Black Lab is an alternative rock band founded by Paul Durham in Berkeley, California, and currently based in Los Angeles and Montana.
They released their debut album on Geffen Records, entitled Your Body Above Me, and scored two rock radio hits in the US, "Wash It Away"[1][2] and "Time Ago".
Passion Leaves a Trace, released in 2007, featured the single "Mine Again" and gained significant exposure through internet media outlets[5] and a film trailer.
The Washington Post called Your Body Above Me "moodily sumptuous",[15] Guitar Player described the music as having "drama and rhythmic urgency",[16] and Allmusic noted the album's "brooding yet propulsive sound that's actually quite intriguing".
[17] The band subsequently toured with Fuel,[18] Days of the New,[9] Cracker,[15] and Our Lady Peace,[19] and were called "The American U2" by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Just as momentum was building on their debut, however, Geffen went out of business after being subsumed by Universal; dissatisfied with the new label arrangement, Durham moved to Los Angeles, and the band broke up in 1999.
[14] In 2000, Paul Durham re-formed Black Lab with an alternate lineup after Epic Records expressed an interest in releasing a second album from the band.
[20][21] While searching for a new label, the band self-released a six-song EP in 2003, first online and then on CD, which featured "Learn to Crawl" and the single "See the Sun".
[22] See the Sun did not receive any mainstream press coverage, but online reviews noted the band's turn toward increasing use of keyboards and synthesizers to introduce and underlay tracks, describing it as "startling, but in a good way".
This band, featuring Kristin Kelly, Joshua Leavitt and Olya Mokina, have recorded one full-length self-titled LP.
The band attracted media attention in March 2007 through the campaign "Bum Rush the Charts", in which one of their songs was promoted through podcasting and blogging.
[30] The iTunes charts represent a weekly average of purchases, not just “a snapshot of the previous 24 hours’ worth of sales,” as a spokesman for Apple reported in The Washington Post about the campaign.
In 2009, the band released Give Us Sugar, a compilation of assorted rarities from throughout their career including non-LP B-sides and songs previously exclusive to movie soundtracks.
The funding was successful, raising over $75,000 and resulting in live performances in Los Angeles and New York City in August 2014 (recorded and released on a DVD/2-CD set).