Much of the attention initially surrounding San Francisco, California, USA-based rock band Imperial Teen focused on the fact that one of its members was concurrent Faith No More keyboard player Roddy Bottum (b. 1 July 1963, Los Angeles, California, USA). He put together the band in 1995 as a reaction to the death of two of his friends, his father's terminal cancer and his own heroin addiction. He took over guitar and vocal duties, while he enlisted friends Lynn Perko (drums, ex-Wrecks), Jone Stebbins (bass, also ex-Wrecks) and Will Schwarz (guitar, vocals). The band's debut album, Seasick, was produced by Steve McDonald of Red Kross and featured songs addressing the death of Kurt Cobain ("Butch"), Bottum's father ("Luxury") and Courtney Love ("Copafeelia"). However, the emotional scar tissue was hidden deep within an upbeat blend of pop and rock riffs, many of the songs being characterized by the female backing vocals. A second collection was released in 1999, with the single "Yoo Hoo" enjoying heavy rotation on MTV. By this time Faith No More had disbanded, allowing Bottum to concentrate on Imperial Teen full-time.

Listen to Imperial Teen at Finetune.

• (1998)  What is Not to Love
• (1996)  Seasick

• Yoo Hoo
• You're One
• Lipstick
• Imperial Teen
• Butch

• Foo Fighters
• Butch Walker
• The White Stripes
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Beck
• Smashing Pumpkins
• Regina Spektor
• PJ Harvey
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Incubus
• Placebo
• BLINK 182
• Veruca Salt
• Bush
• My Chemical Romance
• David Bowie
• The Shins
• Nine Inch Nails
• Radiohead
• Avril Lavigne

• Buckydb
• cleaslate
• kikyo_soul14
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• halo_hunter
• courtneykyay87
• rainydayfriend