album). It contains 27 songs, following the band's recorded history.

[edit] Post-Operation Ivy careers

Two of their members, Armstrong and Freeman, also perform(ed) with the bands Rancid (their current, and biggest project), Basic radio, Downfall, Dance Hall Crashers, Shaken 69, and The Devil's Brigade. Armstrong also went on to form The Transplants. Additionally, Freeman has performed with Auntie Christ, Generator, MDC, and Social Distortion.

Mello went on to perform with Schlong, and currently The Bowel-Tones and Jewdriver.

There was a great deal of speculation regarding the fate of Michaels. Legend had it that he had moved to Nicaragua or became a Buddhist monk. Michaels eventually resurfaced into the music world with a project band, Big Rig, and later with a more active band, Common Rider, which included bassist Mass Giorgini (producer and bassist for Squirtgun and occasionally Screeching Weasel) and drummer Dan Lumley (of Squirtgun and Screeching Weasel). Common Rider released a 7" EP and two full-length albums and did some nationwide touring in the United States before eventually disbanding, the band then got back together and did a split EP with the Florida Skacore band Against All Authority, there were romors of a third album by Common Rider but there has been nothing hinting towards it being a possibility.

[edit] Leaving Lookout!

On 4 May 2006, it was announced that Energy had officially been removed from Lookout! Records' catalog. The album had been, after Green Day's first two albums, the label's biggest-selling album. Following such bands as Green Day, Screeching Weasel, The Queers and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Operation Ivy is the latest in a series of bands who have left Lookout! in recent years and taken back the rights to their back catalog due to unpaid royalties.[1] No label has yet picked up the distribution rights for the album, and a reunion of the band is not planned for anytime in the future.[2]

[edit] Discography

[edit] LPs and EPs

Year	Title	Label	Other information
1988	Hectic	Lookout! Records	Debut EP
1989	Energy	Lookout! Records	Original 19-song LP
1991	Energy	Lookout! Records	27-song reissue including "Hectic" and "Turn it Around" tracks
1992	Plea for Peace	Unknown	Posthumous EP, featuring Uncertain, Troublebound, Someday, and Plea for Peace

[edit] Compilations

Note: these are compliation albums featuring multiple artists. Most of them contain only one or two Operation Ivy songs.

Year	Song Title	Album Title	Label	Other information
1987	Officer, I Got No	Turn It Around	Maximum Rocknroll	2 7" Vinyl compilation
1988	Hangin' Out	The Thing That Ate Floyd	Lookout! Records	Compilation
?	Officer	Gilman St. Block Party	For the Fans by the Fans	Compilation
2004	Unity	Rock Against Bush Vol.2	Fat Wreck Chords	Compilation

[edit] Live/Rare Recordings

Year	Title	Label	Other information
?	Unreleased Energy	Red Robin Records	Live demo tracks from original Energy LP recordings, collecting some bootleg 7-inches such as Plea For Peace and 69 Newport.
1987	69 Newport	Very Small Records	7" Vinyl of unreleased songs.
1987	Ramones EP	Metropolis Records	One-sided 12" Vinyl Bootleg of 6 Ramones covers, only 500 copies pressed by an obscure German label. Notorious for being the rarest bootleg, yet having repulsive recording quality.
?	Lint Rides Again	Slashout!	Operation Ivy's last show at Gilman St.
1992	Plea For Peace	Unknown	Posthumous EP made by friends of the band
1993	Lint: The King of Ska	Squamosal	First Operation Ivy Bootleg, featuring a live track and two demos.
1994	Live at Gilman	Berkeley Archive	A live 7" bootleg EP, containing an Isocracy cover.
1995	East Bay EP	57 Ink	A bootleg 7" of live recordings.
1996	Seedy	Karma Kredit	A posthumous collection of unreleased material released by David Hayes of Very Small Records.
1996	Unity: The Complete Collection	Berkeley Archive	Compilation of several 7" Bootlegs.
1999	Radio Daze	Spiked Belts and Beer	Live KSPC Radio recording from March 17, 1988
2000	Sound System	Gilman St. Records	Live Radio Show recording, Feb. 1988
?	Smell Rancid	Confusion Records	Live at the River Theatre, 1988 recordings
2004	There's a Place	Baltan-69	2xCD-R collection of live recordings and studio outtakes taken from original analog sources and master tapes with no mixing, noise reduction, or equalization.