Plow United

Infobox musical artist
Name = Plow United


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Origin = Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Genre = Pop punk
Thrash pop
Years_active = 1992–1998
Label = Creep Records
Coolidge Records
Blackout Records
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Current_members = Brian McGee (guitar, vocals),
Sean Rule (drums),
Joel Tannenbaum (bass)
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Plow United was an American rock group formed in Wilmington, Delaware, The United States of America in 1992. They played fast punk rock with pop, thrashcore and hardcore influences. Their lyrics are sometimes labelled "emo" postfact. Band members were Brian McGee (vocals and guitar), Sean Rule (drums) and Joel Tannenbaum (bass).

Biography

McGee, Rule and Tannenbaum met at a private high school in Wilmington, Delaware in 1989. In 1992 they formed a band called Plow and recorded a six-song demo entitled Warped Sense of Humor and included "Pearl Jam." [http://www.plowunited.com/unreleased.html] In 1994, Joel moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania where the band had been forming friendships and playing with other local bands, and began working with the newly started Creep Records, whose base was the town of West Chester. They soon began to tour the northeastern United States and eventually took their music as far as Canada and California.

In 1995 Plow changed its name to Plow United when a band of the same name from Baltimore, Maryland sent them a polite but firm letter claiming rights to the name. A reproduction of the letter can be found inside the cover of their eponymous debut album, which Creep Records released that same year. With a full-length album under their belts, Plow United's credibility grew and they toured nationally and played with established punk rock acts like Lagwagon, At the Drive-In, Buglite, Bouncing Souls and Good Riddance. [http://www.blackoutrecords.com/bands.asp?id=53]

In 1996 the band recorded and released their second record, Goodnight Sellout, and Plow United received attention from major labels. [http://www.plowunited.com/] They declined to pursue a career in rock and roll, however, and in 1997 the band broke up at the height of its popularity. In 1998 Creep Records released a posthumous third LP, Narcolepsy, known among fans as a darker take on the band's loose, aggressive pop punk sound. In 2000 Coolidge Records released The Dustbin of History, a compilation of singles and other non-album tracks.

After the Breakup

In 2005 Blackout Records issued remastered versions of Goodnight Sellout, with the entire self-titled debut album tacked onto the end, and Narcolepsy, both of which excluded original artwork, and contained liner notes that implied a lack of basic knowledge of English grammar, punctuation and spelling on the part of the designers.

Rule began teaching high school math in 1997 at Salesianum and later became a professor at Central Oregon Community College. He has played in bands including Power of IV and Deep [http://www.deepmusiconline.com/] His current band Hands on Throat [http://www.handsonthroat.com.com/] released their debut: Asphyxiation Nation in 2007. Sean maintains a personal website at http://www.seanrule.com/welcome/. [http://www.plowunited.com/watn.html]

Tannenbaum lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. He writes for the Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper and is working towards a PhD in History from the University of Hawaii. He obtained an MPhil in Economic and Social History in 2004 from the University of Hull. Post-Plow, Tannenbaum played with a variety of indiepop bands, including The Snow Fairies and the The Skywriters. He released solo album Music Should Be Seen and Not Heard under the name The Whales on the Best Kept Secret tape label. [http://www.indiepages.com/bestkeptsecret/] He currently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. [http://www.plowunited.com/watn.html]

McGee played in Throttle Jockey and briefly as a second guitarist in Super Hi-5 with Sid Carney, Arik Victor, and Mike Bardzik. Then attended the John C. Campbell Folk School, Haywood Community College, and Penland School of Crafts. In 2005 he started The Brian McGee Band, a blues/old country band. He lives in North Carolina where he has recently been elected president of the North Carolina chapter of the WPA (Werewolf Protection Agency) . [http://www.plowunited.com/watn.html]

Discography

Albums

* "Plow United" CD/12" LP (Creep Records 10, 1995)
* "Goodnight Sellout" CD/12" LP (Creep Records 26, 1996)
* "Narcolepsy" CD (Creep Records 40, 1998)
* "The Dustbin of History" compilation CD (Coolidge Records 32, 2000)
* "Goodnight Sellout (Remastered)" CD (Blackout Records 077, 2005)
**(Includes all songs from the first two albums)
* "Narcolepsy (Remastered)" CD (Blackout Records 078, 2005)

ingles

*Dance/Timmy Is an Arsonist
*Sadi/Break My Heart/Plow Beach COOLIDGE 18
*West Chester Rock City/Comeback/The Beat Fades Quickly/No Parole
*"Transcend" 7" EP (FOE Records 1998) with Christopher Neumann as Texas Criffer and the Bunny Humpers
**Selling Pretty Poisons/Bottled Up/Road Less Traveled/Routine (Pot) [http://www.fistolo.com/ChristopherNeumann.html]

plit releases

*Tallman - Reason/Sorority Girl/Firedogs Are Deaf
*Weston - Christoph/Could You? COOLIDGE 11
*Stressboy - Yes, Sir!/Fuck Up
*Throttle Jockey - Backslider/Universal Ball/9MM
*The Ick - Last Call/Love Comes in Spurts

External links

* [http://www.plowunited.com/ Plow United page which includes discography, tabs, lyrics, mp3 and video downloads and news]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=62195693 Plow United MySpace page]
* [http://www.blackoutrecords.com/bands.asp?id=53 Blackout Records band site]
* [http://www.ballcar.com/plowunited.html Coolidge Records site]
* [http://www.seanrule.com/ Sean Rule's homepage]
* [http://www.handsonthroat.com/ Sean Rule's band Hands on Throat]
* [http://www.myspace.com/bmcgeejr The Brian McGee Band's MySpace page]
* [http://www.foe.firstpress.net/plow.pdf Excellent old interview with the band]