Uncle Green

Biography

Formed in Basking Ridge, New Jersey in 1980, the band Uncle Green consisted of Matt Brown (guitar and vocals), Jeff Jensen (guitar and vocals), Bill Decker (bass), Pete McDade (drums), and Danny Giordano (tambourine and vocals). Brown and Jensen were the principal songwriters and vocalists for the group. After relocating to Atlanta, the band recorded a single, "Holes" b/w "Heaven", and two independent records, Get It Together and 15 Dryden, for New Vision Records. Personality clashes had led to...

Formed in Basking Ridge, New Jersey in 1980, the band Uncle Green consisted of Matt Brown (guitar and vocals), Jeff Jensen (guitar and vocals), Bill Decker (bass), Pete McDade (drums), and Danny Giordano (tambourine and vocals). Brown and Jensen were the principal songwriters and vocalists for the group.

After relocating to Atlanta, the band recorded a single, "Holes" b/w "Heaven", and two independent records, Get It Together and 15 Dryden, for New Vision Records. Personality clashes had led to Giordano's ouster after the first LP. The band then met an ascendant Brendan O'Brien, near the beginning of his producing career, with whom they recorded the albums You and What An Experiment His Head Was for DB Records. After establishing themselves as a well-known regional college-rock band, they signed a contract with Atlantic Records in the early 1990s and recorded Book of Bad Thoughts. Like all of their efforts, the album was lauded by critics, but establishing commercial viability proved more difficult. Subsequent tours supporting The Reivers, Semisonic, The Black Crowes, Matthew Sweet, They Might Be Giants, Robyn Hitchcock and the Ben Folds Five helped increased their visibility.

In 1994, the band took part in an Indigo Girls project called Jesus Christ Superstar: A Resurrection and appear, credited individually, on the studio cast album. In 1995 part of a solo Matt Brown set recorded at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia, was included on the album Solo, Volume I, released by the independent label Sister Ruby. The album included original songs that do not appear on any of the group's albums, as well as a cover of Big Star's "Nighttime". The same year, Uncle Green contributed a version of "Ballad of a Thin Man" to A Tribute to Bob Dylan, Vol. 2, also on the Sister Ruby label.

Disappointed with their limited success, the band renamed themselves 3 lb. Thrill (the weight of the human brain) and recorded the harder-edged Vulture for O'Brien's new vanity label, 57 Records, a subsidiary of Epic. This spawned a minor radio hit, "Diana", which examined the uncomfortable subject of child molestation and suffered commercially as a result. A video was recorded for the single "Something Will Come", directed by Peter Christopherson. A compilation album purports to include an otherwise unavailable 3 lb. Thrill track called "Threnody", but due to a mastering error the track is actually "Bad Seed" from the Vulture album. The real "Threnody" remains unreleased. 3 lb. Thrill's second album, Rycopa, was recorded in 1996 with engineer Caram Costanzo, but has never been officially released. Matt Brown's solo album Medicine Show, recorded with producer Rick Neigher, drummers Pete Thomas and Dan McCarroll, and keyboardist Rami Jaffee, suffered a similar fate in 1999.

Brown toured as a musician for Brad in 1997, and produced the album Eleven Emergency Lessons for indie-rock band Amphibian Skin in 2003, on which Jensen and McDade also perform. McDade's drums can also be heard on Atlanta musician Paul Melançon's album, Camera Obscura, released by Daemon Records in 2002.

In 2005 as 3 lb. Thrill, and in 2006 as Uncle Green, the band reunited for special performances at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta and Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia.
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