Primal Scream is a band that’s lived up to its name. Forming after lead singer Bobby Gillespie quit his role as drummer for The Jesus and Mary Chain, the band spent the next two decades constantly reinventing itself-often to the frustration or derision of fans. But the one thing you can’t accuse the band of is growing stagnant. Primal Scream has gone from hard garage rock to producing one of the most infamous records to come out of the early ’90s rave U.K. rave scene, Screamdelica. All in all, they’ve played a big role in paving the road for alternative bands in the U.K., with many critics pointing out that, while it was totally different kind of music, Screamdelica represented a change in mainstream tastes similar to the one brought on by Nirvana’s Nevermind in the U.S.

Primal Scream formed in 1984, with Gillespie still working as a drummer in The Jesus and Mary Chain. His side project became his sole project in 1986, and the band released an album’s worth of mediocre but well-received ’60s rock revival music. 1987 saw their debut, Sonic Flower Groove, while 1989 saw the release of a self-titled record that saw them experimenting with harder, noisier garage-rock. The band appeared to be flailing a bit, trying to find their sound.

In the late ’80s, the underground rock scene was starting to be upstaged by the Technicolor circus of the rave culture. With bands like New Order and the Happy Mondays becoming alternative stars and dance acts as well, Primal Scream saw an opportunity. They asked DJ Andrew Weatherall to have a go remixing one of the best songs of their self-titled record, “I’m Losing More Than I Ever Had.” He transformed it into something almost totally unrecognizable: A beat-driven dance song with an audio clip of Peter Fonda. The track was retitled “Loaded” and turned out to be a radio hit. Not long after, Weatherall signed on, along with a couple other producers, to collaborate with Primal Scream on a third record. This would turn out to be the band’s most successful work, Screamdelica. Fusing house and acid-fried rock, the album was unlike anything else available, and helped make electronic music-long a genre frequented only by gearheads-palatable to mainstream music listeners. Ever since, electronic music has been significantly more popular among the mainstream in the U.K. than it has been in the U.S.

Seeming to have proven themselves in the field of electronic music, the band moved back to traditional hard rock-only to find that their audiences expected more electronic-based songs. Their fourth album, Give Out But Don’t Give Up, was universally considered a failure. Their next two records, 1997’s Vanishing Point and 2000’s XTRMNTR, were excellent, mind-warping electronic classics. They managed to walk the line between the punk aggression of rock and the catchy beats of dance music. They returned in 2002 with the mediocre Evil Heat and in 2006 with the decent traditional rock of Riot City Blues before 2008’s Beautiful Future. If you’re looking for Primal Scream tickets, you’d better get them now at http://www.stubhub.com/primal-scream-tickets.

This article was written by Andrew Good and sponsored by StubHub. StubHub sells Primal Scream tickets as well as sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and more to just about any event in the world.

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