The Burning Brides formed in Philadelphia in early 1999. Dimitri Coats and future wife and musical partner Melanie Campbell joined together after graduating The Juilliard School. They spent two years traveling the country together, reportedly living in San Francisco, Portland, and Boston before settling in the Philadelphia area.[1]
Coats and Campbell soon found drummer Mike Ambs to form the band. Burning Brides played their first large concert in May of 1999, opening for Queens of the Stone Age. The Brides saw popularity in their local shows and live performances, and record companies began scouting them in attempt to sign them to a label. Eventually they signed with File Thirteen Records, a local recording company. The band then took a U.S. Tour with musicians and groups such as Zen Guerilla, J. Mascis, and Greenhornes. They were also building a steady fan base at their live shows.
Burning Brides' first album, Fall of the Plastic Empire was released on April 17, 2001. Fall of the Plastic Empire is sometimes considered the best by fans but nevertheless did not succeed particularly well in the market. The album, while only costing $5000 to make, did not sell an extensive amount of copies. The album did mildly successfully overall, grabbing the attention of some music magazines, writing that Burning Brides were somewhat a garage rock band on the verge. The biggest hit off the album was "Arctic Snow", the band's first single, though it did not rise to any major charts. File Thirteen dropped the band and another record company, V2, picked them up. V2 re-released the album in 2002, giving it much more media attention, thus giving the Brides some popularity. The New Musical Express rated the album five out of five.
Burning Brides second album Leave No Ashes was released on June 29, 2004 with a new drummer, Jason Kourkounis. It was produced by George Drakoulias (Tom Petty, Black Crowes). While Leave No Ashes was not as successful as Fall of the Plastic Empire, the most successful song of the album, hit single "Heart Full of Black," received some radio airplay. "Heart Full of Black" was also featured in two video games, Guitar Hero and Burnout 3.
Jason Kourkounis left the band after the band's first and only headlining tour. Coats and Campbell admitted to being on drugs and "onstage hating each other every night," which gave Kourkounis probable cause for departure. They replaced him with the hard-hitting Pete Beeman, formerly of the Guzzards, who worked very well with the pair on the coming album.[1]
The band released their third album, Hang Love, independently on June 19, 2007 to some early critical acclaim. Dimitri Coats produced the album. The band teamed with engineer Mathias Schneeberger (Joseph Arthur, St. Vitus, Mark Lanegan), whom Dimitri and Melanie met while contributing tracks to Lanegans 04 Bubblegum album. Hang Love was recorded in just a month and a half at Shneebergers Arcadia, CA studio.
The band has just finished recording a new album to be released later this year.
