Wheatus Biography

Wheatus is a rock band from Long Island, New York. They are best known for their 2001 hit single "Teenage Dirtbag" from the movie Loser.

Wheatus was formed by Brendan B. Brown in 1998. Brown wrote a few songs, enlisted the help of his brother, Pete on drums and Rich Leigey on bass (he was replaced by Mike McCabe after the release of their self-titled debut Wheatus).

Wheatus' first and largest hit was the single "Teenage Dirtbag", which charted at #2 in the UK.
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Their second single "A Little Respect" (an Erasure cover) also reached high chart positions, and was another top 3 hit for the band in the UK. Their third single, a double A-side of "Leroy" and "Wannabe Gangstar" (the single-version of the latter featuring Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden) performed less well.

When the band began work on their second album Liz Brown (the sister of the brothers Brown) and Kathryn Froggat (the band's merchandiser) teamed up for backing vocals. Shannon Harris, of Relish (who had supported Wheatus on their earlier tours), signed on as keyboardist, at the request of Brendan Brown.

Due to disagreements with their record label, primarily caused by Brendan Brown's insistence on self-producing the album (as he had done with their debut), Wheatus' second album, Hand Over Your Loved Ones, received little or no promotion and did not sell well, with the single "American In Amsterdam" failed to significantly impact the music charts. In October 2004 Michael Bellar joined Wheatus on keyboard, as former keyboarder Shannon Harris had left the band earlier that year. The band re-released their second album in 2005 under the title Suck Fony on their own label Montauk Mantis with two new songs, "William McGovern" and the Pat Benatar cover "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". The album is only available from the band's website, except in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, where a greater demand for Wheatus albums and a greater proliferation of independent music stores allowed the band to get a distribution contract despite the relative obscurity of their record label.

At some point in time Wheatus was signed by Warner Brothers to perform a theme for the Warner Brothers cartoon show "Jackie Chan Adventures". The band members decided to cover one of their rather obscure songs titled "Punk Ass Bitch" for the theme; their performance was later scrapped in favor of an instrumental theme for the show but was used as the ending theme and in a few commercial advertisements for the show on the Warner Brothers television network.

Mike McCabe (bass) left the band in early 2005 and was replaced by Nic DiPierro. Later that year Michael Bellar also left the band and was replaced by Gerard Hoffmann.

WHEATUS PICTURES

WHEATUS BIOGRAPHY