Barenaked Ladies Information

Barenaked Ladies was formed in 1988. The idea for the band name (which they were forced to defend repeatedly in their early years) came to them during a giggling fit at a Bob Dylan concert. After several months spent performing as opening act for a traveling comedy troupe, the Barenaked Ladies recruited high school classmates and the foursome recorded a demo tape titled Barenaked Lunch, which they recorded in basements and bedrooms and released in 1990.

The full band's first release of note was their independent self-titled album in 1991, which was the first indie release to achieve platinum status in Canada. Sales of the tape were jumpstarted when BNL were taken off the bill of a concert at Toronto's City Hall because a staffer for then-mayor June Rowlands saw the band's name and felt it objectified women, which catapulted a media frenzy.

Noting the group's success north of the border, as well as its growing popularity as a live act, Sire/Reprise signed the band to a contract in 1992, and that summer the group released their major-label debut. The band's first album, Gordon, was a smash hit in Canada and included some of the band's most well-known songs, including "Be My Yoko Ono" (the single which helped fund the album), "If I Had $1000000" (which spawned a macaroni-throwing tradition at live shows that the band has recently been trying to discourage), and "Brian Wilson" (named after the Beach Boy who later covered the song on a live album).

BNL's second album, Maybe You Should Drive, released in 1994, fared considerably less well with the Canadian public. After the release, one of the members left the band to begin college and to separate himself from the infighting that had taken place after the album's failure. In 1998, when Kevin Hearn was diagnosed with leukemia, things took for the worse. He had to take 18 months away from the band for cancer treatment. In the meantime he was temporarily replaced, but was back with the band and ready to rock when his treatments were finished. The release of Stunt in 1998 came a whole new level of success - even in the US. Catchy songs like "One Week" and "It's All Been Done" helped pump album sales to double-platinum in the United States.

The Barenaked Ladies have sold over 10 million records worldwide on the heels of hits like "One Week," "Pinch Me" and "Brian Wilson." Their most recent release was 2006's Barenaked Ladies Are Me. Current members of the Barenaked Ladies include Ed Robertson, Steven Page, Tyler Stewart, Jim Creeggan, and Kevin Hearn.

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