In music as in life, sometimes you make the wrong decision. A move that should propel a band to stardom snakes them back to square one. Changes in sound, image and personnel have all spelt the end for one band or another. And no one will know how any particular move will impact a career until it's already too late. In 1996 Sneaker Pimps were on the doorstep of success. Adopted by Modern Rock Radio and Buoyed to the mainstream in the wake of the Bristol Sound, they had celebrity fans, Hollywood soundtrack-placements and a shining future ahead of them. But then one false move screwed everything up. This is Alt Hit Wonders and this is the story of “6 Underground”.
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Okay, we NEED the Garbage video Trash Theory! you did the other side of the coin with Placebo, we gotta get the Shirley & co vid soon!
This whole situation reminds me of another "Liam How(lett)", but with the exact opposite outcome. Sneaker Pimps booted Kelli Ali because her star got too bright, leaving fans and the media confused, and effectively killing their own mainstream momentum. Meanwhile, over in The Prodigy, Keith Flint went from being the band's dancer and hype man (not even a musician) to being the absolute face of the group after stepping up to sing on a few tracks which he was allowed to contribute and co-write for their 3rd release, The Fat of the Land. The difference? Liam Howlett and Maxim completely embraced it. There was zero ego or resentment, even after Keith stole the limelight and became their poster child in the general public eye, music media, and interviews when they exploded in popularity from that album and those Keith Flint-led singles. The Prodigy thrived as a brotherhood, while the Sneaker Pimps fizzled out over jealousy.
6 Underground is such a good song.
It just hit me...we need a Morcheeba trash theory video!
19:42 "But they had got what they wanted. They now had all the credit for this failure, directed their way" - BRUTAL!
The Sneaker Pimps firing Kelli is even more boneheaded in retrospect than Hawkwind firing Lemmy.
TRIP HOP GANG RISE UP!
Don't think I've ever been this early to a Trash Theory deep dive before. But Sneaker Pimps is one of my favorites. I was a teenager watching a Deftones special when Stef or Chino put on "Post Modern Sleaze" and I desperately looked for that song. Immediately fell in love with it. As a songwriter and musician, it inspired me and set the mood in the way I make music. Hell, I even put it on when I'm painting or sketching. Shortly after, my dad was driving me to my mom's in Bel Air to go see my little brother and I heard "6 Underground" on some random terrestrial radio station. They quickly became one of my favorite late-stage trip hop projects. I was going through a phase where it was lots of Tricky, Lovage, Massive Attack, Portishead, Little People, Team Sleep, etc. It just hit me right in the nostalgic atmospheric spine. The kind reserved for after-sex smokes and night drives. I can't wait to watch this one.
It's kind of wild that Sneaker Pimps' decline can be traced back to them getting rid of Kelly. They effectively removed one of the main reasons people loved the band in the first place.
A session singer who sings on the entire album, is the main singer, the star of the music videos and on tour with them as the front girl - this band thought they could get rid of her and have the same amount of success shows how delulu they were. Their ego was too big and even if Sneaker Pimps was always their "baby", she contributed to make it famous because of her voice and the way she looks. It wouldn't have been less of your baby because she's the most popular. We totally acknowledged that she was surrounded by 2 talented musicians... BUT what we bought at the time is this perfect mix between their music and everything Kelly brought. This is how it is, sometimes you need to learn to stay in the shadow and accept to let her shine and contribute to it. Nobody prevented them to sing but why removing her completely? Ego. Portishead had Beth... They let her shine. Someone mentioned Liam Howlett from the prodigy... Same : Liam is the fucking genius behind the beats but he let his dancers shine. You just have to see the video from the second album of Sneaker Pimps to understand the stupidity of their decision. We wanted Kelly, we wanted her voice... We wanted your music to support her voice. And they simply didn't get it. They didn't get how impactful she was for their music, to their audience. But thank you for this incredible and timeless first album.
this new series is amazing. ive been watching you for everrr now and man i love every single video. thee best music history channel on youtube and better than 95% of ppl doing this for film and TV
Can't wait for the bran van 3000 video
That first Sneaker Pimps album is an all timer for me. The singles are just about perfect. But I’ll admit I never spent much time with anything they came after. Very excited for this video
Remember them coming on stage at Glastonbury in 98 with a bloke singing. The crowd were looking on confused. ‘The girl’s gone, get used to it’ he said. The crowd was gone pretty quickly after that.
As I got into IAMX before Sneaker Pimps, I actually always preferred their later work with Chris as the singer. It's only recently that I've properly appreciated what Kelli brought to the group and the Becoming X album as much as I should.
Another band who did the same thing was Wall of Voodoo. They got rid of Stan Ridgway only to lose everything that had made them great, while Ridgway, like Ali went on to have a much more interesting career. (In fact Stewart Coupland one teamed Stan and Keli up)
Sneaker Pimps sacking Kelli made about as much sense as Portishead sacking Beth. She was part of the sound. Providing a beautiful, sultry contrast between the grungey and dark hip hop beats. I feel like male song writers/producers often mistake or underestimate women's ability to draw people in and captivate with their voice, and mistake it for commercialism or being too "pop". There's an art to it. Their mistake was thinking that her draw was nothing other than a commercial sounding voice, showing a total lack of respect for her as an artist.
I remember only checking Sneaker Pimps out after I got into IAMX and found out Chris Corner there before. Honestly suprised IAMX wasn't mentioned in that video.
Chris and His IAMX project is legendary in its scene
It makes me happy that Kelli Ali had a half decent career after getting fired from Sneaker Pimps, while the band faded.