Ted Leo

Ted Leo has long been a vital and progressive force in East Coast independent music, with a unique combination of punk and folk, soul and hardcore, and tradition and experimentation. A talented songwriter and a valued collaborator who has worked with a broad range of artists from Aimee Mann (in their ad hoc group the Both) to members of Fugazi and the Faith (in his project the Foreign Correspondents), Leo's solo work leans more toward energetic hook-infused punk with overtones of indie rock and '60s garage rock. Leo made his solo breakthrough with 2001's thoughtful but rollicking The Tyranny of Distance, while he fused punk and pop with intelligence and energy on 2007's Living with the Living. 2017's stylistically ambitious, home-recorded The Hanged Man concerned a turbulent period in his personal life. Ted Leo was born in South Bend, Indiana, on September 11, 1970. When he was young, his family moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey, and in his teens he immersed himself in the New York hardcore scene. After gaining a small degree of fame in the late-'80s New York hardcore scene by playing with Citizen's Arrest and Animal Crackers, Leo left New York for Washington, D.C. in 1990, where he founded and fronted Chisel, one of the first mod/punk revival outfits to gain national attention. Leo was the primary songwriter and singer of Chisel, recording two full-length records with the band which were released on Gern Blandsten in the mid-'90s and led the band on countless short tours. The songwriting was as infectious and calculated as that of Brit rock legends the Kinks, yet the rhythms remained fueled by the anthemic energy reminiscent of bands like the Who and the Clash. Chisel's eventual breakup in 1997 came after their critically acclaimed sophomore full-length, Set You Free. The band's reputation continued to flourish after their breakup, however, and even though the retro trends in indie rock would eventually gain enough popularity to inspire the likes of mod underground sweethearts like the Mooney Suzuki and the Delta 72, the influence of Chisel goes largely unnoticed. Leo went onto a variety of musical endeavors, including two years of on-again, off-again touring as a guitarist with the Spinanes, and a short-lived project called the Sin Eaters that he founded with his brother, Danny Leo, on drums, and former Van Pelt bassist Sean Greene. The Sin Eaters' progressive, politically charged, punk-fused rock and local all-star lineup took the New York underground by storm between 1997 and 1998, until Danny Leo left the band to work on his own material and eventually founded the Holy Childhood. When the Sin Eaters disbanded without a recorded legacy in 1998, Ted Leo was left without a band and began his career as a solo artist. He remained active by wearing the hat of producer for the Secret Stars' debut record, Geneologies, and touring alone on the East Coast and through the Midwest. He eventually recorded a self-titled full-length on his homestead Gern Blandsten Records in 1999 with a new band, the Pharmacists, that included various friends and affiliates of the Secret Stars, including Jodi Buonanno. This record marked a notable change in Leo's sound, which, mostly due to his performance practices, was more and more rooted in songwriting legends like Billy Bragg and Alex Chilton. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists released a split with the One AM Radio later that year as a collaborative effort of both Gern Blandsten and Garbage Czar. In the spring of 2000, Leo's sophomore effort, Treble in Trouble, was released on New Jersey-based Ace Fu Records, displaying a more aggressive and romantic bent to Leo's writing. In the early summer of 2001, Leo released a polished studio effort, The Tyranny of Distance, on Lookout Records. A strong contender for record of the year, it was followed by the equally strong Hearts of Oak in 2003. Shake the Sheets. which appeared in 2004, would prove to be his last for then-troubled Lookout, as Leo signed with Chicago-based indie Touch & Go in February 2006. A tour followed in March with supporting acts the Duke Spirit and Les Aus. He continued touring throughout 2006, playing festivals such as Coachella and headlining dates alike, as he worked on new material. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists eventually returned in March 2007 with full-length number five, Living with the Living. In 2009, Leo signed with Matador, and the following year he released his first record with them, The Brutalist Bricks. After touring behind the album, Leo became disillusioned with the whole indie rock machine he was such a vital part of and stepped away. Over the next few years, he played a few shows here and there but mostly flew under the radar until Aimee Mann convinced him to go on tour with her. They began writing songs together and quickly formed a band called the Both, where they traded off vocals. They played shows and released a self-titled album in 2014 on Mann's Superego label. The experience spurred Leo to begin working on his own music, and while setting up a studio in his house, he wrote and recorded almost 30 songs. After doing some crowd-funding to finish the record, he released the 14-song The Hanged Man in September of 2017. A mix of mod rockers and introspective ballads, the album blended his usual political outlook with a more personal lyrical approach. Leo co-wrote the song "Oh, Death" that appeared on the 2017 album Supercalifragile, with a team of admirers who helped complete a Game Theory album the group's leader, Scott Miller, had been working on at the time of his death. Leo also teamed with Aimee Mann and Deedee Mango Hall to cut the song "Independent Together," which appeared on the soundtrack to the made-for-TV animated feature Steven Universe: The Movie. Leo resurfaced in 2024 with a new project, the Foreign Correspondents, featuring Brendan Canty (of Fugazi and the Messthetics), Michael Hampton (of the Faith, Embrace, and Fake Names), and Sohrab Habibion (of Edsel, the Obits, and SAVAK). The group made their debut with a 7" single in which they covered a pair of songs by the French Canadian pop/rock singer and songwriter Michel Pagliaro, "Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy" and "We're Dancin'."
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