Bran Van 3000

Bran Van 3000 (also known as Bran Van and BV3) is an electronica collective from Montreal, Canada. It was founded by the DJ James Di Salvio, collaborating on a number of songs with St?phane Moraille, Sara Johnston, Steve "Liquid" Hawley, Jayne Hill, Qu?b?cois rock star Jean Leloup and other musicians.

History

Bran Van 3000 released their first single, "Drinking in L.A.", in February of 1997 in Canada, on Audiogram Records. In April of the same year, the band released their first album, called Glee. It contained 17 tracks, one of them entirely in French. The song "Everywhere" from the album was featured on the soundtrack to the film Practical Magic. The record went gold in 1998 and won a Juno Award for best alternative album. "Drinking in L.A." also appears in the soundtrack to the film Playing by Heart.

In March 1998, Glee was released internationally with significant edits: the international version has 19 tracks; "Ceci n'est pas une chanson" became an instrumental simply called "Une chanson"; the French song, "Forest", was reworked with several English verses. Previously unreleased songs on the international album are "Rainshine", "Carry On", and "Old School".

In July 1998, "Drinking in L.A." reached No. 36 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming their first transatlantic hit. In August 1999 the single was re-released after the song was featured in a popular TV commercial for Rolling Rock, and peaked at No. 3 in the UK.

In the summer of 2001, Bran Van 3000 released the album Discosis. The song "Astounded" featured the final recorded performance from soul legend Curtis Mayfield before his death and became the most successful Canadian single by the collective. Other collaborators on the album were Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour and reggae artist Eek-a-Mouse.

As of summer 2002, the band's website indicated that they were not working on new material or touring, nor did they have any plans to do so, but it was later announced that they were working on a third album, Ros?, which was released in Canada on October 30 and in the US on November 27, 2007. Ros? was co-produced by James Di Salvio and Sara Johnston with the collaboration of Fatlip, Max-A-Million, Swanza, Chris Opperman, Noel Osborne and others. The album was written in Los Angeles and was recorded at Depeche Mode's studio and in Hollywood at Steve Vai's Studio. On July 1, 2008, the group got back together, on stage, at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, playing songs from Ros? as well as some of their previous hits, in front of a crowd numbering over 125,000.

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Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran Van 3000