Green Jelly

Green Jelly
Green Jellÿ, Live at The Dome, Bakersfield (2010)
General information
Genre (s)	Rock , heavy metal , punk rock
founding	1981 as Green Jellö 1992 as Green Jellÿ
Founding members
singing	Bill Manspeaker (aka Moronic Dictator)
guitar	Keith McCormack
guitar	Jim Laspesa (aka Marshall Stack)
bass	Joe Cannizzaro (aka Nottut LLib, aka Dunderhead)
Drums	Scott Smith (aka Ozzy Ozmond)
Other members
singing	Keith Matherne (from 1989)
singing	Gary Helsinger (from 1989)
singing	Greg Raynard (from 1989)
singing	Maynard James Keenan (from 1989)
guitar	Marc Levinthal (aka Pippi Rockstocking, from 1989)
guitar	Steven Shenar (aka Sven Seven, from 1989)
guitar	CJ Buscaglia (aka Jesus Quisp, from 1989)
guitar	Bernie Peaks (aka Bernie Vicious, from 1989)
bass	Rootin 'Bloomquist (from 1989)
Drums	Danny Carey (from 1989)
Background vocals	Kim O'Donnell (from 1989)
Background vocals	Caroline Jester (from 1989)

Green Jellÿ is an American heavy metal and punk rock band.

Band history

The early years

In 1981 the band was founded in Kenmore , New York (a suburb of Buffalo ) as Green Jellö by singer Bill Manspeaker, drummer Scott Smith, guitarists Keith McCormack, Jim Laspesa, and Joe Cannizzaro (electric bass). Green Jellö had their first appearance at the Masonic Temple in Kenmore. Among the spectators were some drunk thugs who broke into the kitchen of the Masonic Temple during the concert. There they stole ice cream sandwiches made for the band and started throwing them on stage. At the end of the concert the stage was ruined and Green Jellö had to pay for the damage. Another concert at the YMCA also ended with the band having to pay for cleaning. This time they splashed theater blood on the carpet and the audience pelted the band with green jelly they had brought with them (Jell-O).

Also in 1984, Green Jellö released Let It Be, their first record on their own label American Jello Parti Productions, Inc. It was a 7-inch 45 EP with eight songs. In the same year, Green Jellö appeared as the opening act for the Ramones and had to let the waiting crowd throw pudding and jelly at them. Unfortunately, the Ramones' equipment was also on the stage, which sank in pudding and jelly. In an interview with New York Rocker magazine a few years later , Joey Ramone Green described Jellö as "the worst (and messiest) band to ever open for the Ramones," which was received by members of Green Jellö as praise.

The way to success

In 1987 the band decided to move from Buffalo to Hollywood, California. The turning point in their band career was in 1988. The band toured the Gong Show and performed as "The World's Worst Band" (this title is claimed by several bands). There you met colleagues from Gwar , who showed them how to make a bizarre stage outfit and provocative sculptures out of paper mache, wire and latex.

In 1989 Green Jellö released their second album Triple Live Möther Gööse at Budokan . After that, the band began to recruit other musicians, including drummer Danny Carey (later in Tool ), guitarists Marc Levinthal (Pippi Rockstocking), Steven Shenar (Sven Seven), CJ Buscaglia (Jesus Quisp) and Bernie Peaks (Bernie Vicious) as well as the Bass player Rootin 'Bloomquist. At this point the band had a total of six singers (Bill Manspeaker, Joe Cannizzaro, Keith Matherne, Gary Helsinger, Greg Raynard and Maynard James Keenan) under contract. In addition, the band had two female backing singers, Kim O'Donnell and Caroline Jester, of whom Kim O'Donnell was also responsible for the artwork, cover design, comics and logos of the band.

In 1991 Green Jellö was signed by the indie label Zoo Entertainment . The band released their third album Cereal Killer as a video only. The album became an underground hit and sold 100,000 copies. Somewhat surprised by the success, the band released the EP Green Jellö SUXX that same year , which featured four Cereal Killer tracks . A year later, the decision was made to turn the video Cereal Killer into an audio album after all, and then released Cereal Killer Soundtrack .

Litigation at its peak

Its increasing popularity led to a copyright infringement lawsuit with Kraft Foods in 1992 . This had protected a jelly under the name Jell-O under trademark law. Green Jellö changed its name to Green Jellÿ . Despite the different spelling, the pronunciation of both band names was identical.

In 1993 the single Three Little Pigs was released. The video for the single ran several times a day on the music channels and earned Green Jellÿ an MTV Music Award and a nomination for the Billboard Music Award . The song made it to number 5 in the UK and in the top 20 in Germany and the USA. In this upswing, the album Cereal Killer Soundtrack also achieved gold status in the USA, New Zealand and Canada, and platinum in Australia. According to the record company, it sold over 2½ million units worldwide. Green Jellÿ then toured North America and Europe for a year and a half.

For Three Little Pigs , the band had to put up with allegations of plagiarism from the US hardcore colleagues of Mucky Pup , but there were never any legal steps. In the same year, however, they were sued by Metallica for using parts of Enter Sandman in the song Electric Harley House (Of Love) . The bass run in the guitar solo was identical to that in Enter Sandman . Green Jellÿ had to delete this part from the later CD version of the album Cereal Killer ; the video was withdrawn from MTV .

Life after MTV

In 1994 the band played a soundtrack for the computer game Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage . Apart from a few snippets that underlie sequences in the computer game, this album was not released.

In 1995, Green Jellÿ reached number 25 in Great Britain with her (so far) last official single, a cover of the old Gary Glitter title Leader Of The Gang as a duet with Hulk Hogan . A year later, in 1996, they released a cover of Born to Be Wild for a soundtrack of the same name.

Today Green Jellÿ occasionally play concerts around Los Angeles . Bill Manspeaker is still there as the only founding member. The band now has a total of 204 official members.

In October 2009 a new album called Musick to Insult Your Intelligence By was released.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1993	Cereal Killer soundtrack	DE29 (14 weeks) DE	AT7 (10 weeks) AT	CH24 (5 weeks) CH	UK18 (10 weeks) UK	US23 (26 weeks) US	First published: March 5, 1993

more publishments

• 1984: Let It Be (EP)
• 1989: Triple Live Möther Gööse at Budokan
• 1991: Green Jellö SUXX (EP)
• 1992: Cereal Killer
• 1994: 333
• 2009: Musick to Insult Your Intelligence By

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1993	Three Little Pigs Cereal Killer Soundtrack	DE12 (15 weeks) DE	AT18 (6 weeks) AT	CH33 (3 weeks) CH	UK5 (8 weeks) UK	US17 (20 weeks) US	First published: March 1993
	Anarchy in the UK Cereal Killer Soundtrack	-	-	-	UK27 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 1993 Original: Sex Pistols
	I'm the Leader of the Gang single track	-	-	-	UK25 (7 weeks) UK	-	First published: December 1993 with Hulk Hogan

More singles

• 1993: Electric Harley House (Of Love)
• 1993: House Me Teenage Rave
• 1994: The Bear Song
• 1994: Slave Boy

Web links

Commons : Green Jellÿ  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Green Jellÿ at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Green Jelly's band biography at music.msn.com , January 5, 2007
2. ↑ Green Jelly's band biography at Billboard.com ( September 29, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ), January 5, 2007
3. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US