Fred Armisen

Infobox actor


imagesize = 200px
caption = Armisen at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
birthdate = birth date and age|1966|12|4
birthplace = Valley Stream, New York
yearsactive = 1987 - present
birthname =
spouse = Sally Timms (divorced)
othername =
website = http://www.fredarmisen.com/

Fred Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American musician, comedian, and actor, best known for his work as a cast member on "Saturday Night Live".

Music career

Armisen began his career in 1988 when he moved from New York to Chicago to play drums for the punk rock band Trenchmouth.fact|date=October 2008 In the 1990s, he played background drums with Blue Man Group in Chicago, and in 1997, he toured with David Shouse of The Grifters' side band Those Bastard Souls, which also featured The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd.fact|date=October 2008

Discography

Other work

In 1998 he posed as a music journalist for the short film "Fred Armisen’s Guide to Music and South by Southwest". It was filmed by then-girlfriend Sally Timms and featured Armisen's "pranking musicians and industry types" during the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A520560 Smooching Deadlines] from a November 5, 1998 column in "The Austin Chronicle"]

Armisen is also part of ThunderAnt, a comedy duo with former Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein [http://www.thunderant.com/]

Armisen has directed music videos for bands like The Helio Sequence. Armisen also had a role in the Wilco documentary "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart", which featured footage from his stint opening for front man Jeff Tweedy's 2001 solo tour. He also appeared in video segments on Blue Man Group's How to be a Megastar Tour 2.0. [ [http://www.howtobeamegastar.com/ How To Be A Megastar Tour ] ] Armisen occasionally writes for Pitchfork Media and interviewed Cat Power for that company. [ [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/39649-interview-cat-power/ Pitchfork Feature: Interview: Cat Power ] ] Fred appeared as Jens Hannemann on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on October 19, 2007, promoting a 28-minute DVD called "Fred Armisen presents Jens Hannemann: "COMPLICATED DRUMMING TECHNIQUE". [ [http://www.dragcity.com/catalog/records/dc341.html Jens Hannemann "COMPLICATED DRUMMING TECHNIQUE"] on Drag City Educational Music DVD] On "SNL", Armisen often plays musical instruments in sketches, has two recurring characters who are musicians (Mackey the drummer from the Rialto Grande and Ferecito from "Showbiz Grande Explosion") or impersonates famous figures in the music world such as Liberace, Phil Spector, Lou Reed, and Prince.

Personal life

Armisen has both Venezuelan and Japanese ancestry. [cite web|url=http://www.jimdero.com/News2003/FredArmisenFeb5.htm|title=All Ke-e-e-ding Aside|publisher="Chicago Sun-Times"|author=DeRogatis, Jim|authorlink=Jim DeRogatis|date=2003-02-05|accessdate=2008-06-12] He and musician Sally Timms married at some point after the 1998 South by Southwest Festival and were divorced by the time he directed the 2005 video for the song "Don't Look Away" [ [http://wweek.com/story.php?story=6959#soundseen-musicvideoreview The Helio Sequence "Don't Look Away" Directed by Fred Armisen] , a November 2005 music video review from "Willamette Week"] from The Helio Sequence album "Love and Distance".

References

External links

*imdb name | id=0035488 | name=Fred Armisen
*amg name|2:347644
*myspace|farmisen